Note : RF4S is a slightly better version especially because it's not on a 3ds, but if you actually want to play on a 3ds then this version is perfectly playable. If you can, pick a ROM with Japanese dubs.

There are a lot of times I look at farming games and think they look painfully bland. You position yourself in front of a farming tile, you press a button and watch a one second animation during which you do nothing, something happens -either you plant, you till or gather something-, you move forward in a janky manner and do the same thing in the next tile of your grid based farm.

Then you have Rune Factory 4. When you water your plants, you have to move along your land to progressively water it. You can press the tilling button repeatedly to till forward. You can even charge your tools like you would charge weapon. It FEELS like a game, it feels GOOD. Even when you pick up items, there's this positive feedback because there's a weight to the item, it's not just a long animation where your character picks up something and you're stuck watching, unable to move. Hell you can even pick up multiple items at once and stack then on top of your character. All of that is what makes the farming in this game really good to play.

When I first started this game, I thought it would be an average mix of anime tropes, maybe some JRPG elements and farming. I wasn't wrong but the game also delivered so much more. Sure, the story and the characters are very tropey but at the same time, the game makes such a smart use of dialogue that I've never felt like a game was this alive. The amount of dialogue is insane and even after a hundred hours of playing, you'll still have new things to read. Every day, every character says something new. They also talk to each other. There are also random events in town involving them and there are multiple dozens of them! Quantity over quality is not something I usually appreciate but RF4 is perhaps the only game that manages to deliver something out of that. The end result is that the tropey characters have a lot of nuance, personality and that ultimately I learned to love them and to not mind living alongside them. This goes to the point that I just cannot stand most similar games because none of them offers one tenth of RF4's writing. I've really seen no other game with such an organic town and characters and it doesn't help in making me enjoy other farming games.

RF4 is a great farming game, a great slice of life game and it's also a great adventure and RPG. Not only does it combine aspects of management and adventuring rather well, but the game also has a lot to offer. Crafting and cooking are core mechanics and the crafting in this series is perhaps the most in-depth I have ever seen in any game, with an enormous amount of freedom given to the player when it comes to customisation. You can use any item in the game to craft and almost all of them have a specific effect. You want to make a weapon with every single status effect? You can. A giant spear bigger than the screen? You can!!!

The freedom given to the player is a huge part of why this game feels fun. There are tons of ways to break the game, for example you can throw bad food at enemies and it'll affect them the same way it affects you. Have a rotten food which deals -50% HP? Throw it at a boss and see what happens, the developers did not prevent you from doing so! Every time you find such a thing, it feels rewarding and at the same time not out of place. Ultimately the game is a lot about minmaxing, grinding and optimizing things but in a fun and stressless ways. It's not a hard or frustrating game and yet it still is quite fun to break.

Despite its limitations, the game also offer a great amount of exploration in the style of ALTTP dungeons, with every screen usually being a separate map area. The world is huge and there are a lot of dungeons, enemies, items to be collected... Did I mention you can capture every single enemy and use them as fighting pets, mounts or have them work in your farm? And if you don't like them, then bring up to two villagers alongside you in battle, you can even equip them as you wish!

The game has a ton of such systems and you never get bored. Grinding is a core mechanic and everything in the game has stats, from walking to sleeping to taking a bath. Sure they don't amount to much but it's still great hearing the skill up jingle every time you level up your walking.

Perhaps what I like the most about the game is its ergonomics. Teleport home whenever you want. Need something? Press L1/LB to open your quick menu which allows access to your ENTIRE INVENTORY within seconds, seriously no other game can rival this. It feels like you don't waste a single second and everything is as optimized as it can get. It feels... great! Truly, one of my favourite games of all times.

< DELVING INTO THE OTOME GENRE >
My first otome experience cause let's stop having a fragile lesbianism. I have so much to say as it is a massive piece of fiction (75 hrs of reading as a slow non english reader).

STORY :
I'm obsessed with detective game of course this was a hit. I really enjoyed the investigation part even if some line of reasoning were kinda odd. It did keep me intrigued until the end and was a nice back-up when the romance part was lacking. I'm also impressed of how ambitious this is in its themes. It goes from form of abuse to mental issues. And most of them are treated righteously. My only gripes is that I was suffocating near the end with all the justice and sorrow talk. It was foggy and dragged for way too long.
It's also a shame that the content of the criminal chapters wasn't included in the main game. I felt like the game was throwing in an unorganized way a bunch of info to make us forgive its major plot holes. And everyone already said here we NEEDED a Zero route.

