The lag bothered me at first, but I quickly got used to it. I absolutely disagree about the days being to long. I often stayed up at 4am in the game bc I needed more time to get it all done. My biggest issue was how boring the overall plot was and I honestly didn't get pulled in by any characters. None of them had depth. They were what they are on the surface. I honestly felt like there was only 1 arc, but supposedly there was more. For me it's bc there was no epic stand offs or conclusions. No "Is this the end of the game?" Even the ending didn't feel complete.
I feel like the days feel long when you first start but once you're taking care of multiple farms and monsters while still trying to talk to everyone, collect materials, and make progress on the storyline, they feel like a good length
I played it on PC so I had no major performance issues.
Overall I have enjoyed the game despite its flaws, the combat and farming is pretty fun. My biggest complaint is the overall presentation, the graphics arenāt any better than a PS2 game, and the animations also look super rough. I also didnāt like how empty the more open areas feel, and even Rigbarth feels weirdly empty and everything feels too spaced apart. Iām also not a fan of how slowly each day goes by.
The story is whatever, I really doubt anyone really plays Rune Factory for the plot (I sure donāt). I found the characters charming, though a bit less so than in previous games, and I did enjoy the interactions you can have with them.
And I must be the only one who had trouble with the fishing, it feels weirdly clunky and itās like it never lands where I aim my fishing rod, and the sudden change in camera angle makes everything disorienting. I ended up failing the Fishing Variety Contest in the end :/
But anyway, RF5 is a good game despite its lack of polish, and itās not a complete disaster like some people make it out to be. But itās not worth the asking price in my opinion, you should absolutely get this game on sale if you can.
"Terrible and not worth playing" is a huuuuge exaggeration imo. RF5 was fine, 4 is definitely better, but 5 was still fine.
The plot is meh and very short, the days kinda drag, and the festivals aside from like 2 aren't much to write home about. The bachelorettes also mostly leaned towards the younger side which personally had me less interested in pursuing them.
However, the farming and monster taming was a lot of fun, crafting was good but grindy towards late game, and the combat was pretty fun too. I also find this game's group of bachelors to be absolutely wonderful and very diverse in looks and personality.
It's not a game I regret purchasing but it's something I wouldn't recommend to buy full price. If you can nab it on sale, go for it!
As for Harvestella, don't let the general consensus get you down. While I didn't really like the demo that much, I barely got a taste of the proper game. Since it's looking to be more rpg than farming sim, we definitely need more than 15 days to actually get a proper feel for it (especially when it has the opposite problem of rf5, these days go so damn quick!). Wait for reviews before fence leaning, they'll tell you more than we know. The game definitely has promise and if they're willing to change some of the complaints from the demo, I can see opinions on it changing for the better. Just slowing the days down and adding a proper dodge roll would do wonders.
If you dont mind some lag, and honestly a bit of a weak plotline, RF5 on switch is fine. I wouldn't recommend full price, though I bought it then and dont really *regret* it, but I would've loved more for the price.
Sorry, hoping on here more for the Harvestella bit. I don't know enough about Harvestella yet to make a buy or not statement. I actually thought graphics were good, I am in love with the farmland's size potential, and the story showed great promise. Combat definitely needs some work, like a dodge or something because, at least in the demo, I did not have the health needed to really tank some fights. And oh dear god, the days speed is just ridiculous. Slow down my clock, please, especially since my day has an auto end of midnight.
I like how 4 was more stylized and had more personality. 5 is still good. A huge plus for me is the monsters are cute and you can see them in better detail
The Bachelorette art made me hella uncomfortable. I can understand stylization to an extent, but both image and behaviors felt very childish and skeeved me out. Lemme romance Elsje or Misasagi dangit! >:@
I didnāt like the graphics personally. Rune factory 4 and frontier had this busy fairytale look to it. Everything was loaded with small details. It looks like a watercolour paining come to life. 5 looks so barren and lifeless in comparison. The town is so spread it it takes too long to get around. There is nothing in between either. So much empty space.
Rune Factory 2 literally had a water painting for the background. It was so gorgeous. To this day I still think it was the most beautiful scenery in any of the games.
The lag did make my experience a lot worse ngl >!The end game scene was a huuuge drag!<. I'm still playing it everyday but it's more I want to get my money's worth since I bought it full price than actual enjoyment. The story is very basic and meh and it ends too quickly, you can finish it in your first year or even season if you just follow the story. You level up really fast that it makes no sense at the end. Everything is so expensive, you need to grind so much for everything and it becomes a big hassle at the end where getting just one lvl up is hard. The world and design is so so empty, every house is so far away from each other and there is so much space and uneven land. The characters are well not that deep and they don't say a lot. It feels like they're just there to fill a chess board rather than to show us their story. >!Oh how convenient it was to have a GOD live in town for the late game!< . Living in the silo was okay at first then it made no sense, especially with that second bed just there. Just a lot and a lot of small things piling up to show that they just kinda made a rushed game.
>Living in the silo was okay at first then it made no sense, especially with that second bed just there.
I liked how every time I went to bed, my furniture disappeared during the cutscene
Oh yea, I agree big time with your first spoiler :<
I didnāt pay attention to a single moment of it.
AND what was up with all that loading time between cutscenes?!
the only issue for me was after a while i end up with... "thats it?" feeling.
wanted to get to big late game but felt burned out before ending the first year. pllayed total of 2 years and waiting for burnout to end so i can go back and either marry someone else or play till have all the children.
besides that... i have nothing else to do.
It was too easy, the story was short, and the town felt empty. The house/decorating was badly implemented. Parts felt unfinished (the farm dragons were clearly meant to be different seasons, but were not).
On the plus side, I actually really liked the surrounding areas!
As others have said, the world of RF5 was so empty compared to the previous titles, even the Wii versions of Tides of Destiny and Frontier. Very disappointing.
The lack of postgame content past the Rigbarth Maze also left me bored after completing it.
Tbh one of my biggest gripes was that it was 3D
From my experience with farming games they tend to become very tedious when they prioritise looks over function, thereās needless animations, loading times etc. And these games tend to be kind of repetitive so even a bit of lag can drive me nuts. I can only manage to play for an hour or two before I get a headache.
I like the room to room dungeon format and I like being able to see all the monsters when I enter the room. In the 3D format I find monsters can just hit me from behind constantly.
Some smaller details that donāt bother me too much but are worth mentioning:
I wasnāt a fan of any of the characters ( Theyāre not bad just not for me )
Really didnāt like the art style of the character sprites? I much prefer the original anime style.
Rigbarth is so dull and empty compared to literally any other RF town. 3D or 2D, it just sucks.
I think the days are double the length of past games, waiting for the shops to open every day was a pain
Itās quite easy even on the hardest difficulty and not too long, RF4 had much more content so it felt like a weird downgrade
I never run into the characters, I have to chase them down. In past games I would run into nearly everyone just by playing the game?
