Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon

A man with amnesia wanders into a town named Alvarna, where he meets Mana, a happy and helpful young woman and daughter of the local farmer. Mana takes pity on the man and gives him an empty plot of land and basic tools so that he can live for himself. Upon developing his life with a new identity, both his farm and his relationships grow, leading him to get married to his chosen bride and conceive a child with her.

One day, he regains his memory and remembers why he came to Alvarna in the first place. Resuming his quest, the man leaves his young family in the middle of the night. Years later, his child continues looking after the land but has begun their own quest to find their father and discover his reasons for leaving.

IGN UK awarded it 8.4/10, with "the depth continues to amaze as well. You'd be able to spend a considerable amount of hours exploring, farming and winning a wife here."

1UP gave it B+, saying "Rune Factory 2 solidly integrates two disparate forms of gameplay in a lengthy, elaborate experience. Willingness to farm and fall in love with a doe-eyed anime girl are prerequisites, but trading your hoe -- and I mean the farming tool -- for monsters, melee, and magic is one helluva fantasy."

And NGamer gave it 81/100, with "Another engrossing and attractive RPG adventure."

Features

• Continuation of the critically acclaimed Rune Factory mechanic, combining classic Harvest Moon gameplay with engaging RPG elements

• Play through two generations; first the father, then the son/daughter

• Unlimited farming resources; your land is always growing, even when the RPG story is over

• Four huge dungeons to hone your fighting skills and cultivate special crops

• Start your family with any of the female villagers you encounter; pick from over a dozen potential spouses

• Tame monsters you encounter to help out on your farm

• English and German localisation

User reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Being a huge fan of the farming mechanics used in the Harvest Moon series, and also being a huge RPG fan, I decided to give this game a try and it really was fun.

The characters are likeable and befriending them is worth it - the quests offer a challenge but are also enjoyable, and most are reasonably easy if you know how to get what it is they want, or know the villagers well enough to be able to get items to them quickly and efficiently. And, of course, you can always get a Location reading from Alicia if you can't find them.

However, the game has its downsides. The second generation isn't as good as the first for me - despite the storyline now taking place, your character no longer seems to have conversations with the villagers as often and you can't charge your tools until you upgrade them, which requires obtaining quite a large amount of lumber and gold to get the school addition to create these items, and then getting the required materials. Though, this might just be me missing playing as Kyle...

But it has its upsides too - you can farm without the worry of being attacked by monsters if you have a strong monster companion with you while growing crops or performing other tasks in dungeons. Being able to any seasons crops at any time of year is also a lot easier for me, but having to travel to all the dungeons to water all of my crops gets tiring after a while.

The storyline, though I have not yet completed it, is highly enjoyable and gives you a lot to do after you've switched generations. I love still being able to have a "romance" of sorts with new second-generation schoolchildren, and that there is still a wide range of quests to complete.

Fans of the Harvest Moon series should pick up this game as it offers a lot of new features as well as the usual farming and raising livestock, as well as the fighting mechanics used in RPG games.

Autumnleaf

An excellent game, but where are the french/italian/spanish localisations ?

Shyma

Déçu par l'absence d'une version fr, mais néanmoins très bon jeux

Spike