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[Jintor]

I guess I'm going to have to resort to Gamefaqs or Google or something. Sophie wants me to "catch 3 birds" for her before 10am and I really don't know what that's supposed to mean. I've also got some recipes for weapons and accessories that require items than I've never seen before despite being lvl 20'ish. I've done really well so far about not looking anything up but looks like I am going to have to cave on this one.

Always happens with these games so it's no shame I guess.

Ask her again, she'll tell you to 'run' using right shoulder button, the birds won't fly away if you 'run' to 'em. Then you can just pick 'em up and give 'em to her.

Hilarious function with little to no practical applications.

Oh, and pro-tip: When Sherman asks you for fried S. Flounder, try fishing in the Sand Sea in the desert.

 

[zigg]

Ask her again, she'll tell you to 'run' using right shoulder button, the birds won't fly away if you 'run' to 'em. Then you can just pick 'em up and give 'em to her.

Hilarious function with little to no practical applications.

Heheh, I love little touches like that.

Incidentally, I was storing up the cooking bread I was winning at festivals, thinking it was for... y'know... cooking. It is actually recipe bread and I feel like a huge idiot.

 

[Jintor]

I know, man.

It kind of feels like the festivals are a little too easy to win. From memory winning the festivals straight off isn't really Rune Factory/Harvest Moon tradition.

 

[zigg]

It kind of feels like the festivals are a little too easy to win. From memory winning the festivals straight off isn't really Rune Factory/Harvest Moon tradition.

I haven't been exactly sweeping them :lol I got third in one; forget what, now. Others, I got consolation prizes for.

Into summer now. The summer theme is sweet.

 

[Clevinger]

Into summer now. The summer theme is sweet.

get ready for farm killing storms

 

[zigg]

get ready for farm killing storms

Ha, yes, I had one come pretty much right away, actually. I ended up taking some probably-perverse pleasure in how it didn't last all day, and I could stand out in my field and watch it slowly get trashed. Also: how I could go do some fishing or talk to some frightened villagers walking the streets.

 

[Cow Mengde]

I just got the game yesterday.

Horrible selection of wives.

It's furry porn.

Fun game though. I'm playing hard mode and the enemies are killing me. Mainly because I have no armor whatsoever.

*edit* I just saw this on gamefaqs.

 

[zigg]

I just want you all to know I am now riding around town on a floating death-fish that can thwack shit with its tail as well as fire water lasers in both forward and spread configurations.

His name is Raiden. (yeah, I let the game name him, before I realized how awesome he was)

 

[Cow Mengde]

I just want you all to know I am now riding around town on a floating death-fish that can thwack shit with its tail as well as fire water lasers in both forward and spread configurations.

His name is Raiden. (yeah, I let the game name him, before I realized how awesome he was)

How'd you get that?

 

[zigg]

How'd you get that?

Tamed him in the fall dungeon area. It was later that I found out I could ride him.

He can't cross water, though! Still need to use the lilypad magic seed for that

 

[matmanx1]

I just want you all to know I am now riding around town on a floating death-fish that can thwack shit with its tail as well as fire water lasers in both forward and spread configurations.

His name is Raiden. (yeah, I let the game name him, before I realized how awesome he was)

Holy crap! That's awesome! I haven't messed with the monster taming at all yet. I guess I need to look in to that abit. Do all monsters eat the grass feed that you grow or did you have to give them something else?

And speaking of Sofia she cracks me up. My character asked her how she felt about him tonight and she replied "I want you to die in a fire!" (in red, of course but still). I almost want to marry her just because she's so bizarre and makes me laugh more than the others.

My affection level is actually highest for Raven because her "story" sort of interests me more than the other girls so I've done more of her requests. The fiery red hair and sultry voice don't hurt either though!

In fact I think all of the little voice clips in the game are pretty great. They add a ton of personality to the characters, help the humor and charm a great deal and really help "sell" the characters. I continue to be impressed with the quality of this DS release and the production values all the way around.

 

[Hobbun]

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but just started up RF 2 today. And I already want to marry Mana just to spite her father who is annoying me already. Saying stupid shit about how she promised not to grow up and be his little girl forever, whining because I am talking to his daughter worried I am asking her to marry me and demanding I can't.

Oh yeah, watch me.

 

[Caesar III]

it's shipped, finally! YAY!