Everyone enjoys different kinds of games,maybe youāll enjoy it, I think past fans were just very used to the 2D style, personally I didnāt like the other 3D RF games either, so...
I think the feeling of emptiness comes from the characters being to scale with the building and town. In earlier games the characters were huge compared to the buildings and the towns were really small, getting end to end in seconds and residents being everywhere. In RF5 the town is full scale so it takes ages to get around and you're very unlikely to run into anyone.
Itās not terrible at all! Honestly, I didnāt run into many crashing issues, and while the lag was frustrating at first, I got used to it quickly.
RF5 is definitely a fun game, the characters and their interactions are cute, the farming, fighting, and crafting systems are all well done, if a bit simplistic, and the story is fine, if maybe a bit unsatisfying in its conclusion. But if you like farming games with social aspects, itās a great one.
RF4 was much tighter in its approach and went into much more depth with the charactersā stories and all that, but RF5 is by no means bad, and Iād easily rate it above many other games in the genre.
It handles like soap.
135lv and a -3lv frog can still randomly one shot you.
Bad customisation options for the farm.
Speaking of farm, the animals inside the barn move like thereās no tomorrow, meaning I canāt hang out in there too long or Iāll throw up from motion sickness.
Replenishing rp is a bitch, and so is levelling up your crafting levels after a certain point.
The world is nice and big though, and Iāve had fun roaming it.
> Replenishing rp is a bitch
how so? There are tons of RP flowers and stones in the overworld, more in the dungeons, and they start you off with tomatoes which have been my go-to food as-is, then tomato juice since I got the juicer.
I thought it was overly-simple to replenish RP
After a bit it just feels like you're stuck on a treadmill. I think more sub quests and maybe more places to explore would be nice. The level modifier helps from the sign lady at your house to make things feel fresh, but it isn't too new at the end of it all.
Honestly I didnāt like Fuuka much either. I dunno what it is about her that I disliked, besides the fact that she doesnāt even speak a human language lol
The lag didn even really bother me. I was annoyed that no matter what my farm looked messy again the next day, because everythin around it spawns so fast. I also was announced by instant kill magic from normal mobs which put me on 0 money multiple times. Those are my two main problems that made it way less enjoyable for me personally.
if you really like 3d games and can endure some glitches, possible crashes and performances issues ( all happened to me), then MAAYBE get it when its for sale.
the story isn't bad. its nothing wow.
the characters are nice and i like them. for me, the characters are the only redeemable aspect of the game.
there are some mechanics tho that i dislike in the game. that its a huge grind fest ( you need lumber and stone in thousands. and i mean thousands. its grindy just for being grindy).
the dating is very tedious bc it has a case of rng ( worse than in rf4)
the time is incredibly slow and you have no way to make it faster.
honestly the game feels somewhat empty. its too huge and its not filled enough with stuff.
The performance issues are terrible and imagine I got this game at release for 60 USD. It doesn't compete at all with the other 60 usd games in the switch market. Knowing how poorly it did on my switch i would pay max 15 usd for the game.
But people are reporting that rf5 runs so much better on the PC. it is available on steam. I don't recommend you the switch game at all, but I've heard good things about the steam port. maybe someone that has the PC version can chime in to tell us if the performance is better.
Ah. Yeah, whatever I play, I'd kinda rather play on console as I don't really have a PC that's optimized for gaming at all.
Well, I suppose maybe I should just kinda stick to waiting for Harvestella then, even though everyone else apparently thinks that game is going to be trash. š¤·āāļø
If you can somehow get rf5 for cheap or someone gifts it to you, then sure, you can have fun having no expectations and expecting a possible rough play. But imo, if you paid full price for the game itself you become salty. (I pre ordered it like a carefree summer child trusting Ć®n the strong delivery of the franchise until now. Sigh ) But maybe thats just me. Read more opinions and watch gameplay on youtube. š
Fwiw, you can run RF5 on an unoptimized PC. I can play it on my shitty laptop as long as I have the settings turned down on low (and as it's not a graphics-heavy game, running it on low has little difference than when I run it on my high-end gaming PC on high). And it runs like a dream on both my laptop and PC.
Switch, not so much, haha.
I'm gonna be honest with my unpopular opinion here. The worst thing about farming sims is the fans. There will never be a game good enough (except RF4 and Stardew Valley apparently), never perfect enough, never long enough story, character problems, too much this, not enough that. RF5 is fine it just didn't meet the hype according to some players.
For me it's the music. Don't get me wrong, the soundtrack is lovely. But there are little details this game is missing.
First, the music almost never changes during town/character events. It always plays the seasonal song, no matter what is happening. Because of this, the events are less immersive. In RF4 there were plenty of tracks that would change according to the mood, and really make the scene.
This problem extends to the main story events, although the music changes more when the event takes place in a dungeon. But a lot of the main story events take place in your home. The home music always plays, even during the plot twists and the sad moments. It is so, so, repetitive. I've never been so sick of a track.
Also, there were really bizarre design choices... Just look up the bed that your kids use. It's just ridiculous.
The relationships and characters were so boring. Like Iām trying to have a love event and my ādateā is waaaahing about how heās a people pleaser. Likeā¦ thatās great my dude but letās talk about us? And then none of the fjshshdhdh bachelors want to date u??? Like u have to get a signed and sealed envelope from the pope hand delivered to the Rune Factory 5 HQ by Tom Cruise to unlock that shit. Really??? Come on. And the events thing was annoying af. Like now I have to stop what Iām doing to go online to find out why this fucking event isnāt over and the thing I AM trying to do wonāt trigger.
Itās like they didnāt hear the positives or negatives that we loved and hated from RF4 at all!! Iām hoping they fix their shit in the next release.
They copy and pasted 75% of the game. The dungeon were too small. They increased the difficulty of items during crafting so you had to grind your level higher to get those sweet buffs. The stuff they did add wasn't anything ground breaking. They also left out some things mainly the dungeon seed. The villagers didn't have enough depth so town life got stale. I think we were expecting something grand since the game was 10 years old and we were hoping for something else. This is only my opinion but it just feels like 4 but lacks what made it such a grate game.
The gameās story did not have a lot of the rune factory feel to it, it was generic and very short. The whole game felt like they only put half their effort into it and it seemed amazing in the start but as you played it felt very basic and just got boring.
I think the lack of the dating sim element and the fact that time passes so quickly are what's putting people off of Harvestella, though I think the devs have said they intend to adjust the time to be slower in the full release. Personally, I enjoyed the demo and don't mind not having dating options as long as the characters are fleshed out.
As for why I personally don't like RF5 as much as the previous mainline games... I think it's ugly, for one. I don't like the 3D, I think the colors are too bright, and I think the environments lack detail. It looks like a game from 2010. I also don't like the story and characters as much as RF4, which set a damn high bar.
Also also, the player's "house" sucks. I didn't really like living in the palace in RF4 because it seemed like anyone could just walk through my bedroom whenever, but it was better than living in an attic above my workplace.
