Rune Factory Tides of Destiny

Tides of Destiny is the first Rune Factory game to be released for the PS3. The Wii have had its predecessor, Frontier, up for graps for some time and porting the game for yet another console can only help sales.Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny is a super game for both the loyal Rune Factory/Harvest Moon fan, it does have its flaws, but most fans will enjoy it. Like any other game from its genre it's also great for newcomers. Especially preteens and younger teenagers will find this enjoyable, unless they are used to more action filled games. Rune Factory does of course have role playing aspects the normal Harvest Moon's does not, and that might make the game more exciting for people who find other farm simulations boring.Tides of Destiny introduces the player in the usual way, perhaps it's too detailed. Something all Harvest Moon and Rune Factory's do really well is make very long tutorials. Once those are over with the game is pretty easy to grasp. There are, aside the former mentioned role playing aspects, of course the normal farming ativities that these games excell at. This time around the farming is done differently. Here you need to tame monsters of the right tyoe to run a farm. Some monsters might seed, some create ore or harvest crops or of course some of them are productive like normal dairy animals. Finding the right places to put each monster comes with the story, which i won't spoil. Then there is the character interactions. Along with the story of the game there is also small sub-plots tied to some of the characters. They all have their stories, as does the two protagonist's, and they can be experienced by befriending them. Talking to them each day and giving gifts will increase your Friendship Points, of which there are six. When you have gotten as far as to have beaten the game you may marry one of the characters of the opposite gender, by that point you will be able to experience Love Points and events, go on adates and propose.The Story itself is pretty straight forward. Without spoiling it i will say that it won't satisfy a hardened reviewer, but it's enjoyable enough and something it does really well is including the characters of the main island, they all have some sort of role. The story progresses through requests, which there are both story and non-story related kinds of. Many of the requests are very vague however and will require for you to explore a bit on your own to progress further.The graphics are not great, nor is it the games selling point. The graphics are nothing the wii or perhaps even the old PS2 could handle, but it does the job, and instead of being super detailed it's quite artistic. The setting of Fentih island, your home, is the typical mix of Japanese Nature and European-inspired arcitecture. The town is like ripped out of Croatia, greece or some other cliff-based city. It's quite charming and its size is just about rigth to get comfortable.Aside the main island you'll aslo explore the sea and find other islands. This, i think, is not done properly. It gets tiresoem wandering the empty widths of the ocean in the long run, and most of the islands you find won't be that exciting from one another. Making the ocean is a cheap way of create a wast exploring area. There isn't any huge demand for alot of textures and it makes it really boring. Exploration is not just about finding stuff, it's about enjoying scenery too, which there isn't much of in Tides of Destiny.The role playing aspects are... Selective to put it mildly. The game has forging, crafting and other skills to create your own weapons and gear, but it severly lacks any kind of involvement with your character. There is no stat-management in the game, and the story doesn't feature any big decitions aside which person you choose to marry once the story is actually over.Overall i give this game four stars. It's far from being a perfect game, but a devoted gamer will get many hours from it and probably enjoy it too. It handles most aspects well, but is sloppy in others. The charms it does have will please you, and fans of the former titles will enjoy this one as well.

This is a rather disappointing game in the Rune Factory franchise.. the previous RF games on the ds and RF frontier were pretty solid and I had great expectations for this game especially since it will be on the ps3 as well... but it just doesnt feel so right playing this game. Uninteresting plot, and boring gameplay without the anime style arts.. everythg looks too 3d and unreal,