rune-factory-2 posts(Subscribe to this feed)
DS releases for the week of November 17th
by Alisha Karabinus 
{ Nov 17th 2008 at 1:00PM }
- Bolt
- Cradle of Rome
- Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades
- Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams
- Imagine: Ballet Star
- Imagine: Movie Star
- Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine
- Luminous Arc 2
- Metal Slug 7
- Need for Speed Undercover
- Petz Catz Clan
- Petz Monkeyz House
- Petz Rescue: Endangered Paradise
- Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party
- Robocalypse
- Rune Factory 2
- Skate It
- Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff
- Tomb Raider Underworld
- Tony Hawk's Motion/Hue Pixel Painter
- Ultimate Band
- Winter Sports 2: The Next Challenge
Rune Factory 2 manufactures U.S. release date
by Chris Greenhough { Oct 21st 2008 at 2:25PM }
Marvelous has confirmed it will release Rune Factory 2 into the crowded, choppy waters of the Christmas games market, announcing a November 18th release date for the fantasy-themed farm-me-do.
As that's still four weeks away, we advise passing time by reading up on our hands-on experience with the title, planning crop strategies, and preordering at either Gamestop or Amazon for your very own plush squirrel. Oh yes, and saving money. We're not kidding. Have you seen the DS line-up for November 18th? Yowza.
Gallery: Rune Factory 2
[Via press release]
TGS08: Rising Star reveals four for Europe
by Chris Greenhough { Oct 13th 2008 at 7:30PM }
Rising Star Games just unfurled an official list of Marvelous games that it plans to localize for Europe, including Luminous Arc 2, Avalon Code, Rune Factory 2, and a fourth game that is yet to be announced for North America: Steal Princess. We expected most (if not all) of these to reach us at some point, mainly because Rising Star Games is totally awesome and we love them.
Previous evidence has suggested that Steal Princess and Luminous Arc 2 won't be appearing before the end of March 2009, but we can't be mad at Marvelous. The company has had an action-packed Tokyo Game Show, and this is the cherry on top of a whole pile of other excellent announcements for Nintendo fans. Make the jump for screens, screens, and more screens!
Gallery: Steal Princess
Rune Factory 2 preorder bonus is nuts
by JC Fletcher { Oct 7th 2008 at 12:51PM }
Well, nut. Acorn, really. Plush acorn ... in the grip of a plush squirrel. Never mind. Chances are, if you're a fan of, uh, fantasy-themed farming simulations, you've already got a copy of Rune Factory 2 preordered -- if only because there are no games in that narrow subgenre that aren't called Rune Factory.But hey, even if you don't care about growing whatever or tending whatever or fighting whatever, Natsume will give you this plush squirrel if you preorder their game from Amazon. They keep trying to use cute plushes to sell us games ... and it continues to have a shockingly powerful effect on our resolve. Marvelous is at least as talented at designing adorable, plush-ready mascot characters as they are at designing repetitive, addictive games.
E308: DS Fanboy explores the lands of Rune Factory 2
by David Hinkle { Jul 24th 2008 at 3:30PM }
Imagine my surprise when I played Rune Factory 2 and it was like Harvest Moon had a baby with Secret of Mana.
Gallery: Rune Factory 2
E308: A smattering of Natsume simulation screens
by Alisha Karabinus { Jul 16th 2008 at 1:30PM }
Gallery: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
Gallery: Rune Factory 2
E308: We fit into Natsume's niche
by Candace Savino { Jul 14th 2008 at 1:15PM }
Natsume will be sharing some DS love at this week's E3 convention, showing off Princess Debut and Rune Factory 2 for the first time. Island of Happiness and Hamtaro will also be on the company's E3 agenda, balancing out the lineup nicely.Harvest Moon fans (like ourselves) will probably be the most excited by this schedule, as we'll get more media and details on Island of Happiness and Rune Factory 2, which come out this summer and fall respectively. At the same time, we can't help but be intrigued by Princess Debut. Depending on how the "adventure" parts work, it might be the closest thing to an otome (girl's dating game) that we've seen for the DS outside of Japan. We're also not going to complain about the rhythm-based dancing segments, as we're rhythm game fiends.
Granted, all these titles are rather niche, but we wouldn't take Natsume any other way.
