History VideoGame / RuneFactory

* ''VideoGame/Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon'' for the [[/index]]{{DS}}[[index]]

* ''Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon'' for the [[/index]]{{DS}}[[index]]

''Rune Factory'' started as a Spin Off of the HarvestMoon series. It retains the core farming and social aspects of its parent series and integrates it into a fantasy setting complete with an anime-inspired art style and some RPG-style elements, such as the ability to fight monsters.

* ''RuneFactoryFrontier'', the series' debut on the {{Wii}}, featuring the main cast of the original game
* ''{{Rune Factory 3}}'', the third installment on the DS

* ''VideoGame/RuneFactory4'' for the 3DS (will be released in North America in summer 2013)

* ''Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon'' for the {{DS}}
* ''Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon'' (originally lacking the subtitle in Japan), again for the DS

* ApatheticCitizens: Subverted in the second game. During the second generation, while Barrett (your teacher) was content to let you wander around the dungeons so long as you didn't get caught and you didn't hurt yourself, the moment it comes to [[spoiler: fighting one of the dragon gods, Fiersome, even though the town and probably the world will be destroyed otherwise]], he is ''very'' quick to tell you it's too dangerous and take away the magic that you need.

* BabiesEverAfter: Obviously, for a series inspired by HarvestMoon. In the second DS game the protagonist's kid eventually becomes the new hero/ine.
* BeefGate: In [=RF2=], you can run straight to the bosses from the start of the second generation . This is a ''really'' bad idea.

* BoringButPractical: In [=RF2=], several lesser Skill Seals are far more powerful (the spear's L1 Thrust Strike and shortsword's L2 Dash Slash) or useful (shortsword L1 Power Wave, with a quick hand can be used to capture monsters far above your level) than the higher level Seals.

* ChildhoodMarriagePromise: The "marriages" at the second half of ''Rune Factory 2'' are more or less these.

* DisappearedDad: The second half of Rune Factory 2 has the main character leave his family for an unknown reason, at which point the player takes control of his son/daughter in order to find out why.

* InsurmountableWaistHighFence: The fences strewn about in the [=RF2=] dungeons. In the second generation, Aaron or Aria can slip right past them. [[FridgeLogic Even if they're riding an animal much bigger than themselves.]]

* ThemeNaming: In ''Rune Factory 2'', most of the dungeons -Trieste Forest, Messhina Valley, Padova Mountains and [[spoiler:Palermo Shrine]]- are all named after Italian cities.

* WarpWhistle: In the second half of Rune Factory 2, one of the Magic Books allows you to warp back to the entrance of a dungeon. If you're not in a dungeon, it'll warp you back to your house.
** In the original Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon, it's two different books. 'Escape', which lets you exit a dungeon, and 'Teleport', which brings you to your house. Neither can be used if you're [[strike:silenced]] sealed.

This series provides examples of:

** Fixed in the third game. Practicing magic not only reduces the RP consumption of that particular magic school, but also contributes to increasing your max RP. Add that to that wide array of spells and that it's possible to do some MegaManning of boss abilities by upgrading staves with boss drops, and magic is a viable alternative.

* ButThouMust: In the very start of Rune Factory 2, you can't decline Douglas's and Mana's offer to purchase the hoe and watering can. Similarly, you can't say no to Shara showing you around your new home in the third game.

** Not applicable in the third game, as trying to do anything without RP leads to you fainting in short order.

** Ditto the third game. Fifteen day pregnancies for three years running. Ow.

** Thankfully, Evelyn in the third game sells plenty of different outfits for you to wear.

* TheBlacksmith: Leo for the first game, Tanya for the second, Ganesha for Rune Factory Frontier, Gaius for the third, Elena in ''[[RuneFactoryOceans Tides of Destiny]]'', and Bud for the fourth.

* TheBlacksmith: Leo for the first game, Tanya for the second, Ganesha for Rune Factory Frontier, Gaius for the third, and Elena in ''[[RuneFactoryOceans Tides of Destiny]]''.

