Runoff vote 2008, Game of the Year

[Jumpin]

Other: Rune Factory Frontier

And of this genre, this is the one I enjoyed the most. Followed by the first Story of Seasons game (released as Harvest Moon on SNES) and Stardew Valley.

Nowadays the genre is gigantic, there are like 150-200 farming simulators on the Switch alone. I’m not sure I’d call myself a fan of the genre, but I was a big fan of a few of the games over the years, and Rune Factory Frontier was by far my favourite. Its also one of the few games of that generation I put over 100 hours into single save, the others being Dragon Quest 9 and Xenoblade Chronicles.

What sets it apart? First, the game graphics are not as cutesy as some of the others, and somehow it remains the best looking game of the franchise despite being way back on Wii in 2008 (in Japan). Second, there is a much stronger story focus, there’s more a sense that things are moving along, there’s a lot more in the way of character development and dialogue, so things feel more alive. Third, the town is better, this is more of a preference thing, but I found the town to be more interesting than any of the other games. Fourth, I think it’s how beautiful the different times of the day are, the runey system is bonked, but the runeys themselves give the game a great atmosphere, kind of like the bioluminescence in the dark forests of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X. This game was out before those two.

Last edited by Jumpin - on 14 November 2023