 Welcome back to IshaGaming. This is my review of Rune Factory 5, out for the Nintendo Switch and apparently only out for the Nintendo Switch. I don't know if this will come to other consoles. Rune Factory 5 is developed by Hakama, published by Marvelous and these are the developers behind Story of Seasons and I've been very much looking forward to this game, I've talked about this game ever since it was announced. And finally now, I'm 40 hours in and I'm ready to give you my full review of Rune Factory 5. This is the 7th entry in the Rune Factory series, even though it is called number 5, actually number 7, the way that I counted it. The first three entries were released on the Nintendo DS, Rune Factory Frontier was a Wii game and Rune Factory Tides of Destiny was a Wii game also known as Oceans here in Europe. Then there was Rune Factory 5 on the 3DS and then they filed for bankruptcy and then they regretted being bankrupt. They were bankrupt, but then they were like no we regret that, we regret being bankrupt. And here we are with a new title, Rune Factory 5, finally. But to start off I was underwhelmed, have to say, I was not impressed in my first hours of Rune Factory 5. My first impressions were mixed and it felt rushed and the performance is struggling and all of that, I talked about that in a previous video, but now I have given it my all and I ended up being addicted. Now I'm gonna tell you why that was. Let's start off with the story. As usual, you have Amnesia, which you always have in a Rune Factory game, which I can appreciate, I actually like that game to start off like this, because it is a great excuse for players to get everything explained to you, because you have Amnesia, and it creates a blank canvas for you to start off with. There are two predetermined characters that you can choose to play as and they are set and predetermined. You can unfortunately not change your hair or skin color or anything like that. This is what you get. You can change your outfit style and that is nice, but that's it. You get to stay at a house in a town, and since you have nothing to do, you join the Seed Corporation where you basically do quests for anyone who needs something done, be that getting some items, crafting something or fight certain monsters. They really take you in in this area, even though you just stumble across the border, save the girl and all of that. That's how the story starts anyway. The main story is following you through a lot of several dungeons where you will find new villagers after defeating a dungeon boss. There's some stuff about protecting the runes of the land, which is the energy of nature, and some people are stealing runes and all of that. Every NPC has their stereotypical traits and personalities, but unfortunately I find a lot of recycled dialogues. Not a lot, but sometimes it's like I've read this before, you know. Occasionally I come across a joke of sorts or an interesting NPC storyline, so a lot of these NPC cuts since they are entertaining, it's not bad by any means, it's not bad writing. The story is mostly just okay. There are familiar faces from Rune Factory 4, Margaret and Doug, and they reference events in Rune Factory 4, which I really enjoyed. Some hidden Easter eggs for the fans in here. There are a lot of bachelors and bachelorettes to choose from, to marry, and you can marry any of them. I'm going for Martin because I like his calm personality, and I obviously like his look. You can have several children, no matter who you choose to marry. Every monster and NPC and every single item in the game has a text description to them. Also lurking at everyone's as bad as still a Rune Factory thing. Gameplay, most important section. Like any good formulated life simulator, the gameplay loop is very much up to the player, and you can choose to pursue any part of the game that you want. There is the actual farming of tilling soil, planting, watering, and harvesting crops. And there is a ton of seasonal crops, which you can level up by using a site on a grown crop and then ship the seed, which then makes the crops' seed level up. I am trying to level up all of my crop seeds to level 10, which I believe is the max level. Every patch of soil has a ton of stats to them, like soil level and growth speed, etc. I recommend that you upgrade some of your farm tools, like for example the watering can, on the anvil with a magnifying glass, so that you get the magnifying glass ability on your watering can or your site or whole, you know, any farm tool really, so that you get to see the soil's health and stats. So the actual farming mechanics go deep, which I can appreciate. Holding the A button and walking over your crops makes harvesting fast, same with picking up several of the same items. Just hold A. Planting and watering is also fastly done by spamming A. There is popping up clutter on your farm every day, the stones you can break with your hammer to get stone, and same with the logs with your axe to get lumber, which are building materials that you need for upgrading buildings and furniture and house upgrades. Weeds you can put in the fertilizer bin, and other than that you sell off stuff using the shipping bin, you will unlock quite a lot of crafting stations. You can craft just about anything, armors, weapons, cooking stuff, farm tools, and you can customize your room or farm by placing all of these crafting stations and furniture wherever you want, though it is very annoying that you can't place them close to a wall, have to say. But if you hold R, you can sort or micromanage place your furniture, but I have moved all of my crafting stations on the outside of the room, so that I keep my room just tidy with furniture, and all