Tides of Destiny PC port & love

[RJGrayLight]

While I understand that not everyone would agree, I consider Tides of Destiny to be the best balanced game out of all the RD games that I've played. As such, I'd love to see it get an official PC port outside of emulators, perhaps even a remaster to update the graphics and perhaps polish up some of it's clunkier controls and animations. It's a PS3 game afterall, so it shouldn't be that difficult, right?

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Let me explain my reasoning for why I think ToD is the most balanced in the series btw.

Nearly all Rune Factory games have 6 core gameplay elements to them from what I've seen; Farming, Combat, Crafting, Missions, Exploration, and Relationships. You also get 18 in-game hours to spend on everything, 20 if you're willing to risk getting a cold and lose 2 hours the next day. This means that you have roughly 3 in-game hours to spend on each element of gameplay if you split it up evenly. But...

1. Farming. For some reason, most RF games require 2-3 in-game hours per plot of land while giving you 3-5 plots of land to work with by the mid-game. This means that by the mid-game when you're managing at least 3 plots of land, you're spending at least 6-9 in-game hours, up to half the entire day, farming. That's not even mentioning what you're actually doing and the repetitive, tedious nature of it that quickly gets boring and maxes out your inventory with junk items.
This is not the case in ToD though as it balances the time spent farming so that it's roughly 1 in-game hour per island instead of 2-3 hours in other RF games. So once you have 5 plots of land to work with, you're only spending 5-6 in-game hours farming instead of 10-15 of your available 20!

2. Crafting. Most RF games pause time whilst in a crafting menu, which is nice. But going between crafting tables, even within your own base, seems to take time. Tides of Destiny, however, pauses time both in the crafting menu AND when you're in your own home, which makes inventory management and crafting so much easier and more enjoyable once you've upgraded your home a bit. This makes upgrading your home more of a reward than just being able to craft more items, as you now have more time to spend doing other things throughout the day too!

3. Combat. Most RF games have combat that feels really unpolished. Most of the time, once you make or buy your first pieces of equipment, you're OP and won't struggle with combat anymore. You likely won't need to upgrade your weapon or armor after upgrading past the starting gear unless you want to try other other combat styles as there's really no need to. You one-shot enemies fairly quickly too, even being able to tank boss special attacks without any issue when they're the same level as you. This quickly gets boring and leads to people not really caring about combat.
But that's not the case in ToD as it has some clunky yet polished and actually difficult combat that doesn't feel like you're overpowered with your first piece of gear and requires you to know your limits, train to get stronger, and to upgrade your gear every so often. And if you really want OP gear early on, you actually do have that option too, though you have to work for it by grinding materials and levels so that it's earned, not freely given. You have to actually dodge attacks in combat too as the enemies can be as strong as, if not stronger than, you, which is an aspect of combat that's almost entirely missing in other RF games. And because combat actually requires some strategy lest you die and reset your day, it's arguably the best and most enjoyable of all the RF games that I've played. It doesn't feel repetitive or boring either as it feels like a nice challenge with a variety of enemies, enemy amounts, and enemy strengths, which I enjoy!

4. Missions. Most RF games have missions that feel very impersonal and more like chores than anything else. You go to a board, put something in a box or do something, then return to the board the next day for your reward. And that's about it for the missions. Straight forward, to the point, and boring.
ToD, however, makes most of the missions personal! You still have to accept the missions at a board, but then you have to go talk to the mission giver to get the details. From there, you usually have to go and get or do something for someone to help make their life better, then return to them once it's done. Now, that's not the case for all quests, mind, as is the case with most of Bacchus's monster-hunting quests, but quests such as getting colored plants for a kid to make paint with, going around town to get the ingredients for a town potluck from the other people, and bringing life back to the islands which in turn brings you and the town more prosperity as well? Well those little touches of having to actually talk to the quest giver and return to them to get and complete the quest give all missions a more personal touch, which in turn makes them more enjoyable and immersive.

5. Exploration. Honestly, this is perhaps the one thing that ToD gets a bit wrong. It forces you to use the Golem and only allows on-way teleportation back home or one-way teleportation to an island at a steep cost. Sure, the farming islands have portals to get to them and back, but that's it. So going from one place to another can be a bit slow. Granted, it's not the different from the other RF games in this regard. Same goes for the map not being customisable with markers or notes, though that's the case for nearly every RF game to my knowledge.

