Rune Factory 3 Special Review (Drexarch)
*Edit* I decided to play a bit more of this game and realized my previous review wasn't entirely fair in some places, so I rewrote and reworked it for greater clarity. Nonetheless, I still stand by my previous evaluation of 'do not recommend'. The only way I could see recommending this game is if you are already familiar with this series, have already played through Rune Factory 4 and 5, and are desperate for more content. Otherwise, this game is far too basic to recommend over the other two entries and has a number of significant quality of life issues that may turn off newcomers from this otherwise excellent series.
As the oldest entry in the series currently available on Steam, Rune Factory 3 retains most of the charm and excellent core gameplay of the series, but is lacking many of the features the following two entries introduced. There is no ability to upgrade town facilities, you cannot customize your home in any way, and you are limited to a male protagonist with only the female townsfolk being romanceable. The town itself and the entire world in general are also on the smallish side, with only four main areas to explore outside of town with a bit more at the endgame and postgame.
In terms of issues with the core gameplay, this game suffers from having originated on the Nintendo DS system, which lacked an analogue stick. Due to this, movement is always restricted to 8 directions and can feel very rigid at times. This can often make combat feel even more imprecise than it should, but really becomes an issue in mining ore, where I would often repeatedly miss swinging at a stone right next to me because my alignment was just slightly off. Other than that, I would highly recommend being a packrat and saving every last material drop you get from enemies rather than selling, as RNG is extremely capricious in this game and things that seem useless early on may become essential for later recipes.
I also want to make mention of the quest boards in this game, which are implemented very poorly. Every day you have the ability to take a single request from one of three sources, but the problem is that you are not told in advance what the final deliverable will be. People will leave extremely vague requests for general help, then when you talk to them they will reveal they need a bunch of crops that will take multiple in-game days to grow. This is a problem, as you can only have one request going at a time and will have no choice but to cancel if you don't want to be locked down for days on end. Even worse, you are almost never told what the quest reward will be, making it impossible to know if the gain outweighs the potential cost. There is also a QOL issue with this system, as there is no quest log accessible through your main menu. If you take on a quest and forget what it is, you must return to the board you originally got it from rather than having a log you can check at any time.
In terms of quality of life, the biggest issue with this game is the lack of any kind of 'main menu' accessible during gameplay. There is no option to quit the game while you are out in the field, and no ability to load save games whatsoever outside of the start up menu. If you make a mistake and want to reload your game, the only thing you can really do is hit Alt-F4 to close out and then reload the entire game. For such basic functionality to be missing it really calls into question how exactly this is a 'special' remaster of the original game. For me this is the most unacceptable part of the package, as I am pretty neurotic about these kinds of games and like to absolutely optimize every day in game. If you are used to save scumming for better RNG or outcomes, the lack of a convenient way to do this will drive you up the wall.
Overall, if you have enjoyed previous entries and are just looking for something to scratch the itch until Rune Factory 6, you will probably be able to look past this one's faults and find some enjoyment. Otherwise, try Rune Factory 4 or 5 instead, or the 'My Time' series, both of which are excellent. There is an absolute glut of better options on the market currently, and this one should absolutely be your last stop after exhausting the alternatives.