What kind of candidates do you want in RF6?

Somerandom · Post Posted: Jun 16, 2022 4:30 pm

I know a lot of people loved the candidates from RF4 and that compared to them the RF5 cast was slightly more polarising. People either liked certain candidates or they just didn’t in most cases.

This has got me thinking if there is an RF6 what direction should they take the candidates?

Before I say what I want I will state what I don’t want. Characters who have no concept of what dating and marriage are and you have to basically convince them into dating. I’m talking about Amber and Fuuka, who coincidently act very immaturely. In that vein characters who look AND act like a kid are a big turn off for me. I’m taking about most of the western fanbase’s least favourite RF5 character upon his reveal, Cecil as well as Fritz from SoS. I also don’t want characters who are completely clueless like Lucas or that look way older than the MC also like Lucas. I also don’t like characters who are pushed towards your character and have a way to obvious crush on them (Priscilla).

So what do I want? Firstly personality and development. Before even being a marriage candidate they need to be interesting first. That is why I suggest developing them as characters first with rotating daily dialogue, a schedule that shows their daily routine including who they hang out with and have actual conversations between multiple characters on non festival days again please!

Types of characters

Spoiler:

But enough of me talking, what kind of characters do you want in a RF6?

Kikki · Post Posted: Jun 16, 2022 5:07 pm

I have no concept of characters I DON'T want to be in, as I feel there's a place for everyone (within the realm of sanity.) Ten-year-olds play the game, too, so...very young candidates still have a necessary place, imo. Plus some people see the MC as very young and prefer to match them with people who seem a similar age, I think (though I don't think of the MC as a teenager, personally, or even a 20-year-old.) But I definitely want a better selection of more grown-up candidates. I don't mean OLD, just more mature. 25-35-seeming would be nice...a stage where people are usually getting into the swing of who they really are rather than still struggling to figure it out. I'm tired of the struggling-to-figure-themselves-out stage in romantic interests. I want the majority of candidate characters to overall be comfortable with themselves and what they've chosen to do in life. I'm just really done with coming-of-age and major uncertainty of self.

It's also a stage where humans still tend to be pretty darned good-looking, and I do like the eye-candy, thanks

Somerandom · Post Posted: Jun 16, 2022 11:48 pm

I would respectfully disagree with your comment on some of the younger candidates. I don’t think I made it clear why I dislike Amber and Fuuka as candidates. If you watch their confession events on YouTube you will see the player saying they love them and both girls don’t actually understand what they mean by I love you. Even if you want to give younger players candidates, this is not the way to do things. They need to at least understand they are getting into a serious relationship with someone and consent of their free will without being pressured. If they had properly understood what the player meant when they confessed, it wouldn’t necessarily bring the same kinds of negative implications that these confessions have in their current state.

Spoiler:

I do honestly agree that the uncertainty of self and coming of age stories which have been seen in a lot of RF games, (even though it was done well in 4) can be overdone at times. Literally all the dudes in 4, every girl except I think Clorica and Amber and all the guys and girls in 5 (but done less well) have this arc. One of the many reasons that I disliked almost all of the PoOT returnees was that they were giving these growth and finding myself arcs to characters who didn’t really need them, but that’s another topic all together. I think characters that are more comfortable in themselves are more commonly found in SoS games as opposed to RF. Although, it seems as though almost every time that Marvelous puts a Tsundere in the game they go through this growth arc where they learn to find themselves and be more expressive of their true feelings because of the player. It’s a tired arch but I can’t say it isn’t popular with players. Dylas, Neil, Vaughn and Damon pretty much follow this arch to a T!

It’s clear that you want mature characters but not old characters and yeah, I get what you mean now since those terms are not mutually exclusive to one another. For example, Lucas is old but not necessarily mature and Sanjay from HM ANB is mature but not old.

Kikki · Post Posted: Jun 17, 2022 3:34 am

I don't think there's anything to disagree about? My comment that I don't mind younger candidates didn't actually have anything to do with what you said about candidates that don't even seem aware of romance until you stuff it in their face. (ROW-MANS? What's that? Is it yummy, like a gingerbread man??)

