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Mzbundifund posted:I kind of figured he just married a turkey dinner and Bianca sprung from it fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus. I'd just like to let everyone know that this is officially canon, at least within the bounds of this thread. Also, since we're getting close to the end of the game, I'd like to get a quick feel for how the thread feels about this, how much do y'all care about the festivals we missed? I can probably participate in/win almost all of them but the loving Cook-Off. I will be showing off some postgame stuff, of course, but there isn't too much, honestly.
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Nov 3, 2016 08:49
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The only festival I really care about is the one celebrating our victory over Sechs.
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Nov 3, 2016 08:50
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Zanzibar Ham posted:The Sechsies though seem to be kinda dumb in general, considering what I've seen of them in RF4.
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Nov 3, 2016 13:10
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The festivals have been pretty underwhelming because nothing really happens in any of them. You just cross all the characters' single defining traits with the theme of the festival, so Melody rants about taking baths while sheering sheep or whatever. I wouldn't worry about missing them.
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Nov 3, 2016 15:54
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Update 44: Getting Greedy Hey there. You might notice Donnel appears to be horrifyingly melting into Shaun. Don’t worry about it. So this is the endgame, but there’s something Donnel has not yet conquered.  And it’s going to require copious amount of Milk. Good think our fridge is full of it.  The Baked Potato actually gives a pretty drat high amount of RP back (21!), so I want to make those. I’ve got the potatoes...but Butter is an issue.  Time to rule the kitchen. Put Milk in the Blender, and…  It didn’t work because Donnel’s Cooking Skill is awful. I might try and grind out a bit more of that before the end, but I may not need it. Anyway, this has been the cold open, let’s actually do the dang dungeon.  I’m bringing my horrifying monstrosity TypeO.  Seriously he’s ridiculously close up.  To reach Greed Cave, just head to where Danaan was, and...turn right.  Huh. Kinda underwhelming.  I wonder if they ran out of map space.  Anyway, Greed Cave has sort of a crystalline theme. Getting Final Fantasy IV in this poo poo. Or Final Fantasy V. Or...pretty much any Final Fantasy, really.  There’s a field right in this opening room. Still, I feel like we’re missing something.  Oh yeah, Mist.    : This...is the last one? : I think so...: Mr. Donnel... Please don’t get yourself killed…Since when was he Mr. Donnel? What’s with everyone giving us titles all of a sudden? : I won’t.Don’t put me on the spot like that. : I’ll head back now…: Right. I think that’s safest.: Be careful…: I will. Greed Cave is a pretty simple final dungeon. There’s no ridiculous gimmicks, no locked doors, only one real little “trick” that’ll stop me from exploiting something I have been all game. But we’ll get to that by the end of the cave. What Greed does have is a variety of monsters who are more than willing to wreak havoc on your HP bar. Let’s meet some of those.  Going left at the entrance fork leads to the Faust. It’s just a reskin of the Necro we saw last cave, but to put in perspective how much Greed steps up the game on enemies, Necros had an attack value of 101. Faust has 172. Welcome to the endgame.  Here’s why the Heaven Asunder was something I wanted, by the way. This was like, two swings. The number one rule of Greed Cave? Kill it before it kills you.  He’s guarding a pool of water, easy access, no trick poison tiles or anything.  Going east reveals some fields and the final recolor of the very first enemy we met, the Orc Lord. Two spawn at once and they can paralyze you. Otherwise there’s not much to note.  TypeO gave his life to hold them off while I took out the spawner. Goodnight, sweet abomination.  A save point already? They aren’t loving around.  Befitting of the name, Greed Cave has some riches.  Like this Level 10 Diamond. That’s some good poo poo.  But what’s this, hiding in the plume of fire?  Knock knock, meet the final member of the egam Crew as he drains the life out of me. This is the… Lil’ Emperor. That’s not a magic thing! Regardless, he’s nothing to sneeze at. Inferno is every bit the pain in the rear end it was back in Clemens Cave, and his Life Absorber actually does damage, unlike yours.  Basically these guys suck.  Needing a heal, Donnel chugs the Hot Milk.  Only for me to realize this is yet another food item that restores 0 RP. gently caress.  And now there are arrows flying at me.  Goblin Snipers only spawn here, and they are extremely rude. They just do a lot of damage. That’s about it, but it’s enough. They also have a chance to drop Gunpowder for some reason.  I tried to be sneaky and Sword Beam the spawner from out of their range. Not quite. Maybe if I get a bit closer…  Two things to note here. One is that the Heaven Asunder charged beams are insane, that’s over 400 damage to both of the goblins. The other is that only one of the arrows has technically hit me.  The other was a crit.  What a way to go.  Luckily that was canonically a dream sequence.  I’m actually just gonna pass out at home.  I fear that, due to the dangers of Greed Cave, I’ll be wanting lots of RP. Cooking is tough to get going, so I may have to resort to truly desperate measures.  I’m gonna do the mechanics voluntarily.  Accompanying me is drazi, because I like the way he hops around on the top screen there.  The Pink Cat flowers are the fastest growing Summer crops, beating out Onions by a day. Thus that’s what I’m going with for Greed Cave.  Caster monsters can cast as long as you have RP, since they have none of their own. If you run out, though, they default to a single spell, in this guy's case, he loses Cure and just uses Water Laser.  Also the Necro has a high water resistance so this didn’t really mean poo poo.  