Rune Factory 2 Review

Rune Factory 2:
Publisher: Marvelous (Commercial)
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: RPG, Farming Simulation, Dating Simulation (Boy Pursues Girl), Fantasy
Voiced: Partially
Useful Websites: Ushi No Tane, Ranch Story

    Once again it is time to take up your watering can and sword, and this time, beat up dragons and evil hell-spawn as a seven year old kid!

Plot 3.5/5:
    An amnesiac stumbles into town and asks for some food and— Oh sorry, that’s the first game. An entirely different amnesiac waif wanders into another small town, but this time is greeted by a far more sane girl. Out of the goodness of her heart, she allows you to move into the old family farmhouse and farm, because, as she puts it, if you move into town you will be coming to out shop as a customer too! (Because we all know that selling a few bags of radishes outweighs the cost of a giant luxurious farmhouse in a scenic seaside town.)

Would you question such a cute face's logic?

     The young man, Kyle, soon integrates himself into town life. Unlike the first game, all seems peaceful. In fact, it’s too peaceful, which apparently triggers the fact that after taking the time to get married and have a child, he must vanish for no apparent reason just to make something interesting happen.
    Seven years pass, and the young child has decided to take upon himself/herself to care for the farm and explore the nearby dungeons. In doing so, they shall discover secrets about magic and perhaps, how to rescue their father, via the time honored fashion of beating the answers out of monsters.

Dating-Sim Aspect 5/5:
    This second installment took the opportunity to vastly improve it’s dating aspect. Now there is a town bulletin board that girls (and other townsfolk) can place requests upon, and each girl has more events. Furthermore, after a wife has been chosen and Kyle has had a child (either a boy or a girl, Aria or Ars), which is admittedly pretty much all you can do (in addition to some basic farming and monster raising) in the first part, you can continue as one of the two children, and have play-marriages with the town children in a sort of vague suggestion of a harem.

Bachelorettes/Bachelors:
    There are 7 available wives for Kyle. Aria can woo Orland, Leonel, Roy, and the twins, Sera and Serena; Ars can woo Leann, Cammy, and Sera and Serena.

Generation One Wives:

Mana, the new turnip-lover, is a cheerful and hard-working girl who visits the farm every day to pick up shipments. She adores pink turnips. She is good friends with Alicia and Cecilia, and always tries to sell things from her store to anyone who gives her half a chance.

Cecilia has grown up from the first game and now works as a maid (elves make great maids?) at the De Sainte Coquille manor. She still loves shiny stones, and will marry another half-elf, Jake, who dislikes humans but is very kind to her, if Kyle does not marry her. Her friends are Mana and Alicia, and she is the most level-headed of the three.

Alicia is a self-proclaimed fortune teller, and reserves the right to prove that she is first rate, by any means necessary. This outgoing woman is able to grant love fortunes and predict/change the weather. She wants to move to the city, where she feels people will appreciate her talents more than those in the small town.

Rosalind is the poetic daughter of the De Sainte Coquille family. She tries to not cause anyone too much trouble, and frequents the church. Ray, Alicia’s brother and a kind doctor, will marry her if Kyle does not. Her friends are Dorothy and Julia.

Dorothy stutters when she speaks and carries a stuffed reindeer around. She is extremely shy but frequently helps out at the clinic. She will marry Barrett, a local tough-guy, if Kyle does not. Her closest friends are Rosalind and Julia, and the three of them will often meet in her room in the back of the church.

Julia, the local fashion lolita, runs the bathhouse, and is generally very cheerful, but can be quick to anger or shock. She loves walks and healthy food, and will marry Max, Rosalind’s brother and an outgoing, somewhat oblivious man, if Kyle does not. She is friends with Dorothy and Rosalind.

Yue is a traveling merchant, and visits the town frequently to sell various goods. She is very outgoing and always tries to get great teals. She will marry the remaining bachelor if Kyle marries a girl with a rival.




Second Generation Children:

Cammy is an outgoing girl who is the younger sibling of Dorothy, and she often roughhouses and is very cheerful. She hangs out with Roy frequently.

Roy rather wishes that his mother, Tanya the blacksmith, was more of a normal mother. He always seems to get into trouble and break things, he is nevertheless generally optimistic and kind. He often plays with Cammy.