* ''VideoGame/RuneFactory4'' for the 3DS (not yet available outside of Japan)

* MonsterAlly: Monsters can be tamed from dungeons and used as livestock, farm hands, and battle allies.

* FridgeLogic: In the first game, you need permits to enter any dungeon. However, how do the NPC's manage to enter the caves without needing them?
** Perhaps they have permits already?

* LesYay: In Rune Factory 2, you can court and "[[ChildhoodMarriagePromise marry]]" a pair of twins, regardless of your gender. Together. However, in the [[HideYourLesbians English version]], they act oblivious to marriage and talk about toast the whole time.
** However, it is kinda cute in context.
* HoYay: The games are also chock full of this, as well as more Les Yay. For RF1, some of the female friendships seem romantic in nature, and in RF2 there is a romantic sounding dialogue Max gives Kyle, comparing their relationship to a fine wine. Those are the most YMMV options. In RF3, if you give Carlos his favorite dish, his dialogue, after a pause, ends with a blush and a "...Can I kiss you, bro?". (Micah responds with "N-No thanks!") If you marry Lara in Frontier, Selphy says "I know she'll be the best wife because I actually really want to marry her!" Furthermore in Frontier, if you take the flower bouquet and propose to anyone (including the guys), they all will get a blush and heart effect on them. (Not to mention some of their starting lines sure sound like they might accept.)

Has a [[Characters/RuneFactory character sheet.]] and a wiki [[http://harvestmoonrunefactory.wikia.com/wiki/Rune_Factory_Wiki / here]]

* ''RuneFactory4'' for the 3DS (not yet available outside of Japan)

* ''Rune Factory 4'' for the 3DS (not yet available outside of Japan)

* ''Rune Factory 4'' for the 3DS [[http://www.siliconera.com/2011/06/29/first-pick-a-character-then-fall-in-love-in-rune-factory-4/ has been announced]] as well. [[http://therunefactory.wikia.com/wiki/Rune_Factory_4 The Rune Factory Wiki seems to have the most information on the subject.]]

* TheAce - If you play well, YOU. Look at it from the other villagers' perspective: You sweep into town from nowhere, become a more successful farmer, warrior, and item crafter. You also build up a farm that they couldn't for years, become everyone's best friend, and steal away girls that some of these characters had been going after for since childhood. And this is all in your first year! No wonder some characters hate you so much...

* ApatheticCitizens - Subverted in the second game. During the second generation, while Barrett (your teacher) was content to let you wander around the dungeons so long as you didn't get caught and you didn't hurt yourself, the moment it comes to [[spoiler: fighting one of the dragon gods, Fiersome, even though the town and probably the world will be destroyed otherwise]], he is ''very'' quick to tell you it's too dangerous and take away the magic that you need.
* AwesomeButImpractical - Magic. While some spells in later games are actually a huge help, many are just a waste of RP, especially when they can only be cast from RP. In the first game you'll have a tough time finding a good situation to use your spells in before you've used up too much RP to cast them, making them a waste of space and money.

* BigBrotherInstinct - Carlos.
* BigEater - Jasper, Sherman, Collette.
* BonusDungeon - The wireless dungeon in RuneFactory3 under your house.
* BoringButPractical - In [=RF2=], several lesser Skill Seals are far more powerful (the spear's L1 Thrust Strike and shortsword's L2 Dash Slash) or useful (shortsword L1 Power Wave, with a quick hand can be used to capture monsters far above your level) than the higher level Seals.
* BrokenBird - [[spoiler:Raven, quite literally.]]
* ButThouMust - In the very start of Rune Factory 2, you can't decline Douglas's and Mana's offer to purchase the hoe and watering can. Similarly, you can't say no to Shara showing you around your new home in the third game.
* TheBlacksmith - Leo for the first game, Tanya for the second, Ganesha for Rune Factory Frontier, Gaius for the third, and Elena in ''[[RuneFactoryOceans Tides of Destiny]]''.

