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Rune Factory Frontier Discussion (Nintendo Wii) [game]
 
Rune Factory Frontier on the Wii
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Since my Wii got wiped in September, I haven't felt like starting over in my file in Rune Factory Frontier. However, having finished NSMBW and not really having the cash for another "holiday title," I decided to jump back into the farmland and give it another go. Lo and behold, I'm addicted all over again, and I now have the hindsight knowledge to keep productivity up a little more than the first go around.

Does anyone else frequently sink a lot of hours into this enticing farm sim/dungeon-crawler? If so, let the discussion begin (and if not, then I'll be very lonely in this thread)!

Right now I'm nearing the end of spring and I've picked up a few cooking and forging supplies from Lute (and saving up to get the ACTUAL forge expansion from Kross). I have several animals, all of them handy in cleaning up my field. In fact, with enough TLC early on, you can end up having your livestock do nearly all the field work every day, a nifty feature.

I'm also struggling a bit with the Runeys, but what else is new? I forget how to reach the bottom layer of the Green Ruins (past those lumpy rocks). Does anyone remember this?

Anyway, I'm having a great time again with RFF; Harvest Moon fans should check it out, as its arguably the most addictive Wii game of 2009 (in my opinion, anyway).

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12/30/09, 19:46  
 
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Man I really have to pick up this game, I think I saw it new for $30 at Gamestop.

I got really in to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life on the Gamecube, I liked the farming, taking care of the animals, etc.

But what is the combat like? I like complex/complicated games, but get frustrated easily with difficult ones. Are the dungeons fun?
07/04/10, 06:47   
Thanks for the heads up, TriforceBun. I've actually gotten four areas into prosperity since I started my grass factory (my farm, the beach, the Church District and the Business District). Lake Poli is balanced, just low. The rest of my areas are actually doing okay. I'm on Summer 12 (with no typhoons yet) and working my way slowly into the Green Ruins. I'm on floor 2 with eight turnip patches grown, Lara and Selphy are at two hearts each, and Rosetta isn't far behind (since I ship a ridiculous amount of Strawberries each month).
07/05/10, 02:55   
Its just one of those games that will always be in my collection, just in case I get a hankering for something a little different from the norm. Of course, the vast bulk of my library is like that, so that makes gaming interesting to me, to say the least. :)
07/05/10, 04:01   
@InTheFade

The dungeons aren't hard and they are rewarding, but you need to invest game time in them. You need to grow many crops to fruition in order to create Runes. Runes are valuable because every action that you do, which is not limited to chopping wood, watering crops, tilling your fields or attacking enemies, consumes RP (Rune Points). The more you perform an action, the more skilled you will grow at it. The more skill you have, the less RPs an action will consume. There are a bunch of skill levels to master, such as fishing, farming, combat, crafting and cooking. Once you run out of RP, any action will cut into your HP (Hit Points). Once your HP hits zero, you will faint and be returned to your farm. I think you lose out on a day of work too, but I cannot confirm this (since I haven't fainted yet). That could be devastating to your farm life (and possibly your relationships with townsfolk/potential brides).

A Rune will appear over a grown 3x3 crop square each day. The object in the dungeons is to create Rune Factories, or areas where several Runes congregate. Runes only appear in dungeons and not in the fields on your farm. I used a lot of Turnips in the Green Ruins and just left them once they matured, so I have many little Rune Factories in there.

The combat is simple. You choose a weapon, magic staff or tool from your backpack, equip it, and press A to use it. A and B will use a powerful special attack, but those consume more RPs, so don't overuse them. There's no blocking, rolling or deflecting attacks (as far as I know), just a simple hack 'n slash.

As for me, I finished the Green Ruins this morning. I got to the boss and beat it in two hits with my Heat Axe. One regular and one special. The special burned him, so it kept taking damage until it just died. I picked up the loot and saved my game.
07/07/10, 18:15   
Edited: 07/07/10, 18:15
I don't know about the rest, but for #4 I'm pretty sure you have to water the plants regularly regardless. Which made me a bit lazy about planting stuff in the dungeons, even though it has the obvious advantages.

Game is pretty sweet, but Monster Hunter Tri came along and started eating up my Wii time and at this rate I'm not sure if/when I'll ever get back to Rune Factory.
10/02/10, 20:19   
I think I'm going to end up re-purchasing this game soon (I sold it to a friend who was way more into the series than I was a while ago because I started playing Tri). I kinda' miss popping into this game every now and again.
10/02/10, 22:31   
@Simbabbad

1) It's probably better to keep your old animals. Brushing/feeding them each day slowly raises their friendship level towards Raguna (the protagonist), and each time that level goes up, they can get more stuff done during the day that you don't have to do. Getting a new monster would start the process all over. The benefit to that, though, is that the stronger monsters are better in battle (higher EXP levels and stats), but I mainly use monsters for farm work rather than assisting in the dungeons.

