new Rune Factory for Wii/PS3 - Rune Factory Oceans

[Atreides]

from famitsu:

Rune Factory Sequel Set for PS3 and Wii

Marvelous Entertainment's Harvest Moon spinoff series Rune Factory is going multiplatform on PS3 and Wii. This week's Famitsu has a first report on Rune Factory Oceans.

Oceans puts players in control of two main characters, Azel (male) and Sonia (female). You'll experience a fantasy involving love and adventure as you travel across the seas and islands on a giant Ymir that you encounter upon your journey. This giant beast is capable of raising sunken ships and even submerged islands.

The game looks like it will retain many of the elements one expects from Rune Factory. You'll be able to farm on the islands that your Ymir raises above the water. The game will have a real time action battle system with simple controls. You'll also get to experience relationships, even getting married.

In comments shared with the magazine, producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto said that Oceans has been in development for quite some time now and is pretty far along. The reason they chose to make it multiplatform is because they wanted to reach as many users as possible.

Rune Factory Oceans Has Giant Battles

In PS3 and Wii's Rune Factory Oceans, you travel across the oceans atop a giant Ymir. You "vessel" isn't the only giant on the seas, though. In addition to picking up submerged islands and sunken ships, your Ymir will get into battles with other giant sea creatures.

The game will also have more conventional battles. You'll take control of your character in real time battles with monsters, making use of a simple control scheme and combo attacks. You have access to weapons like swords and hammers. These can be strengthened via an item synthesis system.

As mentioned below, you'll be able to play the game as Azel (male) and Sonia (female) main characters. However, it looks like you'll be playing the game as both characters initially, then deciding your final preference midway through the adventure. According to producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto, the game is being implemented this way because they want players to experience the game from both sides.

Developed by Neverland Company, Rune Factory Oceans is currently 80% complete and will see PS3 and Wii release on February 24. Famitsu lists the PS3 version as being Move compatible.

For those of you who own a Wii and have yet to play the first Rune Factory (Rune Factory Frontier, there are 3 on DS as well with unrelated stories), you are really doing yourself a disservice, especially if you're a fan of a game like Recettear or Harvest Moon. You farm, but you also dungeon crawl and level up with action rpg gameplay (and a massive craftable loot system), and you can farm in dungeons to bypass seasonal restrictions as well as restore stamina. Eventually you can capture monsters to run your farm, giving you even more time to spend dungeon crawling.

The only downside to Rune Factory Frontier is that the game doesn't tell you how to play so getting started is rough, and the Runey system is a bit annoying to manage but otherwise it's amazing. Simply put, it's one of the best games on the system and one you can easily sink over 150 hours into.

I am soooo glad to see this is getting a sequel and given that Marvelous has stated that they only plan to localize Rune Factory titles from now on, I have a feeling we'll definitely see this in the US eventually. Keep in mind that Rune Factory Frontier is still one of the top 10 most played Wii games according to Nintendo despite the fact that it was released in March 2009, so I assume it performed well.

[Tobi]

Rune Factory Oceans is the next entry in the Rune Factory series,
Marvelous Entertainment's Harvest Moon spinoff franchise that
mixes RPG and farm simulation elements with a greater emphasis
on the RPG part. Famitsu delivered a first look at the the
muliplatform PS3 and Wii title in this week's issue, and Famitsu.com
has followed through with its own report, complete with screens
(all of which are from the PlayStation 3 version).

In Oceans, you take control of a main character who is, in a sense,
both male and female. Your male side is named Azel. Your female side
is named Sonia. While Azel and Sonia were unique individuals in their
own worlds, when transported to the world of Rune Factory
Oceans following some unexplained incident, they came to occupy
the same body, but with their individual consciousnesses in tact.

The result is that you'll be playing the game from the perspective
of both genders. Of course, the game has the expected Rune
Factory elements of love and marriage. It seems the Sonia side of
your character won't like it when Azel gets close to a girl, and vice
versa.

Your adventure will take you out onto the seas, but not aboard a
ship. Instead, you'll travel aboard a giant named Ymir. Ymir has such
great power that he's able to lift submerged islands and sunken
ships out from the water. You'll be able to take part in farming
activities on newly recovered lands.

