Rune Factory 5 - Candidate Necessities

Covering Innocent Life (PsP/Ps2), Rune Factory 1 (DS), Rune Factory 2 (DS), Rune Factory 3 (DS/Switch), Rune Factory Frontier (Wii), Rune Factory Tides of Destiny (Wii/Ps3), Rune Factory 4 (3DS/Switch/Steam), and Rune Factory 5 (Switch/Steam).
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C-K
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Post  Posted:

So...

Image

This is the entry that really needs to overhaul how the franchise designs its candidates for marriage.

Considering this is coming from a guy's perspective, this is going to be my take on what it needs to
do with the bachelorettes in this title.

Throughout the past entries in the series, the primary focus has been on girls with an overpowering
loli type of design, too small/young looking and extraordinarily skinny.

Though there have been at least ONE or TWO stand-outs from said candidates in every title, it's
just not enough in my opinion.

Going forward, Rune Factory 5 needs to feature females that look legitimately old enough to wed
and have kids with, ALL of them, not just one or two out of the bunch.

I'd like to see girls with appearances including, yes, thin, but also curvy, thick, and even on the
overweight side, there's nothing wrong with any particular physique.

(So long as it's not the loli physique)

I'm actually surprised this series never received any backlash for how underage in appearance a
majority of the girls seem in all the games barring the few exceptions.

Beyond a wider variety of bodies, I'd like to see a MUCH wider variety of age ranges. I'd love to
see candidates ranging from their 20's all the way to their 40's.

You could choose younger brides, or choose one with clearly a much more mature appearance to
both their body and their face.

(Flustered older woman pointing out how nerve-racking it feels being in a swimsuit again? Yes!)

They also need to focus WAY more strongly on "fantasy" candidates, as too many still seem
focused on being standard/human, rather I want more monsters and mystical/legendary girls.

In short, I just want less... Child/Pre-teen looking girls, and actual WOMEN with varying figures,
expansive age ranges, massive race options...

I don't see this as that hard a feat.

Again, these are all my opinions in regards to a guy's perspective on the women that should be
available, what are some of your own?

Feel free to expand on these criticisms with some of your own and share your own ideas as to
who should be available in the title to wed!

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I don't want to marry children...

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I wanna marry WOMEN!
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Kikki
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I'm not really interested in the bachelorettes at all, tbh, but I do agree that I'd like to see more variety, either way, in both genders. Though...I'm probably gonna love this game no matter what, so it's not like they need to do it any differently than they have all along to make me like it. At this point it's still just amazing to me that RF5 is happening. And with me being a 40-year-old Canadian, I don't really expect them to diversify in a way that would appeal to me when the core market is Japanese girls and women from, oh, say about 15 to 25 most likely making up the biggest segment of players. (Actually, I don't know if RF fans in Japan skew as heavily to female players as Bokumono does.)

We've all said all along that we'd like more variety in candidates, though. Usually we're talking about Bokumono, but it probably applies here, as well. Though honestly, in RF4, there was decent variety in the bachelors in both looks and body type. At least, conventionally attractive types. No one chubby (oh, Porco...WHY weren't you a bachelor?) or anything like that. But we had the very young-boyish types like Kiel, as well as big, muscular guys like Leon, and the in-between, like Dylas. If they'd added Porcoline (light on his feet but a very pudgy glutton) and Bado (middle-aged blacksmith, so probably solidly muscular but slightly doughy/soft, too) to the roster of bachelors, we would probably have had a very good spectrum. But I felt spoiled for choice as it was.

Not that everyone agrees, but that's how I felt about the last Rune Factory, anyway. But I'm only concerned with the bachelors. Though I did think Forte looked pretty good in her swimsuit, she still wasn't heavily loaded or anything. And none of them were unusually built...no chub anywhere, no one pear-shaped, etc. I think the range was better for the guys. They didn't have unusual builds either, but there was definitely a considerable range in overall size and muscularity, and in maturity of appearance. (All young looking, but not exaggeratedly so.)

