Rune Factory 4 Special is a 3DS HD port. This is a spin-off series from Story of Seasons (formerly Harvest Moon). It's a great mix of many different genres and styles of games. I did not play all the routes of the game nor read all possible dialogues, it is a review of my experience with the game (I went on the 'route' of the best girl = Margaret).The first arc has a good variety of dungeons, bosses and enemies. The story begins more or less, then there is a twist that ties all the loose ends and mysteries generating a certain urgency / climax. The emotional issue was good in some parts and weaker in others. And why the **** do the credits roll, since there is still 2/3 more of the story to be told.The second arc starts well with a twist level on Doug's past, right after that there is action and an objective is established. But the structure of the second arc is much simpler. It is a very basic adventure with a simple objective. The villain of the bow has a certain substance despite being too "stubborn". The final battle is too long unnecessarily. But how they tied the other citizens to the battle was cool. I would say it was much less exciting than the first because the dragon is not present in this entire arc. I also found it unnecessary that ending in which the Dragon disappears, but okay.About this 'third arc' I say that the fanbase is wrong, this is not the final arc of the game, it is post-game. The story really ends in the second, nor did it need a third arc. It is true that he ties up some loose ends like the protagonist's past, but this happy ending from Ventuswill ... you could have 'fixed' it at the end of the second arc by not making him die (damn I gave spoiler). In the first 'dungeon' of the third arc there are 2 reused bosses, which even made sense for the story but it doesn't change the fact. And after that comes Rune Prana, which I do disgusting business. It didn't really irritate me, it was worse, once I was in a bad mood after closing the game (before this arc it was always the other way around).The game has a mechanic of random events that occur during the year. Which is very interesting in theory but not so much in practice. The number of them is very decent and the ones I saw are cool. They are where most of the development of the characters and their relationships take place. The HUGE problem with this is that some of these totally random events are necessary for certain things in the game. In the original, this was very problematic because even to get ahead in the story it was necessary to be lucky. In the Special edition this was semi-corrected, to advance the story you don't need to be lucky but to get married for example ... I wish you luck.The meetings are good. Some very fast and simple but even cool and others longer and with a humble development. But something that caught my attention was the system that deepens the relationship in these meetings (there are 6 levels and some of them are kind of strange but it is already some kind of development in the relationship through something secondary), I found this mechanics interesting.On Margaret's 'route' there are 4 events in the city and the event that unlocks the wedding. Three of these events are mild, generating some kind of development and one of them, despite being fast, is very heavy, especially when you discover why. In the final event (which unlocks the wedding) they tie 2 of the events together and make a great deep drama. My only problem was that the resolution of this drama I found weak.A very common problem in games with this style of relationship system is that your relationship does not affect the story. In Rune Factory 4 this problem also occurs, what affects dialogues in the story is the composition of your party, but your relationship with these members can change at most as they call you. Except that in the story if you have any characters in your party there is even a reaction from them but it is totally superficial, usually 1 to 3 words. However, there is a moment when their relationship interferes, at the end of the first arc, but at that moment I thought it was too soon (unfortunately it was at least). And when you add someone to your party, dialogues could occur during your gameplay.The gameplay has several aspects, for being a great mix, I will not go into all of them. The farm system has a very good depth in the right measure, without becoming something widely complex but offering certain 'challenges' and barriers that are broken with your own experience. The combat I found too basic, it has variations of 'gameplay style' but within those styles his variation is very weak (complex), but still, it is almost fun enough. But I liked that you had a 'bigger goal' to make money (planting), which is just getting stronger to be able to advance the story. It is worth noting that the pet system is very interesting.