Ymir will also end up getting into battles with giant sea creatures.
While details on this side of the game's battle system are scarce, a
bit more is known about the game's expected real time combat
system which puts Azel and Sonia up against monsters. Using a
simple command scheme, you'll be able to unleash a variety of
combos. You'll have access to weapons like swords and hammers.
These can be strengthened via item synthesis.

Rune Factory Oceans is in development at Neverland Company. It's
being produced by Yoshifumi Hashimoto and directed by Hosoya
Ikeda.

A release is set for February 24 at ¥7,140. Famitsu lists the PS3
version as PlayStation Move compatible, but does not provide
details.

There's some screens also: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...ns_first_look/


Never played a Rune Factory game, actually never heard of one till now. Will probably try this out when it releases.

[Tobi]

Marvelous Entertainment is way ahead of the game when it comes
to promotions for Rune Factory Oceans. The company has already
announced an early buyers bonus item for the game.

Those who rush to pick up the game on February 24, 2011 -- yes,
four months from now -- will receive an item called "Rune
Marukajiri Visual Book." This includes an original drama CD, an art
and setting image collection, a collection of illustrations from guest
illustrators, and a beginners guide to the Rune Factory series.

("Marukajiri" is the term for eating a fruit whole rather than
cutting it up. I think I know what they mean by using it here, but I'm
not sure what to translate it as.)

If you've never heard the name "Rune Factory Oceans" before,
don't feel too bad. The game was just officially announced today
through Famitsu and Famitsu.com. You can get all the details here

Marvelous also also opened an official site for the game.
Expectedly, it's in a teaser state, but it does have some adorable
character art showing your character's female and male sides.

Spoiler: show

http://www.andriasang.com/blog/2010/...2132428925.jpg

Wonder if the NA will get the same thing.

[Kaisha]

Hope it'll be getting a budget PSN release on PS3 if it gets localized here. Call me a graphics whore if you please, but I can't see myself paying $49+ for a retail game with visuals like that in this day and age for that platform.


Is nice that they're making some adjustments to the battle mode while keeping it simple though. I've only played the first Rune Factory for DS, and partaking in the combat was the last thing I wanted to do in the game because of how it handled.
(perhaps it got better as you got stronger gear, I don't know, but I didn't feel like putting more than 8 hours into the game. Shit is fucking long and time consuming @.@)

I dig the new setting though, reminds me of Wind Waker/Water World, which still remains a fresh setting for me.

[Atreides]

oh wow, those screenshots look pretty nice

Tobi go play Rune Factory Frontier!

[Tobi]

Already got a shitload of games I need to catch up on plus new upcoming games. I need to come up with some money for DJH2 soon

By the time I finish all my shit, this will be released already, lol.

[Psion]

DO WANT!

But I wish they would put same sex relationships as an option as well for once. <.< Shits annoying cause I hate being a female character but I also hate flirting with female characters, and I also hate not having completion because marriage is important orz

[Parshias]

Screens are kinda meh. Graphics look alright, but overall area design doesn't seem anywhere as good as Frontier. Guess I just like the more rustic looking areas rather than super-pastel beach stuff. Although the giant dragging up new bits of land sounds pretty great.

But who am I kidding, I'll sink 100+ hours into this no matter what it looks like. That is, after I sink 100+ hours into Rune Factory 3.

[Psion]

Rainy days in RF: frontier always put me to sleep... the ambient sounds in the game are too good lol. Even when you go inside and hear the rain on the roof, it sounds real, and it sounds like the rains falling around you in headphones, not just from one or two directions.

I waaaant this gaaaame... ;; I wonder if i can sell some of my old games for enough cash to afford this. lol

[Tobi]

With the initial reveal of Rune Factory Oceans and opening salvo of
screenshots out of the way, the game’s producer, Yoshifumi
Hashimoto, kicked off a developer blog with a post on a couple of
development and design tidbits.

The first is to do with loading times. If you played Rune Factory
Frontier, you may recall that it would put up a loading screen
whenever you walked from one area to the next and the game
needed to load all the new geometry and textures in for the new
area.

Oceans still requires this, but load times are something that
Marvelous and developer, Neverland, are trying to cut down on.
Hashimoto says that constant research and development was
performed with the lofty goal of attaining load times similar to
those of Muramasa: The Demon Blade — or that is to say, no load
times between areas at all.

While Oceans isn’t quite there, load times have been cut down
drastically so that the transition from area to area only takes
about two seconds, which is a pretty major improvement over
Frontier.