Gallery: Rune Factory 2
Gallery: Princess Debut
North America harvests Rune Factory 2 this fall
by Candace Savino { Jun 24th 2008 at 11:45AM }
In the best DS news we'll hear all day (depending on which DS Fanboy staff member you ask), Natsume announced that they're bringing Rune Factory 2 to North America this fall. While we predicted localization would happen eventually, it was always a matter of when, so we're glad to see it being taken care of. Considering that the first game in the series took a year to find its way over here, a nine-month delay (Japan got the game last January) doesn't seem too bad at all.While we initially thought this sequel would be too similar to the original Rune Factory, the premise adds some freshness into the RPG-Harvest Moon formula. In Rune Factory 2, you not only play as the main character, Kyle, but later you take over as his child. The game therefore spans two generations, providing us with double the fun.
If you share our excitement, make sure to check out the first English screens in our gallery below.
Gallery: Rune Factory 2
[Via press release]
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 1/14-1/20
by Candace Savino { Jan 23rd 2008 at 3:00PM }
As for the hardware numbers, it's the same old story. The DS continues to sell well, and once again takes the #1 spot with Japanese gamers.
Hardware:
- DS: 91,000
- Wii: 76,000
- PSP: 65,000
- PS3: 32,000
- PS2: 13,000
- Xbox 360: 4,400
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 1/7-1/13
by Candace Savino { Jan 16th 2008 at 5:45PM }
The PSP might be inching closer to the DS in hardware sales, but the dual-screened handheld continues to dominate the software charts. Half of the games in the top twenty were DS games, while the Wii, PSP, PS2 and PS3 shared the other half.Many of the top games were old favorites, but relative newcomers like Final Fantasy IV and Rune Factory 2 did well, too. Professor Layton 2 continues to help its predecessor sell more copies, giving the original Layton a chance to reach one million sales. For the most part, though, it was a quiet and predictable week in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Hardware:
- DS: 103,000
- PSP: 84,000
- Wii: 82,000
- PS3: 34,000
- PS2: 15,000
- Xbox 360: 5,500
Another week in Japan: Hardware and software numbers 12/31-1/6
by Candace Savino { Jan 9th 2008 at 8:00PM }
The big news with last week's sales numbers is not that the DS managed to top 300,000 again, but that the New Super Mario Bros. broke five million in Japan. Not only that, but the game took the sixteenth spot in today's Famistu chart. Also showing legs is Mario Kart DS, which sold 68,000 copies to take the number eight spot. While it's no surprise that Mario Kart does well week after week (after week), we didn't expect it to make the top ten. We're also happy to see some new DS blood enter the ring, with Rune Factory 2 selling 56,000 in its debut.
The rise in sales from the previous week was most likely due to the New Years holiday, which is a popular shopping period in Japan. These numbers are almost certainly not sustainable, though, so we should see a big difference next week. Of course, we fully expect that the DS will end up on top, as always, with a smattering of its games in the top ten.
Check after the break to see the numbers, with NSMB sales tacked on for good measure.
DS releases for the week of December 31st
by Alisha Karabinus { Dec 31st 2007 at 12:45PM }
We hope you're so excited about Rune Factory 2 for the DS -- excited enough to import it, that is -- because that's the only DS game releasing this week across all major markets. But hey, that's okay ... we needed time to catch up on all those games we never got to this year, right?Rune Factory 2 harvests more scans before release
by Candace Savino { Dec 28th 2007 at 5:00PM }
If you're oh-so-patiently (grumble) waiting for the game like we are, check after the break for one more teasing scan.
Rune Factory 2 screens give us deja vu
by Candace Savino { Dec 17th 2007 at 7:00PM }
As we see more and more Rune Factory 2 screens, it's becoming pretty evident that the game is going to be almost exactly like its predecessor, only with slightly altered characters and possibly a kind-of-different storyline. Does the prospect of an extremely similar game excite you Rune Factory fans, or was one time around enough? Since we loved the first game so much, we're going to go with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra, although it'd be nice to see a few more changes made to the sequel.
You can check out some more screens that probably won't surprise you after the break.
Rune Factory 2 scans packed with character art
by Alisha Karabinus { Dec 4th 2007 at 3:00PM }
