Rune Factory 4

[Nargrakhan]

Game is due out in Japan on the 3DS in a few months. Because the series sells better in the West than it does in it's native country, expect to see it in English by third quarter 2013. The title will have fourth and final Dragon God: Ventuswill. Standard Rune Factory fair... lost memory farmer must save the town by fighting monsters, growing crops, and romancing for a spouse. New stuff is "building the town" and an expanded dating system. Features various monster girls, Saber's missing twin sister, and a female combat butler.

For the ladies, there's a bunch of bisho guys who can be your hubby (with fanservice).

According to Famitsu, RF4 has the highest perorder numbers in the entire history of Harvest Moon and Rune Factory. Rock on.

On the official site blog, someone asked for the girl's three sizes... Hashimoto-sama said it wasn't finalized yet, but Forte (the Saber clone) has the biggest bust... which I guess means she's not exactly a Saber clone. I suppose he revealed a spoiler though, because you can't really see her boobs under that armor plate... we'd have to see her summer beach outfit.

Not going for her though... of the girls revealed so far, sleepyhead Chlorica is for me.

Waiting to see if they have twincest. Marvelous tends to put twins in HM and RF, even when they're not winnable.

P.S.: For the lady gamers, Hashimoto-sama also mentioned that monster boy Diras has the largest bust for the guys... although I think he might be joking a bit, using his "horse form" as the basis. I've seen screenshots of some shirtless InuYasha wannabe who seems to have a larger chest span. This is his face:

[Nargrakhan]

Natsume -- the english side -- is teasing about an upcoming game on their Twitter:

https://twitter.com/#!/Natsume_Inc

Hint #1: The announcement contains a "celebration"

Hint #2: The announcement will relate to a series…

Hint #3: The announcement will relate to a series…in which there are at least 3 previous entries…

Hint #4: The announcement will relate to a series…in which there are at least 3 previous entries…that Natsume published in North America

Hint #5: C____m_______ __ K___

Hint #6: C_s__m_z____n i_ Ki__

People are guessing "Customization is King" for the last two hints. Not really helping though...

With the whole "3 previous" titles in the US, and the King hint, that makes my initial guess for something in the River King series. Problem is, there hasn't been a new River King for awhile, so if Natsume is doing that, it's a Western side venture.

Rune Factory has 3 NDS releases in the US, and obviously 4 is on the horizon, but there have been FIVE releases: two were on Wii. Rune Factory would fit the hints, in that you loosely play as a "king" in the fourth title, it has customized town building, and Harvest Moon is celebrating it's 15th birthday in Japan (Natsume stubbornly calls Rune Factory a "Harvest Moon story" -- though they take place in totally different universes).

In any case, that winnable guy I was talking about in my last post, is now revealed on the official site:

http://www.maql.co.jp/special/game/3ds/ ... x.html#m14

Some sort of Egyptian nine-tailed fox... lolwut?

And as ever always, the tradition of unwinnable MILF's being hawter than the winnable girls continues:

http://www.maql.co.jp/special/game/3ds/ ... ex.html#s5
http://www.maql.co.jp/special/game/3ds/ ... ex.html#s6

Why!?

[Nargrakhan]

New hint:

Hint #7: The series discussed in the announcement DOES NOT begin with the letter "L"

Guess that means it's not a title for Legend of the River King.

I'm call it: the announcement has to be for the western release of Rune Factory 4 in 2013.

Japan doesn't get the game until July 19 of this year, but according to all the official interviews and whatnot, the game is already complete and just waiting for manufacture and distribution there.

[Nandemonai]

This reminds me of Atlus's whole thing. They created so many hints that could either be for Gungnir or Growlanser 4, that it was fairly obvious to me both games were going to be announced. (Why go to all the trouble just to give people false hope? If they HAD only announced one or the other, people would have been kinda pissed at them.)

[Nargrakhan]

I agree. I hate it when companies do these guessing games. Just tell us the damn title, so we don't get our hopes up by making the wrong guesses.

The official announcement will be tomorrow afternoon.

Hint #8: The series discussed in the announcement DOES NOT begin with the letter "M"

Hint #9: These clues are not "Fish"y. Sorry!

Hint #8 indicates it's not a Medabots title.

Hint #9 means it's not a Reel Fishing title.