CONSTRUCTION :
I’m new to the genre so wasn’t aware it had a multiple route sytem and what a delight. To be able to play one route, take a short reading pause and pick up another game is necessary. At the same time the game doesn’t fall into the trap and deliver us vastly different route in term of pace and event that’s too perfect.
As all otome fan I want to rank each route, so here it is (with unorganized thought) :

5. Enomoto : My 1st route and the weakest imo. The investigations is the worst with a really irritating vilain and all the talk about justice. I do like Enomoto he’s such quirky character but as a LI he’s annoying with all the chivalry stuff.

4. Okazaki : The investigations part was the best with Sanjou being my ever favourite vilain and one of my fav character, he’s just so heartbreaking. But for Okazaki, gosh the most toxic character of the bunch he just needs therapy so I can’t rate this higher.

3. Shiraishi : Investigation was okayish with some fine line of reasoning. I thought it would be my fav LI at first but it didn’t. Fine plotwist and the best bad endings of the entire game.

2. Yanagi : For the romance it’s just okay. But the route is so fleshed out, it took all the best element of the other one and put into it. I just love all the non-romantic scene, top tier. And the story is really moving forward.

1. Sasazuka : My favourite route of the game. I couldn’t put it down. Great investigation but mostly best romantic partner of the game. The romance felt a bit more adult and the teasing dynamic was amazing.

CHARACTERS :
BIGGEST highlights of this game. All the characters even the minor one were so fleshed out. The Adonis members had such a crushing backstory and motive. In police station our colleague are a lovable bunch. And as for the LI, I think I enjoyed them all, at least as a character at the exception of Okazaki of course. The interactions between its characters were such a delight especially those between LI that were so funny.

OST AND ART :
For its music it went on the minimalistic side, no more than 20ish tracks. So I grew a bit tired of them. At least, I can legitimately say that I won’t forget them soon. As for the quality, they felt a bit cheap like elevator music but it has its own charm.
Talking about art, the character design felt really odd at first but I grew fond of it later and was excited each time I encountered an illustrated characters. What might feel odd isn’t the chara design but the way it looked with its background. Talking about background minismalistic as well not much of them. Less fan of the CG most of them had a weird feel (maybe the proportions) and looked like some fanart of the game.

CONCLUSION :
Overall a pretty neat experience and great intruduction to the genre. Engaging detective story, nice art, great voice acting, amazing characters honestly I couldn’t ask for more. Had a blast reading this.
Will certainly not be my last otome when I read about all the amazing other title I have yet to discover (Virche, Jack Jeanne, Piofiore…). Looking forward to that !

I coincidentally happened to play this a few days after playing Sin & Punishment for the first time. These are the same fucking game. Yeah okay, one's a rail shooter and the other is a rhythm game, but let's look past the superficiality of "they look and play completely different". Released within a year of each other, amateurish 90s anime dub included, they're heartfelt, passionate spins on their genres in the most ridiculous ways possible. They're each like 1-2 hours long with a nice arcade tightness, and yet that 2 hours is jam-packed with setting after setting and fight after fight. Uncontainable fever dreams. Oh, and you'll be grooving hard to both.

Seriously, the soundtrack here is incredible. It's all just one band? And yet they genre-hop like nobody's business. Does Eurobeat even normally have guitars? The answer to that question of course being: Fuck you, this is a Gitaroo, they're not even remotely the same thing. The band here, COIL, (no, not the one that did "The Ape of Naples") completely understands that, and it's easy to believe that they've become one with the Gitaroo and are the coil pickups facilitating the fucking lightning beams shooting out of the thing. One of the songs here is literally just... Just. The Radiohead song. That song fucking owns.

Gitaroo Man's ONE flaw is that it has too much confidence in the Dualshock 2. That controller fucking sucks and tilting the stick even just a couple millimetres will ruin any inputs here. After like an hour of struggling on the final boss, I booted up PCSX2 (which has recently had some of its input lag fixed? cool) and beat it first try, no issues, on an actually good controller. I read online a bit and saw people having more success plugging in a Dualshock 1 too. Maybe they should've shipped a plastic Gitaroo.

I gave Sin & Punishment a 4.5 too but honestly it's tentative and shorthand for "I think it's fucking amazing but I don't know exactly how it'll hold up for me on replays". Just know that these are the best kind of game. I wish I had a dog that could turn into a boombox.

