Months later, what are your thoughts on RF5?

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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PaleSunflower
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Post  Posted:

So, now that the "new game" polish has mostly worn off, what are this forum's thoughts on RF5? I am personally fine with spoilers. If, for example, the story was amazing or wack, then please let me know how and what well/badly.

Metacritic indicates that it's not awful, but it's not particular great either. RF5 also got a lower average of reviews than RF4, including RF4's first release on the 3DS.
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Kikki
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RF5 for me is too much just RF4, broken into parts, repainted, and stuck together in a different order. It has no sense of freshness or newness for me...it runs entirely on RF4's systems. The most unique thing about it is the Seal spell, which isn't a lot to go on for the whole game. It has a new story and new characters but they don't really feel new to me. Plus I actually liked the characters of 4 better. I really liked the cast of 5 when viewing them from the outside, before we had the game, but after going through all their events, I'm left with only ONE that I like. And I liked the non-candidate characters better in 4, too.

I'm not done the story yet. I have Ludmila...that's about where I am in the story. Half way, I guess? But trying to get myself to go back in and play is like pulling teeth, and I think that's the answer to how I feel about RF5, overall. I played RF4 obsessively, like I couldn't control myself, lol...but I may abandon RF5 here. I even got myself to open it again on the morning of the Buff-a-move festival, with a character event ongoing as well, and yet, I just quit without even saving about ten minutes in. I just can't dredge up any interest in playing. The devs haven't made a story that compels me, nor characters who keep me coming back...I'm just not interested in them the way I was in those things in RF4.

Its NOT a bad game, but maybe there's just no freshness to it for me. Nothing feels unique or intriguing.
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simside
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Post  Posted:

I think I would have liked it a lot more if I hadn't played RF4S to death a year ago. I like the few new things it adds to the formula (the starfall crops, the new event system), and I still really like the town vibe that RF does best. I also enjoyed the difficulty, in that I loathed Rune Prahna and liked that you could finish the story mode without having a PhD in crafting. The easier combat made me feel powerful! All the other RF4 systems are great and I was happy to see them again - the farming, the tons of recipes to craft, the drops to grind, the monster taming, etc. I love that stuff, but I probably would have had a lot more fun if I hadn't just gone through all of it. I did play them both about the same amount of time, but I had a lot less fun with 5 (also because I really struggle to play 3D games).

I thought the non-marriageable townsfolk were all fantastic, they had a lot of personality. But most of the marriage candidates fell really flat for me. I keep wondering if they were intentionally left blank - like, if you like the way they look and the trope, they didn't want to interfere with what you thought they should be like. The main story was also super underwhelming, and sitting through the long ending cutscenes was painfully boring (especially since I kept expecting it to freeze as it tried to load them, but it powered through). I liked the idea of SEED, and I kinda liked the conflict with Gideon, who had an interesting motive, but the rest of it felt really generic to me. Part of it was that the story wasn't really happening to anyone in town, the way it happened to Doug and the 4 boss characters that join you in 4, for example. A couple assists happen as plot points, and one character that is involved joins late game, but not really anything else. Even the few times events spill into town feels like a problem to solve in the dungeon, and not something that affects the town. The earthquake event was the closest it came to integrating the two, and I can't even remember the associated plot point.

I feel a little bad criticizing the story, because the credit roll implied that the dev team was really tiny. Probably they had a lot of crunch and cuts, which is sad. Hopefully they can reuse assets from this one for 6, and spend a little more time on the town, characters, and story. Everything else was good!
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Bluie
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Post  Posted:

It's fine. Just fine.

I really have no strong feelings towards it. I love Rune Factory as a series, but I don't like every single entry either. With Rune Factory 5 it was satisfying enough, but it could have been something much more too. The main thing that's keeping me from doing a second playthrough is the abysmal event/confession system. I don't want to continually get locked into event chains of bachelor/ettes just because I happened to walk somewhere specific AND confessing love is a « Snuggly Bunny » pain when it has no reason to be. If we ever get another entry, I pray they go back to RF2/3's event system where you dictate who's events to follow via the request board. Love confessions come as part of the event chain, no muss and fuss. I don't know why the devs « Cow Poopoo » the bed in RF4/5 with this, but the RNG is infuriatingly annoying for artificial padding and nothing else. I shouldn't have to sleep reset to get the events I want/get my love confession to work. I'm dreading reliving my anger in my next playthrough and thus it's killed my motivation.

Regardless, when the inevitable PS4/5 release happens, I'll buy it again to support the company if nothing else. I love Rune Factory 1-3, RF4 was fun, and RF5 is fine (Tides and Frontier don't hold up very well and I'm not a fan of them tbh). I'm hoping for more RF in the future, especially hoping for remasters/remakes of the original trilogy.
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LeBurns
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Post  Posted:

I'm going to just 'ditto' Kikki as they said exactly what I would say. This will be the first RF game I didn't finish. I can list a lot of little things I don't like, and I guess it's the combination of those together that has just takin away my interest in playing anymore.

I do think that just a couple little changes or improvements to some features would have gone a long way in making a better game, but it feels a lot like the devs just did what they needed to do and not what they could have done with a little more effort.

But the main story plot ... ugh. I don't think any effort was put into that.
RuneKazoo
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Post  Posted:

Personally, I loved it. Albeit, it was my first time playing a RF game. I went back and tried playing RF4S and couldn’t really seem to get into it much. Then again, I’m more a sucker for full 3D games.

It’s even better on the PC!
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