 

[zigg]

Holy crap! That's awesome! I haven't messed with the monster taming at all yet. I guess I need to look in to that abit. Do all monsters eat the grass feed that you grow or did you have to give them something else?

Yeah, though you don't hack it with a sickle anymore; you harvest it like a normal crop. The soil system also seems to be coming into play, too; my old patches of grass are growing waaaay slower than the new ones. I need to find a good way of dealing with that; as I understand it you can try growing some quick out-of-season crops which will immediately turn into withered grass which you can then hoe in to restore soil quality. Maybe.

Monsters are also really useful for freeing up your time; make them work your farm. Cold meds are actually useful on monsters doing this, because they tend to stay up too late working or something.

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but just started up RF 2 today. And I already want to marry Mana just to spite her father who is annoying me already. Saying stupid shit about how she promised not to grow up and be his little girl forever, whining because I am talking to his daughter worried I am asking her to marry me and demanding I can't.

Haha, I picked RF2 up while I was waiting for my copy of RF3, and I'd forgotten what a character Douglas is.

* * *

So, friend and I played the multiplayer dungeon for 3+ hours last night. It was a good bit better than I was expecting, actually! We've got three areas unlocked right now; had to quit trying on the third area. They're randomly-generated floors, marked by a recommended level (15, 30, 45 are the ones we have—I understand via GameFAQs there's at least a 220), bunch of monsters to beat up on, and a boss at the end. The one at the end of 45 is a pretty nasty piece of work, particularly in his second phase—I almost got him thanks to my cornflakes, but my lower-leveled companion was dead and useless, and we had to call it a night so we quit. :lol You can tackle these in either solo or multi mode (and you can play multi by yourself... go fig); in solo you can go ahead and take a companion with you, in multi you can't, but time doesn't pass and your HP/RP is refilled for the dungeon.

In-between dungeon runs we played around a bit with weapon upgrades in our forges... nearly every material drop is usable to upgrade stats on a weapon; you increase the weapon's level when you do it, up to 10. It all kiiiiinda makes me wish there was a bestiary now, so I could have the game keep track of monster drops and the like for me. (Is there one I just haven't found?)

 

[Cow Mengde]

I like the combat system. It seems very shallow at first, but as you level up and learn more skills, you get more moves and different ways to use them.

 

[matmanx1]

I found a Big Knife in a chest in Privera forest which is far and away the most powerful weapon I've seen in my 25 levels. I've only upgraded it once (with a scorpion tail) but it sounds like I'll need to add some more goodies to it.

Anyone using magic? I've made a couple of staves (Ice and Fire I believe) and while the Fire one has pretty powerful stats it doesn't really seem to have any advantages over the melee weapons as it's fireball seems to be fairly short range.

 

[zigg]

I found a Big Knife in a chest in Privera forest which is far and away the most powerful weapon I've seen in my 25 levels. I've only upgraded it once (with a scorpion tail) but it sounds like I'll need to add some more goodies to it.

Scorpion tail is a great upgrade. Yue was selling a big knife last night but the cheapskate in me ended up winning out. I'm sure I'll be able to forge one eventually anyway...

Anyone using magic? I've made a couple of staves (Ice and Fire I believe) and while the Fire one has pretty powerful stats it doesn't really seem to have any advantages over the melee weapons as it's fireball seems to be fairly short range.

This is about the only thing I haven't done much with yet. Let me know if you figure out how to make those more awesome. I do have a thunder staff that has a pretty impossibly short range as well unless it's charged.

 

[ExtraKr1spy]

Fucking hurricanes.

First one kill a few crops. second one was similar.

3rd- killed everything even crops I planted inside the Autumn season cave(crops in there dont get watered when it rains though?)

4th-hit right after I replanted everything...:/

5th-will kill everything I've planted again

 

[Cow Mengde]

Hey, have you guys noticed there are 0 reviews for this game even though it's been out for like a month?

 

[Clevinger]

Fucking hurricanes.

First one kill a few crops. second one was similar.

3rd- killed everything even crops I planted inside the Autumn season cave(crops in there dont get watered when it rains though?)

4th-hit right after I replanted everything...:/

5th-will kill everything I've planted again

Yup. Completely killed my desire to continue playing. I was having such fun until then, too.

I mean, come on, developers, at least have some kind of house upgrade to shield against them if they happen so fucking often.

 

[Caesar III]

Fucking hurricanes.