Edit: Also Master Mode is ridiculous LMAO it's fun though
Edit 2: Upon further reflection yeah this is one of the best games I've ever played. Also I may have unfairly trashed the Dualshock 2 a good amount, it may have just been my setup or me having to get used to using it for this game specifically

i took my copy to a video game store and they cleaned the disc properly and it worked perfectly after that so lol

gitaroo man is so bizarre and weird but, like, in the absolute best way possible. the story is nonsense but so heartwarming and charming and surreal you kinda have to fall in love with it. mechanically it plays unlike any other rhythm game i've seen, while also using an easily understandable and unique system when it comes to playing in time with the music. and what incredible music it is.

so much of this game is about the art style and presentation, though, and it has one of my favourite overall aesthetics of any game. i don't know what it is about this game's look but it just scratches an itch i never knew i had. all the elements work in tandem with each other to form one of the tightest, most cohesive visions i have ever seen a game put out, and it concludes with one of the greatest endings to a rhythm game perhaps ever put to disc. i cannot wait to give master's play a full shot, and to listen to the soundtrack every day until i die.

A suprisingly amazing port of one of my favourite games.

Gitaroo Man is my favourite rhythm game and I can happily play it all the way through any time (which is also why I beat it the week before playing this, I only beat this because I was testing my psp after getting one). I hadn't played the PSP port and I can happily say that it's a great way to play, I prefer the PS2 version but theres very few differences, mostly that the og 4:3 fmvs are now cut off to fit the psp screen, and just a lower texture quality, but also it's not much of a issue and I was fine with it. I do think the control nub is actually a better way to play so if you find the ps2 version too hard maybe the PSP version would be easier. I will say that I actually died to the final level a few times, which I've never actually done before on any time I've played the ps2 version, which I'm not sure if it was just because my hand wasn't used to playing on a psp or if they made it harder but it's more than likely my fault more than anything.

The 2 new songs are pretty good also, but playing this also me kinda sad realising that there isn't a offical release of the cutscene music which sucks because it has different variations of the Legendary theme. Also just as always have to say that the OST is amazing, not a bad song in the game.

another member of the dying gasp of the diegetic rhythm game subgenre along with space channel 5 pt. 2, gitaroo man showcases a young keiichi yano and his team at inis ltd. stretching the concepts previously established by parappa about as far as they could reasonably go. rather than simple call-and-response, gitaroo man attempts musical dialogue between combatants, where U1 and his opponent trade twos attempting to one-up each other with increasingly stylish licks. this isn't a strict memorization game or based in player improv; rather, each phrase is chosen from a pool of possible riffs that all conform to the same chord progression. the format requires a different level of player dexterity in adapting to new rhythms compared to many games of its ilk, and remains possibly the most fascinating aspect of the game design to this day.

the actual input method swaps between two modes: attack/charge and defend. in the former mode, U1 commands his axe via a series of tube-like notes that crawl across the screen that must be followed with the analog nub while simultaneously matching the rhythm with the face buttons. while unorthodox, this system perfectly captures that feeling of bending in a particularly wailing note or leaning into the whammy bar for that wobbly pitch. the defense system is straight-forward by comparison: simply press the corresponding face button as it flies towards the center of the screen. alternating between these two styles generally occurs primarily in the aforementioned random-phrase vamp for the majority of the song where you attempt to whittle down the enemy's health, though the game is smart about mixing up their inclusion so it never gets stale. there's both a full-attack and full-defend song out of the ten-song roster, as well as nuanced twists such as U1 having to dodge attacks in his non-gitaroo man form during the sanbone trio's song or a song change in the middle of the second-to-last fight. structurally the game never rests on its laurels, and instead makes an honest effort to keep the player continually invested throughout the experience.

being of its early vintage, it's easy to spot the cracks in gitaroo man's design unfortunately. it's hard for me to discern quite what the differences between the original ps2 version and this psp port are given that the former is finicky both via emulation and ESR, but my suspicion having read threads on the matter + anecdotal evidence from friends indicates that the directional input for the attack sections can be unfortunately sensitive. on the psp version I've always found it rather forgiving, which may be a byproduct of it controlling pretty smoothly with the nub. however, given that the notes constantly curve and that there aren't visual delineations between measures, it becomes difficult to ascertain the timing of the notes in this mode as the charts become more dense. this is manageable in the main story mode, but in the master mode it becomes utterly overwhelming and lays the limits of the engine clearly bare. the defend sections are relatively lax in comparison given how large the input windows are, but the psp's 16:9 screen makes the square and circle notes appearing from the sides visible far before the vertically-oriented triangle and cross notes, which unfortunately makes their order of arrival differ from their actual rhythmic order. again, not a real issue outside of master mode once you get a handle on each of the songs.

