Rune Factory Frontier

From the creators of Harvest Moon and Rune Factory for the Nintendo DS comes the first installment of Rune Factory for a home console.

Developed exclusively for Nintendo Wii, Rune Factory: Frontier takes full advantage of the Wii's unique controls to fully immerse players in the Rune Factory universe. Rune Factory: Frontier incorporates an open-ended structure that allows players to choose the type of game they wish to experience.

Grow crops, expand the town, fight or befriend monsters, or even fall in love.

Watch the trailer.

Reviews

Official Nintendo Magazine, 85%: "one of the grandest, most ambitious and most satisfying role-players on the Wii ... staggering depth"

IGN's Best RPG of 2009, 8/10: "Rune Factory will entertain you for as long as you're willing to let it. There's no shortage of content, and it's got huge depth."

GameZone, 9/10: "one of the best games I've played on the Wii"

Features

• Grow a farm more similar to the regular Harvest Moon games than in the previous Rune Factory games.

• Runeys are sprite-like creatures that appear as you work hard on the land and in the village. They are divided into four elemental types (grass, tree, stone, and water).

• The better you take care of your land, the more your land becomes a real village, more people move in, more shops open.

• Explore dungeons with a very special one soaring right above your head... if you can reach it.

User reviews

Fantastic, Excellent, Significant, Beautiful, Nostalgic.

A twist of Harvest Moon, a bite of Diablo, and of course, the seasoning of anime makes Rune Factory Frontier no less than a top-notch game for the Wii.

With the return of various character from the the game's senior, including Myst and Raguna: Rune Factory, this game brings me a nostalgic feelings of a pure Harvest Moon game, but with a bonus. Well, as they say: 'Rune Factory is a Harvest moon where you can wield a sword'.

The game is well done with excellent graphic can be performed by the Wii, with a very sweet and soft arts. The green grass was incredibly beautiful. With a nice countryside atmosphere this game could play seriously or just for a relax.

Controlling is well-done, button mapping was perfect that never need a custom change. Motion sensor is not much necessary, but interesting: WiiRemote is for farming works, Nunchuck is for knocking the door.

Magical Melody!!! Music is incredibly well-done. This is the aspect that I find most excellent this game. The music was so good but sadly, no OST were released, or planned to be released, as far as I write this review.

A cookie-cutter, this game is. There is 12 female characters are eligible (or 13, depends on how you look). All characters arts are very beautiful, no official artworks book I'm afraid.

Epic storyline! Story was addicting, thus short in my opinion. Sometimes the story interfere our farming works that makes the moments awful, but always up to challenge!

The game was excellent that in my opinion, the best Japanese game for Wii. This game must not be missed, if you are a Harvest Moon or a Rune Factory fan. A score for Marvelous Entertainment in Wii!

CanonCygnus

It's hard to know where to start with Rune Factory Frontier. You're just given a small homestead, a plot of land and a dummy's guide to agriculture, but after that you're on your own.

Rune Factory Frontier begins with Raguna searching for a missing girl. That missing girl turns out to be Mist, who has moved to a new town because someone is calling to her in her dreams. Raguna moves into the town as well, living in the house next to her with a field. Then Raguna finds out that the whale island in the sky is in danger of falling on the town. Somehow Mist and another girl named Iris's fates are tied with the whale's.

The core gameplay is really simple. The player can grow a farm. There are 4 distinct seasons, 3 of which you can grow different types of crops. Examples include: Strawberries and turnips in the spring, tomatoes and pineapples in the summer, and yams in the fall. There are many other crops, and you can grow flowers, which can all be sold for gold (the game's currency.) Farming is only half of the game. The other half is dungeon crawling. There are four very different dungeons, three of which represent the four different seasons (the third dungeon represents both autumn and winter). In these dungeons, crops of that dungeon's seasonal affiliation can be grown. The fourth dungeon, Whale Island, is omni-seasonal, and all crops can be grown there at any time.