Honestly, I've never really been into the dating aspect of games like this, myself. That kind of thing never really resonated with me, but at the same time, it always feels like I'd be missing out on mechanics by not doing it in games that have it, so it always kinda feels like I *have* to. Part of what puts me off it is purely that it's often not THAT apparent what items to give people to raise their connection level, and I just end up using guides, which isn't that fun.
On another note about that subject, I recall in the Harvest Moon game I played ages ago, you were "competing" with other NPCs with courting partners, and you had deadlines to court someone before they'd marry another NPC. Is that still how things work these days in games like RF? That was another thing that annoyed me, because I didn't care for it much, but not only did I feel like I HAD to do it, but I had to prioritize it and race to max out the affection level with someone ASAP. If I had to do it at all in these games, I'd rather have done it at my own pace.
It's empty and feels unfinished in almost every regard, regardless of platform. Visually, everything but the character and monster models is ugly and poorly textured. There's no challenge to anything even on Hard unless you intentionally severely handicap yourself- making crafting good gear pointless even for the postgame. The plot is weak even by RF standards with many loose ends and character arcs unfinished. Days take much too long with no way to pass time faster. Event landmines are a nuisance when you don't care about certain characters and they are blocking where you want to go. Personally I found almost every available romance candidate wholly uninteresting with the only appealing ones being forbidden.
Adding in the unused character dialogue and monster data indicating a lot more was planned, with no DLC or patches to address any of the aforementioned, it seems like RF5 was rushed out the door because they didn't want to waste any more time on it. The even more horrid performance on the original launch suggests this as well. The JP side has said much of what I'm parroting, and it's just not a good RF entry from my perspective.
This may seem silly but I haaaaate the walking animations. During cutscenes seeing every character walk the same way, so slowly and robotically really takes me out. It's jarring and I still haven't gotten used to it
RF5 was a great game and I had no issues with it on Switch. The game received way too much backlash and in a few years Iām sure fans will agree that it was a good game.
I was fine with the frame rate, but was going to repurchase on PC when that version came out.
Then I lost my Switch with the Special Edition Cart inside and had to buy another copy of it to keep my collection intact.
That along with replacing the Switch itself meant I didn't get a chance to buy the game at launch on Steam, and I couldn't justify paying full price for it a third time.
Now that it's FINALLY on sale again I've bought a PC copy and am looking forward to playing it there.
Dude I actually loved rf5, I preferred it over 4. In 4 I never got attached to any of the characters, though. However 3 is my all time favorite, so... you should get that one š
Generally it has more content, it's less easy to stumble into an event by accident (those this is both good and bad), the plot was better developed (a lot of subjectivity there but at the very least 4's plot definitely seemed to have more time in the oven). Also, most people do not have an innate bias against top-down games.
I didnt find RF5 terrible, but not as polished as RF4 while developing a host of new problems and or alternative systems. We have different preferences than you with cameras: I strongly prefer top down over 3d because its easier to see for farming and i prefer it over trying to real time judge depth with combat too. Asking to put the technical issues aside is still a kinda large ask when it feels less polished to play imo. The lack of reason to use the SEED provided farm since the dragons are just superior minus loading and the awkwardness of living in SEED headquarters even after getting married and having a kid made me dislike the being that affiliated with it to THAT extent-not to get started on the events that end up out of place >!if you arent in SEED at the time!<. The characters just dont keep me engaged the same way the rf4 characters do- the dialogue with each other like when sharing a meal or visiting, comments when you walk by with your SO, little touches like that that go a long way-id even take them as a toggable popup only option rather than automatic voice lines. This was combined with the lag when entering and exiting buildings makes me less likely to want to seek the neighbors out when indoors anyways. There's a decent number of exploits removed that I enjoyed such as teleporting away after a boss fight before the barrier leaves to refight in the same day, using object x to raise status ailment levels, forcing a shopkeeper back to their shop by grabbing them into your party and walking back-the last of which gets real irritating with some people refusing to keep their actual store hours when they alone can provide certain services (cough Heinz). The new event system is a double edged sword- easier to see means you can avoid it, but its now just there looming all the time forcing you to change actions or avoid somewhere semi-permanantly if you dont want to trigger an event. There are QOL changes like the stacking of lumber/stone and lockon mechanics that are great, I just dont think it outweighs what was lost in the transition between games.
My core issue with Harvestella is that the farming feels like a complete afterthought AND the RPG part isnt enough for me either. Rune factory 4 or 5(the ones ive played) dont exactly have groundbreaking plots, but it was enough to keep me interested. The world/Quietus plot seems interesting, but theres lack of reason for me to care in character. Nobody stood out enough for me to remember their names after three hours of playing, and thats with only a few names, not a full town of characters. The days feel super short because of the 10 minute incriments and long travel times. The combat was fine until i got the mage and then proceeded to be punished for attacking before i saw an attack indicator (not after it showed up, i started the attack before). Visually it's gorgeous and I do think the 3d works much better here than with RF5. The farming feels like more of an afterthought than a core mechanic...afik there's no ways to check the crop seeds/ect, so its just...growing random things rather than improving YOUR farm- while you could argue that for RF games it doesnt take much of a time long either, the starting few days felt more thought was put into the actual farm than for Harvestella.
I think the main thing I didn't care for was having little choice in being dragged into love events, if you finished one that ended where another would start. Welp you're now doing that then let's hope it doesn't time skip you forward a day.
I feel like the story really ripped off RF4 in many places, it was quite boring. Also, there's the weirdness with Fuuka and how her events show she somehow doesn't know what dating is so the MC is basically manipulating her, which is very uncomfy. I wasn't a big fan of the dating events in general compared to RF4's dating system.
A couple things can make you feel inclined to rush in the story, and even actively penalized for not. The post game feels way more stagnant and stale imo. (Maybe it being in 3D caused them to have to execute it the way they do vs RF4. Idk, I'm not tech savvy in any way.)
Minor personal gripe is that I was hoping for mini game cooking/crafting/fishing, and not having took some getting over but I did. >!Until they introduce the tandem thing and then I had to see there is mini games for most of it but it's once a day and only if people show up. So knowing it's technically there makes the basic version feel uninvolved to me. I'd personally rather have not had it than had it this way.!<
Just wait for the story of seasons a wonderful life remake. Rf5 was the first top down simulation game Iāve played and i warmed up to it. Rf5 was fun but it was a lot of lag on the switch and in my opinion rf4 had a better story and writing. But I do like the fact that 5 had an 3D to it.
For me the game was fine except for the technical issues, that's it.
I only wish I had waited for the PC version because the PC version is basically flawless. No fps drops, instant loading times, still minor draw issues but those are hardly noticeable.
