Rune Factory 6 baby!!!

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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Terranigma Freak
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Kikki
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That's not a trailer for RF6, though...it's the trailer for the spin-off, Rune Factory Project Dragon (working title, I think they said). They didn't show us any footage at all for 6, just a shot of the title with a...floating city or castle, perhaps, in the logo.

The spin-off looks interesting, but I don't know enough yet to figure out if I like what I saw or not.
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Terranigma Freak
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Yeah, I mixed the 2 games up.

Oh « Cow Poopoo », we can't edit the title? I thought we could.
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Kikki
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I believe we could, but it didn't change the original title, just how the title would appear in subsequent posts. I seem to remember it working something like that...

Here's the title logo, at least, for RF6.

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Bluie
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Man.

Who would've thought RF4S and RF5 would do so well it'd get us two whole new games? I remember yearning so much for a new RF game after the company's bankruptcy - it was my favorite series. I had accepted that RF4 would most likely be their last jaunt, but here in 2023, it's alive more than ever. I am conflicted, because don't get me wrong, this is great, but I just don't have the hype over the series any more. I'm probably just jaded, RF5 was fine, but unlike 1-4, it has yet to pull me back for another playthrough. I've played them all at least twice, some even 3+, but RF5's abysmal confession system REALLY killed my interest in courting another character + it's story was so forgettable I can't remember anything outside of a few boss fights and that one dungeon full of insta-kill monsters. The game just also runs really badly, and this is coming from someone who usually doesn't give a damn about lost frames. I had multiple times where I made my character stop moving mid stride so the game could catch up. I'm honestly waiting for Xseed's eventual but obligatory PS5 port for a second run so the game can at least thrive on proper hardware (and I'm NOT saying the Switch is bad here, but SO many devs just are clueless on how to get their « Cow Poopoo » together on the damn thing).

Anyways, despite my melancholic look here, I'll but both day one regardless. The teaser trailer does look good so far, if not a little bit too Genshin? I mean, I Genshin daily, I love it, but not EVERY BLOODY GAME needs to try and take after it these days! But as long as the combat is good, the story is serviceable, and the spouses are, well, there, it should be at the very least an enjoyable JRPG.
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Hey, it's been a while.

I'll keep my expectations tempered, but I will say that even though RF5 disappointed people, had plenty of performance issues, and ended up not being as good as RF4; it should not be indicative of the series' direction or fate going forward. It's perfectly fine to be cautious or critical about the series direction but I think that a doomer approach to where the series is at the moment is a stretch.

We've forgotten how much of a downgrade RF2 for example, was, and yet the titles that followed it (Frontier and 3) turned out better. Developers and publishers can still learn from their mistakes.

That being said, I won't make much comment on RF6 considering all we have is a logo and I don't imagine this will be out until at least 2025/2026. I say this because Project Dragon is coming out first. We have footage for that but all we have for 6 is a confirmation that itÄs in production. In addition, 2026 aligns with the series' 20th Anniversary.

For my tiny little crumb of speculation: Maekawa stated that RF6 will be set in the western part of Adonea. For a refresher, Adonea is the major continent where the series is set and where both the Kingdom of Norad and the Sechs Republic (formerly the Sechs Empire prior to the end of RF4 Arc 2) are situated in. Depending on how the geography works and given the logo, which showcases a grandiose-looking floating or holy city... we're either looking at Norad's Capital (Palermo) or we're looking at the beginning of a new arc that's set in the Sechs. It could be a new nation altogether. We'll see.

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It has been awhile! How're you doing?

To keep the discussion going, how exactly was RF2 a downgrade? I love both RF1&2 equally and maybe I'm blinded by nostalgia, but I found RF2 to be a vast improvement over the first. Bachelorettes were much more fleshed out with events, there was rival marriages and kids, two generations to play, a more dynamic town with villagers that do more than stand around in their shops or festival spot, more dungeons to explore, unique dialog depending on who your second generation child's mother is, -I could go on, but I'll stop here. The main drawbacks were the clunky farming and combat that was almost identical from RF1. It just feels kinda strange to call it a downgrade when it personally feels anything but that.

