LOL… after some thought, I believe I have an Occum’s Razor for the lack of spouses. It’s obvious that the game engine can’t render more than 4 moving townspeople at once on the screen without bullet time taking effect. No spouses, because having more townspeople would cause more havoc than what’s already in the game. :lol:
So basically they limit the number of NPC’s in the game willingly.
The question is though can the engine not handle it because it wasn’t optimized right or because the DS hardware simply can’t handle it? Probably on some level it’s at least the latter, but i’m wondering how much of it is.
Easily a mix of both I think. One of the first rules of game making, is knowing the limitation of your hardware, however Marvelous has been known to ignore this. I remember Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life was God awful slow on the GameCube, because of poor understanding of how the GC worked. Even the most recent Harvest Moon on DS, suffers from a bit of bullet time here and there (too much color on the screen at once). I believe the problem with RF2, is because the 3D models for the characters - small they might be - are suprisingly well detailed (look at Yue’s kimono as she’s moving around): 3D processing is not a heavy strength of the DS, and RF2 is pushing the limit on that. I also believe it has a lot to do with the wire frames being used… probably a straight-out-the-development kit technique, rather than a creative a way to save CPU and display power.
Just wild guesses on my part though… however the slowdown only occurs when the 3D characters are moving around. I’ve discovered it can happen out of town: having 4 Buffamoo on the screen at once for example.
You can still marry all the girls in the second generation. I just did so last night. However the game will only “remember” the last marriage you did. So if you wed Cammy, Leann, and the twincest in that order… the game will only “count” the twincest marriage.
The more I play RF2, the more I notice the little neat things.
Roy skips class on his school days. He always leaves 1 or 2 hours before the rest of the students (even Cammy, who is assumed to be the same age and grade level).
Barrett and Orland are tsundere.
The twincest share everything but marmalade. They’ll actually fight over marmalade: which is kinda funny, seeing how much of it there is in a jar.
Aaron (default name for Kyle’s son) proposes to Leann. For the other girls, they propose to him. I think that’s a signal that Leann is the “default girl” for the second generation, as how Mana is for the first generation.
Natalie and Alicia makeup in the 7 year bridge between the two generations.
If you don’t marry her, Alicia seems unhappy with the life of being a fortune teller in the 2nd gen: it doesn’t bring much wealth and she ends up marrying nobody.
So can you “remarry” everyone then? I’d assume so, if the game only remembers the last one.
Haven’t gotten that far, butwhat if you marry Julia?
EDIT:NM, the wikipedia sites says Yue is suppose to marry the rival man…so every 2nd gen character is there,so in such a situation, the twins should be there even if you marry Rosalind.
You can’t remarry a girl after you’ve married her: once the “quest” is completed, it doesn’t show up on the message board. However you can marry all three - last one actually counting, as it “overwrites” the other marriages.
This only applies to the 2nd gen. The game only lets on marry one girl - and only once - in the 1st gen.
If you marry Julia, Max marries Yue instead, and she gives birth to Leann instead. I’ve discovered that if you marry anyone but Mana or Alicia, the man she was supposed to marry, will marry Yue as a substitute. By default:
[spoiler]Cecilia marries Jake. Gives birth to Orland.
Dorothy marries Barrett. Gives birth to Leonel.
Julia marries Max. Gives birth to Leann.
Rosalind marries Roy. Gives birth to Sera and Serena.
Mana is supposed to marry Kyle. If she does not, then Mana remains unmarried in the second generation. Alicia and Yue are also single. Kinda sad for Alicia, seeing how she wanted romance: unless you intercede, Yue is more interested in amassing money.[/spoiler]
Oh… last official update to the RFF site, [url=http://www.mmv.co.jp/special/game/wii/runefactory/chara/child.html]now shows your child[/url]. Unlike RF2 however, there’s no second generation treatment. Kid mostly just follows you around. There’s also a full version of the animated intro movie. I like how it showcases all the winnable girls about equally… not focused on making one of them “canon” for Raguna to marry.