More handily, drazi knows Cure!  Some intense particle effects going on here.  All four batches of Pink Cat are planted, and drazi is poisoned.  I’m sure he can sleep it off.  Maybe not. At this point drazi got stuck in a loop of trying to cast Cure every time he lost HP from the poison, losing more HP from the poison, then casting Cure again. I just let it happen because it was funny.  This pool of water by the Faust spawner is really handy.  And so, Donnel spent many days sleeping, then watering, then sleeping again, becoming ever more skilled at sleeping on his quest.  Also I finally Medicated drazi because I felt bad for him. And it’s the 30th of Winter.  Which means I’ll have to leave Greed Cave for now. I’ll be back to finish the watering...and the cave...but there’s one final holiday to celebrate.  There’s also this really Rune Factory thing I just found where if you cast Teleport, it puts you directly on the spot where the game requires you return the monster to its hut, meaning you get prompted with this every single time. Not only is it a festival in Kardia, it’s a festival because we’re almost done with this dang LP.  And now, astride D-Dog… ~A Rune Factory Retrospective~  Carmite Cave was the start of the adventure, and it took me the longest to clear, I think. With sheer number of updates, I think Toros and Clemens had more, but this had three all to itself with very little sidequesting/crafting/monster recruiting. Carmite’s hard just because the RP mechanic is so restrictive at that point.  Greater Daemon feels like an oddly tightly tuned first boss, he punishes mistakes hard just because of how few options you have at that point. No cure spells, probably no food, little HP.  Toros Cave is probably the one I’ve spent the most time in during this LP, just for the crops inside and the amount of Wood that spawns in there. Toros feels a lot more dangerous than Clemens, but the game starts to open up a bit more around this point, so I think it’s easier to deal with.  Chimera made for a wonderful introduction to the ubiquitous Rune Factory boss mechanic of “HIT IT WHILE IT SHOOTS THE LASER”.  Clemens was mazey and had some obnoxious enemies, like the Queen Hornets and Ignis, but...my god...the cash from this place. I still think it’s the best grinding spot for money, even at the end of the game.  Mandragora was a boss who would probably be really hard if Medicate wasn’t as ridiculously good as it is. Because it was, this was the easiest boss in the game.  Mt. Gigant is my favorite cave in the game, and also where I think I started to get into the flow of things. This one went down in two updates. There’s just something nice about the almost entirely outdoor dungeon, I like the music, and this is where ⅔ of the produce animals are for some reason. Good memories.  The Boss Formerly Known As Grimoire was a pain because you really have to respect all of his abilities to get openings on him. Ironically, his simple tail swipe was probably the most annoying thing in his arsenal. Or the Swordstorms. It just wasn’t the fire, the thing you’d think the dragon would be known for.  gently caress    Kasimir is weirdly short and easy. I don’t have a ton to say about the ruins other than...it had weird “puzzles”? I think this is the only cave that required you to leave and talk to someone to progress.  Golem was really cool, though. It’s tricky, but not unfair, and he just feels pretty fun to fight.  Danaan Cave is...uh...the one before the last one? This is another cave that I just didn’t really have any opinions on. At this point pretty much every enemy you encounter is a recolor, and you can sorta see the game beginning to lose some steam.  Battle Tank is probably my second favorite boss, though. It’s just silly enough to work. Also it had a laser that exploded into a bigger laser.  But there’s one dungeon we haven’t delved inside…  Mist’s House. What secrets could be within?   Oh okay. There’s supposed to be a way to trigger a conversation where Mist tells you about this, but I’ll be honest, I totally forgot how to do it. Thankfully, you can just...come in and take it. I was holding off in case I remembered how to trigger the event, but since we’re in the home stretch, I’m just going to steal it. Now then, the actual festival is New Year’s Eve. This one doesn’t really do anything, it just means all the shops are closed, the villagers are outside, and they have special dialogue. Let’s check some of that out.  I wanted to buy things from you.   Cecilia’s going to grow up to be one of those people who tells you they haven’t seen you in a YEAR on New Year’s Day and post incessantly about it on Facebook.  Russell, I’m not sure if you’re aware of the Dragon God. Or the Tank. Are the years here usually more dangerous than that?  One more desperate attempt  I imagine Edward giving Donnel the world’s biggest eyebrow raise as he thinks about how many times I’ve passed out in the street, next to a cave, or in his bedroom.  I hope the answer is “stop bothering me in caves”. It was way better when Melody did it.  Sorry, but the key to her heart is inside of a large man’s stomach now. We may have doomed Rosetta to a lifetime of being single, but at least we managed to spite Lukas. Greater good.  There are only four months in Rune Factory land, Felicity. She knows too much.  You know, what does Jasper even do? How did he make his fortune?   I don’t even care. That’s all for the final festival.  Next time, a new year, and probably the end of Greed Cave. LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 4, 2016 09:15
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I can almost hear Donnell singing..."I will remember you...Will you remember me? Don't let your LIIIIIIIIIIIIFE pass you by..."
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Nov 4, 2016 10:45
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Huh. You can put paid to this game in one year?
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Nov 5, 2016 01:54
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If you didn't need to wait for winter to get into Misty Bloom, you could probably do it in the first spring if you really tried. Summer at the latest. This is not a long game story-wise.