* ChildhoodMarriagePromise - The "marriages" at the second half of ''Rune Factory 2'' are more or less these.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}} - Mist, Pia.

* CuteWitch - Melody. Subverted as she can't use magic. She just likes the outfit.

* DisappearedDad - The second half of Rune Factory 2 has the main character leave his family for an unknown reason, at which point the player takes control of his son/daughter in order to find out why.
* DiskOneNuke - In the first game it's perfectly possible to make the Heaven Asunder, one of the best swords in the game, well before the first Winter makes available the rest of the game's caves, and with them, the ingredients for the other, much harder to make, weapons and tools.

* TheEmpire - The Sechs Empire. More so in the first, [[spoiler:where it directly threatened to invade the kingdom where the village is located by the use of an ancient dragon.]]
* ExpressDelivery - If not then the lead of the second game knew who you were going to have him marry and had an affair with her some time before, because your wife doesn't even take thirty days to pop a kid out after you tie the knot.

* EyepatchOfPower - Lynette in RF1, the military commander from Sechs who moves in after you beat the BigBad. (You can also marry her.)
* EyesAlwaysShut - Neumann

* FantasticRacism - Displayed by Jake and alluded to as being somewhat common in most of the world.

* {{Fetch Quest}}s -- Many of the Bulletin Board requests in [=RF2=]
* FridgeLogic - In the first game, you need permits to enter any dungeon. However, how do the NPC's manage to enter the caves without needing them?

* GameBreakingBug - In RF2, reading some signs (especially the one in front of your barn) will cause the game to freeze.

* HalfHumanHybrid - Various half-elves appear as characters.

* HeyItsThatVoice - Selphy in Rune Factory Frontier uses the [[WendeeLee same dub voice]] as HaruhiSuzumiya and Konata from ''LuckyStar''.

* HotLibrarian - Selphy
* HotShounenMom - Most, if not all, of the mothers in the series.

* InconsistentDub - Between ''Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon'' and ''RuneFactoryFrontier'' due to the former being localized by Natsume and the latter by XSEEDGames. The former game's Tori became known as Tart in the latter game, and the Sechs Empire was referenced as the Zzyzx Empire.

* InformedAbility - When you meet anyone who is "Tough" or "A warrior", you can almost invariably count on never, EVER seeing them fight anyone or anything, despite everyone else saying how tough they are or how well they fight. Due to GameplayAndStorySegregation, most likely, but even so, it's become a running joke for many fans.

* InterspeciesRomance - Every game in the series (so far) has had at least one elf (or half-elf) marriage candidate. [=RF3=] throws in a mermaid, a horned humanoid and a half-monster (and the half-monster protagonist makes EVERY pairing this trope.)
* ItemCrafting - A central part of the game, as the most powerful tools and weapons aside from the basic ones will be created from this process.

* LesYay - In Rune Factory 2, you can court and "[[ChildhoodMarriagePromise marry]]" a pair of twins, regardless of your gender. Together. However, in the [[HideYourLesbians English version]], they act oblivious to marriage and talk about toast the whole time.

* HoYay - The games are also chock full of this, as well as more Les Yay. For RF1, some of the female friendships seem romantic in nature, and in RF2 there is a romantic sounding dialogue Max gives Kyle, comparing their relationship to a fine wine. Those are the most YMMV options. In RF3, if you give Carlos his favorite dish, his dialogue, after a pause, ends with a blush and a "...Can I kiss you, bro?". (Micah responds with "N-No thanks!") If you marry Lara in Frontier, Selphy says "I know she'll be the best wife because I actually really want to marry her!" Furthermore in Frontier, if you take the flower bouquet and propose to anyone (including the guys), they all will get a blush and heart effect on them. (Not to mention some of their starting lines sure sound like they might accept.)
* LimitedWardrobe - {{Lampshaded}} in Frontier:

* {{Meganekko}} - Tori.

* MismatchedEyes - Iris.

