Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon Critic Reviews

It's impossible to deny that Rune Factory 3 is the best entry in the series. It has improved in just about every area it possibly could: the battles are more dynamic, the farming isn't monotonous, the characters are deeper and more intriguing, and the dialogue is full of variety.

As much as there is to do in Rune Factory 3, none of it ever gets too complex or stressful.

"Quotation Forthcoming"

Rune Factory 3 does little to change the franchise formula, and for me, someone new to it, that's good enough.

This sweet experience is one that can be enjoyed by newcomers and veterans of the Harvest Moon series, as Rune Factory 3's positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

Excellent character portraits.

If you've played the previous entries, you'll probably already know you'd enjoy Rune Factory 3; it's a prime example of "if it's not broken, don't fix it" at work. The new features are bullet points rather than game changers, but it's the biggest entry in the series so far and a must for fans of farming and fighting.

Rune Factory 3 definitely shares many similarities with its Harvest Moon heritage, but successfully branches out into a highly engaging action RPG that stands in good stead when compared to other role-playing efforts on Nintendo DS thanks to its enjoyable battle mechanic, variety of objectives and the above average storyline.

It's all far too familiar.

It's simply frustrating that, even after several previous installments, the series has yet to improve significantly – even moreso since a lot of the issues holding it back seem easily fixable. As it stands, Rune Factory 3 is a solid game – just not a great one.