Rune Factory Frontier produces screens, website

by Candace Savino { Jun 6th 2008 at 6:00PM }

Harvest Moon fans (like us) are probably drooling at the thought of Rune Factory: Frontier, which is releasing in Japan sometime this year (and not in other territories until forever, we'd guess). Yet by now, you should be used to the "look but don't touch" mantra, with all the screens we show you week after week.

As far as Rune Factory: Frontier goes, being restricted to looking is especially painful because the screens are nothing short of lovely. We only wish that Marvelous was quicker with the whole localization thing.

In other news, the game's official website is open for business. Since the site isn't offering anything tangible at the moment, though, you can just click past the break to see the rest of the pretties.

[Via NeoGAF]

Source: Rune Factory Frontier screens
Source: Rune Factory Frontier official Japanese website

Tags: agriculture, farming, harvest-moon, marvelous, marvelous-interactive, rune-factory, rune-factory-frontier, sim

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Markez (MKWii 4339-2878-5120) @ Jun 6th 2008 6:58PM

I've been playing the DS version, and wondering when this game gets the slightest bit interesting? I'll just wait for the next rendition that walks in the footssteps of Magical Melody, because that ruled.

Red Leader @ Jun 6th 2008 7:32PM

Yeah, I gotta be honest with ya, Markez . . . I really love the Harvest Moon series, so I figured I'd give the first Rune Factory a try. Turns out it was a combination of sub-par farming, repetitive combat, shallow character development/interaction, and tedious item creation.

Basically, everything this game did, Harvest Moon does it better. The combat wasn't nearly interesting enough to justify the purchase. I must say, though . . . those screens are looking awfully pretty . . .

Phil @ Jun 6th 2008 8:43PM

But you fail to realize that there ARE people who need a change. Magical Melody was TERRIBLY addicting, but a GOOD player could complete the main game and collect almost all 100 notes within a month and a half.

As a result, some harvest moon fans are looking for something fresh and honestly, Rune factory WAS that breath of fresh air. It's a great blend of the simulator functionality of Harvest Moon with a fairly simple and fun hack and slash formula of dungeon crawling.

Frontier will be fixing the LONE problem that the DS game had and that is the lack of ability to be properly prepared in the dungeons. Since the top down view kept one from seeing enemies ahead, the screenshots in the article have a GREAT deal of promise to fix that.

Otherwise, Rune Factory was a GREAT spin off and much better than the first HM title on the DS and the Wii title should be even better.

Daniel @ Jun 6th 2008 8:28PM

"(and not in other territories until forever, we'd guess)"

Wasn't Harvest Moon Heroes released on the Wii in Japan early last year? It can't take *that* long to translate, can it?

Candace Savino @ Jun 7th 2008 4:07PM

The turnaround time for the Wii Harvest Moon (Tree of Tranquility) will be a little over a year, which seems like a long time to me. But maybe I'm just impatient :).

On the DS the games also usually take a year or more to get localized.

Anticrawl @ Jun 6th 2008 9:34PM

Looks pretty I suppose, my Wii is in my closet at the moment. Waiting for the game that will break it out again.

CJLopez @ Jun 7th 2008 12:45AM

1.- Star Ward Force Unleashed. The controls scheme is worth trying. I'm not saying to buy it, just rent it
2.- Mad World.- Sin City like game, what else do you want
3.- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearer
4.- Rygar
5.- Disaster: Day of Crisis
6.- The whole homebrew scene???
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=51
7.- Tenchu IV
8.- Spider Man: Web of shadows
9.- Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
10.- Ghostbusters: The Video Game
11.- Call of Duty 5
12.- Deadly Creatures

any of those???

Anticrawl @ Jun 7th 2008 12:57AM

I have all 3 and a PC capable of running most newer games. Only Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearer, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, and the World of Goo interest me so far.

phenylketonurics @ Jun 7th 2008 12:15AM

^ As Phil said, this sounds and will most likely be an incredible game. I totally agree with him on the whole 'breath of fresh air' aspect of this game. It really is.

I've been following this series since I was 12 when the SNES Harvest Moon came out. Magical Melody was okay but certainly nothing I'd consider more fun than Rune Factory for the DS--they're mostly different games anyway.

Looks great but I'm set on the awesome gameplay that I found as repetitive as ANY Harvest Moon game. In a good way. A very good way. ^^v

Mike @ Jun 7th 2008 11:54AM

This has the potential of being awesome, but in order to do that, it has to learn from the mistakes of rune factory DS:

1. Have more character development and special cutscenes like in HM64.
2. Have lots of festivals with interesting themes (rather than the "everybody is outside and gains extra friend points" holidays) to keep you interested in playing another week.
3. Make a lot of goals to reach in the game, people shouldn't have to make arbitrary goals like maxing out the money to 99999 just to stay interested.