* NerfArm - In the first game, the most powerful weapon in the game is: your watering can. Likewise, Frontier has the fishing pole as the strongest weapon. The first example [[LampshadeHanging hasn't gone unnoticed]], as Kross in Frontier comments about how someone destroyed a tank with a watering can.

* OverprotectiveDad - Douglas.
* ParentalAbandonment - The villages in these games tend to be populated mostly by people who aren't even old enough to drink. Roughly a quarter of those youngsters have no visible parents, and most of the rest only have one. The fates of these parents are often only vaguely alluded to if it's ever brought up at all. [[FridgeHorror Kinda makes you wonder how these places stay so darn cheery.]]

* RichBitch - Bianca.
* RobeAndWizardHat - Melody wears this ensemble in the first game, and Alicia wears a more {{Stripperific}} variation in the second.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething - The protagonist of RF4 is mistaken as a prince/princess, and is expected to do works like farming as such.

* RunningGag - Protagonists' choice of attempting to sleep on other people's beds, which will enrage the owners of the beds if they're nearby.

* ShrinkingViolet - Tori and Dorothy.
* ShrugOfGod - There is 0 confirmation that Raguna is [[spoiler:Ivan's brother. Despite it being stated in an interview that both are related to the king]] the two's relation to one another is still only suggested.
* SliceOfLife - Being a descendant of the Harvest Moon series...
* TalkToEveryone - A requirement, since you have to speak to ''everyone'' to get all the basic tools, and in RuneFactory3 your first request is literally to introduce yourself to everyone in town and then ship one item.

* TooAwesomeToUse - A borderline case with the flowers, most notoriously the Emery Flower. Not only does it require 26 000 gold in Frontier, it takes 120 days (which is a full year by the in-game calendar) to grow without aid. What saves this from the effects of this trope is that you get 9 of them in one seed packet.

* UnfortunateNames - Sechs Empire. Just say it out loud.

* UnluckyChildhoodFriend - Nicholas made a ChildHoodMarriagePromise to Cecilia in Rune Factory 1 but is absent entirely in the sequel.
* UnwittingPawn - From the time Raguna stumbles up to Mist's house to the point the final boss is summoned he is singlehandedly supplying the enemy with all the energy they need to summon said boss.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential - You can [[RunawayBride steal another man's wife!]] -- although you need to fill up her up with love first. And you will you get a WhatTheHellPlayer for it. Marry Mist or Rosetta in the first game and Zavier or Lucas will tell you off.
* WarpWhistle - In the second half of Rune Factory 2, one of the Magic Books allows you to warp back to the entrance of a dungeon. If you're not in a dungeon, it'll warp you back to your house.

* XMeetsY - Rune Factory is ''HarvestMoon'' meets ''MonsterRancher'' meets the dungeon crawler of your choice.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething - The protagonist of RF3 is mistaken as a prince/princess, and is expected to do works like farming as such.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething - The protagonist is mistaken as a prince/princess, and is expected to do works like farming as such.

* BabiesEverAfter: Obviously, for a serie inspired by HarvestMoon. In the second DS game the protagonist's kid eventually becomes the new hero/ine.

* BabiesEverAfter: Obviously, for a serie inspired by HarvestMoon.In the second DS game the protagonist's kid eventually becomes the new hero/ine.

Has a [[Characters/RuneFactory character sheet.]] and a wiki [[http://harvestmoonrunefactory.wikia.com/wiki/Rune_Factory_Wiki / here]]

* ''Rune Factory 4'' for the 3DS [[http://www.siliconera.com/2011/06/29/first-pick-a-character-then-fall-in-love-in-rune-factory-4/ has been announced]] as well.

* ApatheticCitizens - Subverted in the second game. During the second generation, while Barrett (your teacher) was content to let you wander around the dungeons so long as you didn't get caught and you didn't hurt yourself, the moment it comes to [[spoiler: fighting one of the dragon gods, Fiersome, even though the town and probably the world will be destoryed otherwise]], he is ''very'' quick to tell you it's too dangerous and take away the magic that you need.