Line #17 VideoGame/RuneFactory1


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rune_factory_a_fantasy_harvest_moon.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:A Fantasy Harvest Moon]]
3
4	The first game in the ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'' series, released on the Platform/NintendoDS. It was developed by Neverland Co and published by Marvelous AQL. The game was intended to be a single SpinOff game that commemorated the 10th anniversary of the VideoGame/StoryOfSeasons series. It was later released in North America by Natsume on August 14, 2007. Rune Factory was a hit with gamers and critics, which resulted in Marvelous AQL deciding to continue the series independently from it's parent franchise.
5
6	The story begins with a young, amnesiac man named Raguna collapsing in front of a home on the outskirts of a village called Kardia. The homeowner named Mist finds Raguna and attempts to help him... by giving him a hoe and a watering can. Eventually, she does manage to actually help him and allows Raguna to live on an unused area of land nearby (with compensation).
7
8	Soon Raguna is producing crops for profit, slaying monsters, wooing the village ladies, and potentially stopping the TakeOverTheWorld plot of [[BigBad Ethelberd]] and his [[EvilEmpire Sechs Empire]] next door.
9	----
10	!This game provides examples of:
11	* AndYourRewardIsParenthood: If you get married, your wife will eventually have a baby. The child doesn't get any special introduction; they're largely just an additional character portrait that pops up when you talk to her.
12	* AwesomeButImpractical: Magic (except for [[BoringButPractical Heal]]) is essentially worthless, because every spell has a fixed RP cost and you have a fixed RP {{cap}}, and RP restoration is a pain to come by.
13	* BigBad: [[TheEmperor Ethelberd]] is the ruler of the [[TheEmpire Sechs Empire]] who aims to TakeOverTheWorld by controlling the Divine Earth Dragon Terrable.
14	* CriticalAnnoyance: Only in caves, because only there can you get a GameOver. The beeping increases in frequency as your HP decreases.
15	* DevelopersDesiredDate: The opening heavily features Mist, the young woman who first finds Raguna unconscious at the beginning of the game, while the other marriage candidates get a very brief cameo alongside the rivals. Mist also technically owns the farm that needs to be managed as part of the game, so Raguna ends up seeing a lot of her.
16	* DiskOneNuke: 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 materiel for the other, much harder to make weapons and tools.
17	* EarlyInstalmentWeirdness: Many fans will admit, it is very difficult to go back to the original game after playing the later iterations, especially when the developers refined and streamlined the game.
18	** There are little to no ways to restore RP outside of farming dungeons, thus you're managing your health not because of enemy damage, but because of the HP you will be spending trying to fight. In addition, the magic system in this game is non-existent due to the fact that you can't cast anything outside of your warp spells if you are out of RP.
19	** Character interactions are extremely limited compared to later games.
20	** You must destroy every monster generators in one go before the boss door unlocks, although it remains unlocked so you don't have to do it again if you did it before.
21	** You can only eat one thing that isn't medicine and you have to wait to eat something else.
22	* EvilEmpire: The Sechs Empire, naturally. [[spoiler:The climax of the game is a desperate effort to stop their attempted invasion.]]
23	* GaiasVengeance: [[spoiler:The ending, as the dragon god Terrable's BigDamnHeroes moment. The invading Sechs army are ultimately defeated by... farm crops?]]
24	* GameBreakingBug: Camping in Misty Bloom on the last day of winter has a chance of crashing the game and corrupting your save file. Of course, if that doesn't happen, and you didn't bring the Teleport magic, your game is now UnwinnableByDesign, so you're kinda screwed either way.
25	* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Raguna cultivates the soil of each dungeon to proceed to the next one [[spoiler:just as the Sechs Empire wants him to so they can use the Rune Factories to summon Terrable]]
26	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Ethelberd, invasion attempt thwarted by Terrable, just leaves and sees no real consequences. It won't be until [[VideoGame/RuneFactory4 three games later]] that any real comeuppance is delivered.]]
27	* MagicIsRareHealthIsCheap: Almost no restoration items recover RP. This is one of the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness factors making the RP system practically nonexistent.
28	* OfficialCouple: While you can choose any bachelorette you like in gameplay, animated cutscenes make it pretty obvious that Mist is the canon LoveInterest.
29	* RougeAnglesOfSatin: The script is absolutely riddled with spelling errors, most memorably a misspelling of 'swordsman' as 'sowrdsman' ''in the very last scene of the game.''
30	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: [[spoiler:Ivan turns out to be a member of the royal family. Raguna is hinted but not confirmed to be one as well.]]
31	* SdrawkcabName: All the spellbooks are by "Grand Mage Egam Dnarg".
32	* SequenceBreaking: Going fishing day 1 and selling your catch [[WeBuyAnything in the bar]] lets you buy the small kitchen from Ivan immediately, instead of having to wait til Summer. This isn't ''that'' helpful long-run, since the game eventually makes you clear Misty Bloom (only accessible during Winter) as part of the plot, but it lets you buy the lower-tier kitchen tools immediately on Spring 19 instead of having to listen to Ivan nag you about not having a kitchen yet.
33	* SleepingSingle: If [[spoiler:you get Sabrina and Neumann to reconcile and remarry]], the newlyweds will continue to live in their original, separate houses for the time being, since they both have preexisting work there. The bride hints that she expects the groom to build a new big house for them soon, though.
34	* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: Using save points in caves while [[DamageOverTime poisoned]] and [[PowerNullifier sealed]] is dangerous -- fainting inside a cave means GameOver, and poison ''can'' deplete that [[CriticalExistenceFailure all-important last hit point]], while being sealed means you can't use your WarpWhistle magic to get out instantly. If you're in deep enough and didn't bring enough healing items, the combination can end your game for good.
35	* UnwinnableByDesign: If you were foolish enough to camp in Misty Bloom on the last day of winter ''without'' bringing Teleport magic (and the GameBreakingBug "luckily" didn't happen), you'd be stuck there.
36	* UnwittingPawn: From the time Raguna stumbles up to Mist's house to the point the final boss is summoned he is single handedly supplying the enemy with all the energy they need to summon said boss.
37	* UselessUsefulSpell: ''All of it'', except Heal and the two {{Warp Whistle}}s, due to the [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness unpolished]] RP system.

Context VideoGame / RuneFactory1