but the mechanics alone aren't what really sells this game, right? 326's scratchy character designs with their deranged spike teeth and determined droopy-eyed stares make the concept pop just from the cover; the gitaroo man outfit and its 70s alien prog color scheme with the winged helmet look so sick. the cutscenes as well jump so desperately from rapid-fire dubbed lines to printed mantras of both despair and honey-love back to wicked character transformations and unexpected left-turn boss fights. rarely has such a soundtrack been as effortlessly eclectic as this one: expect to switch from steady-as-she-goes hard rock to eurobeat to funk to ambient dub within just the first set of stages. far from focusing just on the squalls of cock/butt rock, lead composers/performers COIL (entirely unrelated to another even more viciously experimental duo from a different set of isles) twist U1's titular guitar into a vast landscape in sounds depending on what would benefit the current track, from delay-riddled murmurs to finger-picked flamenco. one of the bands I'm in used to play legendary theme as a warmup before practices; undeniably one of the freshest leads ever written. intro soft machine should've been playable. that riff sits so tall in my mind palace of slacker-y 90s indie guitar fuzz.

Recommended by T0M196 as part of this list.

[Apologies in advance for not playing the PS2 version like you requested, it didn't emulate well on my machine, but I heard the PSP port is pretty 1:1 all things considered.]

"The dreams I've abandoned couldn't have come true. I have other dreams I haven't given up on. They still shine bright. They still light my way."

Perpetual loser U-1 has it rough: the girl he likes won't give him the time of day, his bully is always taking opportunities to dunk on U-1 and remind him how worthless he is, and U-1's only friend through all of this is his faithful dog Puma. But all of this changes when U-1 discovers his status as the legendary Gitaroo Man, and is drawn into the interplanetary conflict between Planet Gitaroo and the Gravillian Empire, who's leader Zowie is vying for domination of the universe. Armed with the mysterious and powerful Gitaroo, U-1 has to learn to shed his cowardly ways and become the hero that will save the universe through the power of sick-ass guitar solos.

Throughout the game, each stage pits U-1 against a brand-new, colorful and charming foe utilizing some kind of new music genre to duel U-1 with. While each of these stages could stand out as the highlight of the game all on their own, I want to draw attention to Stage 6. Crash-landed on the shores of Planet Gitaroo, U-1 is sitting underneath the shade of a dying tree, guitar in hand as the gentle cackling of the campfire serves as accoutrement to the ebb and flow of the ocean's waves crashing against the shore. The world is bathed in the warm hue of the evening sun, sinking into the ocean and ushering in twilight. A girl in the spitting image of U-1's crush back on Earth walks up to U-1, and she sits next to him, shoulder-to-shoulder, few words spoken as U-1 serenades her with the gentle sounds of his guitar. It's the only stage in the game where U-1 isn't engaging in a duel, but rather playing his guitar for the sake of someone else, and the track that's playing in this moment, "The Legendary Theme", is such a beautiful and moving piece of music that it genuinely brought tears to my eyes. This moment, this lull between the wacky character designs, the fun and energetic music battles and off-the-wall plot, is such a memorable and poignant scene compared to what preceded it that it may seem out of place at first, until you reach the climax and realize how much Stage 6 embodies the core tenets of Gitaroo Man.

U-1 is a loser, a grade-A wimp who gets no respect from anyone and is always told by others how he'll never be anything but a grade-A wimp; but on Planet Gitaroo, where he's the Gitaroo Man, he's kicking ass and taking names. He's a hero to the people, an indomitable warrior of legend who will stop Zowie, and by the final stage, U-1 has learned to harness the power of the Gitaroo for the sake of love, gaining the self-confidence needed to save the universe. When he must return home, not as Gitaroo Man but as little ol' U-1, Stage 6 showed that U-1 never needed the power of the Gitaroo to be loved. He just needed to believe in himself and show the world not what Gitaroo Man could do, but what U-1 could do. It's that self-love and confidence that U-1 obtained back on Planet Gitaroo that turns out to be what made Gitaroo Man Gitaroo Man in the first place.

Even if Gitaroo Man isn't the most difficult or in-depth rhythm game out there, it's the greatest rhythm game of all time in my heart. Gitaroo Man is bursting at the seams with charm, overflowing with charisma and creative energy: From its wonderful character designs, to its charmingly goofy dub, to its absolutely phenomenal soundtrack full of heart and experimentation, Gitaroo Man has firmly cemented itself in my heart as an all-timer.