Rune Factory 2 is set several years after the first game. The evil Sechs Empire has been defeated, and the Kingdom of Norad is once again at peace. Things may not stay that way for long, however, as dark premonitions foretell of dangers to come. It’s up to player to uncover the source of these premonitions and bring peace to the kingdom once more. Over the course of the story, players will build and develop a farm, befriend townspeople, raise monsters, take on quests, and find a wife. Rune Factory 2 offers innovative Touch Screen controls, easy-to-use menus, and an all-new compelling storyline. In a first for the Rune Factory series, the story of Rune Factory 2 is multigenerational. Players begin the game as Kyle, a strange man who comes to Alvarna Village. Eventually, players will take on the role of Kyle’s child, opening up a whole new adventure. It’s an innovative feature that allows players to follow the story of their family and the townsfolk over two generations.

Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon is the new sequel to last year’s Rune Factory, and offers the same half-farming, half-fighting hybrid design as its predecessor did. Almost exactly the same, in fact. And, for that matter, its storyline is pretty much a cut-and-paste — a mysterious boy with amnesia shows up in a quaint little town and is given the gift of an abandoned farm to live and work on by some generous local villagers.

And then the adventure is largely the same, too — there are four different dungeons to crawl through, and once again each one is themed on a different season of the year. Spring, summer, winter and fall. One apiece. And the inevitable pursuit of romance is also pretty much unaltered, with a selection of non-player character young ladies whom you can woo and win as your wife, to get married and raise a family.

So, for anyone who’s played the first Rune Factory from last year, it won’t be very long into this experience before you realize that it’s essentially the exact same game. The characters are different, the land is changed — the surface-level features have all received a fresh coat of paint. But, underneath it all, it’s the same core product. Rune Factory 2 is not so much a numeral-worthy sequel as it is just a bit-more-polished follow-up, freshly made for 2008.

That kind of thing happens a lot on the DS, so it’s probably not all that surprising to anyone. And it should be an especially predicted revelation for any long-time Harvest Moon fans, who’ve long come to expect that drastic, major overhauls just don’t happen in that series from one year to the next. But, luckily, none of this disqualifies Rune Factory 2 from being an excellent title on DS. Because the first Rune Factory was so solid, and because this follow-up doesn’t fix what isn’t broken, it is itself also a great game.

Your character wakes up each morning and is ready to work the fields, tilling the soil, sowing the seeds, and harvesting the ripe crops to sell for a profit. After a hard morning’s work, maybe he heads off to town for the afternoon to do some shopping, or chat it up with the local single girls, or take some extra quest assignments from the village’s central bulletin board.

Or maybe he blows off all of that responsibility and just heads out for a day of hacking and slashing some dungeon-dwelling monsters. That’s always an option, too, as the nearby forest, mountain range and tropical island are all crawling with baddies, each one of which is waiting to meet you in combat. Or, instead of defeating them in battle, you could seek to win them over — gaining their loyalty and taking them on as companions. Monsters you’ve “captured” in this way can become your partners in future battles, or can even be put to work tending to your farm while you’re away enjoying the local town festivals.

The point to impress is that the Rune Factory design is full of depth and options, with so many things to see and do that you could easily find yourself playing it for 20 hours or more. If you get invested in the storyline, too, you’ll find the available length especially satisfying — there’s a twist halfway through the plot that we won’t spoil here, but extends the appeal of the overall experience quite a bit. Overall, this kind of addictive adventure is an excellent return on your investment of 30 bucks.

Publisher: Natsume
Developer: Neverland
Genre(s): Role-Playing Game
Players: 2
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Release Date:November 18, 2008

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