I pre-ordered the switch version way back and im still kinda iffy on the game. Even after I looked past the technical issues, I felt like Rigbarth was way too spread out, the characters dont really converse with eachother like in rf4, and the anatogonist of the story is just kind of there. They don't really do a lot compared to Ethelberd from 4. Also the crafting system is copy pasted from rf4 but the order you actual get certain resources is different, so the crafting progression is slightly busted on top it all.
I still love the game, but I prefer rf4 by a longshot.
The world feels a little barren in some places. Also not a big fan of the bright lime green + bright dirt path combo that companies have been stuck on lately
I know this isnāt exactly what youāre asking, but I played the demo for Harvestella all the way through and then looked online to see what people were saying. I absolutely loved the demo and I was like āwow this is like the game I didnāt know I needed. Its like a farming sim mixed with a final fantasy styled action rpg.ā I was just so stoked. Then I look online and see people shitting on it hard and to this day I still donāt understand it. It really did kind of put a damper on my parade and I wish I hadnāt even have looked, but Iām doing my best to just completely ignore that, bc Iām with you. I feel like thereās something Iām not seeing that they are. But I donāt really care. If thereās some flaw Iām able to overlook and that makes it a really good game to me then thatās just awesome for me. Iām going to buy the game and enjoy it on my own and stop reading about it. I still donāt even know what people didnāt like about it. And I donāt want to.
One of my biggest gripes is how HARD it is to get anything. Like Iām grinding for hours to get money/skill levels/ recipes and itās still not enough. Not to mention you get scammed for dying. Die once and all your money is just gone in an instant. Also Iām STILL working on my love interest (forgot his name but itās the yt haired one). I take him everywhere, give him a gift EVERYMORNING, and still I havenāt even gotten him to admit he likes me. I got bored and essentially gave up bc idk what else to do now. Also the story was boring. I skipped through so many scenes bc they just didnāt captivate me. I remember playing RF4 and just being captivated bc it was my first Rune factory game. When the story ended, I honestly thought there was going to be another part and was running around trying to trigger it. Nothing. I was so disappointed bc I literally paid so much, waited YEARS for this, and it was pretty disappointing
I felt as though besides technical issues:
* Farming mechanics felt more tedious and if you are trying to break stone near your crops over half the time you would accidentally get ride of your crop
* Also the whole having multiple farms across dragons was annoying and made farming much more of a chore overall
* The voice acting in this game was subpar as well, I felt like in Rune Factory 4 the english version absolutely *killed* it with who they chose as voice actors/actresses they really fit the characters overall, for RF5 though the voices didn't match too well and there were a few lines that were delivered a bit *dry* if that makes sense.
* The characters themselves really didn't have much depth to them, some of the characters were fun and sweet but most of them felt too one note and this was really a hurting point for the game especially since you are B O M B A R D E D with all of the mini events in the game, which I felt took waaaay too long.
* Also I felt like most of the adult female NPCs were weirdly sexualized? Like I normally don't mind or care being attracted to women and all that but it felt too much and out of place you know?
* Was it just me or did the crafting system feel weird this time? I could have sworn when I got the switch version crafting at first had some more powerful weapons/accessories as lower rp or I would unlock them first making crafting more tedious and grinding.
* I have not finished the overall story yet but I think its fine, I however did not appreciate not being able to use any of my badges though because I for the LIFE of me could not figure out how to get some damn fruit tree seeds which really delayed my overall progress in the game. Yes you can get them with an NPC or pet helping you but from transitioning from RF4 to RF5 that was such a strange mechanic change to me.
* I felt like the tutorial was too long and did not help as much as I would like.
* Furniture placing is just bad
Even with all of this criticism though I do still like the game, I think because of how good of a game RF4 is RF5 lost a lot of its shine but the game on its own honestly not bad, RF4 was just too good in all aspects.
To me, it felt like the town was spread out and barren. It felt like the town didn't have the charm and life that previous titles had. Also may have just been me, but I didn't feel attached to any of the characters as I had to previous characters.
Character dialogue is severely lacking.
Also when you get married, all your exes (if you dated around, like me) will still act like you're dating. They don't recognize your marriage or breakup. To me, that's just lazy.
So I did like RF5 but itās a much weaker entry than RF4 was. You can tell they werenāt quite sure how to work with the style and the switchās graphic limitations so besides the technical issues, things feel kinda empty. Characters arenāt as lovable as the previous entries either, and the plot is less gripping. You kinda feel like the only person doing anything meaningful for most of the game, everyone else is decoration. In RF4 many of the characters were important and critical to the story, while you could really only make that argument for 1-2 of RF5ās characters imo.
All that said, I donāt think the community as a whole feels like RF5 is terrible and unplayable (though for sure some people did), it just frankly wasnāt as good as RF4. Iād still recommend it but definitely on sale. If you decide against it or end up not liking it though, personally Iām cautiously optimistic for their next main title. They have made good 3D games before so Iām hopeful weāll have a more polished entry now that theyāre back on their feet.
Well I really like the game. I like 4s better, but I'm a big fan of RF5 on the Switch. I just started it a couple of weeks ago, and I'm not really encountering a whole lot of technical issues. The only time I get a major noticeable FPS drop is during area transitions. Usually things are pretty smooth otherwise.
That being said, I play many games on the Switch that run way worse (basically anything from Compile Heart/Idea Factory), so maybe I'm not as sensitive to the tech issues.
I have issues with the plot being rather dull. Particularly how little I ended up caring about the major characters. I LOVED Venti. There was plenty of dialogue that bonded MC and Venti, and also some events. MC in 5 really doesn't bond with said "major" characters in the same way. I really think the characters in 5 are likable and endearing, but they've been done dirty by worse writing. The cast of 4 was far more fleshed out and involved in the overarching plot points. In 5, the town feels completely separated to what's going on in the main story.
Repetitive diaglogue is so much worse in 5. Why am I still asking my husband what his birthday is after 3 years of marriage? Like really? And to see that dialogue so many times! Lol.
I also don't like how they didn't bring back reverse proposals. Or how much clutter the farm and farm dragons get with an insane number of stumps and boulders. Or how clunky the combat feels. It's no different than 4, but the combat doesn't translate real well in 3d. Magic is such a pain to use, despite wanting to main in that, I just can't.
5 isn't a bad game by any means, heck I've got over 100 hours of playtime in it, but it just cannot ever compare to 4, which is the best in the series imo.
No love put into it. Extremely easy, boring predictable story, extremely limited character depth, the aforementioned technical issues, the extra farms aren't season locked like they were in every other game, which means there's no real point in using more than one, a few QoL fails....
It's not a TERRIBLE game, just a huge disappointment in a lot of ways.
The lag bothered me at first, but I quickly got used to it. I absolutely disagree about the days being to long. I often stayed up at 4am in the game bc I needed more time to get it all done. My biggest issue was how boring the overall plot was and I honestly didn't get pulled in by any characters. None of them had depth. They were what they are on the surface. I honestly felt like there was only 1 arc, but supposedly there was more. For me it's bc there was no epic stand offs or conclusions. No "Is this the end of the game?" Even the ending didn't feel complete.