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Nov 5, 2016 05:00
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Update 45: Shadow Dragon? Not much I can say now that I haven’t already. Let’s dive into the final cave of Rune Factory.  It’s Spring 1 again, and drazi is joining Donnel on his final quest.  Flowers still need one day before they sprout, but that’s alright, I’ve got the sleeping bag for a reason. I went ahead and cleared the dungeon up to the point that the canonical dream sequence stopped last time.  Turns out this goes way better if you don’t get shot.  RP limitations hurt, though.  The Goblin Snipers were guarding some more farmland, and another set of steps, but if we head south of here…  Additional steps! I’ll be taking these, leaving the others for later.  Almost immediately I run into the final bug. It’s a Death Scorpion. They inflict poison or paralysis, but it’s trivially easy not to get hit by them.  They also bear gifts.  Sort of an underwhelming gift, if I’m being frank.  Anyway here’s the last unique model enemy in the game! This is the Mini Dragon, it shoots fireballs and that’s about it.  It’s also sort of a chump. Of note is that these enemies can drop the “Emery Flower Seeds”, the rarest seeds in the game, that take a full 120 days to grow. They are also Mist’s favorite gift.  This isn’t one of them, but I like it better anyway.  Another staircase, and we’re going deeper.  So...once this horrible mess of particle effects goes away and my system stops chugging…  Aha! A...purple Fairy? No, this is HADES somehow. It’s a real motherfucker, it can heal itself, seal you, and cast that giant AOE Storm spell.  Or you could be cheap, like me, and just backtrack to the stairs and kill the spawner before it spits one out. I’ll take it.  The way forward is blocked by...are you loving serious rune factory you’re pulling this poo poo again  Fine. Unfortunately the shot I got of the monsters from this spawner got lost somehow, but they’re the “Goblin Masters”. Imagine the Snipers but with swords and that’s your model. They hit fairly hard, but that’s about it.  They also don’t mind if I nap behind their spawner, thankfully. You don’t have to be “Out of Combat” or anything to Sleeping Bag. You just can’t use it in a boss room.  And then I just ambush the spawner like an rear end in a top hat. It’s Greed Cave, it’s actively encouraging me here.  Surprise, more stairs.  This, however, is very, very new.  That looks final boss-y.  Definitely not doing that yet. I planted those flowers for a reason.  While Donnel orbs out, here’s the gimmick for Greed Cave. That’s a Teleporter, instead of a door, and it doesn’t stay open if you leave. You have to clear all the spawners and the boss without leaving the cave. It’s not too bad, but worth mentioning and a nasty surprise if you think you can dip out to Melody’s or something.  That’s why planting crops here? Not a waste of your time.  Each Rune is 25RP, so four of them maxes Donnel out.  Oh, by the way, that staircase we skipped earlier just had farmland and a few rocks. There, no more loose ends.  Here’s a final stats screen.  The destined day of Spring The Third.   ...Huh.   : But I destroyed your new weapon! There’s nothing you can do now!Donnel, she just explained this last cave.  : Oh, the tank. Yes… Heh heh heh… That was the final piece we needed to complete our plan.: The final piece?I’m not gonna make the joke. There’s an eyepatch on screen, make it yourself. : That’s right. And it fit beautifully into our scheme.: Hmmm…: Behold! This is what all our efforts here have been for! I like the convenient arrows that point to the evil science machine.  Lightning crashes down!  The screen shakes!  Well. Hello. : No...It can’t be!  I have no idea what the gently caress that has to do with anything.  Oh my god. The awful name was foreshadowing all along! : So it exists after all…: “Grimoire” is the name of Terrable before its ascension to being divine! Our investigation lead us to this cave, where we conducted research for years!: You mean, you knew the Grimoire was in this cave?: Of course! Why else would we build such facilities here?: But why then did you put shifts in the other caves?: Hah! I suppose you deserve to know. After all, we put them there for you!If you thought Lynette’s last appearance was a plot dump, oh man. We’ve got a while to go. : For me?: The Grimoire is still sleeping. Ever since we found it years ago, we haven’t been able to awaken it. But finally our research revealed that only the “chosen Earthmate” can rouse the Grimoire. : The chosen Earthmate… : Me?: You played right into our hands. You battled numerous shifts, monsters and you cultivated the dungeons. All the while, a portion of the rune energy you amassed was funneled into the Grimoire! Thanks to you, we have gathered enough rune energy to bring the Grimoire to the verge of awakening!This is dumb. : You mean all that fighting and cultivation I did in the dungeons…It was really mostly mining. : Yes… It was all staged by us. You played your part even better than we could ever have hoped!: No…: You may not have noticed, but you’re clearly different from all the other Earthmates.I haven’t seen any other Earthmates! They’ve barely been a plot point! : That’s why we monitored you, waiting all the while for the right chance.: “All the while”? Exactly how long have you been waiting? Did you know me...before? Honestly surprised that wasn’t Mist. : What?: In order to awaken the Grimoire, we needed you to live in this town. But honestly, would you have moved here if we had told you the reason? Okay, this line totally loses me. Is he saying he would have complied with their evil plan? Did someone just forget a “Not”? : So we used a slightly unorthodox method. We used medicines to erase your memory and placed you near this town. Everything after that proceeded like clockwork. You settled down in this town. After all, what else were you to do? You had no memory, no place to go! Then you cultivated all the caves and continued to build up rune energy...to awaken the Grimoire. Then in Danaan cave (sic), you destroyed our new weapon. That was the trigger that awoke the Grimoire. Everything went exactly as planned! Bahahahahahaha! This screenshot encapsulates the entire plot of Rune Factory 1. : Donnel…: Please...tell me one thing. Who am I?: Why bother asking? There’s no way for you to recover your memory.: Even so, I want to know!: It appears I’ve talked to long… The time has come!: The time?DONNEL COME ON THE DRAGON IS RIGHT THERE : Time for the awakening! Bahahahahaha!I preferred New Mystery.   : It woke up…: Now the world belongs to the Sechs Empire! Now that the Grimoire is awake, I have no more use for you! In appreciation for your help, I will grant you the honor of being the first slain by a Dragon God! Lynette really, really likes Escape.  : B-but!: I’m the one responsible for waking this thing, so it’s my responsibility to send it back to its world!: All right… Finally here, Boss #8, it’s Grimoire! For real this time. He’s got 2600 HP, equal resistance to all elements, and-  Hey, get back here!  Here’s the first of Grimoire’s attacks, lightning will keep striking at Donnel’s position, five times. You just need to keep moving to dodge it, failing to do so could get you paralyzed. He can do this multiple times in a row, so be ready.  You have a window to get in a few attacks when it lands.  He’s got a circular tail whip that will punish you for getting close, unless there’s an opening. If you’ve been playing the game this long, you can probably guess…  The remainder of Grimoire’s attacks are channeled ranged abilities. There’s the breath from Chimera, but it poisons you…  Here’s the strategy for basically this entire fight, stick to the side. If you do this, you’ll be pretty much unhittable for his entire first “phase”.  There’s also a laser, but it doesn’t track you like the Battle Tank one, and it’s easy to dodge and counterattack.  So far, so good. Not much more than a punching bag from the sides. But then he turns red.  At 25% HP, Grimoire gets MEAN. His lightning strikes ten times now, and much faster.  Also, all of his attacks come out much faster. You’ll be lucky to get more than one hit on his side between moves, unless you want to eat a ton of damage.  This? This is a bad idea.  Nearly dead here, but maybe if I drink some Milk…  Milk restores no HP.  R.I.P. This second phase is really a killer, either you outlevel and damage race him, or you have to be extremely careful. I don’t do the former, so…just have to make sure I save both my potions for the second phase.  Here’s Grimoire’s final move, he rears up and fireballs rain from the sky. This one feels super cheap, because they can land anywhere, and that includes “directly on top of you”. They also knock you down. This is, at least, a good time to get damage out on the Dragon.  Also by the way, poison can’t kill you. Grimoire can! But this poison did not.  So, basically, stick to the sides and hit after he casts, run from the lightning, and in the second phase, do all that, but better.  Eventually you’ll break 2600 damage.  And Grimoire will fall.  How did she get back in here?  You can teleport, I get that. : I staked my life on this plan...and now… Well this is new.   It’s the Sechsy Emperor!  : It’s a pity… I too had hoped the Grimoire Project would succeed. You know the penalty for failure.(i might have had to make my own portrait for Ethel here. Please thank Lotus for the whole LP not looking like this.) : Yes, Your Majesty. I hereby take my life, to atone for the dishonor I have caused my country.: W-w-whoa! Hold it right there! You have to commit suicide? That’s crazy! I love Ethelberd’s  face.: What kind of crazy talk is that?: Lynette’s plan failed. She cannot return to her country. She must either die here honorably, to fulfill her obligation, or die a dog’s death later.: If she has no place to return to...then she can live in this town!: Don’t be a fool. Lynette tried to kill you, remember?It was literally like a minute ago. : That doesn’t matter anymore. The war is over! Nothing good can come of hurting even more people!: Oh, but the war is not over. In fact, it has only just begun.: What?: Lynette’s failure merely means we must execute our secondary plan. That is the nature of war.: Your secondary plan?:The Sechs Empire’s main tank division is on the move. The 100 Tanks was Plan B? : One hundred? That’s more “ha’s” than Lynette, proving this is our REAL big villain.  Donnel, I really don’t think anyone would have minded if you sliced that guy.   And we’ll do that in the final Rune Factory update! Next time Donnel fights 100 Tanks I guess.
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Nov 6, 2016 01:03
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ahahahaha holy poo poo we're evacuating our pleasant farming village and facing down 100 tanks Rabbi Raccoon posted:...How did this game get a sequel? ... Ahem. That said I kind of want a Stardew Valley expansion where, after you complete the main game content (IE completing the Community Center/siding with Joja and building their warehouse), JojaMart Corporate moves in and buys out the town, evicting everyone... including you, because that rear end in a top hat Pierre stole your deed and gave it to Joja. Forced to return to work for Joja, alongside the other villagers, your days are filled with shelf stocking and and inventory counts... until, in a lonely forgotten corner of the basement, you discover a bare patch of dirt... a leaky pipe... And a bag of seeds.
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Nov 6, 2016 04:41
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Like, I agree completely this is the dumbest plot, but a) It's so entertainingly dumb I love it, and b) I can't believe a plot this bad has a built-in excuse for "Why now." Most games where the evil empire's been infiltrating your town's extensive dungeon network for years doesn't really have a reason why the plot starts happening when the main character starts his adventure, but this one has it covered.
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Nov 6, 2016 13:52
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Old Greg posted:Like, I agree completely this is the dumbest plot, but a) It's so entertainingly dumb I love it, and b) I can't believe a plot this bad has a built-in excuse for "Why now." Most games where the evil empire's been infiltrating your town's extensive dungeon network for years doesn't really have a reason why the plot starts happening when the main character starts his adventure, but this one has it covered. If you found this part entertainingly dumb, oh man, the ending is some prime material. Excited to post that because I forgot how silly the climax is.
