Rune Factory 4 Special

This comfortable but clunky reboot of the part farming simulator, part dungeon crawler, part life sim is very much a product of its time

There’s something here for everyone in Rune Factory 4 Special, but its greatest strength is how it ties together everything into one thoroughly enjoyable package.

Rune Factory 4 Special arrives on the Switch, proving to be a worthwhile Farming Simulator/Dungeon Crawling hybrid.

While no particular element of Rune Factory 4 Special stands out, the game sums to a better experience than its component parts.

Rune Factory in general was the brilliant outcome of mashing two genres in a beautiful harmony that worked together wonderfully with Rune Factory 4 being the current pinnacle of the series.

It may be a good case for fans of the series who didn't play it in the past, but its style is now outdated.

You can still clearly see the 3DS roots in Rune Factory 4 Special's PC port, but it's still a fantastic game worth enjoying if you haven't already played it. It does have some keyboard input issues, particularly with name entry, and some aspects were clearly not intended to be viewed at a high resolution, however it does put forward enough effort to work on PC that makes it a decent platform to play on.

Rune Factory 4 Special was my first introduction to this series, which combines the farming simulation elements of Harvest Moon with a traditional action RPG, and suffice it to say, I greatly like it, despite its flaws.

Rune Factory 4 Special delivers all the life sim, farming, and RPG action of the original 3DS release-it's perfect for fans of the Story of Seasons series or Stardew Valley.

I have a strange attraction to farming video games, well, the good ones anyway. Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon and all that Jazz. It seems strange to a lot of people that someone who adores Monster Hunter, Dark Souls and Battlefield, can appreciate a finely grown turnip, but there you go