Here's a very good summary someone on Steam wrote up for it:
I haven't played enough xianxia games to evaluate it from that angle, so I'll just say that it scratches the itch I get from reading the novels in the genre. Lots of familiar terms and mechanics I expect and want.
Farming is actually pretty easy and most crops have a much shorter timescale compared to other games in the genre. This could be because each season/month is only 18 days. Bonus, you get the ability to make irrigation wells fairly early, including automatic ones, and you start off with a spell that lets you do mass watering. Very convenient. Crops are not season locked, you just get reduced yield for harvesting out of preferred season. There's different crop qualities from C, G, S and a final legendary crop with a different name and appearance. You can get different quality from a single harvest (e.g., 2 c, 1 g from a non-repeating crop like wheat or carrots). You eventually unlock the ability to research even more crop types.
The fishing minigame for non-legendaries is pretty standard - watch for the bobber to sink while the fish nibbles. There's an audible difference between nibbles and sinking, so that's useful.
Relationships are built by talking daily, gifting and quests. There's also banquets later which are a great way to boost everyone's affection at once. Romance isn't implemented yet, but the characters all have distinct personalities and warm up to you at different rates. Some have quests you have to complete before recruiting them which can take a while to complete.
Cooking is a very different minigame that feels much more involved and time sensitive than any other game I've played. You have a bunch of different stations that you have to carry ingredients to, do that station's action and then move on to either the next station or the plating/serving area when you're done.
Gathering/foraging is done on the "solar cycle" system. Each solar cycle is three days long, there are six of them in a season. You can kind of think of them as very short weeks? Each solar cycle the forageable ingredients pop up and the shops refresh their stock and change what's on sale - shop sales are very RNG based but they can be a way to get certain items (especially seeds) early before you unlock them.
Combat is pretty much mouse based. While aiming with tools is done based on WASD (and thus, whichever direction your character is facing), combat has your character face the mouse cursor. Left click is default sword attack, right click for spells. I have definitely wasted spells because I forgot to actually face the proper direction first. Do better than me.
Music is pretty soothing, this is one of the few games where I actually keep the sound on instead of catching up on my audiobooks and podcasts. Great for the game, bad for my backlog. It really adds to the atmosphere and immersion.
The game isn't finished yet and while it's got some bugs, I haven't found anything gamebreaking yet. I am a chronic restarter, so most of my experience is with early game (I always believe I can do a more efficient playthrough and then I end up restarting). This game is pretty generous to constant restarters like me - you have multiple character saves and each one keeps track of previous saves so you can just rewind a couple of days instead of making a new character every time. Possibly my most used feature.
Also, while you can't customize your character off the bat (other than choosing to play male or female) you gain access to new hair styles, clothing and accessories as the game goes on. I enjoy the designs but feel that the accessories reflect my character the most (I used to have a floating leaf sprite following me around, and then a toy duck and now it's just a cooling pinwheel for summer). They're all just for aesthetics, no mechanical benefit. Stats are increased by and eating certain items. You do upgrade your tools, of course, but it's more about getting higher quality materials than anything to do with your stats.
I personally have problems making money because I have a hoarding mentality and don't sell my stuff until I need to for a quest. Related, you don't ship things, you sell them to merchants - it doesn't appear in their inventory afterward so you won't be able to buy back what you sold.
hey rune factory nerds, what's your preferred weapon to go with in the games? I always use dual blades but they feel so messy and hard to control. is there a better one?
hey rune factory nerds, what's your preferred weapon to go with in the games? I always use dual blades but they feel so messy and hard to control. is there a better one?
It varies by game and I've used at least a bit of everything, but I use a lot of magic, so I wind up using staves a lot. As far as actually hitting enemies with a weapon go though, I've probably used dual blades the most.
If i went with staff what are the better spells to use with it?
This really varies by game, but usually the water laser spells are really good. The light magic stuff that circles around you can be strong, too. I think magic was strictly tied to staves in Frontier, though? And I certainly don't remember RF1 or 2.
This is unrelated to combat, but I remember in RF4, I would end every day by casting magic in my room until I was all out of juice, to rank up the skills.
