Never played a Rune Factory game, is 3 a good place to start?

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>>376333462
>Never played a Rune Factory game, is 3 a good place to start?
Yes.
I used to recommend people start at 1 because it gave you a real appreciation for how far the series has improved.
But now I think it's a bit unrealistic to ask someone to spend that much time working up to the game they want to play in the first place.

So, uh, yes.

>>376334113
It won't be too painful to play Frontier after 3, right?
3 release a bit later but I assume it's not so far ahead as to make Frontier archaic

>>376334113
Not OP but I just picked up 1-3 this past week. Do you still think all 3 are enjoyable/worth the time, even if 3 is best?

>>376333462
3 for the better waifu, 4 for the better gameplay (outside of the RNG bullshit). Anything before that is just a downgrade version.

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>>376334936
Never played Frontier so I wouldn't know.

>>376335020
Yes. 2 is usually said to be the weaker of the three.
I'd personally skip it because I never liked the setting or the characters but it's still okay.

Frontier is really good, but I recommend reading a guide to help understand the Runey system and how to set it up properly, otherwise it can ruin your crops and make gaining profit painful.

Last time I played this game all my crops were destroyed by a hurricane and I finally beat that faggot skeleton dragon. If I want to grind characters what's the best way to do so? I was thinking of killing the raccoon over and over. Also monster mounts are FUN.

>>376335387
Sounds good. I'm not too concerned with spending too much time in them, I put about 120 hours into Fantasy Life and figured I should start a new series rather than dump more time there.

Is there any overarching story between the games I'd be missing out on skipping entries?

As a person who has a 3DS and played a ton of Runescape as a kid, would Runefactory be a good thing to pick up? I tried Fantasy Life and was painfully bored.

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People often argue that 3 is better than 4, go for it my man.

>>376335626

Specifically is there a ton of interconnected paths with the various skills you pick up?

Fantasy Life was boring for me because of the fact that you could only be one class at a time basically meant you couldn't really switch from task to task or mix them in any meaningful way.

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>>376335586
>Is there any overarching story between the games I'd be missing out on skipping entries?
Kind of. The lore of the world is similar. Sometimes characters make cameos.
Frontier has a lot to do with RF1 I think.

But besides that you can play each game independently and be fine.

>>376335903
uhm

Any skill you learn in FL is permanent and can be used regardless of active Life.

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>>376336224

>Un-tanned Carmen

You stop that

>>376333462
I would recommend trying RF1 first since you're emulating it anyways. If they don't enjoy it, just move straight to 3.

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>>376336425

>>376336367

I know that, but it seemed like everything was segmented off enough where that wouldn't matter. I miss how in runescape for example agility unlocked shortcuts for other skill zones and other skills that worked together.

>>376337000
I mean there is, a little bit. It's a lot easier to level blacksmithing if you learn mining first, obviously.

But ok I see your point.

>>376337078

How's the fishing/cooking life? I started with combat/mining and wasn't too into it.

>>376337559
It's comfy and relaxing and nothing exciting ever happens, just like the rest of the game.

>>376333462
It depends. If you want to play the best game, play 3 but if you want to play the whole series, then start at 1. The issue is that it's not very easy to go backwards since there are a lot of gameplay improvements as the game series advanced. For example, the first game plays very slow because they balanced the game around the concept of Rune Factories (crop fields in dungeons that you don't harvest) to be able to have enough RP (stamina in HM games) to actually reach the boss.

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>>376335903
>Specifically is there a ton of interconnected paths with the various skills you pick up?
Skills don't really affect each other too much.
Like, using fire spells increases your fire skill which increases fire spell damage, INT, and RP.
Which would make using other spells easier because of the boost in INT in RP.
But otherwise you're not going to get any special spells or skills because you're a certain skill level in other skills.

I would love if they did but I think that's a bit too complicated for the genre.

Here's the skill list:
http://therunefactory.wikia.com/wiki/Skills_(RF4)
It's not spoilery to look through as they all give stat increases and that page doesn't show the things unlocked by leveling crafting skills.

>>376337980

Seems like a decent amount of skill variety which could also be fun. Is RF4 a good jumping on point?

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>>376333462
I loved Rf, rf2 and rf3
I recommend playing them in order to see how things change and to notice how the game improves.

2 is my favourite although probably the worst one.

1 has the best challenge, fights, bosses, dungeons but was new and didn't do much
2 improved on this a lot but it happens a in the second half of the game.
3 reworked everything and made it much faster and the combat better but it's not as comfy any more.

Also pia is best girl.