2) You may have noticed hitting the "green" area when forging/cooking/using the lab will make the resulting concoction a level higher than the lowest level of the ingredients you used to make it. Higher level items are worth more gold. Also, higher level food and potions will heal more, while higher level tools are "lighter" (i.e., consume less RP per swing). For forging, that essentially lets you slowly raise your tools' levels to become lighter over time.

For instance, say you want to upgrade your watering can to level 2. If your forge level is high enough, you can mix in two level 1 pieces of scrap iron, plus the can you have, and then try to nail it on the green to make the can level 2. If you'd like to raise it again, you'll need two level two pieces of scrap iron, hit the green, then make a level 3 can. And so on until level ten, so hang onto all your scrap iron! You can use higher level scrap iron to forge as well, but remember that you'll only go up one level maximum from the lowest level of your ingredients (in this case, it'd be the can), so for efficiency, you might want to save the higher level scrap iron for later forging.

3) The chipmunk picks up wild grass and bamboo shoots, etc. He'll put them in your drop box early in the morning (around 8 AM). Hang onto the grass for lab stuff. Alternatively, making friends with Lara has her put more items on sale, such as all sorts of colors of wild grass.

4) Each dungeon corresponds to one season. Green Ruins grows Spring crops, Lava Ruins grows Summer crops, etc. The exception is Whale Island, which grows all crops all the time (this is handy to keep in mind if you want to grow those flowers that take a really long time). I don't think they'll dry out if you don't water them, but they won't progress.

5) If you grow a 3 x 3 plot of grass or crops in a dungeon, once they're fully formed, they'll produce a "rune" each day. Runes are floating orbs that restore some of Raguna's HP and RP. If you pick even one of the crops, the runes will stop producing in that spot unless you grow 'em there again. It's good to use something cheap and easy for the purposes of a "rune factory," like Turnips, because then you can find certain points in the dungeon where your HP and RP are refilled. I don't plant too many crops in dungeons for this purpose, but I've found that Strawberries work quite well for it (you can get the rune, then pick them, and after a couple days of water, the next harvest will be back plus another rune).
10/02/10, 22:34   
I think the whale dungeon is basically as big as a couple of dungeons combined.

Could be way off though, still haven't gotten very far in the game.
10/04/10, 05:34   
Back to Rune Factory Frontier again! I started my old file for some reason, and I'm back in the thick of things.

I'm currently at the beginning of Winter, year 1, with around 60 hours put into the game (geez). Has ANYONE beaten this? It seems like quite a task to finish, seeing as how some of the enemies are pretty devastating later on. Fortunately, I've been keeping on top of both my Runey balance and my "forever-flowers" (those expensive, take-a-long-time-to-grow flowers that Rosetta sells) have been blooming on Whale Island. The formula C definitely helps a lot in that way. For those of you in RFF for the long haul, I definitely recommend planting these, as they're necessary to getting the best tools and equipment (a lot of which is pretty necessary for surviving until the end of the game).

My Joy Can is pretty much insane, allowing me to water my entire field in about a minute of real time, so most of my farming is done in the first few patches on Whale Island (where my "forever-flowers" are planted) and two level TEN (YEAH) strawberry patches at the entrance of the Green Ruins.

So far I've beaten a (the...?) boss in the Snow Ruins and a boss on Whale Island, and some pretty major story things went down, but I still seem to have a ways to go. I did ask Tabatha out, though, so I'm looking forward to the "Night of Holies" where we shall rendevouz. Hopefully there will be much smoochage.

My armor's pretty solid: Black Robe (this was a bit of a butt to craft), Diamond Ring, and my somewhat outdated Fuzzy Hat and Critical 7.

One of the things I love about RFF is that there's just so much to do, but the game introduces these concepts in a fairly gradual manner. By the point I'm at, I can choose all sorts of ways to spend my days (lately I've been going to dungeons to try to find rarer materials for better equipment), and all sorts of people to make buddies with. I also appreciate how festivals and minor character events keep popping up to keep things fresh. The game is beefy.

I realize it's the kind of thing one plays in big fat spurts, then stops for awhile, then picks it up later. How've you guys been doing?
05/13/11, 23:27   
@TriforceBun

I think Y-Alpha "finished" the game, and by that, I mean he completed the story. I'm almost at Winter, Year 1 as well. I think I was holding off because it's Lara's birthday, and I really want to make her a Choco Cake. She's at 6 LP and that would push me well into 7 LP. I also have two level ten Strawberry patches in the Green Ruins.