It wasn't return commentary/response on that issue, so I wasn't taking what you said into account at all. My comment was all my own thoughts on what I do or don't want, and I know the youngest-looking candidates are always a sticking point for many, so I brought it up, that I don't actually want younger-looking/seeming ones to disappear, because they're needed, since the fandom has players of all ages. I particularly wanted to make that point since more characters who are mature is my major request...I just want it to be clear that I do NOT want younger ones to disappear just because I personally am not interested in them...I do think they're necessary for various reasons.

As for characters who seem too childish or childlike to even be aware of romance at all, they're icky to me, not sure what the point of having one of those as a candidate is. To me if they're all ??? over anything romantic, it means that they are mentally and/or emotionally too young, or unfit, to be in a romantic relationship, which makes things grody. Even if they were 50 years old but somehow mentally incapable of fully understanding. Guess we'd have to hear from someone who likes that specific aspect, of having to teach romance to a candidate. Until I hear what there is to like about it, I can't say what value it has. To me, I don't like it, but maybe there's something good about it, I don't know.

I mean, there are people who are innocent/naive about their own appeal. Who don't pick up on romantic intentions toward themselves even though they understand it otherwise. Like...hearing a friend tell you that the guy at the shop was hitting on you, and you're like 'wth?' because you didn't notice at ALL, and meanwhile all your friends were laughing because it was just THAT obvious to all of them. BUT if that is what they're going for, I don't feel like they did a good job with Amber/etc. She felt like she was mentally or emotionally too young to understand at all. But then, I haven't seen all that many events with her so I can't make a thorough analysis, lol.

PaleSunflower · Post Posted: Jun 17, 2022 4:26 am

Honestly, I just want RF6 to have more polish and time put into it, the characters included. Everything seems rushed.

As for young characters, I dislike love interests that look and act like children. As in, those characters who behave and look just like the actual children in the game. I understand that some adults in real life are like that, but it completely turns me off in video game characters (especially since adults who can't help but act like children have the memories of an adult and therefore know things and have experienced things that children generally do not, unlike the video game "version" I usually see). To use an old Internet term, I am also squicked out by the adult-in-a-clearly-child's-body thing that some anime have, especially since RF5 almost had a love interest that perfectly fit that trope. Basically, I am squicked by child-like romance-able characters with my distaste growing with the extent of the child-likeness. A character who acts like an adult despite looking like a kindergartner upsets me less than an adult who acts like a kindergartner, but I wouldn't have my character date either of them unless I really, really like the former; the game handles the subject matter well; and the character is actually older than that character appears (the latter is completely off the table for me).

Also, a game can have youthful, inexperienced love interests for youthful audiences, but the love interests should at least have an idea what they're getting into. The character feeling unconformable and confused by the new experience of dating is also okay, as long as he or she becomes conformable with the whole thing before marriage.

Spoiler:

In terms of a specific character I'd like to see, I'd like to see more non-human ones. Murakumo was a good first step, and Lucas was a half-step. If Livia and Radea were considered love interests at some point in RF5's development, then I want to date a male dragon who we either date in mature dragon form or his human form looks like an adult. No shota dragon, please!

Somerandom · Post Posted: Jun 17, 2022 5:34 am

Kikki wrote: ↑Jun 17, 2022 3:34 am I don't think there's anything to disagree about? My comment that I don't mind younger candidates didn't actually have anything to do with what you said about candidates that don't even seem aware of romance until you stuff it in their face. (ROW-MANS? What's that? Is it yummy, like a gingerbread man??) It wasn't return commentary/response on that issue, so I wasn't taking what you said into account at all. My comment was all my own thoughts on what I do or don't want, and I know the youngest-looking candidates are always a sticking point for many, so I brought it up, that I don't actually want younger-looking/seeming ones to disappear, because they're needed, since the fandom has players of all ages.

I apologise for misinterpreting you. Often Amber and Fuuka who don’t even know what love or romance is, are often defended for being like that because they are being options for younger players. When you said very young candidates have a place I thought you weren’t just talking about the Cecils of the series but also about the above characters. Again I am sorry.

