November 6, 2007
-
Rune Factory / American Gangster
Part 1: Completion of Rune Factory
I finally managed to beat Rune Factory yesterday morning. Ipicked up this game the day it came out, but due to forces beyond my control Icontinued to put it off. Yesterday, however, I managed to swallow my apathy andfinish it off. I completed the entire storyline, got hitched to Melody, andacquired more wealth than the gods. I managed to do all of this in less thanone in-game year. Rune Factory is one of the better Harvest Moon games I haveplayed, and I have played a lot of them. The addition of sword-fighting, whilesomewhat unorthodox, fit itself well into the game. One of the biggestcomplaints from other reviewers of the game was the way that farm chores woulddrain your rune points, which were used for magic and sword fighting as well.Once you had a decent sized farm in place, though, with several ripened crops,this problem is moot. You can collect enough nature runes on your farm torecuperate those lost from daily chores, and if you maintain enough "runefactories" in dungeons, there is little need to worry when sword fighting.The graphics, while not great, were pretty good for Harvest Moon standards. Iliked the way you could finally run through crop fields, even when they arefully grown.
Another welcome addition to the Harvest Moon universe isforging. You are no longer required to pay the blacksmith monopolistic pricesto forge new tools for you to use. Now you can make them at home. Not onlytools, but you can also make accessories to boost your stats, and medicines foruse on the battlefield. The cooking system is also slightly different, in thatyou have to actually purchase recipe books and increase your skill withexperience. Each dish you make improves your ability to make more advanced dishes.Even though I beat the game, I'm still working on making all of these.
Therelationship system in this game is somewhat different from others in theseries. You still have "friendship points" for all of the townmembers, while the bachelorettes have a separate "love point" scalefor how much they are interested in you. Love points no longer increase just bygiving girls gift (for most, anyway). Instead, each girl has her own way ofimproving it. In Melody's case, she likes it when you visit and use her bath(she runs a bathhouse, pervert). There are also a handful of heart events thatare fun to try and find.
There is wi-fi functionality, but I have not actuallyused it. Supposedly, every time you trade and item across it, it goes up alevel and has its price improve. I'm sure this is lovely, but unnecessary. Inshort, this game is great, and I recommend it to everyone, and not just HarvestMoon fans.
Part 2: American Gangster
So I got to see the new movie American Gangster yesterday. It was okay. Yes, just okay. It was a lot like Scarface, only not as fun. It's a movie that takes place not in early 80s Florida, by early 70s Harlem. It follows the rise of an idealistic drug baron as he applies the Wal-Mart philosophy to his business. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, his world starts crashing down on him. The thing is, it's not because of what he does. He is very careful in keeping himself separate from his affairs. He also leads a fairly righteous life. It is only because of a series of small events that finally gets him caught. The movie also tells the tale of a detective who gets a job in drug enforcement, and how his life sucks. I'm not going to go into to much detail, but it was okay. I would still recommend seeing the movie, but you may as well wait until it comes out on video.
