new Rune Factory for Wii/PS3 - Rune Factory Oceans

[Tobi]

Quick video showing just how fast the load times are in Oceans, and some other brief info(farming mechanics).

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...ry_no_loading/

[Atreides]

the interface looks really similar to RF:Frontier, with the 2 button mapped to Return and the dpad mapped to item shortcuts

[Max™]

I recall in RF2, the chica tells me she was courting for the pretend marriage in the second generation as a girl, managed to marry the twin girls.

Interesting glitch, I'd say.

[Tobi]

http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/6195/image34.png
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4338/image35o.png

Marvelous released two screenshots of Rune Factory Oceans’ male lead, Azel, walking on dry land. The heads up display looks like Rune Factory Frontier, but busier with popup messages and a helpful looking mini-map.

See the giant creature standing in the ocean? That’s Ymir. You can ride it to different islands in the game.

[Tobi]

And this PV just popped up

[Julian]

Can't wait

[Tobi]

Spoiler: show

http://heath.shikokusensei.com/rpgla...rune-etc32.jpg
http://heath.shikokusensei.com/rpgla...une-etc107.jpg
http://heath.shikokusensei.com/rpgla...une-etc109.jpg

New chars so far:

There's four other bachelorettes, and two bachelors, thus far:

- Sera/Sailor/Sela/Sara ... However you want to romanize it. She's a tomboyish bifauxen who runs the general store.

- Electra, this game's de Sainte-Coquille. Likely similar in personality to her predecessors.

- Mikoto, this game's Japanese girl. A serious sounding samurai.

- Elena, a blacksmith. Yes, a young, female blacksmith you can marry for once; it's a marvel concept, isn't it? Anyway, apparently has a sharp mouth and controls golems.

- James, the first bachelor to be revealed. Apparently a merchant. No idea about his personality, but doesn't he remind you of Max?

- Joe, the other bachelor. A smug-looking red haired boy who is a treasure hunter.

In addition:

- Bonaparte, Electra's grandmother.

- Kilt and Knit, two young siblings. Kilt, the girl, is playful while Knit, the boy, prefers to stay inside.

- Grey, a feminine healer.

- Masked Man, who apparently appears to the player various times throughout the game.

- Bachas, Joe's father. An adventurer.

[Tobi]

Official site up now: http://www.mmv.co.jp/special/game/runeoceans/index.html

The newly opened Rune Factory Oceans official site is currently missing most of its content, but there is a bit of clarification about the game's somewhat odd premise.

We previously met the game's two main characters, Azel and Sonia. Previously, it was said that the two characters have been summoned to the game world and end up occupying the same body. This isn't entirely accurate.

Azel and Sonia are from the same world, where they were childhood friends. One day, they're both sucked into a mysterious light and end up on Finis Island, a land where people, spirits and monsters live together.

Azel regains consciousness beneath a great tree, and the first person he sees is Odette, a girl from a nearby town. Azel decides to temporarily reside on the island and leases the house next to Odette's. However, the next day, a tremendous incident shakes the island, leading to the start of Azel's adventures out on the sea.

When Azel awakens underneath that great tree, Sonia is nowhere to be found. The reason is that Sonia is actually in Azel's head. She'll stay there for the first part of the game.

It looks like Sonia will eventually come out, though. The official site says that you'll be able to make Azel go out on dates with, marry and have kids with heroines, and likewise for Sonia with heroes. This presumably means that at some point you'll be able to toggle between the two characters.

Three of the heroines who can be targeted by Azel are Lily, Odette and Iris. These three are sisters who run "Sisters," a combo pub and inn establishment. Lily, the oldest, is a musician and also serves a motherly role. Odette, the second oldest, is a brilliant cook. Iris, the youngest, is the town's only nurse.

New screens on official site, or can just view them all here: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...y_oceans_site/

[Atreides]

it looks like they kept a lot of the same monster character models, and it *appears* you can have more than one of the same monster to help on the farm with the same task which is a nice improvement over RFF (having only 1 elephant to water crops was annoying). Honestly that's one of the best parts of the series, having monsters run your farm so you can be free to explore and dungeon crawl.

I'm really interested to see if the farming is as well integrated into the dungeon crawling as it was in RFF. For reference the way it worked was that dungeons all had various farm plots strewn about, and since dungeons are exempt from seasonal changes you could plant crops and grow them year-round for a steady source of income. Also fully matured crop plots in dungeons will produce a stamina restoral orb once per day, allowing you to explore deeper the more you plant. It was a really neat system so I really hope it stays the same in RF:Oceans.

[Imitarate]

Those are all basic features in both (all three?) DS RF games, so they're likely to return here. The stamina restoral orbs are actually called "runes" which is where the title comes from, if I remember correctly.

