Name: Rune Factory: New Harvest Moon
Console: Nintendo DS
Release dates:
- Japan: August 24, 2006
- US: Q2 (April, May, or June) 2007
- Europe: 2007
Current Scans:
- Famitsu #884, page 208
- Famitsu #884, page 209
- Nintendo Dream, page 46
- Nintendo Dream, page 47
- Nintendo Dream, August 2006 edition, page 38
- Nintendo Dream, August 2006 edition, page 39
- Nintendo Dream, August 2006 edition, page 40
- Nintendo Dream, August 2006 edition, page 41
- Famitsu #917, page 76
- Famitsu #917, page 77
- Famitsu #924, page 108
- Famitsu #924, page 109
- Famitsu #924, page 110
- Nintendo Dream, page 42
- Nintendo Dream, page 43
- Nintendo Dream, page 44
Official web site:
- http://www.mmv-i.net/game/ds/runefactory/index.html
Japanese help site:
- http://www.rozenmaiden.info/runefactory/wiki/index.php
Game Review:
- http://www.nintendo-inside.jp/preview/100/10070.html
- http://www.nintendo-inside.jp/impression/101/10153.html
- Famitsu score: 33 out of 40
General information:
- This game is a new revision of the Harvest Moon series, much like Innocent Life is.
- The game has the slow pace of farming, but also the thrill of battling monsters
- Japanese fans can preorder the game and receive a 64-page prolouge comic book with character profiles.
- There are talking voices in the game. A list of Japanse voicecasters is below:
Laguna: 朴璐美 (Paku Romi - Temari from Naruto anime)
Mist： 小清水亜美 (Koshimizu Ami - Tenma from School Rumble anime)
Melody： 神田朱未 (Kanda Akemi - Mimmy Bread from Tales of Legendia ps2 game)
Torte： 野中藍 (Nonaka Ai - Beauty from Bobobo-bo-bobobo anime)
Bianca： 有島モユ (Arishima Moyu - Kayro from Tales Of the World Narkiri Dungenion 2 & 3 gba games)
Rosetta： 鹿野優以 (Kano Yui - high school student from Peach Girl anime)
Lapis: 相沢舞 (Aizawa Mai - Gopatch from Bobobo-bo-bobobo anime)
Veil： 水城レナ (Mizushiro Rena - Yakitate!!Japan anime, Pokemon Advance Generation anime)
Sharon: 牧島有希 (Makishima Yuki - Pronema from Tales Of Symphonia gc game)
Tabetha： 佐藤朱 (Satou Akemi - various small jobs)
Seshiria： 立野香菜子 (Tateno Kanako - Corin from Tales of Symphonia gc game)
Zaha： 三宅淳一 (Miyake Jyunichi - Bobobo-bo-bobob anime)
Kamyu： 根本幸多 (Nemoto Uta - Chibi Maruko-chan anime, BECK anime)
Sebastian： 福原耕平 (Fukuhara Kouhei - Xenosaga anime)
Story:
- You, as a boy named Laguna, somehow find yourself in Caludia Village, wiped of your memory. A girl named Mist comes to your aid and sets you up with your own farm.
Characters:
- Mist is like Takakura from AWL. She's mainly there as a helper and for support
- Other supporting characters are very similar to characters that appear in other versions of the handheld series:
Zaha (talkative boy)
Howait (the priest [Carter])
Kamyu
Nichol (local boy)
Sara (Nichol's mom)
Sebastian (Winery master [Duke])
Russell (librarian)
Seshiria (female orphan, being raised by Russell)
Jeff (General Store owner, Rosetta's father [Jeff])
Ed (town doctor, Lapis' boss [Doctor])
Jakolines (Bianca's father [Gourmet])
- When you talk to the characters their portraits will appear on the screen, just like in the GBA and DS versions of the game. You will also see their expressions change.
Gameplay:
- The hero is trained in sword techniques. You can also spend time training with your weapons.
- The general idea is to befriend creatures (monsters) that live around the area. As you befriend them, they will move into your farm.
- Farming system is pretty much the same as all other versions of Harvest Moon.
- There are over 500 types of tools you can have constructed for you.
- You can use the touch screen to till your field soil, and even catch fish.
Farming
- There are dungeons to explore, and you may find a dungeon with it's own field for planting crops hidden inside.
- Seeds are planted in a 3x3 square.
- When you grow crops there is a chance one of them will produce a Rune. Collecting the Runes will increase your Rune Points (RP). The amount of RP you have will be displayed in the upper-left corner of the screen, below your Hit Points (HP).
Monsters:
- Dragon
- Buffamo (cow/buffalo type creature) - You can ship Buffamo milk
- Orc
- Mokomoko (cute sheep)
- Monster Box (vicious treasure chest)
- Big Mush (large mushroom)
- Flower (a walking plant)
- Slime (a blob of goo)
- Troll
- Silver Wolf
Cave #1: Kamaito (Till 100 pieces of land on your farm, then talk to the mayor)
- Red Squirrel
-- Farm: none
-- Battle: Knock-back attack
- Horned Goblin
-- Farm: Crop Harvesting
-- Battle: Critical attack, Fire-based attack
- Wasp
-- Farm: Produces honey
-- Battle: Poison attack, Long range attack
- Red Ant
-- Farm: Crop Harvesting
-- Battle: Critical attack, Absorption attack, Seal attack
- The befriended monsters also become party members when you go out to fight, besides helping you with your farm work.
- You can equip an item called the "Friendship Glove" in order to befriend the monsters Raising friendship with monsters is similar to using the Touch Glove in HMDS to pet your livestock. When you use the Friendship Glove on a monster in the field, a "heart mark" will appear. If you are persistant then the monster will eventually become your friend.
- Getting the monsters to help you with the farm is very similar to the Sprite Team system where you ask the Sprites for help.
-The befriended monsters live inside of a barn.
Marriage:
- There is marriage included in this game.
- 11 potential bachelorettes:
Mist
Veil
Rosetta
Sharon
Tabetha
Torte
Bianca
Melody
Lapis
Mei
Major Linette
Wifi
- This game is wifi enabled, allowing you to communicate to your friends by using your DS.
- The global Nintendo WiFi network is usable
- You can exchange items between your friends.
- You can also send screen shots of your farm to your friends.
Bugs
- Do not use the sleeping bag (camping) inside of the Winter-only Mistbloom Cave on Wi30. The conflict with being stuck in the cave on the 1st of Spring will corrupt your save data.
- If you want to camp in a cave do it before midnight. If you wait until the early morning hours of the next day then you might sleep through the entire day and wake up the following day. (ex, stay awake until 2am on mon, camp, wake up 8am on wed)
- Winter season has a few graphical glitches. The numbers on top of the monster barns turn a bright red-color and sometimes your character will have speckles of blue in his hair. Other parts are just missing all together.
- Sometimes you can't buy seeds from Jeff. You can select the quanty, confirm the transaction, but no money will exchange and the seeds do not appear in your rucksack. Just try again later and it should work.