6. Relationship. Credit where credit is due, nearly every RF game nails the in-game relationships to my knowledge. Sure, I've never gotten to the marriage stage for any RF game for one reason or another, but all the stuff leading up to it is top-tier in my opinion. Better than any dating sim I've ever played too!

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To sum, I'd love if I could have an official Tides of Destiny PC port! It would be so nice to enjoy this game again without an emulator, especially as it's easily my favorite of the RF franchise and what I believe to be the most balanced and enjoyable in terms of gameplay.

[CCIceTea]

Out of all languages you chose to speak facts

[JP]

Agreed

[Leiph]

+1

[Stargazer KG]

ToD was my gateway into RF, and I'd love to see it get a remake.

[Am]

RF ToD remaster with additional dating system

[Algester]

ToD's wildest aspect is the combat that refinement went into making RF4 what it is despite its limitations (being a top down game), I hope Dragon Kingdom can actually do the same thing for RF6 as ToD/Oceans was for RF4 and RF5 (RF5 being largely built out of RF4).

crafting in Oceans is still very RF1-3/Frontier very basic unlike the crafting seen in RF4.

as for farming it is easier in Oceans-RF5, hell farming is the easiest part in RF5 logically speaking you are only maintaining 1 plot of land AND THATS LITERALLY OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE, once you set up the farm dragons (monster barns and max plot upgrades) you only need to visit them twice a season every 2 weeks to feed them wind crystals let your monsters do all the farm work for you, of course you still visit the dragons every day to collect your daily monster loot and heal your.... uhhh workers

[RJGrayLight]

Originally posted by Algester:

ToD's wildest aspect is the combat that refinement went into making RF4 what it is despite its limitations (being a top down game), I hope Dragon Kingdom can actually do the same thing for RF6 as ToD/Oceans was for RF4 and RF5 (RF5 being largely built out of RF4).

crafting in Oceans is still very RF1-3/Frontier very basic unlike the crafting seen in RF4.

as for farming it is easier in Oceans-RF5, hell farming is the easiest part in RF5 logically speaking you are only maintaining 1 plot of land AND THATS LITERALLY OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE, once you set up the farm dragons (monster barns and max plot upgrades) you only need to visit them twice a season every 2 weeks to feed them wind crystals let your monsters do all the farm work for you, of course you still visit the dragons every day to collect your daily monster loot and heal your.... uhhh workers

... Are you having a laugh with this? You're talking about late/end-game content or mods that make the farming easier. What you described is something that isn't possible until you've completed the main story of the game.

Also, this is a post showing love for ToD and requesting a pc port of the game, and here you are bashing on it? Why?

More complicated does not mean better. In most cases, that actually means it worse.

RF5 excels at it's story, the main quest.
RF5 excels with it's warping around the map, as otherwise the game would be impossible to complete.
RF5 has complicated crafting that's hard to understand, with RP requirements that don't make a lot of sense for what you get from them. (What was wrong with the ToD crafting? IMO, that was the peak of the series)
RF5 has oversimplified combat that it requires zero skill to win fights so long as you don't get ahead of the story and upgrade your gear once a chapter. You just sit there and spam a button, tanking the damage, then you win. There's no challenge to it, so it just feels like a chore.
RF5 has such impersonal side missions and quests too. All you do is go to the board, fetch, sell, grow, or kill something, and then return to the board. That's it. No interaction with NPCs, no connection to what you're doing whatsoever, just extra content, an extra chore, to keep you busy and to farm the points needed to throw the next town event.
RF5's time management is non-existent, requiring 2-3 hours per dragon for tending to your farms and monsters, adding up to 1/2 - 1/3 the in-game day before you can actually pursue the story, combat, relationships, events, or anything else about the game. Perhaps the late or post game content reduces that time, but it's horrendous in the mid-game.
RF5 only pauses time in menus. So moving furniture, crafting, in any building, saving, reloading a save, etc, all progress your very limited time, so you never get a break.
RF5 is Brutally Realistic when it comes to the passage of time for an anime farming game with dragons and magic where time is the one thing you cannot farm and is your most limited resource.
RF5's crafting system, specifically the RP requirements, make little to no sense. It's also more complicated to learn and use, with a somewhat broken ui that will never get patched.
RF5's storage system is tedious since it forces item sorting on you, whether you want it or not. And unless you install a mod that lets you access any category of chest from any chest, there's no redemption for it in the vanilla game.

How can you possible claim that any but the story and transportation is better than ToD? RF5 is unplayable without mods for me. And even with mods, it's rough once you get to the mid-game grind.

