Rune Factory 5

Rune Factory 5 doesn’t break the mould but it's still definitely worth your time, for returning fans and potential new ones.

Rune Factory 5 delivers an addictive mix of farming and dungeon crawling. Although it doesn't leave a great first impression, if you stick with it then you'll spend hours exploring memorable dungeons, befriending lively villagers, and growing your crops all year round.

As a relaxing life sim Rune Factory 5 certainly has a cozy home on Nintendo Switch. The dozens of hours of gameplay extend beyond finishing the main story, with levels to be maxed out, new equipment forged and even a new dungeon to explore, making the occasional lack of clarity of next steps a minor issue in the deservedly popular farming title.

Rune Factory 5 is about as safe and unambitious of a sequel as you can get. It feels and plays a lot like Rune Factory 4, with a different camera angle and new characters. It still contains all of the fun, addictive farming-and-fighting action that the franchise is known for. It's a solid and enjoyable game, and it absolutely scratches the Story of Seasons itch in a very satisfying way. But don't expect Rune Factory 5 to be anything more than a new Rune Factory game.

Even with some technical shortcomings, the charm of Rune Factory 5 is undeniable. It does what the series has always done best: combine the laid-back nature of a farm life sim with the sense of adventure you find in an action RPG, with a lighthearted touch and cheerful tone to tie it all together into something delightfully comforting. A few tweaks to the formula create a more cohesive whole out of those two sides, but at its core, this is the classic, tried-and-true Rune Factory.

Rune Factory 5 plays things pretty conservatively, and it’s the better for it. It’s a comfort food kind of experience, and while this might cost it on store shelves given that it has been released at the tail end of so many excellent, intelligent, innovative, and big RPGs, it’s a game of simple delights and pleasant experiences. Sometimes, that’s enough.

Rune Factory 5 has many features that series veterans have come to love over the years and since each game is a self-contained story, newcomers are welcome to start here too. It’s an engaging, cosy sim game with meaty RPG hooks that players can tackle at their own pace. The transition to fully 3D hasn’t been without growing pains, though. The lag and bad framerate can be unbearable at times, and damage the experience.

There’s a lot to love in the gameplay loop, characters and endearing story, and that’s what ties it together for anyone who can sit through the choppy framerate. For those who have been waiting for another entry in the series, Rune Factory 5 delivers more of what fans love in the brand new fantastic world of farming, taming and romance.

Obviously, I'm not completely satisfied with everything—the relationship mechanics are essentially a gamble, now, and we're straight-up chugga-chugga-choo-chooin' through certain loading zones, but there's a reason that I played 130 hours of this game. At the end of the day, Rune Factory 5 is a fresh and enjoyable new entry to the series, and I really think that fans will come to love it just as much as they have every other title.

Rune Factory 5 is a thrilling, addicting experience boasting countless events and mechanics that will hook you for hours on end. It excels at making players feel accomplished and satisfied with their feats while also providing recurring goals to pursue. Further, its likable, extensive cast aids in the pleasant friendliness of the simulation genre. The over-simplicity of its gameplay ideas and its deficient performance and graphical presentation can disenchant some players. However, if you manage to look past those factors, Rune Factory 5 is a standout Switch release.

I enjoyed my time with Rune Factory 5 and I'm hopeful that its shortcomings will result in an even better entry in the future if we get one. (And hopefully sooner than a decade away, too.) Rune Factory 5 captures what matters most in a farming sim: a charming world and cast, and a cozy experience that will keep you coming back whenever you want to take it easy. [Issue #59 – May/June 2022, p. 76]

Rune Factory 5 certainly has its flaws. But don't we all? At the end of the day, the FPS drops and asset pop-ins were easy enough to ignore, and don't prevent the charm of Rune Factory 5 from shining through. It is still a very solid title on the Switch, and one that I would recommend to any lover of the farming sim genre.

Rune Factory 5 is rough around the edges, but I still loved my time with it. Something about how all the parts work together keeps pulling me to it. Even after completing the main story, I’m still playing, as I have recipes I haven’t unlocked, a romantic journey I’m embarking on, and many upgrades I can still do to the town. It has its flaws, but Rune Factory 5’s enchanting loop of constant progression and discovery helps mitigate a lot of these annoyances, so they don’t sting so much.

A very relaxing hybrid between farming simulator and Action RPG that offers countless options to enjoy it your way, from action-packed battles to peaceful socialization.

Rune Factory 5 delivers everything you would expect from a Rune Factory game, though it does so without adding anything new. It moves from a rather rough start into an enjoyable experience which combines quirky characters, a story wrapped in a bit of mystery, farming, fighting and taming monsters, crafting, and consuming unhealthy amounts of Recipe Bread. Fans of the series will enjoy their time in Rigbarth, though the series and its formula are starting to show their age.

Though far from perfect, Rune Factory 5 offers a ton of fun and varied gameplay options supported by a cast of colorful characters and satisfying progression that’s deceptively easy to get lost in.

It makes us very happy to see that Rune Factory still has a lot to offer, considering the events surrounding its original developer a few years back. It may not be the ultimate Rune Factory experience, but it's a nice and enjoyable title.

If you want to refresh yourself and just have a good time without taking your mind off it, Rune Factory 5 is the game for you, even if the boss fights are not incredible and the game suffers from the technical aspect. Its substantial content and the possibility of being a real inhabitant in the city of Rigbarth while allowing you to farm the dungeons or capture the monsters will be strong arguments.

Look, I feel like I’ve been spending a lot of time here bashing Rune Factory 5, and maybe I have. But let me emphasize that I still had a lot of fun with it, and I think other players will too. I might be even a bit addicted to it, honestly. There’s just too much here to not like on many levels. But it’s just missing some finish to its technical aspects, especially the visuals and menus. And it needs some follow-through on all its great ideas to make it coalesce into one great experience. Yes, Rune Factory 5 is many games in one, for better or worse. And if you’re ok with that, you’ll have a lot of fun with it. Now, let’s just hope they fix that menu.