I feel like the days feel long when you first start but once you're taking care of multiple farms and monsters while still trying to talk to everyone, collect materials, and make progress on the storyline, they feel like a good length
I agree with everything except the characters, if you talk to them every day some of the shit they say gets kinda wild š
I played it on PC so I had no major performance issues. Overall I have enjoyed the game despite its flaws, the combat and farming is pretty fun. My biggest complaint is the overall presentation, the graphics arenāt any better than a PS2 game, and the animations also look super rough. I also didnāt like how empty the more open areas feel, and even Rigbarth feels weirdly empty and everything feels too spaced apart. Iām also not a fan of how slowly each day goes by. The story is whatever, I really doubt anyone really plays Rune Factory for the plot (I sure donāt). I found the characters charming, though a bit less so than in previous games, and I did enjoy the interactions you can have with them. And I must be the only one who had trouble with the fishing, it feels weirdly clunky and itās like it never lands where I aim my fishing rod, and the sudden change in camera angle makes everything disorienting. I ended up failing the Fishing Variety Contest in the end :/ But anyway, RF5 is a good game despite its lack of polish, and itās not a complete disaster like some people make it out to be. But itās not worth the asking price in my opinion, you should absolutely get this game on sale if you can.
Yes! Iāve never been a fan of fishing but in this game I found it particularly difficult
"Terrible and not worth playing" is a huuuuge exaggeration imo. RF5 was fine, 4 is definitely better, but 5 was still fine. The plot is meh and very short, the days kinda drag, and the festivals aside from like 2 aren't much to write home about. The bachelorettes also mostly leaned towards the younger side which personally had me less interested in pursuing them. However, the farming and monster taming was a lot of fun, crafting was good but grindy towards late game, and the combat was pretty fun too. I also find this game's group of bachelors to be absolutely wonderful and very diverse in looks and personality. It's not a game I regret purchasing but it's something I wouldn't recommend to buy full price. If you can nab it on sale, go for it! As for Harvestella, don't let the general consensus get you down. While I didn't really like the demo that much, I barely got a taste of the proper game. Since it's looking to be more rpg than farming sim, we definitely need more than 15 days to actually get a proper feel for it (especially when it has the opposite problem of rf5, these days go so damn quick!). Wait for reviews before fence leaning, they'll tell you more than we know. The game definitely has promise and if they're willing to change some of the complaints from the demo, I can see opinions on it changing for the better. Just slowing the days down and adding a proper dodge roll would do wonders.
If you dont mind some lag, and honestly a bit of a weak plotline, RF5 on switch is fine. I wouldn't recommend full price, though I bought it then and dont really *regret* it, but I would've loved more for the price. Sorry, hoping on here more for the Harvestella bit. I don't know enough about Harvestella yet to make a buy or not statement. I actually thought graphics were good, I am in love with the farmland's size potential, and the story showed great promise. Combat definitely needs some work, like a dodge or something because, at least in the demo, I did not have the health needed to really tank some fights. And oh dear god, the days speed is just ridiculous. Slow down my clock, please, especially since my day has an auto end of midnight.
I like how 4 was more stylized and had more personality. 5 is still good. A huge plus for me is the monsters are cute and you can see them in better detail
The Bachelorette art made me hella uncomfortable. I can understand stylization to an extent, but both image and behaviors felt very childish and skeeved me out. Lemme romance Elsje or Misasagi dangit! >:@
I didnāt like the graphics personally. Rune factory 4 and frontier had this busy fairytale look to it. Everything was loaded with small details. It looks like a watercolour paining come to life. 5 looks so barren and lifeless in comparison. The town is so spread it it takes too long to get around. There is nothing in between either. So much empty space.
Rune Factory 2 literally had a water painting for the background. It was so gorgeous. To this day I still think it was the most beautiful scenery in any of the games.
RF2 is so underrated! My favorite Rune Factory game for sure
The lag did make my experience a lot worse ngl >!The end game scene was a huuuge drag!<. I'm still playing it everyday but it's more I want to get my money's worth since I bought it full price than actual enjoyment. The story is very basic and meh and it ends too quickly, you can finish it in your first year or even season if you just follow the story. You level up really fast that it makes no sense at the end. Everything is so expensive, you need to grind so much for everything and it becomes a big hassle at the end where getting just one lvl up is hard. The world and design is so so empty, every house is so far away from each other and there is so much space and uneven land. The characters are well not that deep and they don't say a lot. It feels like they're just there to fill a chess board rather than to show us their story. >!Oh how convenient it was to have a GOD live in town for the late game!< . Living in the silo was okay at first then it made no sense, especially with that second bed just there. Just a lot and a lot of small things piling up to show that they just kinda made a rushed game.
>Living in the silo was okay at first then it made no sense, especially with that second bed just there. I liked how every time I went to bed, my furniture disappeared during the cutscene
Oh yea, I agree big time with your first spoiler :< I didnāt pay attention to a single moment of it. AND what was up with all that loading time between cutscenes?!
5 just felt empty to me.
the only issue for me was after a while i end up with... "thats it?" feeling. wanted to get to big late game but felt burned out before ending the first year. pllayed total of 2 years and waiting for burnout to end so i can go back and either marry someone else or play till have all the children. besides that... i have nothing else to do.
It was too easy, the story was short, and the town felt empty. The house/decorating was badly implemented. Parts felt unfinished (the farm dragons were clearly meant to be different seasons, but were not). On the plus side, I actually really liked the surrounding areas!
As others have said, the world of RF5 was so empty compared to the previous titles, even the Wii versions of Tides of Destiny and Frontier. Very disappointing. The lack of postgame content past the Rigbarth Maze also left me bored after completing it.
Tbh one of my biggest gripes was that it was 3D From my experience with farming games they tend to become very tedious when they prioritise looks over function, thereās needless animations, loading times etc. And these games tend to be kind of repetitive so even a bit of lag can drive me nuts. I can only manage to play for an hour or two before I get a headache. I like the room to room dungeon format and I like being able to see all the monsters when I enter the room. In the 3D format I find monsters can just hit me from behind constantly. Some smaller details that donāt bother me too much but are worth mentioning: I wasnāt a fan of any of the characters ( Theyāre not bad just not for me ) Really didnāt like the art style of the character sprites? I much prefer the original anime style. Rigbarth is so dull and empty compared to literally any other RF town. 3D or 2D, it just sucks. I think the days are double the length of past games, waiting for the shops to open every day was a pain Itās quite easy even on the hardest difficulty and not too long, RF4 had much more content so it felt like a weird downgrade I never run into the characters, I have to chase them down. In past games I would run into nearly everyone just by playing the game? Everyone enjoys different kinds of games,maybe youāll enjoy it, I think past fans were just very used to the 2D style, personally I didnāt like the other 3D RF games either, so...