I haven't played this game in months, but I want to pick it back up. I also have Rune Factory 2 and 3 on my backlog, and I'll pick up Oceans if it comes stateside. I'm like you in the sense that
05/13/11, 23:43   
Edited: 05/14/11, 00:53
"InfinityWard", lol.

I thought you didn't like shooters, ludist!
05/14/11, 00:45   
WAAAAH! Y-Alpha! I'm reverting to altered IGN names!

...yeah, not a shooter guy. The dude at GameStop yesterday was trying to recommend me every shooter for my PS3, and I wanted nothing to do with them.
05/14/11, 00:52   
Edited: 05/14/11, 00:53
I've played this game for like fifteen hours and I'm totally confused as to what you are talking about with prosperity water and the runey thing.

I have a harvester which sucks up runeys. Explain like I'm a mentally challenged little kid because I read what TriforceBun wrote on the first page of this thread and I have no idea how to accomplish it. How do I make a "grass factory"? Do you mean I suck up all the runeys in a place and then spit back out the grass and water ones?

Sorry for being a moron however I'm totally baffled.

I'd also like to say for the record this is one of the absolute best rpgs on any platform, PC included, that I've played this generation. Wonderful game.
05/14/11, 00:59   
Edited: 05/14/11, 01:01
Oldmanwinter said:
I've played this game for like fifteen hours and I'm totally confused as to what you are talking about with prosperity water and the runey thing.

I have a harvester which sucks up runeys. Explain like I'm a mentally challenged little kid because I read what TriforceBun wrote on the first page of this thread and I have no idea how to accomplish it. How do I make a "grass factory"? Do you mean I suck up all the runeys in a place and then spit back out the grass and water ones?

Sorry for being a moron however I'm totally baffled.

I'd also like to say for the record this is one of the absolute best rpgs on any platform, PC included, that I've played this generation. Wonderful game.
Don't feel bad--the Runeys are a pretty complex bit of micro-management and while the game does give you info on them, it's in bite-sized pieces and kind of has to be put together from what you read at the library, what Kanno tells you, etc.

Starting from the beginning, here: Runeys are those floating fellows that adorn Trampoli, and there are four types of them: WATER > ROCK > TREE > GRASS. That list is also the food chain, so Water eats Rock, Rock eats Tree, Tree eats Grass, and Grass eats nothing (and Water gets eaten by nothing).

Runeys will "eat" each other overnight, the dastards, and the eatees will typically gain some to their numbers overall while the eaters will lose some. This amount is slightly randomized, but in short, you can expect Water to generally get bigger and Grass to generally get smaller (Tree and Rock are a little harder to predict). A place with 20 of each Runey on one day may have these numbers the next: 22/19/21/18 (W/R/T/G).

Now, this causes a bit of a problem: Grass Runeys don't really grow, which is why people have to make a "Grass Factory."

Trampoli is split into 9 different sections (one is the Homestead, one is the Lake, one is Mist's House, etc). Each one of these sections is aligned with a Runey type where that Runey type is more prosperous there: the Lake and Beach are Water, the Village and Village Square are Rock, the Mountain and Church areas are Tree, and Mist and Erik's are Grass. If you check the map in the Clock Tower, you can look at all the different sections and find out how many Runeys are in each one.

That leaves your Homestead, and this is important. Your Homestead will NOT lose Runeys. They won't eat each other. Even better, if you've got 35 of each Runey there (or more), it will make more Runeys for you overnight. Each day, you'll awake to more Runeys on the Homestead, popping up like crops. If you have a full patch (3 x 3) of unpicked crops or uncut grass that you left overnight, you'll get even more Runeys (it's easiest for me to have a couple patches of grass uncut since fodder seed is cheap). Basically, your Homestead will give you Runeys if you ever have an emergency.

So the point of all this is to bring your areas into Prosperity. If you get 35+ of each Runey in an area, the place will become prosperous and this benefits your crop-growing--I believe every two prosperous areas means one less day of growth for your crops. I have eight areas prosperous (all but my grass factory) and this makes the crops kick serious butt. Eggplants sprout up every day, as does grass, strawberries, and other things quick to harvest. Better yet, my forever-flowers' growth time is severely reduced: with a little formula C (a lab item that cuts down on growth time as well), I can get flowers that normally take 120 days in less than a month, which means uber equipment much sooner.

So, the "grass factory." The way this works is that you're going to end up with a lot of extra Water, Tree, and Rock Runeys if you're doing things right. Grass are hard to get. So basically, you suck up all the Runeys at Mist's area (or Erik's, but I recommend Mist's), and throw out 60 Water and 10 Grass (so the total is 60/0/0/10). Again, you can check the numbers in the Clock Tower map.