[Atreides]

yea I forget how they changed it in RF:F, I think that depending on what you planted in the DS games (flowers, plants) you got different amounts of stamina per orb but in RF:F it was like 150. Eventually in RF:F you could just raise your fishing high enough that you'd have limitless stamina though, from the somewhat low-value fish you caught on the bottom floors of the various dungeons.

One thing I hope they add is a way to change the game clock. In RF:F the game day was a pretty reasonable length, about 20 mins I think, but from what I hear RF3 has a really short day. I would like something like Chibi Robo where you can basically set the day length although I'm sure that no harvest moon game has ever had that

[Tobi]

Rune Factory Oceans has seasonal changes. As the in-game clock advances, the seasons will change, resulting in a different look for town, snow and rain effects, and season-specific events.

When summer comes around, the townfolk will let it all loose for a swimsuit contest! It looks a little something like this:



It's a bit hard to see in the screenshot, but the contest isn't just for the girls. Male lead Azel is visible in the distance. He may be the only guy, though, as the large collection of swimsuit artwork in this week's Famitsu shows him amongst eight girls.

If you head out to the beach on the day of the swimsuit contest, you'll be able to view the townfolk in their finest swimwear. Later, you can head to a voting booth to select your favorite.

Less nonsense activities awaiting in Rune Factory Oceans include:

Quests

Visit the Sisters inn and you'll find a message board filled with quests from people around the island. Clear the quests and you'll earn items.

Item Synthesis

Collect materials to make new items. These can be used for yourself and as gifts to townfolk.

Quest With Monsters

Using your magic brush, you can make monsters that you encounter in dungeons become a part of your party. They'll help you out in battle.

Get Married and Have Babies

Here's what it looks like when you get married (left) and when your wife reveals to you that she's pregnant (right).

Some more screens here: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201101/06037401.html

[Tobi]

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/01/14...d-mystery-man/

[Imitarate]

Wow, three male prospects and only one of them looks like a girl. I'm impressed, Natsume. Good job!

[Tobi]

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/01/20...from-frontier/

Famitsu have an interesting Rune Factory Oceans reveal this week: the game actually contains three guest characters from Rune Factory Frontier. Annette the mail girl, Tabatha the maid, and Candy, who you might remember as the girl that made you Rune Stones.

The three characters aren’t all part of the main story, however. Annette, for instance, only appears once a month to deliver packages. She’s a cheerful girl lugging a gigantic bag of packages. Tabatha seems to have left Bianca’s services temporarily, and is on hand to assist Electra (pictured to the right) with her handicrafts.

Meanwhile, Candy (Cinammon’s younger sister), is now a student at the Royal Academy of Magic in the kingdom of Norad, where her grandfather, Kanno (the old guy from Frontier), used to work. She’s at Finis Island to conduct an investigation of the island’s spirits.

Oceans also has an interesting feature new to the series: mock-marriages called “sea ceremonies”. These appear to be for players who end up liking characters you can’t marry in the game. The mock-marriage lasts for a single night, and Candy is one of the characters you can mock-marry.

[Tobi]

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/02/11...nd-30-islands/

One feature new to the series in Rune Factory Oceans is that you can ride on the back of a giant, Ymir, and explore the waters surrounding Finis Island. As you do this, you’ll be able to discover other islands.

Rune Factory series director, Masahide Miyata, says that there are around 30 of these islands in the game, with different seasons such as spring, summer and so on. These effectively take the places of the caves the Rune Factory series has traditionally used, and you can plant crops pertaining to different seasons on the various islands.

Another change Rune Factory Oceans makes is that, for once, the protagonists, Azel and Sonia, don’t suffer from amnesia, unlike all previous Rune Factory leads — instead, they get transported into another dimension and wake up in the same body.

The previous games allowed you to assign whatever name you wanted to the lead because he was an amnesiac. However, producer, Yoshifumi Hashimoto, says that, despite the lack of amnesia in Oceans, you’ll still be able to rename Azel and Sonia. He points out, though, that the giant, Ymir, can’t be renamed.

[Julian]

I want this

[Julian]

So, uh, it's out in Japan.

Apparently there's only 3 guys you can marry, and they're all ugly. I mad. Maybe I'll just play as a guy, cause playing as a girl is weird. I also like how there's a good variety of different girls, and they're all mostly cute -_-

Also, they "ruined" farming or something, like, supposedly you can't farm at all now, and it's just monsters? Idk, need more info.

[Atreides]

no farming? whaaaat?

[Julian]

It's something like, you wave a magic stick, and farming happens? Like, I heard that you don't even get to put down seeds and stuff anymore. idk :/