In my opinion, ToD was the peak of the Rune Factory series. There's just no competition for it aside from Stardew Valley if you ask me.

[Chuck]

I'd love a ToD port to PC, especially if they added camera controls.

[gams]

This is the one I played first, so was disappointed when I played on 3ds. I was looking to buy it on switch, but it's not to be (not yet anyway)

[Dangeki]

I never played that one but im willing to try more RF games its a fun series

[RJGrayLight]

Originally posted by Permission to bounce on it, sir?:

I never played that one but im willing to try more RF games its a fun series

I believe you can only play Tides of Destiny on PS3, Nintento Wii, or an Emulator these days. I don't believe it was re-released for any more modern consoles unfortunately.

In my personal opinion though, it is absolutely worth trying out if you can as it is a far cry better than the more recent Rune Factory titles as it gives a far more personal touch and feels far more immersive and interactive. For example, modern RF titles have quest boards that magically reward you without needing to speak with the questgiver whatsoever. But in ToD you actually need to talk to the person who placed the quest on the quest board to get the details and accept it, then when you complete it you speak to them again and they hand you the quest reward directly. That little touch makes it feel far better, more personal and immersive, rather than interacting with a magical quest board.

On top of that, but you don't have the extra chore of having to personally fund and approve town festivals in ToD as you do in modern RF titles, as they happen whether you choose to participate or not and are run by another towns member, usually one of the marriageable candidates, which just makes it infinitely better if you ask me.

I'd say that the relationships and combat are the best parts of the game, as the farming takes a back burner in favor of exploration, story, and combat, which I personally prefer. And the combat is actually well fleshed out, as you actually have to jump around and dodge attacks, swapping weapons to get an advantage against certain enemies, etc. You can't just stack every status ailment on a single weapon or tank 20 special boss attacks as you can in modern titles, which again is much better in my opinion.

The story is more down to earth too, as you're discovering what was lost to time after stumbling across your primary means of transport and growing it yourself. And you're bringing new life to a community that was slowly dying out, likely on it's final generation of residents, because of something that I won't spoil. In that game, your presence and actions mean something significant.
That versus modern RF titles where you are simply there along for the ride of the story and events around you aren't impacted by you in the slightest. If anything, you're a burden in modern RF titles, getting in the way of the story because your character doesn't understand or is too naive to realise the consequences to their actions. Genuinely, without your character in some RF titles, the story would likely happen in exactly the same with though with different characters and very minor differences.

So yeah, I consider ToD to be the peak of the RF series, so definitely check it out if you can!

[RUIBAO]

yes please

[DiaCrusher]

Much as i want to ♥♥♥♥ all over Oceans/ToD because of its infuriating combat and there being no normal farming, yeah, would be great to have all RF games on pc, especially Frontier.

[RJGrayLight]

Originally posted by DiaCrusher:

Much as i want to ♥♥♥♥ all over Oceans/ToD because of its infuriating combat and there being no normal farming, yeah, would be great to have all RF games on pc, especially Frontier.

Now you see, what you hate about ToD, I love.

I love the ToD combat because it actually requires a having some skill. You need to dodge attacks, you need to prepare food/healing in advance, you need to watch your stamina gauge, you need to level up by farming enemies for mats, etc. It's a far cry better in my opinion than the modern version when you can tank every hit from nearly every enemy without issue and just button-mash your way to victory without ever dodging, drinking a health or stamina potion, worrying about resistances, or doing anything special really. Especially since you can get a strong weapon pretty much right away from a side quest that you can stack with status ailments making it overpowered.
So I love ToD's combat since it's skill-based, not overly simplified, and always feels rewarding.

And the farming seems like it takes a back burner because you don't have to spend 2/3 of the in-game day on it. It's a lot closer to Stardew Valley in that regard, except instead of choosing what seeds you plant, it's randomly determined by what animals you have tending your farm. It's also so much easier to set up the animals in an effective manner since it clearly tells you what they're good with and at. Not to mention, you start small and gradually work your way up as you increase the level of the island through spirits. Makes it feel all the more rewarding when you're able to add another tree or three plants to your farm. Compare to modern RF titles where you get what you get, and there's no upgrades, no gradual progression, it just throws it at you all at once. You suddenly find another farm dragon which nearly twice as big as your first one barely three days after you found the first one, and you have to do it all yourself because there's no way to know what animals do what outside of using an external guide.
So I love ToD's farming since it's easier to understand, has a gradual progression system in place, and doesn't take the majority of the in-game day to maintain.