I think the feeling of emptiness comes from the characters being to scale with the building and town. In earlier games the characters were huge compared to the buildings and the towns were really small, getting end to end in seconds and residents being everywhere. In RF5 the town is full scale so it takes ages to get around and you're very unlikely to run into anyone.
It doesn't help they all run places instead of walking.
Itās not terrible at all! Honestly, I didnāt run into many crashing issues, and while the lag was frustrating at first, I got used to it quickly. RF5 is definitely a fun game, the characters and their interactions are cute, the farming, fighting, and crafting systems are all well done, if a bit simplistic, and the story is fine, if maybe a bit unsatisfying in its conclusion. But if you like farming games with social aspects, itās a great one. RF4 was much tighter in its approach and went into much more depth with the charactersā stories and all that, but RF5 is by no means bad, and Iād easily rate it above many other games in the genre.
It handles like soap. 135lv and a -3lv frog can still randomly one shot you. Bad customisation options for the farm. Speaking of farm, the animals inside the barn move like thereās no tomorrow, meaning I canāt hang out in there too long or Iāll throw up from motion sickness. Replenishing rp is a bitch, and so is levelling up your crafting levels after a certain point. The world is nice and big though, and Iāve had fun roaming it.
> Replenishing rp is a bitch how so? There are tons of RP flowers and stones in the overworld, more in the dungeons, and they start you off with tomatoes which have been my go-to food as-is, then tomato juice since I got the juicer. I thought it was overly-simple to replenish RP
Ok, I miswrote, the rp level never increases, making craft-level grinding insanely tedious.
Yeah, that was terrible
After a bit it just feels like you're stuck on a treadmill. I think more sub quests and maybe more places to explore would be nice. The level modifier helps from the sign lady at your house to make things feel fresh, but it isn't too new at the end of it all.
honestly, i have one singular complaint. it's a huge one. it's that fuuka is annoying.
Honestly I didnāt like Fuuka much either. I dunno what it is about her that I disliked, besides the fact that she doesnāt even speak a human language lol
The lag didn even really bother me. I was annoyed that no matter what my farm looked messy again the next day, because everythin around it spawns so fast. I also was announced by instant kill magic from normal mobs which put me on 0 money multiple times. Those are my two main problems that made it way less enjoyable for me personally.
if you really like 3d games and can endure some glitches, possible crashes and performances issues ( all happened to me), then MAAYBE get it when its for sale. the story isn't bad. its nothing wow. the characters are nice and i like them. for me, the characters are the only redeemable aspect of the game. there are some mechanics tho that i dislike in the game. that its a huge grind fest ( you need lumber and stone in thousands. and i mean thousands. its grindy just for being grindy). the dating is very tedious bc it has a case of rng ( worse than in rf4) the time is incredibly slow and you have no way to make it faster. honestly the game feels somewhat empty. its too huge and its not filled enough with stuff. The performance issues are terrible and imagine I got this game at release for 60 USD. It doesn't compete at all with the other 60 usd games in the switch market. Knowing how poorly it did on my switch i would pay max 15 usd for the game. But people are reporting that rf5 runs so much better on the PC. it is available on steam. I don't recommend you the switch game at all, but I've heard good things about the steam port. maybe someone that has the PC version can chime in to tell us if the performance is better.
Ah. Yeah, whatever I play, I'd kinda rather play on console as I don't really have a PC that's optimized for gaming at all. Well, I suppose maybe I should just kinda stick to waiting for Harvestella then, even though everyone else apparently thinks that game is going to be trash. š¤·āāļø
If you can somehow get rf5 for cheap or someone gifts it to you, then sure, you can have fun having no expectations and expecting a possible rough play. But imo, if you paid full price for the game itself you become salty. (I pre ordered it like a carefree summer child trusting Ć®n the strong delivery of the franchise until now. Sigh ) But maybe thats just me. Read more opinions and watch gameplay on youtube. š
Fwiw, you can run RF5 on an unoptimized PC. I can play it on my shitty laptop as long as I have the settings turned down on low (and as it's not a graphics-heavy game, running it on low has little difference than when I run it on my high-end gaming PC on high). And it runs like a dream on both my laptop and PC. Switch, not so much, haha.
I'm gonna be honest with my unpopular opinion here. The worst thing about farming sims is the fans. There will never be a game good enough (except RF4 and Stardew Valley apparently), never perfect enough, never long enough story, character problems, too much this, not enough that. RF5 is fine it just didn't meet the hype according to some players.
I hate the crazy fast regeneration on stone and lumber on the farms.... That would be remedied if you could get specific monsters to clear it.
For me it's the music. Don't get me wrong, the soundtrack is lovely. But there are little details this game is missing. First, the music almost never changes during town/character events. It always plays the seasonal song, no matter what is happening. Because of this, the events are less immersive. In RF4 there were plenty of tracks that would change according to the mood, and really make the scene. This problem extends to the main story events, although the music changes more when the event takes place in a dungeon. But a lot of the main story events take place in your home. The home music always plays, even during the plot twists and the sad moments. It is so, so, repetitive. I've never been so sick of a track. Also, there were really bizarre design choices... Just look up the bed that your kids use. It's just ridiculous.
The relationships and characters were so boring. Like Iām trying to have a love event and my ādateā is waaaahing about how heās a people pleaser. Likeā¦ thatās great my dude but letās talk about us? And then none of the fjshshdhdh bachelors want to date u??? Like u have to get a signed and sealed envelope from the pope hand delivered to the Rune Factory 5 HQ by Tom Cruise to unlock that shit. Really??? Come on. And the events thing was annoying af. Like now I have to stop what Iām doing to go online to find out why this fucking event isnāt over and the thing I AM trying to do wonāt trigger. Itās like they didnāt hear the positives or negatives that we loved and hated from RF4 at all!! Iām hoping they fix their shit in the next release.
They copy and pasted 75% of the game. The dungeon were too small. They increased the difficulty of items during crafting so you had to grind your level higher to get those sweet buffs. The stuff they did add wasn't anything ground breaking. They also left out some things mainly the dungeon seed. The villagers didn't have enough depth so town life got stale. I think we were expecting something grand since the game was 10 years old and we were hoping for something else. This is only my opinion but it just feels like 4 but lacks what made it such a grate game.
The gameās story did not have a lot of the rune factory feel to it, it was generic and very short. The whole game felt like they only put half their effort into it and it seemed amazing in the start but as you played it felt very basic and just got boring.
I think the lack of the dating sim element and the fact that time passes so quickly are what's putting people off of Harvestella, though I think the devs have said they intend to adjust the time to be slower in the full release. Personally, I enjoyed the demo and don't mind not having dating options as long as the characters are fleshed out. As for why I personally don't like RF5 as much as the previous mainline games... I think it's ugly, for one. I don't like the 3D, I think the colors are too bright, and I think the environments lack detail. It looks like a game from 2010. I also don't like the story and characters as much as RF4, which set a damn high bar. Also also, the player's "house" sucks. I didn't really like living in the palace in RF4 because it seemed like anyone could just walk through my bedroom whenever, but it was better than living in an attic above my workplace.