the crafting stations and all the work station stuff outside, because that is where I hang most of the time. Feel free to copy how I did it, if you want to. Throughout the main story, you unlock several farm dragons, which are actual dragons that you have a farm on, which has like a farmland, where you can have monster barns also, containing all the monsters that you have tamed and collected. These monsters can help you out with farm work, help in combat, and also serve as rideable mounts, so much fun. They also drop materials for you every day, so it is a good idea to collect as many of them as you can, and you tame monsters by maybe brushing them a tiny bit and then giving them some items that they like, but if there is a skull above their head immediately, that means you need to expand your barns, you don't have space for it. Go to Studio Palmo and upgrade your barn and stuff. If you're wondering why you can't catch any more monsters, that is, when it comes to combat, adventuring, and dungeons, you can bring with you not only your monsters, but also NPCs that you have a friendship level 3 at least with. And all of them have their own level, gear, and stats that you can progress on. So essentially, any NPC in this town can be your party member. There is an impressive amount of armor, weapons, and items in this game, there's a ton of them. And in your shipping bin, if you look at shipping history, and if you ship one of every single item, you fill out this percentage. And let me just tell you, this is a completionist's, I don't know, fun time, I guess, to try and ship everything, which I'm trying to do. I also tried to do this in Room Factory 4 and I love this aspect of the game. There's also so many types of weapons, magical rods and spells to delve into also. This game has magic. Right now I'm rolling like a dual wielding mage of sorts, with like spells and stuff. And I can heal my party members. There's a lot of customization in how you want to approach combat in this game. Even though the combat in itself is simple, it's simple fun. It's fun and simple, you know what I mean. I'm just trying a bit of everything, leveling up in all of them, but right now I have to say I'm loving dual blades. Combat is not super complex, it's straightforward hack and slash action. You can level up your basic level, but also a lot of other skills can be leveled up. Like you can level up sleeping, walking, fading, love throwing, and all of these skills will increase your stats in some way, which I find very satisfying. You will constantly feel some sort of progression, no matter what you do in this game. Other than your main quest events that you can see on your map, you have side quests and character events and friendship levels to grind. In the town of Rig Barth, there are all types of houses and shops as expected, and sometimes there will be festivals with mini-games to them. Eliza is also in this game, as we remember from Rune Factory 4, where you can spend seed points to order festivals to happen or upgrade storage spaces or getting licenses. There is fast travelling from the map, there are four seasons in the year, a calendar, there are birthdays to keep track of, a mini-map, and basically just a lot of possibilities to make this game a big time sink. You can die, and that will cost you some money, actually quite a lot of money later in the game, but you can adjust the difficulty level, I am playing on normal, not playing on easy anymore, I don't know, I think Elden Ring did something to me, but it is an easy game overall. I really enjoy fishing in this game, and leveling up fishing and trying to collect all of the fish. There is also like a stamp system, which works as sort of like achievements in the game, trying to work my way through that also, so satisfying to collect and stuff. I'm really enjoying my time in Rune Factory 5, I have to say. I enjoy leveling up in everything and making a lot of money for myself, upgrading everything and if you have ever played a live simulator game, like let's say Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley, or some earlier Rune Factory games, I have to say it is all here. If you ever loved Rune Factory 4, it's all here, like mechanic wise, very similar to Rune Factory 4, with the things that you do, with the quick selecting of items on L, so Rune Factory is definitely still a harvest moon with combat. I'm already feeling the time sink aspect as this genre is so well known for. The fun section, graphics. I have to say, graphics and performance is by far the weakest point of the game. I mean right now though, these things can be patched, we know that, we have seen that happen before. But when I started playing this game, there were huge frame drops. The game has been chugging and choking and it's been very poorly optimized. A lot of pop-ins and in general things take a long time to load in. And I mean when I had an NPC party member on my mount and it was time for him to go home, he was on the mount, his ghost was left there in the field sort of thing. Obviously a bug. And it's just the overall bad performance. The thing is I want this game to be good because I like everything that I do in the game. The actual game is good. It's just the performance that I have to say is not the best. I hope this stuff gets patched up at some point. But I have to say it is playable. I have 40 hours in this game and I'm addicted at AF. Maybe I'm being too soft on this game, but you have to get where I'm coming from. I want this game to do good and be good. I'm one of the biggest fans of Rune Factory. However it is a very colorful game and some places look very nice in the game. But a lot of the open areas and the dungeons don't look more