Someone obviously keeps on buying Rune Factory games, because Marvelous Entertainment just announced the latest portable installment of the RPG/farm-sim hybrid series, just in time for its fifth anniversary.
Rune Factory 4 for the Nintendo 3DS allows you, playing the role of a prince (or princess) of a burgeoning new land, to build your hometown and surrounding farmland as you see fit. In addition to the traditional Harvest Moon-type farm action, you’ll go on adventures, make friends, and eventually marry and settle down.
In addition to the 3D visuals, Rune Factory 4 adds a new quirk to the marriage system — before you marry a partner, you’ll be able to ‘go steady’ with them for a while, doing the sort of things that young lovers do. You’ll even be able to have several lovers at once, although that stops becoming an option once you do get hitched. “This system will let you experience a lot of the warm, if sometimes embarrassing situations lovers run into,” producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto said. “There’s a lot of other new features as well, and even beginners are welcome — the story doesn’t connect to previous games, so anyone can pick it up with this one.”
