An eagerly awaited title . . .
Rune Factory 3 Special is a remaster of the 2009 original developed by Neverland Company Inc. This title was launched in Japan in March of 2023, then worldwide in September of the same year. This game can be played on Windows or the Nintendo Switch.
Rune Factory has accrued a devoted fanbase these past decades; and if you have never heard of the franchise before, it is similar to (and originally a spinoff from) Harvest Moon, but with a richer story and with added combat. Rune Factory 3 Special is an exciting mix of the action RPG and real-life simulation genres, which players can farm, craft, develop their relationships and fight monsters.
A short and sweet adventure
Compared to other titles in the franchise, Rune Factory 3 Special is short, sweet, and relatively easy even on the harder difficulty settings. This could be considered a good entry point for newcomers to Rune Factory. Purely the storyline itself may take 25-30 hours to get through.
While the story is shorter than some of the other Rune Factory games, players are overall encouraged to take their time and explore all the other mechanics of the game, including exploration, foraging, farming, cooking, crafting tools and accessories, and developing friendships and potential romances with the inhabitants of Sharance. To craft more advanced recipes, players must raise their skill levels in order to accumulate RP, or Rune Points.
In the game, you play as a young man named Micah who is suffering a bad case of amnesia (of course). The daughter of Sharance’s mayor, Shara, offers Micah a place to stay within the enormous Sharance Tree at the forefront of the town, where Micah must raise and tend to the farms around it. However for some strange reason, the Sharance Tree has not bloomed for 50 years and the surrounding land has begun to decay. Creatures, called univir, from Sol Terrano Desert have also become hostile towards Sharance’s townsfolk.
Early on in the game after completing Shara’s first quest, Micah is able to recollect that he is indeed a half-monster himself, and is able to turn into a golden wooly. He decides to keep this a secret due to the unfriendly relations between humans and monsters. After traveling to Sol Terrano Desert, Micah learns that humans and univir used to live in harmony before the former kicked them out, which is what led to the current hostilities and hatred.
Throughout the story, Micah travels to four different major areas and upon each dungeon completion, he recovers memory orbs that heal his amnesia and allows him (and the player) to learn more about Micah’s past. These memories provide key information on what players need to do next. It is learned that in order to help the Sharance Tree blossom, monsters and humans must unify and coexist peacefully once again. To unite the races, Micah tells everyone the he is half-monster, and after some arguing that follows, the two sides agree to unify at the Unity Festival.
The tree begins sprouting at the Unity festival but cannot fully blossom until Micah marries one of the human bachelorettes in Sharance. Players are allowed to pursue whichever girl they choose, but on the wedding day, the bride is nowhere to be found. Players eventually learn that their bride-to-be is somewhere within Dragon Cave. After defeating the final boss Aquaticus–who insists that Micah does not deserve to marry either monster nor human, and that humans and univir should never reunite–Micah reconnects with his bride and chooses to stay in Sharance to wed and return life to the tree and land.
From golden boy to golden wooly
So, yes, Micah is half-monster. Players can transform into a golden wooly and play the game in that way! Being a wooly feels silly and powerful, and in combat, you can knock enemies around and issue massive physical and splash damage.
Combat is overall quick and dynamic, and there is a plethora of weaponry to choose from. At the start of the game, Gaius offers you any weapon of your choice, from aces to short swords to staffs. I chose the double blades, which are fast and deadly, but it does negate the power of the shields I equip and consumes a chunky amount of RP. Every weapon comes with its own perks and cons, so choose wisely to your own playing style.
As you progress through the game, Micah can invite other townsfolk to join his party. Each party member has their own stats and abilities: Sofia is a capable healer who can also wield swords, Raven has incredible fire spells and a high HP stat, and Evelyn utilizes ranged attacks. Unfortunately, you can only recruit one person at a time, alongside a monster companion or plant pet. Overall . . . I did not use the recruiting mechanic too much since Micah is heavily capable on his own, especially in the golden wooly form.
Meet the bachelorettes
The most significant, popular feature of Rune Factory is the friendship system, where Micah is able to flourish relationships in a platonic or romantic way. In order to advance relationships, players can complete tasks requested by villagers and talk with them and give them gifts. Micah can develop a romance with any of the 11 girls of Sharance, and in order to complete the main story of Rune Factory 3 Special, Micah has to marry one of them.
Players can choose from Shara, Daria, Collette, Sofia, Sakuya, Pia, Raven, Karina, Carmen, Marian, and Kuruna. In fact, Micah can date multiple women at the same time . . . but you can only choose one bride in the end after hitting relationship level 10. Once this is completed, players can select the Newlywed mode from the main screen of Rune Factory 3 Special which offers additional content separate from the main story, showcasing Micah’s life with his new bride. Players can select any of the eleven girls’ stories in the Newlywed mode regardless of who Micah married in the main story.
It is also important to note that in the Newlywed story, all recipes are unlocked and Micah’s crafting level is automatically set to 99.
I personally chose Carmen, because I love her short hair and theatrics. Honestly, I also enjoyed getting closer to her brother Carlos along the way. Speaking of, it is worth noting that players must marry a female candidate. Micah cannot date nor marry other male villagers, but can foster friendships with them. I viewed this as a major downside and it would have been a huge plus if the remaster had allowed same-sex marriages, or at least the option to play as a girl and not only the male version of Micah. However, the remaster is fully faithful to original and does not deviate in this mechanic.
Final thoughts
Rune Factory 3 Special is truly special indeed. Despite being shorter and simpler compared to other titles in the franchise, the game offers such a fun experience with cute, charming characters and hilarious and self-aware dialogue.
The remaster is a major performance upgrade from the original, with smoother running fps, more convenient controls, and other components that adds that well-deserved “special” in the name: a new “Hell” difficulty to challenge more experienced players, as well as Newlywed mode and “Another Episode” DLC (short voice-acted scenes of the life of Micah, his wife and children).
The qualms I have with this game include its super easy combat difficulty (which newcomers may enjoy) and the slight bugginess and sensitivity of the farming mechanic. The remastered voice acting is not as favored as the original cast, particularly because there is less distinction in the vocal personalities of the bachelorettes. Even though the voicing sounds a bit more indistinguishable and less dynamic, one can still sense the effort put into the lines, and there is also much more voiced dialogue overall.
