Rune Factory Oceans is the next entry of the series. Will be released on Wii and PS3. First RF to have a female character as an option at the beginning (no generational thing). 
Also the English release of Rune Factory 3 will be out on November 9th.
Good. This is on the PS3 so i might have a chance to pick this one up unlike RFF.
Rune Factory or Rune Factory 2 for only $10, brand new!
Cyber Monday special at GameStop: http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/cybe … fault.aspx
Get 'em now if you ain’t got 'em.
Events in RF: Oceans take place at the same time, or roughly around, the events in RF: Frontier…
http://www.mmv.co.jp/special/game/runeo … guest.html
Seemingly ALL the Rune Factory titles are occuring together. This is rather interesting, because that means the four elemental dragons are being slain in the time frame. RF1 saw the death of the Earth. RF2 sees the death of the Fire. RF3 sees the death of Water. I imagine that RF4 (probably 3DS) will have the Air. Kinda curious what these events are ultimately leading too.
I remember one of the RF developer radio broadcasts mentioning that the “amnesia farmer warriors” aren’t a coincidence… there’s an unyet reveal thread that connects all of the together. Maybe they’re of divine origin? So far only Raguna hasn’t gotten his memory back…
I am wondering if they are trying to link it with HM eventually?
The other thing is they’ve been painting this Empire as menacing, but we really haven’t seen any direct confrontation so I’d say eventually they’re going to have to do something with that or people will get frustrated. Also I’m not sure how many elements they plan to use. If its based on western model, this should be the last one, but if its the eastern, we should see one more, a void dragon.
Yea… forgot about the Sechs Empire. However from what little background info can be gathered about the war, it appears to be grounding into a stalemate. The little communities that RF take place within are more or less tranquil, because the warring nation has Sechs more-or-less contained.
Strange enough, we still don’t know what kingdom is at war with Sechs… we do know that all of the towns so far are within Norad Kingdom, who is NOT at war with Sechs. The only other civilization that we know of is the unnamed asian nation, but judging from what those girls say, their nation isn’t at war with Sechs either (they’re profiting from selling to both side in the war).
Good point about the Void element. Will be interesting to see if one exists. As of RF3, only four dragons are known: Terrable (RF1), Fiersome (RF2), Aquaticus (RF3), and Ventuswill (assuming he’ll be in RF4). Seems rather suspicious that all the dragons are located in Norad.
There’s still a lot of unanswered questions about Earthmates (which all the heroes have proven to be) and the lost Monster Kingdom as well.
They just revealed Pandora. Looks like she’s a depowered vampiress, which might tie in this entry with Rune Factory Frontier.
There’s also a mysterious masked man in the line up, who might be a previous RF villain in disguise.
Bought some Marvelous Entertainment vouchers, and they sent me a random investor portfolio. Rather neat reading. Since nothing was mentioned as “private” information (it even said open to press release)…
It would appear that the company invests between $500,000 to $2,000,000 per portable game (consoles can be twice that), with the average being 800,000 to 1,200,000 in general. So let’s assume they make a 1.2 million dollar game that retails for $40 a copy to customers. Well the breakdown goes as follows (very generalized):
25% goes to the retailer (can vary… some of the larger chains demand as much as 45%)
10% goes to the console/handheld licensing fee (usually Nintendo)
10% goes to marketing and advertising
10% goes to card/disc pressing and box packaging (usually Nintendo)
05% goes to distribution (shipping it to the stores and warehouse rental)
05% goes to research and development
05% goes to corporate overhead (bonuses, supplies, stuff not covered by the rest, etc)
That leaves about 30% that actually goes into paying for the game.
So if that game is $40 per copy, $12 is all Marvellous makes per sale, which must first REPAY the debt to make the game. So going with that $1.2 million dollar game: they must sell 100,000 copies before it breaks even (and thus profitable). So now it makes sense why 100,000 copies has always been seen as a success for them as a company.
