Board 8 > Help. I can't stop playing Rune Factory 4

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been playing nonstop for 4 days and I'm not even past the 2nd month. I'm not sure I've eaten or slept in this time period. Please send help.

(great farming + charming characters + surprisingly good dungeon crawling = fun times)
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Male or female?

Who will you be waifuing/husbandoing?
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Male

Probably Dolce. Although her annoying ghost friend is probably a package deal, which hurts her chances.
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well yeah it's easily the best farm game of all time

shame about Neverland tho :(

also dat OP top tier OP

Good
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With that said, which developer thought this flower boss was a good idea?
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FINALLY beat it

I'm about to go the tower. How much of the game is left by now?
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Okay. People are also interested in waifuism, so I might as well go into details on my thoughts of the canditates:

Clorica
Pros: Nice personality. Can get work done efficiently.
Cons: Narcoleptic. This aspect of her overshadows everything else about her. Likely to fall asleep during dates.
Verdict: I'll pass. Too much sleeping, not enough...everything else.

Forte
Pros: Kicks butt. Genuinely tries to protect people. It's cute how she pretends to not like girly stuff.
Cons: Armor is slightly unflattering...although I appreciate that it's more realistic instead of being boob armor. Honestly, not any major flaws.
Verdict: Strong contender. I like girls who can fight.

Margaret
Pros: Probably the best-looking. Nice to a fault. Can sing.
Cons: Honestly, is kind of boring.
Verdict: Strong contender simply because she hits a lot of strong notes. Pun intended.

Xiao Pai
Pros: Her gimmick of being bad at everything when her mom is bad at everything (while everything turning out well for her anyway) is pretty funny.
Cons: Her gimmick is still...well, a gimmick. Dude, she's like, 13.
Verdict: Hard pass. Too young and little characterization.

Amber
Pros: I mean I kinda like her character but...
Cons: Dude, she's like, 10.
Verdict: Hard pass for obvious reasons.

Dolce
Pros: Probably my favorite personality. Quiet, but secretly kind while being a little twisted. Isn't actually mean to people except her dumb ghost friend. Also rocks the top hat.
Cons: Her ghost friend sucks. She never shuts up and literally can't be away from Dolce.
Verdict: Strong contender. Would be the #1 choice if it weren't for her obnoxious ghost friend.
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Hell yeah RF4.
I went with Forte.
...until I Googled her after reading your post, I forgot Marguerite exists.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Xiao Pai
Pros: Her gimmick of being bad at everything when her mom is bad at everything (while everything turning out well for her anyway) is pretty funny.
Cons: Her gimmick is still...well, a gimmick. Dude, she's like, 13.
Verdict: Hard pass. Too young and little characterization.

She's actually older than Lest. At least, that's my recollection.

Dolce
Pros: Probably my favorite personality. Quiet, but secretly kind while being a little twisted. Isn't actually mean to people except her dumb ghost friend. Also rocks the top hat.
Cons: Her ghost friend sucks. She never shuts up and literally can't be away from Dolce.
Verdict: Strong contender. Would be the #1 choice if it weren't for her obnoxious ghost friend.

The ghost watches.

Forte is great.
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Is she? She sure doesn't look it.

And...yeeeeah. That ghost would totally watch.
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Real talk, if guys could marry guys than I would consider going for Arthur. He's a cool dude with no drawbacks whatsoever.

Arc 1 out of 3? That's cool, I was hoping there was more of the game to play.
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Xiao Pai has the best name

my Chinese ex kept laughing that it means short ribs

It means short ribs? That's pretty great.

"Mission: raise everyone's friendship levels to 5" yeah I'll be able to do that as soon as Doug stops throwing a tantrum
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Going by overall bachelors/bachelorettes, Dylas is the easy winner. I went Forte on my male file but really didn't care about any as much as top tier Dylas

(it helps that his name is 1 letter from mine)

Dylas bugged me. Yeah man, you're not good at dealing with people and stuff. Would it kill you to show a bit of courtesy to the prince who just risked his life to save you?
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"Thanks for the gift! Here's a token of my appreciation!"

*gives me a chest with a tin can inside it*

Thanks bro
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KamikazePotato posted...

"Mission: raise everyone's friendship levels to 5" yeah I'll be able to do that as soon as Doug stops throwing a tantrum

That's not going to happen for a while. I don't remember if you can cancel a favor once you're in it, but you might want to do that and go for some other things while you're waiting.

Part 1 beated! I'm surprised by how much I like the protagonist. A simple character, but a fun one. Being brutally honest to everyone in the town about their weird quirks helps.
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As much as I absolutely love the game... I still haven't beaten it because I could never get Arc 3 to start ffff

I'm tempted to just start over

and I have soooo many screencaps of Dylas scenes

https://imgur.com/a/QzoLl

best part of tsundylas is the ultra-embarrassed lovelove moments

also Big D best name I giggle every time it sneaks into a serious moment

How can you not get Arc 3 to start? Is that something I need to prepare for?
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there's some RNG involved with initiating the next plot arcs, I was too lazy to do the savescum technique so I just kept going so long I eventually stopped for so long that I forgot where I left off in everything

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/635388-rune-factory-4/68243427

post #2 covers the reset trick

Side note: my weapons of choice are the Spear, Hammer, and Staff. The Spear charge combo is amazing at stunlocking a single enemy into almost instant death. The Staff is really good for dealing with ranged assholes (also I can finally use HEALING jesus was waiting on that for a while). The Hammer is probably my favorite. There's this one martial ability that attacks all enemies in front of you in a wide arc. Using that with the Hammer knocks them all back and almost always stuns them. It's amazing for crowd control.
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Don't read post #1 of that thing GMUN linked btw
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oh yeah I wanted to link directly to #2 but gfaqs took out the whole linking to posts thing since it's archived >_>

Lopen posted...

