Let me start off by saying that Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny is one of my favorite games on the PS3. It reminds me of a mixture of Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Phantasy Star Online. Interactions and holidays reminds me of Animal Crossing. The raising of animals and crop growing is like Harvest Moon, and the rest, is just like Phantasy Star Online.
Seasons go by, events fill your schedule, and exploring never felt so right. The music is great and the graphics are very pretty to look at. I was in awe how awesome the HUB world looks.
 |
| Fantastic. |
Just today I leveled up to Level 5 and took down the first island. Came home and passed out at 5 a.m. to get the Insomniac trophy. Continued throughout my entire day talking to people and exploring the island of Fenith leveling up my skills and whatnot. I actually can't figure out how to make recipes which is killing me I tell you. Literally I'm dying in the game.
The Cherry Festival was today, where we feast on food and celebrate the cherry blossoms falling. I also met a girl who can help me find treasure of something. I didn't really pay attention. I also need a few more ingredients to forge a new weapon and later I'll be able to own the forging kit to have in my own house!
Overall I'm loving this game. I don't usually like RPGs but this is the best exception ever offered. I can't wait for more!
Day 2:
I'm loving this game. I got totally swamped in the fishing tourney. Joe got first place with over 1000 points whereas I got only 219. And I spent my entire day fishing. WTF. Anyway I got a job at Lily's bar, and I've been going there listening to her and helping her out very often. The Lantern Festival was very neat. The town looked gorgeous! It was mere eye candy I tell you. Great way to celebrate the end of Spring. Also everyone in the village makes a wish at the end of the night. Writing it down on paper and stuffing it into a lantern, you toss it into the ocean as it floats away. I wished for more strength and I leveled up 3 times!
I've been fishing like crazy too. As of right now I'm feeling a nostalgic slap in the face with Tides of Destiny's fishing mechanics. Sure, they aren't anything like Animal Crossing's but it's the same concept and the fish are awfully familiar, of course. Cooking and crafting are very fun! The harder the meal is the better, lol. I'm gathering more and more ingredients the further I progress.
 |
| Good visuals. |
The farm is on lock-down too. I now know everything there is to know. Buying monster cookies allows your workers to plant and maintain the crops. Each monster does different tasks. Keeping them in order and making sure they do what they do, is required. Making money is awesome, by the way!
The beauty patent was today and as I judged every woman in Fenith, I came to a conclusion that Odette deserved it. Odette won the patent. I should have voted for Lily! She is my favorite character... I just sort of figured Lily was going to win regardless. Apparently not.
Tides of Destiny is a fun game so far. It's really fulfilling my expectations. The rehashed dialogue and requests are a bummer, but as far as holidays go, I'm always on the edge of my seat. The atmosphere here is flawless. I'm growing to love each individual character more and more as time goes on.
Day 3:
Fall 4, completed the Earth temple, and after many, many holidays and fishing, I'm here. I'm liking this neighbor thing we're allowed to do. Right now Lily is my favorite character but as time went on I can't say I dislike anyone. Everyone at their pinnacle are really likable.
 |
| It's a trap! |
On a different note I have this island farming stuff on lockdown. Loving it. I make thousands everyday from which I can now turn around and buy upgrades for every aspect of my home. Also I don't really need these fruits and vegetables unless I'm going to craft something. The dungeon crawling is immensely fun. I find it to exceptionally better than any other aspect of the game. Finding islands, grinding, and everything in between is magnificent. It's also nice to get little break from it all and returning to Fenith island with all my loving friends. Great pacing no matter how you go about it.
I also upgraded Ymir so he can now fight stronger monsters and explore at a better rate. Thanks to the gem thing I got from the Earth temple. =D I'm level 17 now and I'm starting to explore more and more islands as time goes on. The world is immensely huge and I find that to be awesome. I'm hoping my next several hours to be even better!
Day 4:
Considering I'm almost level 40 at the Water Temple's boss, I have to say I've grown a huge heart for this game. The plethora of content is immense. Treating your neighbors with respect, fishing, crafting, sidequests, the main quest, island to raise, monsters to train, and harvesting crops are the main things you can master. And that's not it.
A year has passed and now I'm on Spring 9 almost done with the third Temple. I'm just gushing here mainly so here are my complaints...
 |
| Beautiful. |
With mostly everything you do all the way down to swing your own sword, Sonja just has to but in and unnecessarily say things. Do an awesome move? She yells. Stand there motionless? She wants pudding. Enter the store, miss a fish, catch a huge fish, die, walking through the ocean? Yep. It gets on my nerves. Also Aden does it too. He's not as bad but every time he eats food he says in quote "This is it!". Or when he jumps, he yells.
Also when I walk by a character and decide to talk to them they greet me twice. I walk by Bismark (his stuttering is deadly I tell you), and he says to me "G-good afternoon." After that I click on him to talk, he greets me with "G-good afternoon." Was that really necessary? Couldn't he open with what he wanted to tell me?
Also repeated dialogue gets on my nerves. Every greeting from everyone is the same sh*t different day. Sure, I'm expecting too much when it comes to the actual dialogue but their greetings annoy me to the point I don't really want to talk to them. Speaking of which the dialogue is decent. It's understandable, reasonable and it gets the job done, most of the time. It is, in no way, charming.
The repetitive soundtrack kills. The outside song is murder. Same song on every island (basically). The main buildings having their separate songs is okay but not the islands. The smaller islands are copied and pasted through and through. Same layout, same enemy placement, bing batta boop. Oh and the same music. There are only two songs that stood out the entire game so far. The Winter island song and the Water Temple's theme.
The combat is great for the most part too. Knowing that having my poorly AI captured monsters with me would have made this trip easier I would have been taking them with me the entire way. Up until the third temple's boss did I realize it was such a huge role in winning.
Sadly my complaints weigh this game way down low. When I write a review on it on my Tumblr, I'll be sure to include this. I'll eventually get used to these annoyances. Thankfully the highlights of it makes this game worth playing!
Day 5:
After narrowly defeating the Water temple's boss I can now progress. His moves were, say, very tricky. He never went into a huge pattern, rather he would just perform random sets of moves. Most of the time I spent running away and evading. I leveled up my team to a great extent (without them I would have lost once more), and they will prove to be a great strength in the near future. I expect the fourth boss to be a little more difficult than the previous as the second boss proved to be only slightly more challenging than the first.
Now I finally completed the Master Angler trophy (catch 2000 fish!), and I screamed with tears of joy. Now onto the fourth and hopefully final temple, the Wind temple, and to finally Platinum this game.
As a reward for my great challenges, I am going around and leveling up my friendship with the locals. I'm probably just going to level up Quinn and Kelsey a few more times, while working on Joe and Beatrix on the side. By that time I hope I won't be messing around too long after I complete the main storyline!
No comments:
Post a Comment