Your First Good Look Inside Rune Factory 4

This week’s Famitsu magazine revealed Rune Factory 4 for the Nintendo 3DS, and now Famitsu.com have an article on the game, which gives us a much better look at it. First up are the selectable protagonists, both a male and a female character.

The male’s name is Les, while the female is called Frey. Despite assigning names to their protagonists, past Rune Factory games have allowed you to name them whatever you like, so I assume Rune Factory 4 will follow that trend.

Like previous games, your protagonist suffers from amnesia at the start of the game. Comically, they fall out of an airship and hit their head. Following this, they somehow end up living a temporary life as a prince or princess, which opens up some new game systems like constructing buildings. You can find more details of this in this older update.

Both characters have the ability to communicate with dragons, but there are no details available as to how this will tie into the game just yet.

When a potential loves first shows up in Rune Factory 4, you get to see a movie of them. Once you start courting members of the opposite gender, you won’t have to dive straight into marriage after getting together — you’ll have the opportunity to maintain your relationship as lovers, not just with one but with multiple candidates.

Here’s three of them: Margaret, Dolchié (I think that’s how it’s romanized) and Vishnal:

As we mentioned in yesterday’s update, you aren’t restricted to a strict grid in Rune Factory 4 while planting crops. Once you find a nice field to farm in, you can plant crops in whatever formation you choose. You can even grow giant crops. I wonder how you’d carry that giant turnip to your storage chest…

Finally, like previous games, Famitsu confirms that you can tame monsters in dungeons and raise them. Rune Factory 4 is about 50% complete and is due out this year. Head over to Famitsu at the link above to check out more screenshots.