Leann, Max and Julia’s child, is a dainty girl who often blushes and has picked up her aunt’s skill for poetic dialogue. She is friends with Orland, and gets frustrated because children will occasionally tease her for it. She adores pizza for some reason.

Orland is the son of Cecilia and Jake; he is very serious about his studies. He has taken after his father and generally dislikes all humans.  For some reason, however, he gets along with Leann.

Leonel is a effeminate boy, the son of Barrett and Dorothy, he often is frustrated for being mistaken as a girl. He is cheery, however, and generally gets along well with others. (How he is often mistaken for a girl but his father, Ray, doesn’t, remains a mystery…)

Sera and Serena, the twin daughters of Rosalind and Ray, are all together cheerful. Sera enjoys reading and school, whereas Serena would rather be out playing and is more talkative; despite this, they are entirely inseparable.


Graphics/Artwork 4/5:
    The graphics for the second game are slightly better, especially in the scenery, from the first game, but generally the same. There is still the issue of the longer arms, but the animations remain very smooth, and various improvements to the animation have been made.
    What really makes this game stand out, however, are the new battle animations and character portraits. They cast has around double the number of emotional portraits that the first game had, and some have even more than that. The battle animations are smooth, and the skill seals (special attacks) make it feel like there is a reason to weild other weapons than your trusty short sword.

Voice Acting Various/5:
    The Japanese voice actors and actresses in this game are simply superb, much like the first one. They convey a wide range of emotions and all sound unique. Alicia and Mana in particular has darling voices that aren’t quite as you would expect, but excellent nonetheless.
    Sadly, the same can not be said for the English voice cast. With a few exceptions, they are simply horrible. Their lines sound forced or overacted, and I often found my finger turning the volume off whenever they spoke. Roy’s and Jake’s voices are bad enough to make anyone’s ears bleed (thankfully the latter is mostly silent). Several of the others are just… Ugh. However there are exceptions: Mana, Julia, Tanya have particularly excellent voices, that are, to be blunt, so great that they deserve a listen and an attempt at play through with the English voices, even if the others are difficult to listen to.

Music 3/5:
    The music from the game is still excellent, but a few of the themes gravitate more towards annoying than the previous game. Overall the themes are very fitting, and it is a shame that the English voice actors tend to interfere with what is otherwise a very enjoyable soundtrack.
    The Palmero Shrine music is probably some of the best in the game, however.

Translation 3/5:

    Overall, this game was… translated… It’s no “all your base belong to us” but the various errors are borderline ridiculous. From when the nurse hands you a potion that reads “SKULL” (makes you wonder what she put in it…), to the various inconsistencies in the names (Calling Ars/Aria Kyle, or even replacing the name section with an empty space), to small things like forgetting the g to indicate gold for money, or a period. Then there is the always random wrongly assigned voice-clips. (Hey Sera, you are really good at mimicking Cammy!)
    The game is definitely understandable, and generally the errors are comical, but you can only take so many skulls before it gets tedious.

Controls/Gameplay 3.5/5:
    This game would get a 4 or 4.5/5 if it weren’t for one problem: serious lag issues when several sprites are on screen, and a few random pathing glitches. If you have four large monsters in your barn, or several characters are on one map, expect Kyle to suddenly move much slower. Also expect, on very rare occasion, characters to walk over water and through walls (again, it is quite rare; I’ve only witnessed it once and heard of it from a couple others).
    However, everything else has been vastly improved. Magic is now a much more useful resource, and the weapons all have skill seals, which enable special attacks and help to give each weapon a unique feel.     Monsters drop items needed for crafting more frequently, and there are more items to craft and more crops to grow, as well as a method to organize the monsters in the barn. The monster AI has been slightly improved as well.
    There are fewer dungeons, but they are larger and gorgeous, and the dungeon maps now more accurately show not only the dungeon themselves, but Kyle’s location.

Overall:
    While this game does have many faults, it also has many gameplay improvements over the previous. The bulletin board was a great addition, and the characters and plot are very touching. Whereas if one is not a fan of the dating aspect, the first part of the game will seem tedious, the second generation is truly interesting and fun to play.

    Plus, there is just something to be said for a seven-year-old being able to beat up ferocious wolves and dragons.

...Or at least these things...