I haven’t gotten very far in RFF yet, but I’ve seen postings on 2chan that mentions the plot in game has a direct connection to RF2. It’s supposed to explain what happened between RF1 and RF2… how things turned out the way they did. It also gives more insight into the war that’s happening in RF2 (which is only mentioned from time to time).
In a recent issue of Famitsu, Yasuhiro Wada (series creator) mentions that an RF3 has been approved and being developed. No indication if it’s either NDS or Wii. No indication if it will recycle the RF2 cast or start fresh with a new one. Before I forget, I found this awesome interview with him that’s in English. He mentions that Marvelous consists of 90 people and makes 50 million dollars a year. Not bad for a niche studio, eh? It’s pretty dated though… before Marvelous opened a US branch and RF1 was brand new. He seems to idolize Will Wright and Maxis in general.
On another note, the upcoming new chapter for Harvest Moon on DS appears to have twin sisters. Either that or the split personality thing again… Can’t marry them though (too young).
I would prefer the DS. There isn’t really enough games to warant a purchase of a Wii for me. And hopefully they keep the twincest, even if it isn’t the same ones. It would be nice if the story continues.
Hmmm… been playing RFF for awhile now. Turns out that for Juni (the fat girl), her romance story is about getting her to lose weight. I don’t think she stays big the entire game… Haven’t really gotten far with the love points, because RFF has a more complex dating system that the earlier two. It’s not uber detailed mind you… just more time intensive than talking to her everyday and offering a gift. 
On a sidenote, don’t delete your RF2 game data. Haven’t tried using the US RF2 with JPN RFF… I’ll wait until I’ve beaten the game first. Don’t wanna ruin a save or anything. :o
Harvest Moon seems to take place in the present, Rune Factory is the past, and Innocent Life is the future. Well… time setting at least. Couldn’t begin to guess if they’re the same timeline. I doubt it though (HM is just too “happy” and “innocent” for it to be RF related). If RF incorporates more technology, I think it would drift with Iron Kingdoms or Eberron styled stuff…
What’s turned out to be quite a shocker for me, Famitsu calls this the worst RF ever: 29 points… ouch. RF1 got 33 points. RF2 got 30 points.
i can see RF2 getting a lower score since it does seem like Marvelous doesn’t yet know how to optimize their engine or gameplay properly and it doesn’t have as many bosses, but wasn’t RFF suppose to be the remake? What made them lower their score on it? The controls?
Not sure. I’ll get that issue of Famitsu and find out firsthand. However someone did venture that:
Not entirely true of course: RFF has more features in it that RF2 - but it failed to incorporate the generational feature. That’s a major step backwards: something that many fans are obviously upset about.
That would no longer make it RF1 remake then. It would make it a separate game really because the game was complete in and of itself. Asking them to incorporate generational feature is like asking the remake of DQ4 to do so because the DQ5 original had it.
But the thing is, RFF isn’t a remake: it’s the true sequel to RF1. Technically speaking, RF2 is really the third title in the storyline. RFF takes place after RF1, with the canon ending being that Raguna picked none of the girls to marry (which makes Mist even more scary… she really is a stalker). After defeating the empire, Raguna gets more of his memory back, and has a desire to find a girl from his past: so he travels once again, and wanders into a new town. With some of his lovely admirers following in his wake…
Got that issue of Famitsu. Apparently RFF getting a 29 wasn’t a huge negative thing. The score isn’t rated on the quality of RFF compared to other Rune Factories: it’s in comparison to other Wii games. RFF doesn’t push the Wii to its best: there are games that are better looking or better sounding than RFF.
They did however, praise the animated cut scenes and new additions to RFF (a more complex romance system, more festivals, more plants, etc). Nevertheless, there was a list of things not liked: lack of a generational system, the omission of several winnable RF1 girls, uncreative dungeon design, etc. The review also noted that being a portable game, is part of the RF charm.