I would end every day in RF4 standing next to my bed gulping down Object X to grind status effect resistance levels by giving myself literally every debuff possible then immediately going to bed to sleep it all off overnight
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Frankly the 3D is a lot better than RF5's so I hope they are learning from this and can reuse it.
Here's a very good summary someone on Steam wrote up for it:
Farming is actually pretty easy and most crops have a much shorter timescale compared to other games in the genre. This could be because each season/month is only 18 days. Bonus, you get the ability to make irrigation wells fairly early, including automatic ones, and you start off with a spell that lets you do mass watering. Very convenient. Crops are not season locked, you just get reduced yield for harvesting out of preferred season. There's different crop qualities from C, G, S and a final legendary crop with a different name and appearance. You can get different quality from a single harvest (e.g., 2 c, 1 g from a non-repeating crop like wheat or carrots). You eventually unlock the ability to research even more crop types.
The fishing minigame for non-legendaries is pretty standard - watch for the bobber to sink while the fish nibbles. There's an audible difference between nibbles and sinking, so that's useful.
Relationships are built by talking daily, gifting and quests. There's also banquets later which are a great way to boost everyone's affection at once. Romance isn't implemented yet, but the characters all have distinct personalities and warm up to you at different rates. Some have quests you have to complete before recruiting them which can take a while to complete.
Cooking is a very different minigame that feels much more involved and time sensitive than any other game I've played. You have a bunch of different stations that you have to carry ingredients to, do that station's action and then move on to either the next station or the plating/serving area when you're done.
Gathering/foraging is done on the "solar cycle" system. Each solar cycle is three days long, there are six of them in a season. You can kind of think of them as very short weeks? Each solar cycle the forageable ingredients pop up and the shops refresh their stock and change what's on sale - shop sales are very RNG based but they can be a way to get certain items (especially seeds) early before you unlock them.
Combat is pretty much mouse based. While aiming with tools is done based on WASD (and thus, whichever direction your character is facing), combat has your character face the mouse cursor. Left click is default sword attack, right click for spells. I have definitely wasted spells because I forgot to actually face the proper direction first. Do better than me.
Music is pretty soothing, this is one of the few games where I actually keep the sound on instead of catching up on my audiobooks and podcasts. Great for the game, bad for my backlog. It really adds to the atmosphere and immersion.
The game isn't finished yet and while it's got some bugs, I haven't found anything gamebreaking yet. I am a chronic restarter, so most of my experience is with early game (I always believe I can do a more efficient playthrough and then I end up restarting). This game is pretty generous to constant restarters like me - you have multiple character saves and each one keeps track of previous saves so you can just rewind a couple of days instead of making a new character every time. Possibly my most used feature.
Also, while you can't customize your character off the bat (other than choosing to play male or female) you gain access to new hair styles, clothing and accessories as the game goes on. I enjoy the designs but feel that the accessories reflect my character the most (I used to have a floating leaf sprite following me around, and then a toy duck and now it's just a cooling pinwheel for summer). They're all just for aesthetics, no mechanical benefit. Stats are increased by and eating certain items. You do upgrade your tools, of course, but it's more about getting higher quality materials than anything to do with your stats.
I personally have problems making money because I have a hoarding mentality and don't sell my stuff until I need to for a quest. Related, you don't ship things, you sell them to merchants - it doesn't appear in their inventory afterward so you won't be able to buy back what you sold.
It varies by game and I've used at least a bit of everything, but I use a lot of magic, so I wind up using staves a lot. As far as actually hitting enemies with a weapon go though, I've probably used dual blades the most.
Depending on the game you're playing, probably one of the boss staves, which you can craft by fusing a boss drop. They all have unique effects
This really varies by game, but usually the water laser spells are really good. The light magic stuff that circles around you can be strong, too. I think magic was strictly tied to staves in Frontier, though? And I certainly don't remember RF1 or 2.
This is unrelated to combat, but I remember in RF4, I would end every day by casting magic in my room until I was all out of juice, to rank up the skills.