RF3 is when they finally got everything into its formula and RF4 is a perfection of that formula. RF5 I'm still mulling over as I did enjoy it enough, it just has some very odd design decisions I still can't understand. I hope Project Dragon and RF6 further refine the formula and give us a really, REALLY good game like RF4 again.
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Bluie wrote: May 26, 2023 1:16 pm It has been awhile! How're you doing?

To keep the discussion going, how exactly was RF2 a downgrade? I love both RF1&2 equally and maybe I'm blinded by nostalgia, but I found RF2 to be a vast improvement over the first. Bachelorettes were much more fleshed out with events, there was rival marriages and kids, two generations to play, a more dynamic town with villagers that do more than stand around in their shops or festival spot, more dungeons to explore, unique dialog depending on who your second generation child's mother is, -I could go on, but I'll stop here. The main drawbacks were the clunky farming and combat that was almost identical from RF1. It just feels kinda strange to call it a downgrade when it personally feels anything but that.

RF3 is when they finally got everything into its formula and RF4 is a perfection of that formula. RF5 I'm still mulling over as I did enjoy it enough, it just has some very odd design decisions I still can't understand. I hope Project Dragon and RF6 further refine the formula and give us a really, REALLY good game like RF4 again.
I've been well, Bluie! And don't get me wrong, I have a huge soft spot for RF2 as well. It was my first exposure to the series and Alvarna's setting and music has the biggest nostalgia grip on me. It's more or less me looking in hindsight. It had a lot of cool ideas and there were things it did better than 1 but some aspects like as you said, the clunkiness or the fact you start off with streamlined tools in gen1 but barely anything to do then have to start off gen 2 with wider options but downgraded "from the start" tools for the sake of upgrading them later were odd design choices for me. Always got a bit salty that I could never cook or make some of the bachelorette' loved dishes as Kyle because the plyer didn't have access to the kitchen at that point.

As for RF3, it was an important game. It set the foundation for 4-5. RF4 perfected it while RF5 tried to adapt it into a fully 3D plain and fumbled on it a lot. There were things that worked well with RF3-RF4 that did not translate well into full scale 3D with RF5, even with some QoL aspects such as a lock-on for throwing or automatic pickup of reaped crops or mined gems.

I am glad that from what we know, they want to be radically different with Dragon Country and 6 because 3-4's formula did not translate well into whatever they were going for with RF5. The town in that one was far too big for its own good while forgoing any intricate or unique designs. But from what I seen of Dragon Country's footage, the towns and setpieces look unique enough and don't just seem like they'll be a generic square block town like Rigbarth felt like.
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So for Rune Factory: Project Dragon and Rune Factory 6, we are expecting them to come out on the switch successor correct. I wouldn't be surprised if Project Dragon was like a launch year game for the Switch successor.
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mario_0345 wrote: May 26, 2023 4:26 pm So for Rune Factory: Project Dragon and Rune Factory 6, we are expecting them to come out on the switch successor correct. I wouldn't be surprised if Project Dragon was like a launch year game for the Switch successor.
I wondered about this too. I could see at least Project Dragon coming out on the current Switch, or have a dual release if it comes out later. I suspect Rune Factory games rely on a large userbase to succeed, which makes me lean toward old hardware or releases 2-3 years into the new system life.

3rd party games seem to be getting increasingly creaky on Switch (at least for me), and I've noticed a couple missing Switch ports this year. It's possible these will bail in favor of better hardware... RF5 famously had issues on Switch, but these just aren't very hardware-intensive games. ^_^;
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Daisuke Tsubasa wrote: May 26, 2023 10:28 amFor my tiny little crumb of speculation: Maekawa stated that RF6 will be set in the western part of Adonea. For a refresher, Adonea is the major continent where the series is set and where both the Kingdom of Norad and the Sechs Republic (formerly the Sechs Empire prior to the end of RF4 Arc 2) are situated in. Depending on how the geography works and given the logo, which showcases a grandiose-looking floating or holy city... we're either looking at Norad's Capital (Palermo) or we're looking at the beginning of a new arc that's set in the Sechs. It could be a new nation altogether. We'll see.
Oh, I didn’t even consider that! I was thinking that we’d be seeing a more modern Rune Factory game, but I really like your speculation. It makes sense.
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