But even if this is a Japanese-made game, I don't see any reason why there couldn't be more races (even fantasy races rather than real life races...we had a dark elf in Tides of Destiny in the form of Maerwen...we could do with another!) and fantasy candidates like dryads or sylphs or etc. That shouldn't be something that's only desired by the western market, I wouldn't think. But then, I don't actually know.
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ryume
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I still can't help but wonder about the fact that Asians in general to a lot of Westerners look much younger than they actually are, so when they (Japanese) create these character designs in games, that carries over somehow since they are strongly influenced by their ideas of beauty/what's desirable (which from what I've heard from native Japanese friends, youth is HEAVILY prized, and the reality is a lot of 20 year olds can easily look about 16 without even trying). I mean, the "old" guy is usually only 35, and this applies in multiple forms of entertainment media from Japan. I dunno. I'm not even articulating this very well, and I'm sure most will disagree with me.

I would love to see everything OP mentioned, but honestly I'm just giddy we're getting another entry :)
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I love the idea of a wider range of ages and body types. I also like the idea of a more ethnically diverse set of candidates with more skin tones and stuff. Since the games are pretty kid friendly and the characters aren't sexualized (especially the younger looking ones from what I remember) I personally don't mind the shotas and the lolis... in fact Amber, Doug and Kiel were three of my most favorite marriage candidates from RF4.
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JayDucky03
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Post  Posted:

I haven't been on here in SO long. The news of RF5 brought me back. I agree with you on more womanly candidates. Busty girls would be great!
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white66
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Personally, I think RF1 and RFF (possibly RF2) had the best selection in terms of everyone looking good and having decent personalities. I really dislike the aesthetic shift of the later games from traditional fantasy to some sort of pastel bubblegum pop look. RF3 was the worst, with Monica and Evelyn straight up looking they were pulled from a school drama, to say nothing of the fact that the bachelorettes all looked like they were twelve. RF4 isn't as bad, but the candidates outfits are just ridiculous looking. This isn't Final Fantasy, I know there are good character designers on the development team.

While I'm also eager for more ethnic diversity in RF, I think it should be noted that until now, every dark skinned candidate has been a maid, except for Carmen, who's design reveals far more skin than any other character in RF history (aside from maybe Pia) and is quite frankly just gross. I'm not saying we shouldn't hope for the best, just please be aware that representation does not necessarily mean good representation.
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Shan O 123
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Post  Posted:

I only have RF4, the girls look okay to me?

I don’t play as a guy so it doesn’t matter to me.
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white66
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Post  Posted:

^It's not that the designs are bad per se (well, Margaret's is bad. Whoever decided to put a garter belt over bloomers needs to be fired), I just wish they weren't so... bright? Excessive? I've always thought of RF as one of the more down-to-earth rpgs, and having gothic lolita Dolce, scene-kid-going-through-a-magician-phase Dylas and whatever the hell Doug is trying to pull off just seems out of place.

I just prefer more aesthetic coherence in character designs. If you like at the designs from RF1 and RF4 you can definitely see a shift.

But that's just my opinion, I always prefer more subdued palettes. And I realize I'm getting a little off topic here, since OP wasn't really talking about how the candidates looked.
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Mikodesu
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white66 wrote:I just prefer more aesthetic coherence in character designs. If you like at the designs from RF1 and RF4 you can definitely see a shift..
This 100%. And I feel like a little more cohesion in the overall character designs would make it easier to add diversity to their character types - which I would like to see.

Different age groups and body types very clearly don't dress the same, but it doesn't have to be so extreme as...assigning Japanese fashion trends to tell very similar girls apart.
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C-K wrote:Throughout the past entries in the series, the primary focus has been on girls with an overpowering
loli type of design, too small/young looking and extraordinarily skinny.
THANK YOU!!!!

I dropped RF4 when a 10 year old girl shoved her « Mr.Gourmet's hat » in my face.
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Post  Posted:

I think part of it is that they went Very Anime with the style in rune factory 3 and 4. As a result you get kooky zany characters with bright colours and corresponding personalities. I never played ToD or frontier and my memory of Rf1 and 2 is failing, but I think the focus there was more "you're in a fantasy world, what do you see?" Rather than making the designs super...eye-catching? And "cute"? I guess? There's a bigger focus on waifus is what I mean

(
Spoiler:
and I suspect they used a body base for the ladies in 4 to accommodate for more outfits, but idk about coding to confirm. Same with the guys, but the bodies they used dont make it as obv)
Personally I really liked the shift to more anime-esque designs, but now that I'm older I do wish they could meld fun with a more mature design in one or two of the candidates. They can totes do it for the other villagers, I believe in them!!

