Played some Rune Factory 4 at Pax East:
Rune Factory 4
For some reason, I decided to wait in line for the demo of Rune Factory 4. I’ve never played the series, but, I adore farming games, and Stardew consumed my life for like three months. My brother played the second one and seemed to think it was good.
It takes a full 20 minutes as I watch this woman in front of me building her farm from the ground up. Looks fun enough, but I’m sorta just like, blown away that there’s a line of 5 people and the booth staff are just watching her playing the game for this wildly long amount of time.
She eventually moves on and I try it out. The guy who’s showing me the game doesn’t really know anything about it, but, he’s up-front about it, and we goofed around about it a bit.
Me: “How do I get to my farm?”
Him: “Go through that door.”
I start using a hoe to till the land. I do it a few times, then stop, my character starting vacantly straight ahead.
Him: “Done farming huh?”
Me: “Just seems… like… futile.”
Him: “Futile.”
Me: “Yeah I guess, since I’m not gonna be here for more than a few minutes, probably not worth laying the foundation to a farm.”
He nods.
I leave the farm and walk downward, through a different door. There is a massive fucking dragon there.
Me: “Uhh!” I notice it’s not an enemy, “Is this dragon a friend??” I go up to it and talk to it.
Him: “Yeah you can date it, it’s amazing.”
Me: “I can???”
Him: “Nah I don’t know.”
We laugh a bit.
I go down and leave a castle.
This anime girl gives me a massive cube of bread??
I eat the entire thing, a block larger than my head, in a single instant.
MASSIVE letters appear telling me have have done something truly tremendous. I have unlocked a great power.
I say nothing to her and just leave.
Him: “So yeah you can just go and battle monsters out here.”
I run up to the first monster I see, a wooloo. It is adorable. It makes no move to attack me.
Me: “I don’t think I want to fight this thing. It’s adorable.”
Him: “There is a way to get pets in this game. I don’t know how to do that, though.”
Me: “Maybe I can feed it?”
I move to the next screen, wooloo just stares at me.
I give it a plant, a little heart appears. It just sits there.
Him: “Hey, Jim!” He gets this other booth guy to come over. “How do you get pets in this game?”
Jim: “So, there’s a specialty glove you have to get, that lets you pet animals, and if you can survive long enough, it’ll become your pet. You can ride them and use them on your farm.”
Me: “Nice.”
They then gave me a pin. Pretty good demo.