Rune Factory: Frontier - Nintendo Wii

I have been playing Rune Factory Frontier (RFF from now on) for about 25 hours and well into the middle of the game, but far from calling it "conquered." My review will necessarily be based on what I have experienced so far. Below I will summarize the contents of the game in terms of structure, story, graphics, and overall impression.Structure:The map of RFF is subdivided into districts such as business district, church district, public square, beach, your ranch, etc. On top of that there are four dungeons to explore. You will find different kinds of monsters in the dungeons but that will be discussed later. Basically you will commit yourselves into farming in your ranch, at least earlier in the game (such as clearing up the weeds, stones, tree branches, till, sow seeds, water, and harvest). Besides your ranch, you will be able to do some faming in the four dungeons (one can grow independent of seasons, the other three grow depend on specific season; no seeds grows in the winter). Other than farming, you will be able to fish, cook, work on the foundry, do crafting and concoct the herbs. You will be able to fight monsters in the dungeons with your weapons or farming tools too. Your skills levels will increase as you practice more of the tasks and your physical level will increase as you get rid of the monsters. Higher physical level means more HP and higher skills levels means less consumption of RP (Rune Points). Rune Points maximum barometer never changes throughout the game (set to 500) and once emptied, your HP starts to be consumed. RP can be refilled by eating or drinking. If your HP is 0, you will be sent to the infirmary in the church district.The weather system in the game is like that of harvest moon. Rain, sun shine, or snow. There are four seasons in the game, each month corresponding to each season. One of the dungeons, "Whale Island" does not have any season and can grow any crops.There are relationships barometer for each resident in the town. By giving the things he/she likes, you will increase the friendship barometer and love barometer if she happens to be a girl (the main character is a boy) you can marry to. When the love barometer gets to like 8 out of 10, you will be able to call out for a date.Rune system is rather complicated. Suffice it to say that there are four color runes (blue, pink, yellow, green) that corresponds to water, stone, tree, and vegetation. There are runes in each district, but I am not sure how they arise or get destroyed. I haven't taken care for like 3/4 of the year about rune and by the time I realized it, runes are gone completely in half of the map. I hypothesize that some hierarchy exists among the runes and we would like to monitor and add/take the runes so as to optimize the overall numbers. Right now I try balancing the rune numbers to about 25 each in my ranch to observe how it will turn out.Story:The main story is probably the tasks given by the Whale in the Whale Island. It is about getting something or destroy something, but I haven't accomplished any one of those yet...The bosses in the dungeons are not related to the story, I think.There is sub-story from each heroine as you get higher friendship or love barometer.Graphics:Graphics relies more or less on anime style drawings than like that of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Considering that this is a Wii game as well as rather simple rpg/simulation, the graphics level suffice in my opinion.Overall:The things I like are the various choirs that can be done in the game, from fishing and cooking to concocting the herbs and crafting a weapon/armor. I also like the point of being able to ask out a lady. Special events offered by the town may be fun too.The things I do not like are the unchanging behaviors of the people. Yes, they do go different places throughout the week and speak different things as the relations improve, but I find it repetitive and dull eventually.As far as I know, there aren't that many rpgs in Wii. I believe RFF to be one of the best out there because RFF presents balanced tasks in fighting, farming, and relations building. Story may be lacking in depth, but other tasks kept me playing the hours.I hope my review helped you in someway in deciding or not in getting this game.

Let me start off by saying I ordered this from amazon. It came extremely fast and was in mint condition. Now for the game ;pI am an old fan of harvest moon games. Have beaten all of them from the PS1 to the to the GBA, NGC, Psp and now I'm gonna be working down on the Wii. we all know harvest moon has alot of spin offs, like Innocent Life, which in my opinion couldn't touch the originals. It just felt like gimmicks that got in the way. I have heard of Rune Factory since it's NDS launch but never paid it any mind, so this is my first Rune Factory game and I must say, FINALLY, A GIMMICK THAT WORKS! People compare this game as a mix between Final Fantasy and Harvest Moon. It's true to a point, but not exactly, as they left out it's also a mixture of The Legend of Zelda. This is truly a sweet package with alot to offer and great open end gameplay. You don't HAVE to do anything, and that is what makes the game sweet. You can be a farmer, adventurer, alchemist, heck you can do all of them if you wanted too. You're not forced into anything. You make your own choices. This game has a distinct Japanese touch and all the female characters are made to suit this really well. Mots of them are cute as hell and stuck in a constant blush every time you interact. Alot of work was put into each character's roll and personality and the voice acting, music, controls, and graphics are all very good. We all know harvest moon games don't put much into graphics, it's a low budget game with high rep. I'd say in terms and graphics though that this game takes you higher, and I'd love to see them continue in this direction. It feels grand to be submerged in old school RPG-like culture. You got your wizards, warriors, half-elves, everything all in one. The environments were made just right for this, and the soundtrack which comprises of some great Celtic/Folk works of art ties everything in. I've played part 2 before part 1 and I must say, part one is way better. If you're looking for a great rune factory or just great harvest moon game, THIS IS IT. Rune Factory 2 Oceans, kinda strayed in my opinion. It was good, but I wouldn't say it could get close enough to touch Frontier with a stick in terms on old school Harvest Moon flavoured gameplay.EDIT: Just to let you guys know the Kind of replay value this game has, I've already clocked in about 150 hours of gameplay in this game and STILL haven't completed the story line, STILL haven't complete all side quests, STILL haven't fully explored everywhere or beaten all the bosses, STILL haven't married yet, and am still dating all the girls to see who I like best. And believe me, I didn't spend the last 150 hours doing nothing. I've been strictly following the storyline since I popped the disk in the first day I bought it lol. Only taking small side quests here and there and little time frames where I'd be level grinding to increase my players strength, combat, and magic skills. Damn I love this game :)