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Nov 7, 2016 00:17
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Update 46: A Terrable Last Stand Welcome to the final installment of Rune Factory (before bonus poo poo). Last time we cleared Greed Cave, learned everything was Lynette’s fault, from the shifts in the caves to the erasure of Donnel’s memory. She used the “runic energy” we’d been generating all game to awaken Grimoire, the infant form of the Dragon God Terrable. We beat it up and it left. The emperor of Sechs, Ethelberd, showed up, told Lynette to kill herself, which Donnel and Mist stopped, and then announced that he was sending 100 tanks to destroy Kardia. Now we have to evacuate. Got it?  Exactly.  : Right!: What is your choice, Lieutenant Commander? Oh, come on, don’t have a breakdown on the magic summon machine. : Please, come with us! You can help explain the situation to the others! If you tell them, they’re sure to believe us!Why would they trust Lynette? Donnel, this plan blows. : Very well.Fade in/out, and...  Apparently our base of operations is Chez Donnel. : Okay, I got it!: Yeah, understood. Well, I’m sure they can wait a little while…  Donnel speaks to himself in the second person. So, this whole segment is basically a cutscene. Time is frozen at Noon and won’t advance at all until we’ve dealt with the Sechs Empire.  : It’s true, but don’t worry. I’ll protect you and the other townsfolk. : Okay, I believe in you.You don’t have to talk to the townsfolk, you can advance by heading straight to Godwin, but their dialogue is unique for this event, so I’ll be canvassing the town.  I’d think our army of pets would be helpful in this situation, but I guess not.  I have potatoes in there! Fine, Donnel. You win.  Leo want us to split it WIDE OPEN.  The streets are empty, everyone’s holed up in their homes. It’s a neat touch.  Donnel will not gaze upon the seashell right now.    ...Dammit, Jean, we were so close to getting through this troubling time without a typo.   Maybe Russell will make for a better wizard than us.  I will at least defend Jasper’s home.  You’ve been doing it for a while now, heyyyooo Get it? He’s divorced.  For some reason Lara is here at the Church. This might be where her room is, actually? : I’m afraid so. : All right. Doc and I will be on hand to help the injured. Tabatha’s probably got some crazy elf magic poo poo that’ll blow up tanks. Do elves do that in this universe? Incoming best quote in the game by the way:  I love you, Jasper.  : This isn’t a time to joke! We gotta grab all the food we can carry and make preparations to escape. Even Ivan’s here, although it’s not his usual day.  You know, if Lynette was the Lieutenant Commander, who was the Commander? Do they have the 100 tanks?  This is how you actually advance the plot. : It’s true! Mr. Mayor, please instruct everyone to leave town. : G...got it. Thankfully Ivan was close enough that he could just wander over and tell us this. : Really? : Let’s go! We have to buy a little time.: Okay! At this point the only thing you can do is head for the Sechs border, which is south of Misty Bloom. I showed this off earlier, but this is the only time it’s mandatory to go here, and the only real reason to, ever.   Oh my god they figured out treads instead of train tracks. We’re so hosed.  The camera scrolls back and shows about 6 tanks. I was promised one hundred. : There’s no end to them!: What are we going to do? Put on your “dramatic sacrifice” music of choice. Personally a fan of that one track from Mass Effect, but it’s up to you. : But Donnel! You won’t stand a chance!: I have this feeling inside...like this is what I’m here for. To protect everyone…even if it means my life! I know it sounds strange...: Donnel...I’m going with you.: Ivan…: Didn’t I tell you? I know I may not look it, but I’m actually quite good with a sword!: Thanks.: Come on, let’s go!The ground starts to tremble...again.  They gave this random soldier a portrait, even though he only appears in this scene.  : N-no! Look at the sky! You know I’m really starting to think this whole “First Forest” thing is bullshit. : What is that? It’s huge!: Here it comes again!   : So that’s the Grimoire’s evolved form… Look at the size of it!: What they say about it having enough power to destroy the world might be true after all!I’m going to have to go make some more Recovery Potions, aren’t I? : L-look out! It’s going to attack!So they didn’t want to make a model for Terrable, I guess.  Instead the world fills with...green miasma?  : This is the dragon’s breath? I’ve taken baths hotter than this! It’s not even denting the tanks! Suddenly, foliage.  I really like the giant turnip plugging the cannon. : Huh? What’s happening? Grass? Flowers? Vegetables?: But look! It’s stopped the tanks!(look, I assume these are supposed to be two different goons.) : Terrable’s breath...covers the earth with vegetation!: So Terrable’s breath...is the breath of life! Its power stopped the tanks in their tracks!I guess we’re just lucky this game didn’t feature “Fiersome”.  Oh, Ethelberd’s here now. : B-but it’s tangled up with all the internal systems! Burning it won’t help!  Kardia has legalized.: Hmph. Not so tough without your little tanks, are you?: What?: You’re still welcome to fight. But tell me. If the Grimoire wasn’t a match for my blade, what chance do you have?: Rrrrgh...Time for the real final boss. : Now what’s it gonna be?: Forces! Pull back…Actually he just leaves. Ethelberd was actually pretty pointless in this whole thing, wasn’t he? : B-but Your Majesty...The tanks won’t move!: Then we’ll walk back!: Y-yes, Your Majesty!  : Yes…: “If the Grimoire wasn’t a match for my blade, what chance do you have?” You even had me scared! Haha!: Hey, cut it out! To be honest, if they decided to fight, I don’t think we would have stood a chance.: You mean you were just bluffing?: Well...yes! Ah-ha-ha! You are the worst hero, Donnel. : Ah-ha-ha.  Godwin. Godwin do you not see...the tanks? : There’s no need to worry. They fled back to their country.: R-really? Donnel...your strength is astonishing!: Well actually, it was Terrable...or rather the power of nature...that drove off the Sechs. I don’t think anyone’s allowed to call Stardew Valley heavyhanded again. : Precisely so. : Zavier!: All the others are coming too!This is the last “everyone talks” part of the game. I’m sorry.  : Donnel Is it true you defeated the tanks? You’re a beast!Thankfully nobody is capable of looking at the tanks all Terrable’d up.  : So you really are strong, Donnel! : You’re incredible, Donnel!: I didn’t do it by myself! : Incredible, Donnel...To defeat an entire army!This is how cults are formed.  : Were you hurt? I was so worried! : You saved our town, Donnel. Thanks! : Donnel...you were...so brave...like...like a hero… Thank you… : You took out the tanks, Donnel? No way! : Donnel...Thank you so much!: If it wasn’t for you, Donnel, this town would have been destroyed by now! : The earth is always watching us all, Donnel, and you have nothing to be ashamed of. : So this mean’s you’re even stronger than those tanks, right Donnel? Cool! : You saved the lives of Nicholas and the other children. Thank you.There are two children in this town.  : We’re holding a celebration in your honor tonight! I’ll be treating, of course. : Bravo! Not even those tanks were a match for you, Donnel! You’re amazing! : Now the town is at peace again. Thank you. : You’re almost as powerful as a god now, boy! : Donnel, thank you so much for protecting this town and everyone. : I’ve never seen anyone like you before. You’re the stuff that legends are made of. : As a minstrel, I would be honored to compose a song about you.I thought you were a poet.  : I should at least say thanks, so...thank you!: You were truly brilliant, Donnel! Now I can once again feast on delicious cuisine. : To stand up against an entire army without even fighting! It just goes to show how powerful the land is.: Thank you, Donnel! You truly are amazing. I’m so happy! I think this is a new Lynette portrait. : The power of nature...perhaps I should start believing in that power.: You’re everything I hoped you would be, Donnel.: Oh, come on! Ivan just sorta starts to wander off… : Everyone adores you! It seems to me you’ll be happiest living here, right, Donnel? Please note that from here on out, I pretty much have no idea what is going on. Maybe it gets cleared up in the sequels, but I’ll give my...best interpretation?    I think this is the king of Norad?  Dammit, Rune Factory, we were so close to the end! : Well...I made a bit of a miscalculation. : I see…...a potential swordsman of royal blood?: Yeah… Okay, so, what I’m getting out of this is that Donnel is A. Royalty and B. Ivan’s secret brother. : Yeah…But more importantly, I’m thankful for being allowed to have Terrable freed from underground.: We must keep the ambitions of the Sechs in check. They’re trying to rule the earth with machines. People have to live in harmony with the earth. They don’t understand that. It’s our obligation.: Yeah.Ivan has completely checked out of this conversation. : You must keep on working hard at it. You’re the only one who Terrable trusts!Also I guess Ivan was the one who sent Terrable to attack the tanks? : Yeah.Not that he’s helping clear anything up here.   Oh. Oh no. I don’t think he knows how to do that.  Donnel...you can’t hoe a log.  : We are going to starve. We’re done!  That was Rune Factory! I...remembered it being better.  The credits show full body art of the characters, which you don’t normally get to see since the text boxes get in the way. I won’t show all of them, though, because this is the 176th raw image of this update and I’m not dragging it out any further than I have to now.  ...Though I will make some exceptions.  Seriously who even was that guy  “Pole To Win”?  Oh hey, this part changes based on who you marry! I’m not sure what happens if you finish the story single.  And that’s the end of Rune Factory. I’m going to do one more update to cover the postgame content (pretty much nothing but eh) and wrap up a few loose ends. But this is the end of the plot. Also the turnip is finally unstabbed. 
LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Nov 7, 2016 |
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Nov 7, 2016 16:57
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Hooray! That sure was an ending! Thanks for another great LP LordHippoman, can't wait for the bonus content!
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Nov 7, 2016 17:36
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Nothing like a Deus ex Machina (Deus ex NPC?) to really finish the plot! The last bit was a blatant sequel hook, but do any of the later RF games continue it? Also, is it just me, or do Ethelberd and Godwin look like they could be brothers?
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Nov 7, 2016 17:37
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Nature is known to be very much against Sechs, in all its forms. When the vast armies of Sechs spill out only nature can keep them in check.
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Nov 7, 2016 18:02
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The imperial army uniform seems to be a crop top with a cleavage window, just in case there was still any danger of taking them seriously. The Sechs jokes practically write themselves.
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Nov 7, 2016 18:15
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Solumin posted:Nothing like a Deus ex Machina (Deus ex NPC?) to really finish the plot! The last bit was a blatant sequel hook, but do any of the later RF games continue it? Absolutely not. The most you get is some rumors in either 2 or 3 about some dude stopping a tank with a watering can, alluding to how the Sechs invasion was stopped with , and Ethelberd comes back to be even more evil and/or incompetent in RF4.You never hear anything about Norad or its royal family again, and aside from this game and Frontier,
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Nov 7, 2016 19:04
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I mean, I kinda like the idea that a buncha militaristic feudals thinking that the power of an earth dragon is death when really, it's life and that backfires on them, but it woulda been nice if it didn't seem like all the plot happened in these last two caves or there were some real hints beforehand.
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Nov 7, 2016 20:17
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Yeah, it's pretty obvious they had no idea what they were doing. I'm glad it was still well-received so they eventually made the good ones (at least gameplay-wise).
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Nov 7, 2016 20:53
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KataraniSword posted:Absolutely not. The most you get is some rumors in either 2 or 3 about some dude stopping a tank with a watering can, alluding to how the Sechs invasion was stopped with Somehow this is like, both the answer I wanted least and most at the same time. There's something perfectly "Rune Factory 1" about this game just ending in a bundle of weird plot poo poo that never, ever gets explained.
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Nov 7, 2016 22:31
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That ending...wow. Just...wow. It almost seems like something you edited together as a joke but it's perfect for this game. Dragon Bulbasaur using weeds to stop tanks is a ridiculous ending to a ridiculous game. Any other LP plans on the horizon?
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Nov 7, 2016 22:39
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Turnip in the cannon is pretty cute though
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Nov 7, 2016 22:40
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Thanks for the LP! The only memories I had of this game was the Christmas when my sister, who's a HUGE Harvest Moon fan, got the game and a week later it ended up in my room because she couldn't get into it at all, so I'm glad to see it was even weirder than I thought it'd be. The ending feels like Natsume was so used to writing about Harvest Sprites and Harvest Goddesses and the power of nature that they felt they had to do something different and boy oh boy is that ending different.
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Nov 8, 2016 02:25
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Wonderslug posted:The imperial army uniform seems to be a crop top with a cleavage window, just in case there was still any danger of taking them seriously. The Sechs jokes practically write themselves. I didn't even show off the full body shot of Lynette in the credits where her army uniform has an inexplicable belly shirt. Disappointed Ethelbert wasn't just a guy in a speedo. Rabbi Raccoon posted:That ending...wow. Just...wow. It almost seems like something you edited together as a joke but it's perfect for this game. Dragon Bulbasaur using weeds to stop tanks is a ridiculous ending to a ridiculous game. Well, the bonus update should go up tomorrow, but one of the reasons I've sorta been churning out these last few parts is that I'm going to have a busy time coming up, so probably nothing for a while. Gonna be taking a break. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have an idea lined up, though. Not Rune Factory related. PeaceDiner posted:Thanks for the LP! The only memories I had of this game was the Christmas when my sister, who's a HUGE Harvest Moon fan, got the game and a week later it ended up in my room because she couldn't get into it at all, so I'm glad to see it was even weirder than I thought it'd be. I don't blame her, Carmite is such a barrier to entry with how hard it smacks you with the RP restrictions and whatnot. I still think it's probably the hardest cave in the game, just due to lack of options. Glad you enjoyed it. Glaive17 posted:Hooray! That sure was an ending! Thank you for putting up with me for both of them!