The second point Hashimoto talks about is conversations and
events. In Rune Factory Frontier, like a lot of role-playing games,
you had character portraits (like the example image above) to help
express emotion during conversations. The camera angle was also
such that your character model was viewed from a bit of a
distance.

In Oceans, character models are front and centre during
conversations, in place of portraits. We aren’t entirely sure yet if
they’re just posed in different ways to be a 3D substitute for
portraits or whether they actually animate.

Hashimoto says this was done because he believes 3D models can be
used to better convey body language, such as determined or
embarrassed poses. He wants the characters to feel “alive” and
feels that 3D helps make the events feel more dramatic.

This decision on his part, he says, caused a lot of trouble for the
team working on the events. It should also be pointed out that
posing 3D models in different ways is far easier than creating a
new portrait for each pose, so we dare say this factored into the
decision as well.

Hashimoto closes his post out by saying that he’d like to show
people more soon in a follow-up, and asks that fans wait a little
longer.

I -think- some new screens on this link as well: http://www.siliconera.com/2010/10/22...actory-oceans/

[Atreides]

RFF didn't even have unreasonable load times whatsoever. I just really hope they keep the same general gameplay without the stupid fucking Runey system

[Kaisha]

Did you play RFF via disc, or via USB though?

[SephYuyX]

HM/RF games are always the best chill games.

[Yuri-G]

I was gonna be like "in b4 Atreides" but nooooooo

[Atreides]

Did you play RFF via disc, or via USB though?

oh, I played it on USB so maybe that's why

[Parshias]

OK, that new screenshot of the town in the Fall looks waaaaaay better than the ocean dungeon stuff we had seen before. Hype times a million.

[Tobi]

Not much

Spoiler: show

http://heath.shikokusensei.com/rpgla...za-scans30.jpg
http://heath.shikokusensei.com/rpgla...za-scans31.jpg

[Tobi]

Famitsu has a nice little update on Rune Factory Oceans this week,
sharing a few more bits about marriage and sea battles and even
debuting the game's monster raising system.

MARRIAGE
Romance and marriage are elements of any Harvest Moon and Rune
Factory game. As detailed in our initial look, Oceans has just a few
twists in this area owing to the main character being a male and
female in one body.

You'll find a selection of heroes and heroines to target depending on
your character's current gender. Candidates listed in the magazine
include:

James
A hero candidate. He's a trader, but because his business is always
in the red he relies on his younger sister's support. While he's
normally calm and composed, when it comes to his younger sister,
he'll become a lot more talkative.

Sarah
A heroine candidate. She runs a general store but can often be seen
taking leave of work to head out for play. She'll get close to
anyone, and so has a lot of friends.

Electra
A heroine candidate. Her family appears to be going through financial
troubles.

As with past titles, you can attempt to earn favor with these
candidates by giving presents. The candidates will wear the
present, showing visual changes to their appearance.

MONSTER RAISING
In addition to fighting monsters in battle, you can also befriend
monsters, raise them, and have them fight with you as allies. To
woo new monsters to your side, it appears that you'll have to
brush their fur using your comb. When bringing a monster out to
battle with you, you'll be able to tell the good guys from the bad
guys because your allied beasts will have a marker above their head.

SEA BATTLES
In Rune Factory Oceans, you ride a giant as you travel across the
seas. This giant is born from a seed and will listen to the commands
of the person who planted the seed. At some point in the game, the
ground will tear apart with a thunderous roar and the giant will
emerge. Sonia, the female side of the main character, will give the
giant the name Ymir upon hearing that it can speak.

Ymir can raise islands from the ocean's depths. These islands can be
explored, but you'll need to be careful of monster attacks.

Ymir will also encounter other giants while out on the sea. This will
trigger a monster battle. Taking direct control of Ymir, you can
punch, throw boulders and perform other attacks. You even have
access to finishing moves. Famitsu has a look at two giants: the
bull-like Giant Horn, and Big Squid.

Famitsu will presumably put the screens and details from its print
article online at some point later this week, so be sure and check
the headlines section of the Rune Factory Oceans game page.

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...oceans_update/
http://www.andriasang.com/e/database...actory_oceans/

[Atreides]

seriously tobi go play RF: Frontier, you'll love it

[Psion]

RF: frontier has sucked so much time from me. ;-;