Even younger players have some basic understanding of what romance is (even if they are too young and immature to enter into a real life relationship themselves). I don’t have a problem with all the younger looking candidates. I mean, yeah they don’t interest me, but I honestly like a few of the younger candidates as characters who bring something unique to the game rather than just being the token younger candidate. Characters like Kiel who while they still look quite young and may sometimes act slightly younger than other members of the cast, yet are still quite mature are the best way to incorporate younger characters. I guess the main problem I have is when they both look and act like children.

Kikki · Post Posted: Jun 17, 2022 8:15 am

That's okay. Everyone always tends to take a comment that seems relevant to what they were saying to be a *reply* to them, but in this case, it wasn't.

I was just directly answering the thread title. I'm not okay with any candidate character who acts in such a way as to make it seem like they do not understand dating/marriage/consequences. If they can't understand it, they shouldn't be doing it, is how I feel. (I believe that applies to a LOT of things, not just dating/marriage, lol.)

Solar Wind · Post Posted: Jun 17, 2022 3:00 pm

I want older guys who are on the muscular side, like Murakumo. Best bachelor in the franchise. I don't want anything else. In fact, you can just keep reusing Murakumo over and over again, I wouldn't be mad.

For the girls, I'm like whatever. Aside from RF4, I found that SoS and RF always have multiple A+ girls. But I'd like to see some more quirky or out-there personalities. RF3's bachelorettes were pretty and hilarious.

simside · Post Posted: Jun 19, 2022 9:36 pm

I would love candidates with more ambiguous ages, so I could at least pretend they were in their 20s. Candidates with real jobs would be great! I couldn't get behind the apprentices with all the comments about their personal journey and maturity level in RF5. Priscilla and Lucy somewhat fell into this trap, since their jobs were player-assigned none of the characters could comment on it, and they got a lot less characterization.

I would also love more candidates that were unambiguously older, which I don't think will ever happen. Marriage candidates old enough to have personal history, let alone kids or divorces, seem extremely taboo, but I would love that. Like, I would love it if a marriage candidate had as much personality as Palmo, Heinz, or Misasagi. These were all folks with history, developed interests, jobs, etc.

I don't personally like having the younger candidates in the game, but I know they are for younger players. I'd be happy to lose them, but I won't be particularly surprised if they appear again.

That's pretty much it. Older marriage candidates, or more ambiguously-aged folks is all I want. I'm open to any type of character or story, as long as its interesting and there are at least some folks that could plausibly be older.

Mikodesu · Post Posted: Jun 19, 2022 10:05 pm

Honestly I just want variety. A little more obvious than the usual checklist would be nice. If I had my way, I would make the artstyle could be a little more ambiguous. (Totally impossible for Rune Factory, but it's worked in older Harvest Moon games!) Sort of like real life, there's a nice window in adulthood where you can't REALLY clearly tell exactly what age somebody is.

For ME the point is no more babies. We're basically guaranteed to get a 'younger' candidate. Or two. Which I don't ever fully enjoy, but there's a better way to go about it. Immature personalities are more common (and more okay) than immature bodies. Immature personalities have potential for growth. Immature bodies in games like this...do not.

And on the other side of things, we can have more mature characters a bit easier if the art style were more ambiguous. Which I'd like to see. I am among the old now, but even if I weren't, variety is a thing. If we can have an immature character in every game, we need the other side of the coin.

Oh hey, here's an idea. Have we ever seen a widow(er) in the series? Not an unheard of/unseen trope in media either, the young widow. Divorcee would be cool too, I just feel like it's less likely.

LeBurns · Post Posted: Jun 21, 2022 6:22 am

Older looking. Just older. Older looking PC and spouse candidates. I remember seeing Carlos in RF3 and thinking 'why the heck can't I look like that!'

You are always going to have your tropes of personalities and I guess I'm okay with that.

Looking back I think my favorite of all time was Rosalind. Probably because I was expecting the 'spoiled rich girl' and 'Tsundere', but instead got a very sweet girl who didn't act spoiled at all. Also liked the fact that her older brother was in game and the game made use of building their relationship also.

