Rune Factory and Harvest Moon Series

I understand that many players of the original Family Farm as well as Family Farm Seaside never have played any console or handheld system games, but I would like to recommend two magnificent series to you.  These two series are Harvest Moon and Rune Factory.  As Freyashawk, I wrote over 200 strategy guides for these two series over the course of a decade and still believe that these games are incredibly imaginative and rich in philosophy and beauty as well as being simply fun.  They do require a certain amount of patience and perseverance.  You must be willing to spend many hours in the world of Harvest Moon or Rune Factory in order to obtain the greatest rewards that these games have to offer.

Both Harvest Moon and Rune Factory include games that can be played on the Wii as well as the DS and 3DS systems.  Older games in the series can be played on the GameCube and PS2.  This autumn, Rune Factory 4 was released in the States for the 3DS system.  Although I no longer write guides for IGN or even commit myself to writing any comprehensive guides due to health issues, I did create a site for Rune Factory 4 and am working on a little guide for the game.  A link to the site is given on the right of this page.

One reason I mention these games on the Family Farm Seaside site is because they both are based on farming, although mining, fishing and social interactions are vital to the games as well.  Rune Factory includes a plot that requires combat, although killing never is part of the game.  Instead, the 'Monsters', who can be very cute, either are sent back to their own world or can be tamed to work with the player's Character on the farm as well as becoming companions in combat situaitons.  Harvest Moon does not have any combat.  It usually has a fairly simple plot that requires the Player to revitalise a failing village.  In the course of this, the Player can court and marry one of the villagers and start a family.  Events are detailed with dialogues that make any Harvest Moon game an interactive novel.  Rune Factory usually includes all the activities of Harvest Moon but is more plot-driven as the Player must rescue the village from a recent onslaught of Monsters who have trespassed from their own world and have become bothersome for the villagers.  Rune Factory has a Request system as well that allows Players to earn Rewards by completing little Quests for specific villagers.