After you do this, the next day there'll be a massive decrease in Water, and an increase in Grass (something like ~40/0/0/25). At this point, you suck up the Grass Runeys that you want and do it again until you have the Grass necessary to replace the missing Grass in other areas. Don't get too overwhelmed at once--focus on bringing your Homestead to prosperity first, then start working on other areas one at a time. Since each area can only hold 60 of each Runey max, make sure you suck up a few from the Homestead each day when/if it's maxed out, so that you can bring balance to other areas.

It can be somewhat of a headache at times due to the sluggishness of the Harvester, but if you keep at it and get nearly all the places in prosperity, life will be MUCH easier down the line, and it's not difficult to keep them balanced after that (mainly a once-a-week run around and check to make sure everything's above 35). You'd probably need to keep the Grass factory since Grass will always be a problem, but you'll have enough of the other Runeys to make cool stuff from Candy, and your crops will be growing like crazy (I have almost 400,000 gold at the beginning of Winter).

It's pretty overwhelming but hopefully that can get you started. The last thing I want to add is that the food chain thing only happens on days 8 - 30 of each season. On days 1 - 7, you will lose no Runeys (you may gain some). On day 20, for some reason, you also get a break. But for the rest of 8 - 30, they eat each other normally, and that's when the grass factory will do it's thing.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the game though! I've been playing it on and off for a couple of years (lost my first file due to a Wii malfunction) and I'm a big fan. Happy harvesting!
05/14/11, 07:06   
@TriforceBun

You are the man! Thank you.

So just to clarify, I go suck up the runes I want from other locations, like you said, then I disperse them where I want to attain the proper ratio, right? I just put them out there and let them work their magic or do I have to do something specific to get them to do what I want?
05/14/11, 09:15   
Right. Let's say the Beach has gotten extra Water but has dipped below 35 on Grass, leaving it normal (instead of prosperous). The numbers are, for instance, 60/48/60/25. To balance that area, you'd want to release some extra Grass, and perhaps suck up some Water and Tree (the ones maxed out) to keep them from over-eating the Rock and Grass, respectively. After you release the Runeys in the area, they'll do their thing and you can let them be until you want to balance out other areas.

The harvester isn't very accurate and since the Runeys tend to bunch, you'll often get a couple you aren't trying to get (like Grass in areas that need Grass). This isn't a big deal--just pick a few Grass from your inventory and release them back out.

I should mention that while it's not mandatory to get everything to full prosperity, it's pretty much required to at least keep things normal and fairly balanced. The reason for this is because if an area has LESS than five of each Runey (like 4/0/2/0), it'll turn red on the map and negatively affect your crops' growth, making them take longer. Some players never messed with Runeys at all, and they eventually died out everywhere except the Homestead, making quick crops like Turnips take all month!

The balancing is somewhat tedious and my least-favorite aspect of the game, but the good news is that once you get a few areas in prosperity, it's much easier and less time-consuming to keep them balanced from that point on. And fortunately, the harvester doesn't consume any RP, so it's a good idea to use it when you're tuckered out and waiting for the spa to open at 3 PM (or you've used up all your RP by 6 PM and still have a few in-game hours before bedtime).
05/14/11, 09:29   
@TriforceBun

Honestly I'm almost at the end of summer, and I thought the entire purpose of runes was so Kanno's daughter could make it rain... literally.

How this entire aspect of the game completely passed me by is beyond me. I have spent all my time so far farming, crafting and trying to clear dungeons and like I said only get runes so I can get the Candy to perform her special deal by spending them.
05/14/11, 10:37   
I've never collected a single rune in this game. I'm not even totally sure how. I'm still only 7 or 8 hours in though, maybe I can't yet?

Well... I'm not even actively playing the game at the moment. I'd like to get back to it, someday.
05/14/11, 21:43   
Zero said:
I've never collected a single rune in this game. I'm not even totally sure how. I'm still only 7 or 8 hours in though, maybe I can't yet?

Well... I'm not even actively playing the game at the moment. I'd like to get back to it, someday.
You should, Mr. Zero. I will talk in this thread about it.

Also, you need the Harvester tool to suck up Runeys, and most players get that near the end of Spring. Have you met the sisters at the clock tower, Cinnamon and Candy? I'm pretty sure Candy (the young girl with the puffy hat) gives it to you after you meet her.
05/14/11, 22:19   
I never got any Runeys either. I was really scared about disrupting the balance so I never really tried it...

I should start this game again..


--I HAVE SO MUCH F'N STUFF GOING ON CONSTANTLY THOUGH, BAHHH!!
05/14/11, 23:49   
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