Bad pacing?

[Corrie]

I got to the second last dungeon during the first week of summer. I just finished the main game and it's not even fall yet... just 22nd of Summer. I feel like the pacing is off for this game.

I never had this problem with RF4 or any of the older Rune Factory games. I also didn't rush, I was actually quite surprised by the number of dungeons and bosses, but maybe due to how easy everything is it just flew by.

I even took time to stop doing dungeons when I realized I was close to the end, but there's only so much I can do around town before I feel the need to go dungeon crawling again and it just seemed to fly by.

I didn't even manage to get everyone's friend level up to 5 before the end of the game, and I was speaking to everyone and giving gifts every day.

It just seems like they got the pacing wrong for this one. I would like to play into fall/winter but I really lose the motivation to play once the story is done. Maybe I'll tackle the post-game dungeon at some point but

[Endora]

Well, I have to agree. Maybe because of the pandemic situation, or all the problems with the study transference, it looks like the history ended up a lot rushed.
I'm more a farming/dating person, so to me there is a lot of juice yet, but if you're here only for the history, yes, you're pretty much done. Or, if you're for the action part, you really should try the Rigbarth Maze. There a lot more changeling mobs and bosses, so it would give you fun for a good while.

[Algester]

well to those who are dedicated enough could finish RF4 before Summer 1 year 1 ignoring the time skip that happens between acts 2-3 though

[Endora]

Originally posted by Algester:

well to those who are dedicated enough could finish RF4 before Summer 1 year 1 ignoring the time skip that happens between acts 2-3 though

Well, I only finnished at DS console, where that's difficult because the event is totaly ramdom, so I can't say anything about it except that there is not much fun in rushing, don't you think?

[Crim]

only thing that can stop you from finishing it quickly is difficulty. In RF4 on hell mode, you basically have to slow down and craft otherwise you will just keep dying. However, in RF5 there is no difficulty wall. You can basically steam roll through the entire game if you have no interest in relationships/farming.

[Algester]

Originally posted by Endora:

Originally posted by Algester:

well to those who are dedicated enough could finish RF4 before Summer 1 year 1 ignoring the time skip that happens between acts 2-3 though

Well, I only finnished at DS console, where that's difficult because the event is totaly ramdom, so I can't say anything about it except that there is not much fun in rushing, don't you think?

There are just some people who just go against the norm and quickly rush the game

As for RF5 you can spite the difficulty but you will need access to a system save data that has seen "post-game flags" unlocked as the moment you roll for a New Game all of Eliza's post-game orders are unlocked from the get go meaning you can disable skill exp gain and disable exp gain and then raise all monsters levels to max sure there is no hell mode but there is earthmate must die mode at this point

I'm not sure anyone is up for such a task of being unable to improve their HP and RP (which is important) and not have access to crafting besides gaming the systems RNG mechanics

[Corrie]

Originally posted by Algester:

Originally posted by Endora:

Well, I only finnished at DS console, where that's difficult because the event is totaly ramdom, so I can't say anything about it except that there is not much fun in rushing, don't you think?

There are just some people who just go against the norm and quickly rush the game

As for RF5 you can spite the difficulty but you will need access to a system save data that has seen "post-game flags" unlocked as the moment you roll for a New Game all of Eliza's post-game orders are unlocked from the get go meaning you can disable skill exp gain and disable exp gain and then raise all monsters levels to max sure there is no hell mode but there is earthmate must die mode at this point

I'm not sure anyone is up for such a task of being unable to improve their HP and RP (which is important) and not have access to crafting besides gaming the systems RNG mechanics

Like I said, I did not rush and did not have this issue with any of the previous games. It took me 64 hours to beat the story so I think that shows I didn't rush! It was just that some parts of the game moved too fast compared to others.

I spent a lot of time doing relationship stuff and farming but you can only do so much of that in a day before you have nothing left to do, especially before you unlock the dragon farm plots. I would do my daily farming each morning, then go to the shops for bread and to talk/gift with everyone and then I would go do dungeon stuff. or fish/collect items for money. Seems like a pretty good balance to me.

I think RF4 just had a lot more story. Actually now that I think about it, it might be that in RF5 they don't limit you to doing a certain number of tasks each day. In RF4 there were limits to what you could do each day and maybe that is why it just naturally took longer to complete everything?

Also my memory might be off but I remember the dungeons being bigger in RF4. Rf5 is basically three floors for each dungeon and then the second phase of each dungeon. I remember taking a lot more time to make my way through each dungeon in 4.

I wanted to see all of the seasons before I completed the story. I also never managed to make the final farm tools because despite my forging level being 75 I failed every time I tried to craft them. (too low farming level maybe?)

[Endora]

No, I also think that RF4 had a lot more context.

It's not there isn't any on RF5, but a lot of it is hiden on the romance events (Beatrice and Reinhard had lore context, Priscilla had a lot for MC past history, Rykker had the common people view, etc...). It ended turning the main history kind of empty.

And the dungeons, yeah, if they won't be RNG generated, at least they should have better gimicks and ridles to solve. The Castle had something like that, it would be great to see more of it.

[Algester]

The most "Rune Prana" like area in RF 5 is the seed castle and besides that RF4's questing system is only limited to 3 a day but thats quite a late game thing -_- the QoL upgrade is that the request board is still limited to 4 at a time but thats "at a time" but you are still free to take RNG requests from villagers

[Zara]

I also agree that the game was too easy to beat quickly compared to RF4 (my first and only other RF game so far). My biggest complaints are that Crystals are too good and easy to get, thus making farming on the dragons fast and easy, and thus money past Spring being meaningless (which it already was if you did the Elsje food thing). That combined with monster buddies just doing your chores for you makes it so you have to do very little actually work on your farm. I can't speak to how good monster buddies were in 4 because I don't tend to like having to take care of animals in farming games, so I didn't even know they could help out until I was long past caring in RF4 since I never tamed any.

My other complaint is it feels like the days are WAY too long. At one point I did like 3 whole dungeons in a single day before it even hit midnight, after talking to everyone in town.