If it takes place somewhere that isn't Norad, I really want a country/time-period coherence in the next game, just to see how they do it.
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Actually, the ultra wacky personalities was the only way I could stomach the designs in RF3. I still maintain Mana in RF2 was the WORST loli POS in the series.
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Lin
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Post  Posted:

I think some younger-looking characters are a given when many players are going to be teenagers, I started HM as a preteen and RF as a teen so... some of those younger-looking characters would have been perfect back then. Now sure they look a bit too young (I remember marrying Ann in HM64 and my mom thought she was my daughter...lol), but I think RF4 had good balance imo. Although I wasn't a huge fan of any of the bachelors but that's a personal taste thing... I didn't HATE them mind you, just none of them really stand out now... when RF4 first came out I liked both Doug and Kiel, but now Doug seems really immature and Kiel could be a lot better if he just looked a bit more mature (like literally just make his face a bit longer/eyes a bit smaller), they gave him a different voice [his Japanese one was okay] and he stopped saying these weird-« Mr.Gourmet's hat » things only a child would say (like the stuff about his tummy feeling funny... and saying a nickname sounds "ticklish", ew stop).

Just give me a guy with short hair and a good personality in RF5 and I'll probably be fine with that (though a character with say, Hinata's hair in SoS would be fine too), I'm not that hard to please but RF4 was just an odd one for me in terms of games where you can marry someone... I also like Tsunderes, but less like Neil (still like him though)/Vaugh and more like Nadi/Gray please. So basically, like initially shy and harder to open up but not like... insulting me.
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Yeah, there has GOT to be a range, imo. There should be some very young looking characters, so that the younger players also have some good options. But I think the complaint is that over time, ALL of the candidates have become very young looking.

I think it's more true of the bachelorettes than the bachelors in Rune Factory. At least in 4. Leon does NOT look like a child. Nor does Dylas, imo. (Those eyebrows! Lol) While I think the rest look fairly young, only Doug and Kiel give me the impression of being underage...Vishnal and Arthur look young, but considering that they're cartoons and not real people, their appearance to me is supposed to give off the impression of, oh, say 18-20 years old.

Naturally the impression each person gets is different, but that's mine.

The girls look younger as a set than the guys, imo. So it's more of a problem with them, because just as we have younger players, we also have much older players. Bokumono is over 20 years old now, and Rune Factory has much of the same group of fans...and a lot of us have stuck with the series. So I definitely think they need more candidates that give off the impression of maturity. Though without getting rid of the younger-looking candidates.

It'd be nice to have at least one candidate of each gender in every game that appeals to the players who are 30+. They always make sure to have young looking ones but I don't think they've really tried to remember the fans they've had the longest, some of whom would really like the selection of candidates to include characters remain appealing to them as they've grown up. Though honestly, I can't complain too much about the RF4 bachelors. I'd be okay with the age range they gave us there in the guys. But it'd be nice if they'd let the at least a few older female candidates into the game, too. I know youth and beauty are considered more vital for women to possess than men, but c'mon.

So yeah. I don't want to take away the youngest candidates, but give us better variety in both appearance (race, height, build, features) and age. I'm just a big fan of variety in general.
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Kikki wrote:Yeah, there has GOT to be a range, imo. There should be some very young looking characters, so that the younger players also have some good options. But I think the complaint is that over time, ALL of the candidates have become very young looking.
I don't know, I found the bachelorettes unappealing in the very first game. I definitely remember the bachelorettes in RF Frontier and they weren't very appealing either. Alicia in RF2 was the only one that resembled a woman, or at least a girl that went through puberty. And it's only because of her heavily sexualized design. Double checking RF4 now, I actually think they were going in the right direction. Some of them looks less pre-teen even if I hate Xiao Pei.
I remember marrying Ann in HM64 and my mom thought she was my daughter...lol
One of the things is that people confuse Chibi with young. Chibi is just an exaggerated art style that's supposed to be cute, and can be applied to even mature characters. RF uses normally proportioned characters, so the pedo feels are much stronger. Even a game like Sunshine Islands, the bachelorettes feels like they are older than the RF girls.
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