Review: Rune Factory 3 Special feels unnecessary but provides plenty of fantasy farming fun

Nintendo DS-era games in HD are always a welcome surprise.

Image: XSEED / Marvelous

Things weren’t looking great for Rune Factory, but the Story of Seasons RPG spinoff series has managed to hang on. Rune Factory 4 Special was a great port of a 3DS classic and helped soften the blow when Rune Factory 5 didn’t go over so well.

Image: XSEED / Marvelous / Lucas White

With Rune Factory 3 Special, we’re going back to the Nintendo DS and late 2000s, a patch of gaming history you wouldn’t expect to see blown up to high resolutions. But between this and the excellent Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, it seems like a space worth exploring.

There’s only so much room for improvement, and there are plenty of ways it could’ve gone worse.

Rune Factory had its own niche carved out practically by itself back in the day, but nowadays there’s real competition. Games like Harvestella and Stardew Valley have done the farming/RPG hybrid thing exceedingly well, so it seems odd to dip back into such an iterative series after already re-releasing the best one. Especially for a singular release, rather than a Capcom-style compilation.

Image: XSEED / Marvelous / Lucas White

That said, the Rune Factory team at Marvelous (formerly Neverland) has always had the juice, and Rune Factory 3 was and is a fine game. It has everything you’d expect from a Story of Seasons title of its vintage, plus a ton of RPG stuff dumped on top. You can harvest some crops and make some money, then go out in the woods and murder some kobolds with the same axe you were chopping wood with the day before.

It’s simple stuff, but the loop has over 30 years of longevity for a reason.

It’s simple stuff, but the loop has over 30 years of longevity for a reason. Rune Factory 3 has a solid reputation among fans, but newcomers might struggle to get into it. That’s mostly because the story is very light, and if you’ve already played Stardew Valley or even Rune Factory 4 (Special or not), it might feel like taking a step back.

Image: XSEED / Marvelous / Lucas White

Since the story isn’t a driving force here by any means, you’re looking to the mechanics and visuals to drive the ship. And there’s only so much one can do here with either piece. Few changes have been made to the gameplay compared to the original, and while the visuals are fine, there’s a blurriness to the background art that betrays either a smudgy filter or AI upscaling, neither of which look great.

Rune Factory 3 Special is a fine game, and its only crime is how closely it sits to games that used it as a stepping stone

The character models are a huge improvement over the DS originals, but they still have that vibe, with exaggerated animations and jittery movement speed that were previously compensating for hardware limitations. To be fair, we’re dealing with a Nintendo DS game here. There’s only so much room for improvement, and there are plenty of ways it could’ve gone worse.

Image: XSEED / Marvelous / Lucas White

At the end of the day, Rune Factory 3 Special is a fine game, and its only crime is how closely it sits to games that use it as a stepping stone. If you love the “cozy” genre and are looking for some farming action, but only have the budget for one game, it’s hard to recommend this. But if you’re more of a fan of Story of Seasons and/or Rune Factory as a series, there’s absolutely room for Rune Factory 3 Special on the shelf.

And if you’re a sicko who’s even out there replaying the original Harvest Moon on the Nintendo Switch Online app, I’m not even sure why you’re here. I know you preordered this bad boy already. But thumbs up for the dedication.

Rune Factory 3 Special Review Score: 7

Pros:

• Totally solid conversion of a Nintendo DS game to modern platforms

• The best Rune Factory when it came out, which you could say for every Rune Factory (except 5)

• Your farm is ridiculously close to the rest of the town, which is nice and convenient

Cons:

• Nintendo DS games are kind of ugly blown up at this scale without going above and beyond

• Feels redundant without many improvements/changes/gimmicks or new features

• Controls can be awkward and finicky

Rune Factory 3 Special is available now for the Nintendo Switch and PC. A copy of the game for PC was provided by the publisher for review.