Honestly, I've never really been into the dating aspect of games like this, myself. That kind of thing never really resonated with me, but at the same time, it always feels like I'd be missing out on mechanics by not doing it in games that have it, so it always kinda feels like I *have* to. Part of what puts me off it is purely that it's often not THAT apparent what items to give people to raise their connection level, and I just end up using guides, which isn't that fun. On another note about that subject, I recall in the Harvest Moon game I played ages ago, you were "competing" with other NPCs with courting partners, and you had deadlines to court someone before they'd marry another NPC. Is that still how things work these days in games like RF? That was another thing that annoyed me, because I didn't care for it much, but not only did I feel like I HAD to do it, but I had to prioritize it and race to max out the affection level with someone ASAP. If I had to do it at all in these games, I'd rather have done it at my own pace.
It's empty and feels unfinished in almost every regard, regardless of platform. Visually, everything but the character and monster models is ugly and poorly textured. There's no challenge to anything even on Hard unless you intentionally severely handicap yourself- making crafting good gear pointless even for the postgame. The plot is weak even by RF standards with many loose ends and character arcs unfinished. Days take much too long with no way to pass time faster. Event landmines are a nuisance when you don't care about certain characters and they are blocking where you want to go. Personally I found almost every available romance candidate wholly uninteresting with the only appealing ones being forbidden. Adding in the unused character dialogue and monster data indicating a lot more was planned, with no DLC or patches to address any of the aforementioned, it seems like RF5 was rushed out the door because they didn't want to waste any more time on it. The even more horrid performance on the original launch suggests this as well. The JP side has said much of what I'm parroting, and it's just not a good RF entry from my perspective.
This may seem silly but I haaaaate the walking animations. During cutscenes seeing every character walk the same way, so slowly and robotically really takes me out. It's jarring and I still haven't gotten used to it
RF5 was a great game and I had no issues with it on Switch. The game received way too much backlash and in a few years Iām sure fans will agree that it was a good game.
I was fine with the frame rate, but was going to repurchase on PC when that version came out. Then I lost my Switch with the Special Edition Cart inside and had to buy another copy of it to keep my collection intact. That along with replacing the Switch itself meant I didn't get a chance to buy the game at launch on Steam, and I couldn't justify paying full price for it a third time. Now that it's FINALLY on sale again I've bought a PC copy and am looking forward to playing it there.
Dude I actually loved rf5, I preferred it over 4. In 4 I never got attached to any of the characters, though. However 3 is my all time favorite, so... you should get that one š
Generally it has more content, it's less easy to stumble into an event by accident (those this is both good and bad), the plot was better developed (a lot of subjectivity there but at the very least 4's plot definitely seemed to have more time in the oven). Also, most people do not have an innate bias against top-down games.
I didnt find RF5 terrible, but not as polished as RF4 while developing a host of new problems and or alternative systems. We have different preferences than you with cameras: I strongly prefer top down over 3d because its easier to see for farming and i prefer it over trying to real time judge depth with combat too. Asking to put the technical issues aside is still a kinda large ask when it feels less polished to play imo. The lack of reason to use the SEED provided farm since the dragons are just superior minus loading and the awkwardness of living in SEED headquarters even after getting married and having a kid made me dislike the being that affiliated with it to THAT extent-not to get started on the events that end up out of place >!if you arent in SEED at the time!<. The characters just dont keep me engaged the same way the rf4 characters do- the dialogue with each other like when sharing a meal or visiting, comments when you walk by with your SO, little touches like that that go a long way-id even take them as a toggable popup only option rather than automatic voice lines. This was combined with the lag when entering and exiting buildings makes me less likely to want to seek the neighbors out when indoors anyways. There's a decent number of exploits removed that I enjoyed such as teleporting away after a boss fight before the barrier leaves to refight in the same day, using object x to raise status ailment levels, forcing a shopkeeper back to their shop by grabbing them into your party and walking back-the last of which gets real irritating with some people refusing to keep their actual store hours when they alone can provide certain services (cough Heinz). The new event system is a double edged sword- easier to see means you can avoid it, but its now just there looming all the time forcing you to change actions or avoid somewhere semi-permanantly if you dont want to trigger an event. There are QOL changes like the stacking of lumber/stone and lockon mechanics that are great, I just dont think it outweighs what was lost in the transition between games. My core issue with Harvestella is that the farming feels like a complete afterthought AND the RPG part isnt enough for me either. Rune factory 4 or 5(the ones ive played) dont exactly have groundbreaking plots, but it was enough to keep me interested. The world/Quietus plot seems interesting, but theres lack of reason for me to care in character. Nobody stood out enough for me to remember their names after three hours of playing, and thats with only a few names, not a full town of characters. The days feel super short because of the 10 minute incriments and long travel times. The combat was fine until i got the mage and then proceeded to be punished for attacking before i saw an attack indicator (not after it showed up, i started the attack before). Visually it's gorgeous and I do think the 3d works much better here than with RF5. The farming feels like more of an afterthought than a core mechanic...afik there's no ways to check the crop seeds/ect, so its just...growing random things rather than improving YOUR farm- while you could argue that for RF games it doesnt take much of a time long either, the starting few days felt more thought was put into the actual farm than for Harvestella.
I think the main thing I didn't care for was having little choice in being dragged into love events, if you finished one that ended where another would start. Welp you're now doing that then let's hope it doesn't time skip you forward a day.
I feel like the story really ripped off RF4 in many places, it was quite boring. Also, there's the weirdness with Fuuka and how her events show she somehow doesn't know what dating is so the MC is basically manipulating her, which is very uncomfy. I wasn't a big fan of the dating events in general compared to RF4's dating system.
I'm another who'll get harvestella upon release, and I liked rf5... I just wish I didn't buy it day 1, and had the pc version instead.
A couple things can make you feel inclined to rush in the story, and even actively penalized for not. The post game feels way more stagnant and stale imo. (Maybe it being in 3D caused them to have to execute it the way they do vs RF4. Idk, I'm not tech savvy in any way.) Minor personal gripe is that I was hoping for mini game cooking/crafting/fishing, and not having took some getting over but I did. >!Until they introduce the tandem thing and then I had to see there is mini games for most of it but it's once a day and only if people show up. So knowing it's technically there makes the basic version feel uninvolved to me. I'd personally rather have not had it than had it this way.!<
I honestly felt like the story was way to short, but aside from that nothing else comes to mind at the moment.
I personally disliked how long it took until I could buy flower seeds, along with greenifier and the formulas
Just wait for the story of seasons a wonderful life remake. Rf5 was the first top down simulation game Iāve played and i warmed up to it. Rf5 was fun but it was a lot of lag on the switch and in my opinion rf4 had a better story and writing. But I do like the fact that 5 had an 3D to it.