impressive than a GameCube or a Wii game I have to say. I think I remember Oceans looking better, but I understand. It's the budget. It's the struggles with the budget. They were bankrupt and all of that. I think that plays a role in how this game is performing. The actual character art styles are as expected and just like from earlier games of the series. Animations are okay, though some walking animations look wonky. I feel like the town could have been lifted a lot by just adding more 3D grass or flowers around on the ground. So there's that. I like the purple themed menus. But no, like I'm fine with how everything looks. The monsters look great. It's only the performance that I have to say that I don't totally agree with. So know that going into this game. It's playable, sure. But you'll notice it. Music. Some of it is good. Some of it is not. Some of it is repetitive depending on how long you stay in one place at one time, which you often do in live simulators. You can spend a lot of time tending to your crops and having the same tune playing over and over again. But you can change your music on your farm or in your house wherever. If you buy this furniture piece, it's like a record player where a lot of old Rune Factory music can be playing. There is very little voice acting, which I of course wish there were more of. Like for example in a dialogue. The NPCs can say one thing out loud and then they go silent for the rest of the dialogue. Sound effects are good for everything that you do. Even the monsters has their own distinct footsteps sounds. Sound design is so often something one can overlook. I mean, if music and sound effects are good, you tend to not notice it much because it sounds so natural. But I think the combat sounds, the level up tunes especially, and all of the sounds and effects, they sound great in this game. Classic Rune Factory sound effects already feel very nostalgic to me. But sometimes villagers talk all over each other. It's good stuff. Time to tackle another day on guard. I was not impressed by Rune Factory 5 when I first started playing it. But I feel like something has happened. I mean definitely something has happened. Because now I apparently like it. It has just grown on me. There's a farming joke in there somewhere. Do not sleep on this game guys. There is a lot of fun to be had. There's monsters to collect, a bunch of them actually. And I would be lying if I said I don't enjoy playing this game. I love playing this game. Even though it struggles. I got this game digitally as a review called, but you know what? I have bought this game myself also. I have ordered the limited edition of this game. That's how much I like it. It starts out a bit slow as any farming game do. But sooner or later you will find that daily routine of yours which I have found. Which is for me to always start my day by tending my crops and then talking and giving gifts to everyone daily. Doing some grinding and leveling and collecting. To then do all of the crafting that I can. And make sure you get all of your breads daily at the bakery. So that you get recipes for crafting. You get that from eating the bread from the bakery. It's a Rune Factory thing. You can customize your quick access menus. There's just a lot of things. I wish my character didn't feel so slidey. It feels like my character slides a lot. I have mentioned that. And I wish I didn't have to unequip an item in order to upgrade it on the anvil. Because you cannot if you have it equipped. There's a ton of things to do. There's fishing. There's item collecting. There's collecting a bunch of monsters. Doing the dungeons. Leveling up all of the NPCs. So many things to do in this game. And it's all very cozy and packaged into this live simulator time sink paradise. Basically. Which I initially also loved Rune Factory 4 when I first played Rune Factory 4. So many years ago on the 3DS. I love this formula. It is a fun game. But right now anyways the performance kind of sucks. And because of the performance. If the game stays like this. I'm deducting one point. Or two points even. From the game's score. Because of the performance. So this could actually be a 7 out of 10. But I mean as a personal note. As a slide note. Totally off script. And all of that. I am such a fan of Rune Factory. In that I'm finding enjoyment in this game. As if I would call it a 9 out of 10 game. Does that make sense to you? That is the sort of enjoyment that I feel playing this game. It's so cozy. I'm having the best time in this game. I'm just gonna have that. Get that across to you. How much I actually enjoy this game. I do. I do. I have to say. If you're wondering if I recommend this game. I do. If you are a fan of the live simulator genre. If you are already a fan of Rune Factory. If you played Rune Factory 4 and loved that to death. Get this game. If you know nothing sort of thing. Of Rune Factory. This is a great entry way. Entry way. You have to sort of understand the company's history. The employees. They were bought up by Marvelous. There's like a history to the development of this game also. Keep that also in mind. Whenever you see all of the frame drops basically. But I have to say. There is a lot of soul in this game. I can feel that the developers they really care. Rune Factory must be their passion project. Of all sorts and kinds. There's just a lot of detail. A lot of charm. I want to say. In any of the Rune Factory games actually. That's some of the things that I really enjoy with Rune Factory. Now thank you so much for watching. I could go on talk more about this game. Maybe I'll do that later. Thank you so much for watching. And now hit like on my video. Subscribe if you are new. And I will see you later.