Rune Factory 4 Special
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Rune Factory 4 Special Trailers
Rune Factory 4 Special - Launch Trailer (Nintendo Switch)
Rune Factory 4 Special - Bachelorettes Trailer (Nintendo Switch)
Rune Factory 4 Special - Bachelors Trailer (Nintendo Switch)
Critic Reviews for Rune Factory 4 Special
For its flaws, Rune Factory 4 Special brings an incredible life-sim/Action-RPG to the Switch.
Whether you want to whet your appetite before Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes out or you're looking for your next fix after blowing through everything available in Stardew Valley, Rune Factory 4 is the perfect second-life for you. You might feel a bit overwhelmed at first, but once you manage to find your focus the addictive gameplay lets you wash away hours of your day in an instant.
Rune Factory 4 Special is a delightful game with a ton of content to keep you busy, despite feeling a little overwhelming in the beginning. Good localisation and post-game content around character episodes and a Newly-wed mode will please returning fans.
You can still clearly see the 3DS roots in Rune Factory 4 Special's PC port, but it's still a fantastic game worth enjoying if you haven't already played it. It does have some keyboard input issues, particularly with name entry, and some aspects were clearly not intended to be viewed at a high resolution, however it does put forward enough effort to work on PC that makes it a decent platform to play on.
Rune Factory 4 Special proves just how charming and well-written the Rune Factory games can be. The Switch remaster is just as addictive as charming as the original release was fourteen years ago, and looks even better, thanks to an HD makeover. New content and difficulty modes provide no shortage of replay value, making this a great time sink for newcomers as well as anyone itching to revisit the friendships forged in the town of Selphia.
This comfortable but clunky reboot of the part farming simulator, part dungeon crawler, part life sim is very much a product of its time
Rune Factory 4 Special offers up a different take on the beloved farm/life sim genre, focusing more on RPG elements. This makes Rune Factory 4 a good entry point for newcomers to the genre due to its ease of entry. At the same time, Rune Factory 4 simplifies a great deal of what makes this genre special. The catch-22 is accessibility versus gameplay depth here. While still a good game in its own right, it limits its own potential by diversifying so vastly.
Still one of the best of its kind nearly a decade after its initial release, Rune Factory 4 Special is still thoroughly engrossing when it comes to most of what it attempts.
