As a port, it does many things right and wrong. The graphics have been upscaled properly and unlike the pc port of RF4, the game looks really good on a big screen. On another hand, it's a shame to see the lack of many QoL features that should have been an obvious addition, such as your items automatically stacking together when you switch from one inventory to another, or indicating shipped items...
I think that releasing this game after RF4S, it was natural to expect the QoL features of RF4 to be introduced in this game, even more so when they are very simple and minimalistic features. Just like RF4S, the game also stays very simple when it comes to pc configuration and does not even have in-game configs, instead having you to go through an external executable as if the main game was some sort of emulated package.
That aside, the game is fantastic and pretty similar to Rune Factory 4, one of my favourite games. It's essentially a smaller scale version of that game but by no means is it a prototype. This is a complete package and rather than calling it a prototype, I think it's RF4 which is a follow-up to this one with a "best of the series" packaging.
The village is really fun to live in and I loved interacting with the villagers. They get a lot of development through their individual quests and I liked their design. It's unfortunate that many of them are relatively isolated however and hardly interact with the rest of the village, or stick to one topic almost entirely (such as a certain mother which complains about her daughter almost all the time...). But otherwise, they're fantastic, have a lot of dialogue and get a fair share of development. Some of the developments really came a surprise to me as they changed how I viewed a character or directly changed the way the character acted towards the protagonist, which I think is a welcome idea.
One thing I found fairly lacking in the game is the monster transformation. What I believe would lead to an entire feature where you can unlock different forms... never evolved. It's essentially just a fist-type weapon (like the RF4 one) and doesn't do any more than that. Ultimately it's pretty lackluster because it scales based on your stats and ignore your gear so it is pretty much useless on hell mode and in the later dungeons where your gear is extremely important. There is also a similar problem with the magic seeds which can't be improved and therefore stay rather limited in their use.
The game goes by pretty fast and in about 50 hours, I'd explored every dungeon up to the last maze, maxed out all relationships and shipped all items. But they were really fun and enjoyable hours.
I think that releasing this game after RF4S, it was natural to expect the QoL features of RF4 to be introduced in this game, even more so when they are very simple and minimalistic features. Just like RF4S, the game also stays very simple when it comes to pc configuration and does not even have in-game configs, instead having you to go through an external executable as if the main game was some sort of emulated package.
That aside, the game is fantastic and pretty similar to Rune Factory 4, one of my favourite games. It's essentially a smaller scale version of that game but by no means is it a prototype. This is a complete package and rather than calling it a prototype, I think it's RF4 which is a follow-up to this one with a "best of the series" packaging.
The village is really fun to live in and I loved interacting with the villagers. They get a lot of development through their individual quests and I liked their design. It's unfortunate that many of them are relatively isolated however and hardly interact with the rest of the village, or stick to one topic almost entirely (such as a certain mother which complains about her daughter almost all the time...). But otherwise, they're fantastic, have a lot of dialogue and get a fair share of development. Some of the developments really came a surprise to me as they changed how I viewed a character or directly changed the way the character acted towards the protagonist, which I think is a welcome idea.
One thing I found fairly lacking in the game is the monster transformation. What I believe would lead to an entire feature where you can unlock different forms... never evolved. It's essentially just a fist-type weapon (like the RF4 one) and doesn't do any more than that. Ultimately it's pretty lackluster because it scales based on your stats and ignore your gear so it is pretty much useless on hell mode and in the later dungeons where your gear is extremely important. There is also a similar problem with the magic seeds which can't be improved and therefore stay rather limited in their use.
The game goes by pretty fast and in about 50 hours, I'd explored every dungeon up to the last maze, maxed out all relationships and shipped all items. But they were really fun and enjoyable hours.