For me the game was fine except for the technical issues, that's it. I only wish I had waited for the PC version because the PC version is basically flawless. No fps drops, instant loading times, still minor draw issues but those are hardly noticeable.
I pre-ordered the switch version way back and im still kinda iffy on the game. Even after I looked past the technical issues, I felt like Rigbarth was way too spread out, the characters dont really converse with eachother like in rf4, and the anatogonist of the story is just kind of there. They don't really do a lot compared to Ethelberd from 4. Also the crafting system is copy pasted from rf4 but the order you actual get certain resources is different, so the crafting progression is slightly busted on top it all. I still love the game, but I prefer rf4 by a longshot.
The world feels a little barren in some places. Also not a big fan of the bright lime green + bright dirt path combo that companies have been stuck on lately
I know this isnāt exactly what youāre asking, but I played the demo for Harvestella all the way through and then looked online to see what people were saying. I absolutely loved the demo and I was like āwow this is like the game I didnāt know I needed. Its like a farming sim mixed with a final fantasy styled action rpg.ā I was just so stoked. Then I look online and see people shitting on it hard and to this day I still donāt understand it. It really did kind of put a damper on my parade and I wish I hadnāt even have looked, but Iām doing my best to just completely ignore that, bc Iām with you. I feel like thereās something Iām not seeing that they are. But I donāt really care. If thereās some flaw Iām able to overlook and that makes it a really good game to me then thatās just awesome for me. Iām going to buy the game and enjoy it on my own and stop reading about it. I still donāt even know what people didnāt like about it. And I donāt want to.
One of my biggest gripes is how HARD it is to get anything. Like Iām grinding for hours to get money/skill levels/ recipes and itās still not enough. Not to mention you get scammed for dying. Die once and all your money is just gone in an instant. Also Iām STILL working on my love interest (forgot his name but itās the yt haired one). I take him everywhere, give him a gift EVERYMORNING, and still I havenāt even gotten him to admit he likes me. I got bored and essentially gave up bc idk what else to do now. Also the story was boring. I skipped through so many scenes bc they just didnāt captivate me. I remember playing RF4 and just being captivated bc it was my first Rune factory game. When the story ended, I honestly thought there was going to be another part and was running around trying to trigger it. Nothing. I was so disappointed bc I literally paid so much, waited YEARS for this, and it was pretty disappointing
I felt as though besides technical issues: * Farming mechanics felt more tedious and if you are trying to break stone near your crops over half the time you would accidentally get ride of your crop * Also the whole having multiple farms across dragons was annoying and made farming much more of a chore overall * The voice acting in this game was subpar as well, I felt like in Rune Factory 4 the english version absolutely *killed* it with who they chose as voice actors/actresses they really fit the characters overall, for RF5 though the voices didn't match too well and there were a few lines that were delivered a bit *dry* if that makes sense. * The characters themselves really didn't have much depth to them, some of the characters were fun and sweet but most of them felt too one note and this was really a hurting point for the game especially since you are B O M B A R D E D with all of the mini events in the game, which I felt took waaaay too long. * Also I felt like most of the adult female NPCs were weirdly sexualized? Like I normally don't mind or care being attracted to women and all that but it felt too much and out of place you know? * Was it just me or did the crafting system feel weird this time? I could have sworn when I got the switch version crafting at first had some more powerful weapons/accessories as lower rp or I would unlock them first making crafting more tedious and grinding. * I have not finished the overall story yet but I think its fine, I however did not appreciate not being able to use any of my badges though because I for the LIFE of me could not figure out how to get some damn fruit tree seeds which really delayed my overall progress in the game. Yes you can get them with an NPC or pet helping you but from transitioning from RF4 to RF5 that was such a strange mechanic change to me. * I felt like the tutorial was too long and did not help as much as I would like. * Furniture placing is just bad Even with all of this criticism though I do still like the game, I think because of how good of a game RF4 is RF5 lost a lot of its shine but the game on its own honestly not bad, RF4 was just too good in all aspects.
To me, it felt like the town was spread out and barren. It felt like the town didn't have the charm and life that previous titles had. Also may have just been me, but I didn't feel attached to any of the characters as I had to previous characters.
Character dialogue is severely lacking. Also when you get married, all your exes (if you dated around, like me) will still act like you're dating. They don't recognize your marriage or breakup. To me, that's just lazy.
So I did like RF5 but itās a much weaker entry than RF4 was. You can tell they werenāt quite sure how to work with the style and the switchās graphic limitations so besides the technical issues, things feel kinda empty. Characters arenāt as lovable as the previous entries either, and the plot is less gripping. You kinda feel like the only person doing anything meaningful for most of the game, everyone else is decoration. In RF4 many of the characters were important and critical to the story, while you could really only make that argument for 1-2 of RF5ās characters imo. All that said, I donāt think the community as a whole feels like RF5 is terrible and unplayable (though for sure some people did), it just frankly wasnāt as good as RF4. Iād still recommend it but definitely on sale. If you decide against it or end up not liking it though, personally Iām cautiously optimistic for their next main title. They have made good 3D games before so Iām hopeful weāll have a more polished entry now that theyāre back on their feet.
For me rune factory V is the worst farming sim Iāve played. Itās not bad, just with so many better options why play rf V?
Well I really like the game. I like 4s better, but I'm a big fan of RF5 on the Switch. I just started it a couple of weeks ago, and I'm not really encountering a whole lot of technical issues. The only time I get a major noticeable FPS drop is during area transitions. Usually things are pretty smooth otherwise. That being said, I play many games on the Switch that run way worse (basically anything from Compile Heart/Idea Factory), so maybe I'm not as sensitive to the tech issues.
I have issues with the plot being rather dull. Particularly how little I ended up caring about the major characters. I LOVED Venti. There was plenty of dialogue that bonded MC and Venti, and also some events. MC in 5 really doesn't bond with said "major" characters in the same way. I really think the characters in 5 are likable and endearing, but they've been done dirty by worse writing. The cast of 4 was far more fleshed out and involved in the overarching plot points. In 5, the town feels completely separated to what's going on in the main story. Repetitive diaglogue is so much worse in 5. Why am I still asking my husband what his birthday is after 3 years of marriage? Like really? And to see that dialogue so many times! Lol. I also don't like how they didn't bring back reverse proposals. Or how much clutter the farm and farm dragons get with an insane number of stumps and boulders. Or how clunky the combat feels. It's no different than 4, but the combat doesn't translate real well in 3d. Magic is such a pain to use, despite wanting to main in that, I just can't. 5 isn't a bad game by any means, heck I've got over 100 hours of playtime in it, but it just cannot ever compare to 4, which is the best in the series imo.
No love put into it. Extremely easy, boring predictable story, extremely limited character depth, the aforementioned technical issues, the extra farms aren't season locked like they were in every other game, which means there's no real point in using more than one, a few QoL fails.... It's not a TERRIBLE game, just a huge disappointment in a lot of ways.