First one kill a few crops. second one was similar.

3rd- killed everything even crops I planted inside the Autumn season cave(crops in there dont get watered when it rains though?)

4th-hit right after I replanted everything...:/

5th-will kill everything I've planted again

So it's as bad as in the first game? I did not bother planting anything after two storms in this game. was useless. I only used the caves for this.

I was glad they changed it a bit for frontier but if I read this here

 

[Hobbun]

So you can't do the soft reset when you wake up to a storm (hurricane) in RF3?

I know it's kind of cheating, but for the first game I would save before going to bed and then if I woke up to a storm, I did a soft reset until it wasn't storming.

 

[matmanx1]

Pfft, I barely farm anyway. I keep maybe one 3x3 patch at a time just depending on what I need but I understand it must be frustrating for you who enjoy that aspect of the game.

It's actually really beneficial to leave lots of uncultivated area for stumps and grasses to show up as you will need lots of wood and lots of grasses to make medicines with. 2 Yellow Grasses makes the anti-paralysis medicine and after a couple of trips to the Valley you will want that stuff on you at all times.

I'm making most of my money through item drops and forging. Fire staves aren't too tough to make and sell for over 4k a pop. I just got my Double Bed last night even though I won't need it for awhile so at least that's out of the way. Only furniture item I still need is the Bookshelf although I'm not sure why I need it..

 

[zigg]

Hey, have you guys noticed there are 0 reviews for this game even though it's been out for like a month?

I'm guessing NP is the only outlet that reviewed an advance build... Online got retail reviewables just last Monday, so it'll take us a
bit yet. Stay tuned, but my own review should be coming soon.

Re hurricanes: yeah, they're a bit annoying. But they're hardly farm-breaking. Any monster in your barn can now take care of nearly all farming tasks save a few, so even with constant destruction you can still pretty easily rake in the dough with little effort.

P.S. Make sure you're all working on at least one bachelorette. You'll need to marry to complete the storyline.

 

[Jintor]

They really need a hurricane shield or something. Make it cost a bajillion wood, i don't care. So long as I have something to work for.

Man I'm nearly done storyline wise and I'm not even halfway through winter yet.

 

[zigg]

Man I'm nearly done storyline wise and I'm not even halfway through winter yet.

Normal, or hard?

 

[Cow Mengde]

I'm guessing NP is the only outlet that reviewed an advance build... Online got retail reviewables just last Monday, so it'll take us a
bit yet. Stay tuned, but my own review should be coming soon.

Sorry, I don't know what I was smoking when I typed that. I meant to say a week, not a month. Still the lack of reviews is discouraging because people won't know about this game and it'll get lost in the flow.

 

[Caesar III]

on a side note: we were in our local store today and saw the new harvest moon for wii (animal parade) it's new here in Germany and my mum instantly bought it and she loves it already. :lol She has nearly 2000hours of gameplay combined with Animal Crossing, Tree of Tranquility and Rune Factory Frontier so far...another 600 are coming

 

[ExtraKr1spy]

So you can't do the soft reset when you wake up to a storm (hurricane) in RF3?

I know it's kind of cheating, but for the first game I would save before going to bed and then if I woke up to a storm, I did a soft reset until it wasn't storming.

Hurricanes hit randomly now and anytime during the day. You can even go outside during a hurricane/storm and just wait, watched my field get obliterated.

I've gotten around it by basically saving everytime i've done something(watering, planting, grooming animals)

 

[zigg]

I find it a little strange that you guys are taking hurricanes so seriously. They're not that big a deal.

I had one that didn't wreck a single square of my 9×3 grass plot.

Are they worse in hard mode or something?

 

[Clevinger]

You're just lucky, apparently.

 

[Hobbun]

Hurricanes hit randomly now and anytime during the day. You can even go outside during a hurricane/storm and just wait, watched my field get obliterated.

I've gotten around it by basically saving everytime i've done something(watering, planting, grooming animals)

Ouch, that's too bad.

And that does work in saving after every time you do something, but has to be a pain to run inside to save like that all the time.

 

[ExtraKr1spy]

I find it a little strange that you guys are taking hurricanes so seriously. They're not that big a deal.

I had one that didn't wreck a single square of my 9×3 grass plot.

Are they worse in hard mode or something?

