Good Game Get!: Rune Factory 3

I haven’t finished the game yet, but you need to know about the absolute magic of the third entry into Natsume’s incredible fantasy Harvest Moon series, Rune Factory.

It’s a shame that it hasn’t received any critical reception yet. I don’t usually give out numerical scores but if Jason Dietz and co. wants Good Game Get! to put in our two cents then let ‘em.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series then let me lay it out simply:

You farm.
You slay monsters.
You tame them.
You level up.
You make food.
You court lovely ladies, including a hottie mermaid with pink hair.

That’s just a small list of the broad spectrum of things the game allows you to do, and it allows you to do it all very seamlessly and quickly. Natsume has really pushed the series into an incredibly polished state.

The main character may be a little too shōjo oriented for my tastes, but it works, and helps make him a gentler character aesthetically, but he’s already a pretty nice guy.

And I apologize for the lack of screen-shots but a Google image search ended up a bust because this game is criminally unrecognized. Ideally I guess November wasn’t the best time to release the game.

I’ve been pretty jaded about games in general, but my girl and I have been playing this game intensely we just love talking about it and sharing tips, and stories with one another as we play the game differently and take on different requests from characters.

While the world Rune Factory 3 takes place in can be cheesy, it’s very centralized, realized, and satisfyingly fun to explore as it has beautifully illustrated backgrounds. The whole game graphically pops on a DSi screen and would probably be really rad on a DSiXL.

It feels so good to write so positively about a game that just pulls at me and really provides me with reason to play it. That kind of drive to play a game this intently is in short supply for me these days, and while I can’t possibly write on exactly every reason the game works for me - I will say that it has that certain quality and touch of magic that even professional critics unlike me can’t even pinpoint.

Well - if they can, let me know. I’d like to be able to write more like them.

Play this game, please.

- Kyle