A great twist on a classic game that will give Fantasy lovers and older age groups a brand-new farming epic.
User Rating: 9 | Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon DS
This game to simply put it, revolutionizes everything we know and love about the Harvest Moon world. You;ll notice it's different as soon as you begin playing, with a beautiful opening animation, and that's just before you get to the title screen! Rune Factory balances the basic idea of the Harvest Moon franchise, and it's new plot-and-battle twist, sometimes you don't know which of the two genres it is! The game hold itself together itself very well, because for your farm to prosper, you can't just battle, or just farm! You need to do both to a certain extent to succeed in the game! Players now can also grow crops in cave and dungeons, forge their own weapons, and tame monsters to bring into battle, help on the farm, or become your livestock! The game is easy to get the hang of once you finally get a hold of the concept of "Rune Factories" which is the idea of growing crops and using Runes produced by the crops to gain back you "Rune points"(Basically stamina in previous games)and able you to do more work. You can ship anything, and the game allows you to view shipping prices of the item wherever you are, which is a very nice feature. The 3D graphics are used well, except for some of the townsfolk, some of them looking like the occasional penguin. A small amount of voice work was added to this game, the amount was perfect, and it was done well. It actually is a good tool to learn more about the characters personality. Rune Factory has some incredible features to it, but what disappointed me was some of the pricing, which certain items, such as fodder and house expansion, where sold for what I think was a little bit too high despite the product.
All in all, Harvest Moon fans will not be disappointed. Rune Factory completely clears the faults of Harvest Moon DS and sets a new pace for the series. I can't wait for Rune Factory 2. 