Another feature is the concept of Runey distribution. Runeys come in four different variations: water, rock, tree and grass. Runeys represent the ecosystem of Trampoli; when Runeys are in perfect harmony, the area that they occupy reaches a state of Prosperity, and crops in that area will grow much faster than normal. However, should even one area of Trampoli become devoid of Runeys, the ecosystem suffers, and crops grow much slower than normal. Runeys can be re-distributed from area to area using a tool called the Harvester, and the game itself distributes Runeys randomly across Trampoli daily. Every nine ripe crops in the field in front of the character's house also spawns one Runey daily.

Rune is an incredibly in-depth game that will leave you playing for months, however the game is not very intuitive. The game barely gives you instructions or help which sometimes leaves you unsure what to do.

But it you overlook all it minor flaws, this is a game you can surely enjoy!

Pochama014

Rune Factory Frontier is a game that lets you experience what it would be like to live in a fantasy world. With traditional Harvest Moon elements mixed in with that of a Fantasy RPG. It's one of those game mixes that work really well that you would think they would have made one sooner.

Fantasy life is hard though. At the start all you have is a run down tiny farm, a field that looks like monsters have been trashing the place, a packet of seeds and a couple of tools. Not exactly the normal way a RPG starts. It doesn't help that most actions involving tools and weapons take away RP. There isn't any guide informing you how you should be at certain points. You have to be prepared to set your own goals and go at your own pace. That's really all part of the challenge and what makes the game fun. Seeing the character start from nothing and become a successful farmer is a reward on it's own.

You would think that setting a timetable for how you go about each day would be good idea then. The answer is no. Doing farm work early in the morning seems like the best way to start the day. Doing that means you miss out on following the mail girl as she delivers mail to the other characters. With so much to do and so much happening on a regular basis it's worthwhile to try visiting a character or entering a building at different times. Late at night when visiting in the Inn you can find characters getting drunk at the Bar. Also when visiting Hot Springs to recover RP you might over hear the girls chatting in the next room. Visiting the characters every day is worthwhile doing. They have a lot to say. Some of it helpful others not. As you befriend them events trigger, more conversations open up and the girls Raguna can marry will wear accessories given to them as a present. Some characters are easier to befriend then others.

If you get tired of doing the same thing over and over there are plenty of other activities to try out. Fishing, mining and later on forging and cooking. Not to mention the occasional festival that takes place. Your not going to be struggling to find something to do. Specially once you built the kitchen and start cooking your own food to replenish HP and RP. There are a few things that prevent you from doing what you want all the time though. Bad health is one. Staying up to late will make the hero sick. Unless you got decent skill level, upgraded tools or plenty of food RP will disappear very quickly. The Runeys can't be ignored ether and that will at least consume 1 day of the week to sort out. Runeys effecting how fast crops grow you really do need to keep an eye on them.

Now your probably thinking this is a lot of hard work. There is help at hand or should I say monsters. Each monster has a particular job. Some help with cutting wood while others provide goods. The first barn is small though so to really take advantage of having monsters you need at least the level 2 barn. All the monsters need is feed which you can grow and a pet everyday. Once they like you they will start to help you out with farm work.

The monsters themselves appear in dungeons. Dungeon exploration is the main part of the storyline. They can be very difficult at the start and taking your time is essential. There are plenty of weapons to choose from. From a mage staff, to axes and the traditional swords. If you don't like one weapon you can try another. That is just for attacking though. For defence you have a selection of accessories which are visible. From cat ears to belts there is a lot to choose and humiliate Raguna with. You will also need food and potions if you want to defeat the boss. Thankfully each floor has a short cut. Once opened remain open so you don't need to redo all the floors again. While you could attempt to miss out on the storyline there are advantages to doing it. The pretty animated cut scenes for one. There are also some monsters that only appear in certain caves. Some girls will only marry once storyline is finished. Finally you can grow crops of a specific season in each of the caves and whale island. Whale island itself is a huge dungeon to explore. Located above the clouds is one of the more fun dungeons to explore. It slowly opens up to you as you explore.

I'm sure by now your realize how much this game has to offer and how much fun the game can be. Even if you find it a struggle to start it is worth sticking with the game to open up all it has to offer. Just be prepared to put a lot of work into it.

AngelFox

A great game, with an excellent mix between Farm simulation and Fantasy universe.

But, what an awful french translation ! :'(

Shyma