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Nov 8, 2016 03:43
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I heard that Lynette was only a bachelorette "post-game," and they weren't kidding; that was, what, 1 day between her switching teams and Terrable going Captain Planet on the Empire? But yeah, thanks for the LP, Hippo, definitely looking forward to whatever you do next!  3 is so much better than this one, I can't imagine actually playing it. Still think the mandatory end-of-year delay on Misty Bloom is the worst, since you can beat these games pretty quickly (and if you're not, saying, streaming one  , you probably would). Carmite makes sense too, though, since JRPG difficulty is always worse when it hasn't opened up enough to work around it. The entire first half of RF2 was basically that, heh.LordHippoman posted:I didn't even show off the full body shot of Lynette in the credits where her army uniform has an inexplicable belly shirt. Apparently her eyepatch is fake, too? Link to her wedding dress sprite. Dressing for Sechs is different, OK? Edit: Accidentally hit submit instead of preview! Just wanted to add that I do really like how the game lets you hook up with the megalomaniacal villainess instead of killing her off or writing her out of the story. It's the same thing that made Yuina such a hit in Sheep's Tokimeki Memorial LP. Wayne fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 03:55
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Wayne posted:
See also Jacqli/Mir in Ar Tonelico II, aka lets date the genocidal final boss of the previous game.
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Nov 8, 2016 06:38
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I'm not real clear on how the Sechs have ever managed to keep another country conquered for long enough to still count as an empire. Nobody likes them, they're mind-bogglingly stupid tactically, and they demand honorable suicide of high-ranking officials for reasons like "we tried a thing and it didn't work".
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Nov 8, 2016 06:50
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Epilogue Last time the game ended, but there’s a little more I want to touch on before I put Rune Factory to bed.  After the credits roll, you just get dumped back in your house, and the game continues as normal.  The villagers have some new things to say, but they’re pretty much all just like this, or talking about how peaceful things are.  Here’s one of two actual new pieces of proper “postgame” content only available after Grimoire’s defeat.  Jean will sell all kinds of new, rare flowers. Some of these make good gifts,or are just for selling/ bragging rights. What they all have in common is that they take way too long to cultivate. This Emery Flower is the most drastic example at AN ENTIRE YEAR. Mist likes them, though there are easier ways to raise her LP. You also can’t marry Mist until after the ending, for some reason.  They aren’t all 120 days...but even 60’s totally ridiculous. You’d need some serious dedication for very minimal gain.  They’re available for all seasons, in case you want to torment yourself in non-Spring caves too.  Nothing too interesting in the accessories, but the idea of Donnel wearing these shades and never taking them off entertains me.  The other piece of postgame content is a new villager, Lynette!  Lynette’s hard to find, she changes locations each day of the week. Her “home” is Mist’s house, though.  Also, she is the spoiler Marriage candidate. To marry Lynette, you need to have everyone in the village at 8 FP or higher, which is literally the only use of FP on some characters. Her food gift is Apple Pie, and Lotus was nice enough to include a Lynette marriage portrait!  She had two eyes the whole time! Also, thanks to AbstractBlacksmith, we have Lynette's nickname selection: "She will call you Raguna, Dear, or Raguna Baby. She also offers Honeybuns but won't do it."  Otherwise, the game continues as normal, just no more caves to unlock. So you can continue to the highest tiers of Forging and stuff if you’d like.  Jasper will say this for eternity now.  Speaking of Food, I’m upset we never got Donnel’s Cooking skill up, so I’m doing this.   And so Donnel made like 17 loaves of bread.  vindicated (somehow despite me having an 82% success chance on this Butter, it took me 4 attempts. Don’t play with RNG, kids.)  Thankfully Milk is easy to come by if you just buy some from Camus.  Also worth mentioning, since I forgot to during the main LP, Apples, Oranges, and Grapes can only be bought from Neumann.  Finally, my gambit pays off. BUT CAN I GO FURTHER?  The coveted Choco. Cookie is mine.  Oh, here’s a fun bug with Lynette, she hangs out at the beach on fridays, but she has the dialogue for “Beaches Open Day” every time she’s here. Maybe she’s just very uninformed.  Also, it’s a rainy holiday, so I’m kicking myself for not initiating this sidequest. There was one we missed, and it’s Wesley’s. If you talk to him at Melody’s bathhouse on a Holiday, he’ll tell you Nicholas has stolen his Holy Book. Hunt down Nicholas, and he’ll tell you he’s hidden the Holy Book in the women’s side of the bathhouse. You’ve then got to ask Melody about it, and for some reason she won’t just go get it for you, but demand you come back on a rainy holiday, when she doesn’t have customers, to go and fetch the book Once you’ve done all that, Wesley will reward you with the Rosary, which is a decent accessory that boosts your crit rate.  Oh, also on rainy holidays, Lynette hangs out in Sabrina’s house. Even when Sabrina...isn’t around. That’s a little creepy, Lynette. Time for a highly condensed look at the festivals I missed.   Finally, I can give cookies to people. Look at how much Donnel’s grown.  look sharron doesn’t have to know about this  Let’s win us an Egg Show. The Large Egg gives you the best chance (note that I said “chance”) of winning.  Donnel has the best legs in town.  Here’s how you get the fourth bottle. : An empty bottle?: Don’t just think this is an ordinary empty bottle! It’s a very useful item!: Oh really?: Hey, I can’t wait for next year!...I think we’re disposing of evidence for Jasper. I don’t know evidence of WHAT, but...anyway.  I couldn’t do the Cook-Off because he asked for ingredients I don’t have!  Lynette doesn’t have any dialogue for the festivals, she hides in Mist’s house and says this. I think Lynette is anti-social . Or she’s terrified of the villagers enacting their revenge. Time to get revenge for Camus beating us last year.  WHAT? Even if you submit the best quality item possible, you still have a chance to lose. So, we’ll take this like adults, because I got sick of reloading.  After this, Donnel began a long period of hibernation...he slept for many weeks.  