It has to be either RF4 or that new 3DS Harvest Moon with the custom farmer. Those are the true money makes for Natsume: everything else are just experiments. I know a lot of lady gamers are really hoping for the HM, because of the sexy bisho hubbies they can get.

[Nargrakhan]

Game revealed: Harvest Moon: A New Beginning

That's the 3DS game with the custom farmer.

I suppose RF4 is next year.

[Nargrakhan]

They finally released a Rune Factory 4 video that shows the gameplay in detail. Someone even created an English sub version. The poster works for Natsume or Marvelous, I'm pretty sure of it. Rune Factory ALWAYS sells better in the West than it does in Japan, so an official port is merely a matter of when.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM2ooSUlrRU

They honestly didn't change a damn thing, and just polished what had already been established by RF1, RF2, and RF3.

It's fucking beautiful.

Looks like they finally fixed the issue, that caused slowdown when too many characters were on the screen at once. Has loli and shota. Win-Win for everyone.

[Ericridge]

So like, what is rune factory about?

[Nargrakhan]

The world of Rune Factory has two major civilizations: the steampunk Sechs Empire and the magic Kingdom of Norad. For centuries the Empire has sought to destroy the Kingdom, but the war has always remained a stalemate. Eventually the Empire discovers the existence of Four Dragon Gods who created the RF world: Terrable of Earth, Fiersome of Fire, Aquaticus of Water, and Ventuswill of Wind. The Empire awakened and tried to enslave the Dragon Gods in hopes they can be used as a secret weapon. Like all evil empire plans, it's a total failure, and only results in making the Dragon Gods very pissed at all mortals.

The player always controls a powerful warrior-mage (turned farmer) who suffers from amnesia. These warrior-mages (turned farmers) are mysteriously being summoned from various locations, but no one knows who is doing it. The warrior-mages (turned farmers) have been opposing the Sechs Empire and Dragon Gods from destroying Norad.

RF1 and RF Frontier features Hero #1, who defeats Terrable.

RF2 features Hero #2 and his child. The two join forces to defeat Fiersome.

RF3 features Hero #3, who defeats Aquaticus. Hero #3 is a werebeast (half-human/half-monster), and helps bring the two races together.

RF Tides of Destiny features Hero #4. This hero does not fight a dragon, but instead a mysterious entity. The entity tries to use the repeating warrior-mage summoning for his own plans.

RF4 is going to feature Hero #5, who is facing against Ventuswill.

The plots to each individual game is simplistic. The warrior-mage shows up, meets a girl/boy who gives them a home (and farm) to live on, and befriends the local town. Near the town, monsters are threatening to take over. The warrior-mage then goes about stopping the monsters, find the hidden Dragon God, and then defeating it to save the world. Along the way, the warrior-mage regain parts of their memories.

All RF are, more or less, taking place within the same time frame (but different locations in Norad). The warrior-mages are being summoned for a purpose, but this epic reason hasn't been revealed yet. I suppose it will be in the next title after RF4 (probably for Wii U).

[Ericridge]

Sounds fun. Thanks Nargrakhan.

[Nargrakhan]

Whee! RF4 is worth the money me thinks.

Someone finally posted the full intro on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtZb53YOBQs

Now that the four dragons have been addressed, the creators could try and take the series in three new directions.

#1: Have a story take place within the Empire, instead of the Kingdom.

#2: Have a story take place in the mysterious "Japanasia" country that all the ninja and samurai girls are coming from.

#3: End the four dragon saga and have the current heroes come together to defeat the Empire once and for all.

[Billybob]

As long as the keep marriage I'm good to go.

[Billybob]

Xseed, not Natsume, is localizing RF4 for North America. It's currently set to be released in July, 2013, so Narg's assumption of when we'd have it was generally correct. Xseed also did Tides of Destiny, the PS3/Wii Rune Factory. I think they keep the number of text errors down, whereas Natsume tends to let quite a few slip by, which anyone who has played HM: A New Beginning can confirm. I'm pretty pumped for RF4, a goth bachelorette is super awesome.

[Nargrakhan]

XSEED bought Atlus Online, and then those two combined properties are now Marvelous USA. Serious gut punch to Natsume, since Marvelous titles were their bread and butter... now Marvelous doesn't have to license their games to them anymore.