Somerandom · Post Posted: Jun 23, 2022 6:28 pm

Upon looking back I want to add something to what I said originally about the RF5 cast. When I first got into 5 I thought they had an interesting and diverse cast of bachelors with many characters to appeal to different players. While that is true and I’ve seen many players state that they love different characters, which is a good thing mind you, I don’t think they have personalities that appeal to everyone or a more general audience. I’m not going to go into specifics here or put down certain characters like I have earlier or in other threads but what I’m trying to say is that most of this cast doesn’t really have much development. Also a majority of the cast can be polarising in terms of both appearance and personality, you either like them or you don’t.

Even though I liked Reinhard I acknowledge that he is very polarising.

Spoiler:

As you can tell I am past the honeymoon stage with this game and am just sad that it’s kind of a mess. I don’t hate it, I just think it’s a step down from other games. I am excited for a potential RF6 however, if they can iron out the bugs and problems from RF5, especially within the realms of dialog and characterisation.

Reyvin · Post Posted: Jun 25, 2022 7:10 am

I acknowledge that there should be younger candidates as well, for the younger players. My personal wish is for more interesting mature candidates though, with an interesting background that makes me want to learn more about them and not just think "oh it's the old guy again" because that's their whole personality. What's also important to me would be that they are somehow tied to other characters in town, and seem like they have a purpose there and relationships outside of the main character. I liked Priscilla's and Lucy's friendship a lot, for example, and it made me like both of them more. Also loved the group conversations in RF4. I want the candidates to have an actual live outside of waiting for prince(ss) charming.

I definitely enjoy the non-human characters and would like more of them - I really liked the idea of a merman that was already mentioned here, as it would be unique. I'd like the candidates to be fairly different personality-wise too, and not different shades of "serious workaholic". While I love that trope, I also want to have an actual choice because I find more than one character interesting. I think the direction that RF5 went in with Lucas and Murakumo was already pretty good, but I wish they had more daily dialogue cause as it stands, I sadly couldn't get attached to any of them yet.

LeBurns · Post Posted: Jun 30, 2022 7:49 am

Somerandom wrote: ↑Jun 23, 2022 6:28 pm As you can tell I am past the honeymoon stage with this game and am just sad that it’s kind of a mess. I don’t hate it, I just think it’s a step down from other games. I am excited for a potential RF6 however, if they can iron out the bugs and problems from RF5, especially within the realms of dialog and characterisation.

Yeah I have played every RF game made for handheld systems and this will be the first one I never finish. I have no desire to get back into it.

One issue I do have, is not with a feature but how it was implemented. The same-« Chicken Hugging » option is great, but it's not so great when now I have a dozen stories that will 'Lock Up' my quests unless I do them. Also if I want to max friend everyone, and of course I do, I must see all the candidate scenes, even with the sexes I don't want to pursue romantically. An easy fix to this would be either an option at the beginning to select your preferences, or (much better yet) an option early on with the first required encounter to tell the person that you hope you can be good friends so that the romantic branch is cut off. Then we could still be friends with the person without it leading to telling them that you love them when you really don't. It's like the devs just flipped the same-« Chicken Hugging » switch on and never gave it a second thought. Please devs, put some thought into it.

But that's not why I can't play anymore, and I'll be honest it's hard to even put my finger on just one thing and say 'this is it'. Seems overall many other game features were just rough around the edges and needed polish, be it furniture placement, festivals, etc.

However, to stay back on topic in RF5 I was playing a guy and was interested in the female candidates, and while I found each one interesting and was leveling up their friendships evenly, none of them really made me think "Your the One!". They were all just kind of, well okay I guess. So I guess for RF 6 in addition to the candidates and PC being older (I mean seriously I liked the mothers much better in RF5 than any of the candidates you could date) maybe some more personality, or rather more than just one personality.

RodCopper Fishin · Post Posted: Jun 17, 2023 3:31 am

I want a classic RF witch character. I’m counting on one, because I think most of the games have their resident witch. I can’t wait to see what they do with it this time! I want a male mage as well. I think overall, I’d love to see a cast as diverse and well developed as the Frontier cast. I think they were all so unique. Even if I wouldn’t personally choose to pursue all of them, they brought a nice variety and life to the game. Something for everyone.