And on this day, 150 days on the dot since his wedding...he stopped chain sleeping by pressing left on the d-pad and the A button, over and over and over…    So five months after you get married, your wife will have a child. She carries this baby around forever and it doesn’t ever actually do anything. But, I mean, it’s there! : So cute! I’m gonna work hard for all of us now!Netflix was my savior here. : Donnel, we’re married and have a beautiful baby. I’m so happy, are you?: Yes, of course I’m happy!: Great! I hope we can always be this happy! He really was Ivan’s brother all along. : Thanks, Donnel! I’m...so happy I met you! And so marks the end of Rune Factory, for real this time. I’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone who posted in the thread, contributed monster names, voted in the marriage poll, and everything else. This one took some stamina to get through, and seeing the thread active always makes that easier. Y’all propelled me through this. Super special thanks to Lotus for contributing the portraits you saw throughout this whole LP (except the bad ones, those were mine), and Wayne for providing the banner picture for the Marriage Poll post. EDIT: Also want to provide shout outs to AbstractBlacksmith for giving me info on the different nicknames the different wives can give you (R.I.P. Honeybuns), and the Fogu Rune Factory site, just like, in general. Seriously, there's not a better place for information on this game.  In the end, if you’ll permit me to nerd out just a little longer, I’ll talk about the game a bit here. Rune Factory was my first game like this, and I have a lot of fond memories of it from when I was younger. Going back? This does not hold up. The combat feels old and clunky, the farming is far too tedious to feel fun or rewarding, the characters are bland, the story is basically nonexistent until the last two caves barf it up at you, and there are so many bizarre design decisions. (Crafting recipes that require a higher level to make the prerequisites than to make the item they compose, the tedious pain of the Wood Grind, every fuckin’ thing about Misty Bloom Cave.) But it still feels like a framework or a proof of concept for a cool idea. And, from what I’ve heard, and now played a little bit of, they really did improve on this game. Rune Factory 3 and 4 are apparently some great games, and they wouldn’t have existed if this game wasn’t out. Plus, I can’t hate it. There’s still some charming and fun moments, and I have too many good memories to toss it out entirely.  So, with this last shot of Donnel’s final skill levels, I hope you’ve all enjoyed the LP. While I can’t go nuts recommending this one like I did with the last LP I did, I can certainly recommend checking out the sequels, or Stardew Valley. Thanks for reading.
LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Nov 12, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 08:31
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Great job on the LP, Hippoman! Glad to see another Harvest Moon [related] LP completed, what with how much bad luck the franchise has on these forums. There's only been a few RF threads, and excluding this one and Truthkeeper's RF4, the only other one that I know of was an RF3 LP that disappeared for no clear reason, so I'm hoping Truthkeeper's makes it as well. And eventually mine but I'm not here to advertise my poo poo. Well done!
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Nov 8, 2016 08:54
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Thank you very much for the LP Hippo. It was great seeing how the fantasy farming RPG started out. Along with the other Harvest Moonesque LPs going on it got me to play Stardew which is a lot of fun.
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Nov 8, 2016 09:33
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Thanks a lot for the LP~ It was a lot of fun while it lasted and I'm seriously glad that I got to see the first game of the series in some form all the way through. I... started playing Rune Factory 1 when it first came out and couldn't stomach it (by that point I'd played actual good Harvest Moon games so my tolerance was a bit higher than this game could provide when it came to the farming gameplay aspect). I then jumped to 3, tried to do 2 (failed because lol dem systems no) and then just gave up on 1 and 2 forever, so being able to see at least 1 completed in full, even if it is by a screenshot LP, is really cool - and your way of showing it off made for a fun read. So yeah, thanks for that! I'm looking forward to seeing what next you have up your sleeve (if indeed you do have something up there).
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Nov 8, 2016 11:23
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Thanks for the LP!
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Nov 8, 2016 13:06
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Great job! It was great fun reading this. And until today I didn't know you had another one in the archives so I'll be diving into that before I give myself a panic attack over today.
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Nov 8, 2016 14:41
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Good job! I can really relate to the whole "loved a game and went back and found that it was actually pretty bad", that's happened a lot with some of the lovely games I played when my access was pretty limited. It makes me a little bit sad, actually  In any case, well done! 
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Nov 8, 2016 15:59
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Thanks for the LP, LordHippoman!
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Nov 8, 2016 16:46
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Thank you for the LP! It was fun going through the game alongside you. I agree as well that the game doesn't age well, but it helped bring about the other games in the franchise so I'm content. If I had any capability to record things I'd give the Frontier/Tides a shot at an LP - I guess that's my way of saying you're inspiring with these LPs! I don't have my guide on me (posting from work) but I will dig up the information on Lynette's pet names when I get home, should the thread be interested.
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Nov 8, 2016 17:50
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Did you ever actually farm any Cabbages? Donnel should probably move to the Empire and take it over with his elementally enchanted tanks. Also, congratulations
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Nov 8, 2016 18:48
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Gratz on finishing the lp. Don't all the stats go up to 99? How insane would you have to be to cap some of them....
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Nov 8, 2016 20:05
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Yeah, add me to the chorus that really enjoyed this LP. The Rune Factory games have always seemed to hit a chord with me so it's always fun to see them being LP´d with as much gusto as this one has been.
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Nov 8, 2016 20:07
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