I feel you. I've got to find time for this and all the other Wii games coming out this year, and try to play catch-up in the PS3 trophy league. =P

Sorry! My Google search brought up Rising Star's press release about March 27, and two gaming sites saying the same thing. The announcement of the delay was buried on the second set of pages.

No excuse, though. I screwed the pooch on this one, and I apologize.

I've seen that cover art before, but I never really looked into the game. I guess if Noname is recommending it, I had better give it a closer look.

I'll post back after a little research. (Which will likely include a break to play some more Okami.)

So today's the release day. Anyone plan on jumping in? Personally, I'm snapping up a copy whenever Fry's gets their shipment in (likely Wednesday or Thursday).

Some impressions I found from n-sider:

http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=3848

"Rune Factory Frontier arrived today, and I got to spend my first game week in Raguna's new digs in the town of Trampoli. Immediately, I noticed how absolutely beautiful the whole thing was. Winding paths go everywhere in town, from area to area; I got a little lost more than a few times before I figured out the town's layout. It's a great feeling.

Frontier controls with either a Classic Controller or a Remote/Nunchuk combo. If you choose the latter, you'll be able to optionally shake the Remote for tool or weapon use; shaking the Nunchuk is amusingly mapped only to "knock on door"—something that doesn't seem to have an equivalent with the Classic Controller, but I don't know that it's important, as knocking on doors isn't getting me anywhere until I become better friends with the townsfolk anyway. There isn't any awkward forced motion-control that I've seen, which is good; but there aren't any pointer controls for menus either, which is rather annoying. Apart from that, the Nunchuk combo feels the best to me, if only because I can set my hands apart.


Things seem to be progressing faster than I recall from previous Rune Factory entries. Money's easier to come by (weeds are worth 10 gold now!) and I'd only been in town days before I was able to buy all the weapons—which I have used in a couple rooms of the first dungeon, and they seem to handle somewhere in-between Rune Factory's occasionally-awkward control and Rune Factory 2's massively improved combat schemes.

For tools, I've only got my hands on the cheap hoe, watering can, and hammer thus far. Targeting them is troublesome without the precision of a d-pad (you must use analog sticks for movement), but I expect it to be less of an issue when I'm able to charge them. I don't yet know when or from where my next tools and upgrades will be coming (and in particular, I don't yet have the tool to deal with the ubiquitous floating Runeys), but I have discovered a new purpose for the hammer: removing fruit from trees. Just whack the ground, or if you're feeling particularly arbor-abusive, the tree itself.

There've been little bits of story thus far which I'll let new players discover for themselves, but I've already run into several of the eligible girls from the original Rune Factory, and more are promised. I'm looking forward to getting deeper into the game, though I've also got Avalon Code and Marble Saga Kororinpa to tackle as well—so I might just have to wait a bit to get much further. Thus far, I'm quite happy to be getting into this new adventure. "

I had completely overlooked this. Too bad i really don't have the time for it.

Day one.

That would be today.

Just make sure to pick it up whenever you do have some time, eh?

This game will either be awesome or awful.

Not a first day buy, but definitely something to keep an eye on.

Got it in yesterday, pretty interesting so far, will have a review up hopefully before next week.

One thing I'll say now, is the mechanics will be very familiar if you've played the DS games, though some stuff has been added of course.