From what I've read on gfaqs, hurricanes destroy what you plant depending on the quality of the soil. If your growing crops that regenerate every few days the quality of the soil is going to degrade so when the storm hits it'll get destroyed. If you farm a lot it'll affect you more than if you mine or do other stuff for money.

 

[Cow Mengde]

I find it a little strange that you guys are taking hurricanes so seriously. They're not that big a deal.

I had one that didn't wreck a single square of my 9×3 grass plot.

Are they worse in hard mode or something?

The damage is completely random. You just got lucky.

 

[ronito]

Hey guys, any news on how the monster taming goes?
One of the things that bugged me about RFF was that you could only have one animal doing a job at a time, which mean I could never get them to take care of my entire field (that and their heart levels grew at a snail's pace).

hey guys any answer to this?

 

[Cow Mengde]

hey guys any answer to this?

I'm think you can have multiple animals take care of your stuff in this game. That's what I vaguely recall hearing. I'm not that far yet since I only had the game for 2 days.

 

[Clevinger]

You can have four monsters care for your field at one time; one for each of the four chunks of farm you have. They do most things, from watering, to clearing weeds, and even planting seeds (but it apparently costs a lot of money). With the exception of planting seeds, they do all those jobs on their own without you having to tell them to do a specific thing.

They can't clear wood or stones. And from my limited experience using them, they get tired fairly quickly. I don't know if that changes when you bond more with them or they gain experience.

 

[Man God]

Hurricanes only happen on hours divisible by 3. Just save a bit before it and you can restart.

Also crop hardiness prevents hurricane damage, so keep that soil level high and use more of those chemicals.

I had one hurricane roll me at the beginning of the season, but it's not a huge deal, just fix it up and start over.

 

[zigg]

From what I've read on gfaqs, hurricanes destroy what you plant depending on the quality of the soil. If your growing crops that regenerate every few days the quality of the soil is going to degrade so when the storm hits it'll get destroyed. If you farm a lot it'll affect you more than if you mine or do other stuff for money.

That's right; I forgot about crop resilience. I've been rotating a bit.

 

[zigg]

They can't clear wood or stones. And from my limited experience using them, they get tired fairly quickly. I don't know if that changes when you bond more with them or they gain experience.

It seems to. You can also give them cold medicine or certain kinds of foods (just about anything cooked seems to do the trick) to fix them right up.

 

[storafötter]

I just want you all to know I am now riding around town on a floating death-fish that can thwack shit with its tail as well as fire water lasers in both forward and spread configurations.

His name is Raiden. (yeah, I let the game name him, before I realized how awesome he was)

This sounds awesome .
I think I will definitely get this game, as I have been contemplating when to try this series.

 

[zigg]

This sounds awesome .
I think I will definitely get this game, as I have been contemplating when to try this series.

This is probably the most accessible of the games, particularly in normal (i.e. not hard) mode. Good place to jump in.

So I cleared the main story today, thanks in part to some extra veggies in the fridge... debating now whether I should restart in hard mode (seemed like combat was a little too easy, really) or just press on... Plenty to do in the trophy-room random dungeon yet; getting my ass kicked on the fourth level.

Either way it's certainly pretty amazing to me that I'm actually considering replaying a Rune Factory game. Usually when I'm done that's the furthest from my mind.

Almost forgot to mention: was growing grass on some tired soil, and a winter storm killed it. Resilience seems to be key...

 

[Niblet]

Shit guys, this game snuck up on me. I'm just about to hit Raven's birthday and I'm debating whether I should make a workshop right now to give her a crystal pendant on her birthday for the big bump in affection or finish saving up for the bigger storage box. My storage box is always full and my inventory usually remains near full, so I have to do a lot of item management often. I'm very much a hoarder. Right now I have my relationship with Raven at level 7 and I really like her so I'm thinking the gift might be very useful.

In fact in terms of girls in this game, they're all fine, but for me the stand outs were immediately: Raven, Shara, Karina, Daria (RAINBOW!) and Pia. The list has slowly dwindled and now the final 2 candidates are Raven and Pia <3. Raven so far feels like the more "canon" choice because her backstory definitely seems more significant. Plus the Tsundere factor . . . But Pia has managed to win me over each time I visit the bath with her adorable sound clips ("la, la, la" melts me each time :lol ) plus on rainy days, she's such fun. I love your character's first time reaction talking to her on a rainy day. Damnit, why can't I marry them both T_T

 

[matmanx1]

I really like Pia's voice clips also. Very endearing. Raven is still my number 1 choice at this point however.