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>>376338209
It's fine with the same caveat I mentioned in my first post.
RF4 is the best game mechanically but tastes vary as far as waifus go.

>>376334113
How long do the games (1 and 2)take? Assuming you only for one girl per game.

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>>376339126
No idea. I've never rushed through any of them.
howlongtobeat.com gives about 30 to 50 hours which I think is a fair estimate.

I usually end up with hundreds of hours on each because I max out everything.

>>376339126
https howlongtobeat com/game.php?id=8022
https howlongtobeat com/game.php?id=8019
https howlongtobeat com/game.php?id=8020

>>376339636
How much of the games are dialogue and how much is gameplay percentage wise? Are they vns with gameplay or games with a bit of story?

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>>376333462
>Never played a Rune Factory game, is 3 a good place to start?
Depends. What's your opinion on race mixing?

God, I miss RF3. I love 4's weapon choice and combat, and the farming is top-notch, but Sharance is vastly superior to Selphia.
I thought that the bachelorettes in RF4 were pretty well done, and taking them on dates was a lot of fun, but RF3 had a stronger cast.

3's the best if you can't play 4, no idea if citra can do 4. Whatever title you start at, it's very hard to go backwards, each one has made big improvements to pretty much every gameplay component and UI.

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>>376339992
Depends on how much you want to immerse yourself in the games.
For the most part you can spend more time watering plants than talking to people if you want.

>>376339992
The story takes a backseat to the gameplay in most of the DS games.
In 4, there are three story arcs. After the first two, probably 20-30 hours in, you're given complete freedom to build you character, explore, date girls, customize your house, compete in competitions, farm, etc.

>>376340568
Let me ask that a different way. How many minutes/hours of dialogue does each girl have. Am I going to fall in love and find out a lot about a girl or are the relationships short? Are there lots of post marriage events?

>>376339126
I can't comment on how long the games last since it's been so long since I played them but if you do end up playing them, here are some basic advice. In the first game, RP is incredibly limited because they want you to grow crops in dungeons to harvest runes from them. You can vastly speed up the game by getting into cooking and just filling your inventory up with RP recovery items. This will trivialize the game making it possible to clear dungeons in one day as opposed to the rune factory jumping the game was balanced around.

For the 2nd game, monsters are very good at tending to fields. From memory it takes 3 or 4 monsters on a duty to completely cover everything so the best way to make money is to get the season's renewable crop and get up all your monsters to water and harvest leaving you free to do everything else and have a steady stream of income. Effectively all you have to do is plant seeds on the first day of each season and you never have to pay attention to your fields for the rest of month.

>>376341113
>How many minutes/hours of dialogue does each girl have.
It's been a LONG time since I've played 1 or 2 so I couldn't even ballpark how much dialogue each fiancée has.
But I'd say it's probably not as in-depth as a VN might be.

>Am I going to fall in love
Yes.
>find out a lot about a girl
Depends on the girl, I think.
>are the relationships short
I don't remember in 1 or 2. In 3 you go on dates and each character has interesting quirks or backstory.

>Are there lots of post marriage events?
I don't remember about 1. In 2 it's actually a plot point.
I'm pretty sure there's some dungeons that unlock. You have a kid. Etc.
4 actually doesn't let you marry until RNG permits.
About the only thing bad about 4.

>>376341113
First two have minimal dialogue with some events for each bachelorette. You'll find it pretty repetitive if you try to talk daily. 3 adds a lot of daily dialogue and characterization for everyone. Not much post marriage though, it's commonly criticized for decaying after the main plot ends(marriage finishes the story)
4 does it best with post-marriage events and a kid who takes part in town like a normal villager, lots of group dialogue and probably a year or two's worth of random daily dialogue for every single townsperson.

RF is one of those rare series where all the games are good but each successive game is better. If the general tone of the series looks good to you, start at 1. If you just want to dabble, start at 3.

>>376342238
>>376342250
Thanks!

>>376334936
Don't play Frontier. Play 3 and read about the others. If you actually hate farming and just want to play an RPG, Oceans is okay.

>>376342609
>Don't play Frontier
w-why

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>>376342795
If I had to guess, runeys.

>>376342609
>>376343216
If you emulate it runeys aren't a problem at all since you can use a cheat.

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>>376333462
>Don't have a 3DS sadly, I'm probably gonna emulate, so anything from DS and Wii goes
You can also emulate 4 if you use the right Citra builds and your PC isn't a complete toaster.
My laptop with an i5 2410m runs it mostly fine as an example.

RIP RuFa

>>376333462
Yes is a great game to start. After that play 4, and try Frontier and Oceans if you want.