Long story short: If you like RF, then you’ll love RFF. If you’re not an RF fan, then you’ll only see RFF as a prettier version of the Rune Factory legacy, but nothing new to enjoy.
To be fair, the generational system is rare, and by rare, I mean almost non-existant. I can name on one hand the number of games that allow you to start as one character, chose your spouce and continue playing the child:
Phantasy Star 3, Dragon Quest 4, Rune Factory 2
There may be a few others out there, but there is a reason it’s not done. Giving it a low score because the previous game had it sound like those people are guilty of demanding something beyond expectations similar to how people were demanding Chrono Cross be more than what it was.
I’m gonna sound like a snob saying this, but I’ve boycotted most of the new Natsume and Atlus titles that have come out 'cos they have the English voice dub. I’ve picked up NIS’s Rhapsody precisely 'cos it had the original Japanese voice acting and musical songs. Thus, I don’t plan on picking up Rune Factory 2, but I hear there’s a sale on at Amazon.com already, it’s like at the mind-boggling price of $14.99.
Um, most console makers, in most cases, will reject a game if i doesn’t have an english dub…
Yea. Sony was one of them. Sales data actually shows, that games that are NOT dubed, sell less favorably than games that ARE dubed. So that’s the core reason why they get dubed. No dubbing makes the purist happy, but there aren’t enough purists to turn a profit.
Also that RF2 sale at Amazon ended some weeks ago. It was a promotional sale. They also said that Amazon ran out of their stock for a time, which means RF2 sold like hotcakes. I believe it’s Natsume’s best selling title for 2008, so it’s a commercial success.
Just wish they would fix that bullet-time and add the option for Japanese VAing. NIS did so for Disgaea.
Some see fit to include both Japanese and English. Some have just Japanese voices. Some companies even have schizophrenic policies when it comes to dubbing. Take Atlus for instance — Izuna series have original Japanese voices, Trauma Center series have English voices. Konami had Japanese voice for Castlevania: DoS, although some of the Japanese voices were cut for bizarre reasons — you could even tell which ones were cut 'cos in Sound Mode, the numbers that used to have voices are empty when you attempt playback; but then they had Japanese and English voices both available for Castlevania: PoR and OoE. Megaman ZX had Japanese voices, but Megaman ZX Advent has English dubbed voices.
Which one is it gonna be? I wish these companies had consistent policy when it comes to voice overs.
Well NIS made the game. They have access to the source code and original programmers. They can make alterations to the game engine, because they actually made the game. Same goes for Nintendo, Konami, Capcom, etc.
Groups like Natsume only license the game and a few of the development tools. That doesn’t give you access to the source code; nor does it give Natsume permission to alter the game engine itself. Natsume has talented programmers on their payroll, but they don’t programmers that talented. Of course they could hire some, but that’s not the kind of money they have, else they’d make their own games from time to time.
Atlus had a REALLY sweet deal when they worked with NIS. They got a lot of favors from the original Japanese studio, most game companies would kill to have. Same with Working Designs, when they were popular back in the day. Not all companies are created equal. 
There are a number of reasons for that. Just two off the top of my head:
#1: Methodology of voice storage. Different studios have different ways of handing audio files. Therefore how the audio is stored widely varies. For some titles it’s easy to include additional audio files (and thus have English and Japanese). For others the method makes it impossible to “add” more sound to the engine: especially games that combine the sounds in a single file. Overwriting the original file is easier than appending to it. For some games the size of certain files has to be a specific number or the engine won’t start them; that makes dubbing difficult and so it’s not considered.
#2: Licensing costs. There are quite a few games, where having the original VA’s means paying the original VA’s more money. I know of quite a few games that were meant to have dual language, yet had that feature pulled when such a fact became known. I know of titles that were outright canceled in the negotiation phase because of this.