is a

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

developed and published by Marvelous. The first entry in the ''

Rune Factory is a franchise of fantasy role-playing simulation games created by Yoshifumi Hashimoto, and primarily published by Marvelous. The games are developed by Hashimoto's studio Hakama, taking over from Neverland after they ceased operations in 2013 ...

'' series since 2012's ''

Rune Factory 4 is a role-playing video game developed by Neverland and published by Marvelous AQL for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the sixth game in the ''Rune Factory'' series, and the first to be released on the 3DS. It was released in Japan in July 2012, in Nort ...

'', it was released for the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

in Japan in May 2021 and worldwide by

Xseed Games Xseed Games is an American video game company founded by former members of Square Enix USA. It later became a subsidiary of the Japanese game company Marvelous, providing the localization and publishing services for video games and related mat ...

in 2022, including a

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

port.

Plot

A hero loses their memory and ends up joining SEED, a group of rangers operating in the small town of Rigbarth. The hero is encouraged to tend the land and complete tasks for the townspeople, as well as battle monsters in order to maintain the peace. Players control a male or female character named Ares and Alice by default, although they are able to freely rename them.

Gameplay

As with previous games in the series, gameplay features the ability to farm and tame monsters. Players can also form social connections with the game's townfolks, including ones with bachelors or bachelorettes leading to marriage.

Development

Following the success of ''

'', series producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto commented that the development of a sequel was expected. However, after ''Rune Factory'' developer Neverland Co. declared bankruptcy in 2013, the future of the series was left uncertain. In 2014, Marvelous AQL stated that they had hired former ''Rune Factory'' developers, including Hashimoto, to develop '' Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven''. Hashimoto left his executive officer role in 2018 and opened a new studio under Marvelous called Hakama, where he went to work on '' Rune Factory 4 Special'' and ''Rune Factory 5''. The game was announced in February 2019 and was planned to be released in 2020 before being delayed. It was released in Japan on May 20, 2021, in North America on March 22, 2022, and in Europe three days later. A

version was released on July 13, 2022. For the first time in the series, players can marry characters of the same sex. This feature was not available in the original Japanese version of the game and was added for the global release, although it was patched into the Japanese version later.

Reception

''Rune Factory 5'' received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. It was praised for its combat system, gameplay, and characters, but criticized for its graphics and a lack of innovation to the series' formula. The Switch version was also criticized for its technical performance.

Sales

In Japan, the Nintendo Switch version of ''Rune Factory 5'' debuted with 102,853 physical copies sold, making it the bestselling retail game during its first week of release.. Total worldwide shipments and digital sales surpassed 500,000 copies .

Notes

References

External links

* {{Rune Factory series 2021 video games Marvelous Entertainment Nintendo Switch games Windows games Role-playing video games Rune Factory Simulation video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Xseed Games games