It also reveals why they dislike the “used game” market (and of course piracy)… because they see none of the profits from such sales (if the retailer doesn’t order more; they don’t make more). When you look at the grand scale of things: 100,000 isn’t really a lot of copies. Supposedly there’s 145 million (that’s right: MILLION) Nintendo DS users worldwide. They want a fraction of a fraction of 1% - and are worried of just meeting that goal. 
According to the latest investor report, Nintendo claims to have sold more than 26 million copies each of NSMB DS and Mario Kart Wii.
Compared to that, yeah, 100K is nothing. >> <<
Yea… pretty damn sad… According to Marvelous, Rune Factory 2 sold 130,000 copies in Japan and 325,000 copies International (North America and Europe). So in their home country, assuming a $12 profit margin per copy sold (and it cost 1.2 million to make), the game only generated $360,000 after paying the bills. I’d assume they only got 30% of the foreign sale profit (Natsume has bills too after all), so let’s say that’s $4 a copy – we’re looking at something like $1,300,000 profit from the foreign venture. All of which probably funded the development of Rune Factory Frontier on the Wii.
And then RF: Frontier pays for RF3… then RF3 pays for RF: Oceans… the RF: Oceans probably pays for RF4… etc. Thus one break in the chain disrupts (or even ends) the franchise.
Of course they can always make a game with the character’s shooting themselves in the head and break the cycle in a more positive direction 
with all the press coverage (free advertising).
Well, this IS Harvest Moon. It would probably involve them sticking their heads into a mystical threshing machine, as opposed to using a gun.
My vote is for a yandere with full stabby ending if you pick any girl but her (at the wedding alter of course)… but she’s so insecure, even if you do choose her, she still kills you just to be sure. For added twist, she’s the girl who finds you first! :twisted:
Just finished RFO on the Wii. AWESOME addition to the Rune Factory saga: especially in the story department.
The two main characters are actually from another dimension and transported to the RF planet. Sonia (the playable herione) loses her body during the reality shift, and exists within Azel (the playable hero’s). Leads to some halarious moments, since they tend to comment to each other about everything and can read each other’s minds. Get this: they KEEP their memories. Puts a whole new dimension (pun!) on where these heroic farmer warriors are coming from.
Can’t choose to be the girl until after the main story is finished. She has her own intro once this is done. It’s cute and girlish. Fits perfect actually. :o
Her appearance is quite something new for RF, because Sonia is a girl. I mean here comes Azel - bad ass farm boy warrior - swooning all the girls from the guys, who are quite unhappy about that… then BAM!!! – here’s Sonia, bad ass farm girl warrior - stealing the boy’s hearts.
I think the official paring for the entry is Azel + Sonia though, seeing how they were childhood friends on their homeworld, and have no secrets between them after the sharing a body thing. 
Confirmed for Western release on PS3 and Wii. Will be retitled as Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny.
I guess they wanted a more “epic” name to entice buyers?
I assume it’s for the PS3 crowd… or perhaps more male players (this game has a more involved combat system). Rune Factory and Harvest Moon enjoy a strong and loyal female fanbase on the Nintendo systems.
Then again, it’s better than Rune Factory Oceans: A Fantasy Harvest Moon.
Natsume is doing it this time around, since XSEED didn’t like the small scale sale of the Rune Factory Frontier. Natsume, being the franchise veterans, know better and happier being underdogs. Judging from the admirable VA and translation quality in RF3, this should be in good hands. :o
I hope they release this one with dual audio tracks at least. They don’t have the excuse that there isn’t enough room. They can always make it a downloadable addon.
Forgot to mention this two weeks ago… :oops:
http://www.mmv.co.jp/special/game/3ds/runefactory4/
Rune Factory 4 on 3DS due out later this year.
Famitsu got an exclusive teaser preview of the goods:
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201106/30045925.html
Can choose to be male or female. Amnesia protag… fighting the Air Dragon this time around (Ventuswill in the US version IIRC). Looks like harem dating (why choose just one – gotta catch 'em all) is the new romance mechanic. 3DS storage means it can have more animated cut scenes like the Wii versions did.