At Natsume’s booth I spent a while talking with Adam Fitch and playing Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar and Rune Factory 3 on the NDS. I had not played previous games in the series but these newest iterations, I was told, carry on the established tradition of the previous titles which should make them very interesting to their audience.
The new Harvest Moon game is all about resurrecting the bazaar of a small town. The bazaar, or market, used to be lively and full of people and commerce, but for some reason it has become dilapidated. It’s up to the player and their harvesting and selling skills to revitalize the town market. Players can grow and sell a variety of crops and cloth and other goods.
Rune Factory 3 packs about 40-60 hours of gameplay and allows players to get up to level 200. I was told that some of the optional dungeons in the game will require a level 200 player to beat, which is hardcore. The gameplay was said to be much faster and smoother, in terms of animation and combat than previous titles.
As for the story, Rune Factory 3 casts the player as a half monster, half human. The story has you completing quests and fighting numerous monsters to try and reignite the friendship between monsters and aliens. About a 1,000 years ago, the monsters stopped talking to the humans and no one knows why.
Both of these games should delight fans of their respective series and both should be out by the end of the year.
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