What's the recipe for a Crystal Pendant and skill level required? I have the workshop but haven't found that recipe yet. I'd also like to make a Seafood Pizza for Carmen but I don't have that recipe yet either.

In terms of storyline I just finished the Fall area and am going to get a few more levels before I start the Winter area. At this point I'm just trying to craft as much as possible while still running all the quests that I can fit in between monster and ore hunting.

This game is extremely addicting and I've already put close to two dozen hours by my reckoning and I still have alot of the game to go. More people need to realize it's awesomeness!

 

[Niblet]

I really like Pia's voice clips also. Very endearing. Raven is still my number 1 choice at this point however.

What's the recipe for a Crystal Pendant and skill level required? I have the workshop but haven't found that recipe yet. I'd also like to make a Seafood Pizza for Carmen but I don't have that recipe yet either.

In terms of storyline I just finished the Fall area and am going to get a few more levels before I start the Winter area. At this point I'm just trying to craft as much as possible while still running all the quests that I can fit in between monster and ore hunting.

This game is extremely addicting and I've already put close to two dozen hours by my reckoning and I still have alot of the game to go. More people need to realize it's awesomeness!

Via Gamefaqs:
Seafood Pizza: Ketchup / Squid / Flour / Shrimp / Cheese x 2 | LV 48| (you DONT need the recipe to make things. Also if you make a something without having the recipe prior, the recipe will be added to your collection. This makes gamefaqs really useful).
And after searching gamefaqs the crystal pendant thing seems suspect. F, it I'll build that damn storage box.

Really though, I'm enjoying this game far more than I should. It's the first game I've picked up since Halo:Reach and its worth it. I can't imagine it having strong sales sadly. I hope Natsume takes the Atlus approach and budgeted this release accordingly. I'd love to see them bring it to the 3DS or PSP2.

 

[matmanx1]

Level 48 cooking recipe?! Sheesh! I'm only about half that proficient at this point unfortunately. Too me it seems like cooking recipes are more cumbersome to "grind" up for skill than forging or pharmacy. Maybe I'm just not using the right ones though.

Thanks for the recipe though. I'll go hit up Gamefaqs and see what other gems I can uncover.

Hey Zigg, when's your review going to be up? I'm curious to check it out.

 

[zigg]

Hey Zigg, when's your review going to be up? I'm curious to check it out.

Need to write it first! Then we'll talk...

So, I am getting pretty intensely curious who's playing on normal and who's playing on hard, and how each kind of person feels about the game. I played the majority of it on normal, and obviously I adored it... but how's everyone else doing?

 

[matmanx1]

Need to write it first! Then we'll talk...

So, I am getting pretty intensely curious who's playing on normal and who's playing on hard, and how each kind of person feels about the game. I played the majority of it on normal, and obviously I adored it... but how's everyone else doing?

Playing on normal and I think it's great. The normal enemies aren't much of a challenge but a couple of the boss fights have been decently challenging. I died the first time I fought the one in the desert but I was also below the recommended level by quite a few.

 

[Zihark]

Via Gamefaqs:
Seafood Pizza: Ketchup / Squid / Flour / Shrimp / Cheese x 2 | LV 48| (you DONT need the recipe to make things. Also if you make a something without having the recipe prior, the recipe will be added to your collection. This makes gamefaqs really useful).
And after searching gamefaqs the crystal pendant thing seems suspect. F, it I'll build that damn storage box.

Really though, I'm enjoying this game far more than I should. It's the first game I've picked up since Halo:Reach and its worth it. I can't imagine it having strong sales sadly. I hope Natsume takes the Atlus approach and budgeted this release accordingly. I'd love to see them bring it to the 3DS or PSP2.

Rune Factory has its own niche fanbase that buy all entries in the series, so not worry about that. Playing normal and enjoying the game, just beat second dungeon and just started recruiting monsters. I love how you can get monsters drops by having them in your barn. This game seriously needs a beastiary. Glad rf got its first review-an 8.5 from np. Wanna wait till I get my issue-then I'll post the review in this topic. Soon, I'll have a brand spanking new red dsi xl to play this game in style- its what it deserves, after all.

 

[Jintor]

Normal, just finished the 'main' questline though there's always post-game content in these games

Having a blast. So far my one and only real negative is hurricanes. FUCK THEM.