Don't read post #1 of that thing GMUN linked btw

Too late :(
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I believe the game doesn't count Doug for the sake of that request to raise friendship levels, since they lock his for so long. (Way longer than even makes sense with the plot, he gets over his issue and then you still can't raise his friendship for a while after that for no reason)

I've been playing it off an on for a couple months now, still waiting for the 3rd arc RNG. Finally got my necessary relationship events to trigger for marriage a couple weeks ago.
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Sucks :(

Maybe this was GMUN's attempt at helping you.

... well a lot of stuff happens that that post didn't blatantly spoil, in any case!
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Good to hear!

But yeah, enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. Got it on a whim and it's sucked me in pretty hard.
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It's one of my favorite 3DS games, actually. Really covers up a lot of the weaknesses of standard Harvest Moon I think-- surprisingly good gameplay and fun quirky characters. You have good taste in waifuism btw. I went with Dolce though yeah that ghost does kinda grate on you. I do think some of the more shallow ones become a bit less one note than you were describing them as you trigger more of their events so that helps-- I don't actually remember if friendship level mattered for triggering those or if it was just random or what but I think getting everyone up to 7 is probably a good idea. (Just in case)

Rune Factory 3 is also really good if you haven't played that-- it's a bit of a step back in a few gameplay related regards but not to the point where it's unplayable after having played 4-- I think I like the cast better too overall, though I do really like RF4's cast too. This probably won't be too relevant cause I imagine RF4 will actually be long enough (there's actually a ton of content in the game-- hell I haven't done all of the optional stuff) that you'll probably have the series out of your system by the time you finish it, but it's something to keep in mind for the future if you ever get the itch

(I haven't heard great things about RF1/2 after RF4 though I'm pretty sure those actually do feel dated)
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Yeah I'll keep RF3 in mind for later down the road, but RF4 is going to satisfy that itch for a very long while. It's seems pretty damn long!

I didn't expect to enjoy the writing or the combat nearly as much as I do. Crafting too! The only part I don't like - and this is my least-favorite part of this genre in general - is taking care of farm animals. In every game like this, it's way too much of a time investment for so little of a reward. There's already a million things to keep track of. At least I can (sometimes) get the lazy bastards to water my field for me.

Also after some recent story developments the ghost is starting to grow on me. She really sticks up for Dolce.
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I've never played a Rune Factory game despite playing a bunch of Harvest Moon games

I should probably fix that one of these days right
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Meow1000 posted...

I've never played a Rune Factory game despite playing a bunch of Harvest Moon games

I should probably fix that one of these days right

I've played Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley. I like Rune Factory 4 a lot more than either of those so far, so hey.
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Rune Factory series is basically Harvest Moon combined with the best of 2D Zeldaish style gameplay and silly writing. I'd recommend every Harvest Moon fan to at least try one.

And yeah once you get a lot of screens for your field you'll appreciate animals more I think. They save a lot of time for you when they're at higher friendship levels. Costs more feed but still saves time. Also keep in mind that you can get some pretty rare items pretty consistently if you raise certain types of monsters-- since you don't need to limit yourself to cows and chickens here. Some of em are pretty competent in battle too.
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Random question: what's the cap on affection levels?
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I don't think there is one. But it stops mattering for any gameplay effect after 10 IIRC unless there's a secondary effect I'm forgetting.
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For monsters they will keep getting stat boosts up to level 50 friendship but I think for people 10 is the highest that anything is necessary for. Though I think getting higher than that will still boost your success rate for love confessions
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I dislike typhoons.
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Wettable powder is fairly inexpensive and will really help a lot for that. And making sure your plants and soil are at full health by hoeing dried grass. Just put a piece of dried grass on the square of soil you want to heal and hit it with a hoe.

You can check the health of crops and soil with a magnifying glass. Or if you use a forge and upgrade another tool with a magnifying glass then its effect will be added to that tool.
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Oooh that's what dried grass is for? I kept using them for the fertilizer/compost bin. That thing runs out pretty quickly.
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Got a Cookie from every girl in town on Valentine's day. Aw yeah.

There's so many little mechanics in this game to discover and keep track of. Earlier on I found the Summer Field, went "oh cool a free plot", and started planting random crap there. It was only much later, after I'd found all the other Fields, that I wondered if just maybe I should be only planting summer crops in the Summer Field.

Part 2 storyline has started. I don't take any NPCs out on missions because I like fighting solo. My untrained Forte got obliterated by the plot monster.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Oooh that's what dried grass is for? I kept using them for the fertilizer/compost bin. That thing runs out pretty quickly.

It's also important for grinding your medicine ability. It'll save you money, which I've heard will eventually become a non-issue but I never played for that long.

yeah you can use them in the compost bin too but they're really for healing soil. There's a reliable source for them that you might have even found by now, though you probably avoided it once you saw what else was there.

And yeah corn and 4 leaf clovers work too but I'd rather sell those or use them in other things when possible.
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I played so so so so much Rune Factory, but never got around to finishing it.
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