Rune Factory 4 - Hidden Items and General Tips

I'm getting pretty obsessed with this game. But meh.. *shrug*

This is the info I gathered from spending a lot of time playing the game. xD

Hidden Items and Free Items

- When Volkanon asks you if you've been eating everyday, say "No." and he will give you a free Fruit Sandwich
- Examine the two plants near the entrance inside Porco's Restaurant while Porco is around.
- Examine the shelves/kitchen beside the entrance (the one with fruits) while Margaret is around.
- Examine the northwest area on the 2nd floor of Blossom's house while Blossom is in the room.
- Examine the southwest and northwest shelves at the General Store with Doug and Blossom around.
- While having people in your party, go take a bath. There's a chance of them giving you a free item. (Credits to Toru for discovering this)

Increasing Crafting Skill

This is how I boosted my crafting skill and earned some cash early game:

Equip clippers and head to the forest. Start clipping wool off woolys until you gather a bunch of yarn. Go to your crafting table and start making a ton of yarn. Those sell around 80g each so if you ship 10, that's around 800g which isn't as much but it can still get you around 80 turnip seeds. Your crafting level should slowly increase if you keep crafting yarn everyday from your own monster wooly's fur (you can get around 2-3 per day from just having 1 wooly).

It gets less effective as you increase your level, but then by the time you reach 15+ you'll probably have a bunch of other recipes you can randomly craft and upgrade. I guess upgrading is another way to speed up your leveling.

Shop Guide

I suggest selling cooked meals in the shop. I noticed that they usually end up getting sold at a higher price. Here's a comparison:

Item -------- Price if Shipped --- Prices Sold in Shop

Glazed Yam ------ 644 --------- 1078, 1058
Boiled Spinach --- 95 ----------- 160, 169
Fried Eggs ------- 536 ---------- 628, 790
Milk Porridge ---- 380 ---------- 580
Heavy Spice ----- 180 ---------- 200, 207

Pink Cat --------- 110 ---------- 113
Yarn ------------- 80 ----------- 84

When an offer is made, just accept it for the sake of leveling. As you increase your level in bartering, you'll get the Sell with a Smile skill which lets you use RP to increase the prices. It's a handy skill to use when you want more profit.

The best time to sell is during festivals when everyone is gathered at the plaza. They will all flock to your shop. xD I love festivals.

I hate it when it rains though. >_> Barely any customers.

Defeating the Mamadoodle

Special thanks to Toru for discovering this strategy while borrowing my game. lol

Early game, you're still too weak to do significant damage to the Mamadoodle but there IS a way to defeat it. Though it works better when there's just one Mamadoodle.

First, make a bunch of failed dishes. You'll need at least 5, but carry more just to be safe. Next, find 2 people to join your party who will be your meat shields (Yes. MEAT SHIELDS.) Toru used Clorica and Nancy. Since you're planning ahead, I suggest equipping them with weapons that do continuous attacks like double blades or fists. DO NOT take Bado with you. He is the laziest companion ever. He won't attack at all.

Now you head to the cave where there's just 1 Mamadoodle. If you chose the right people for your party, they'll attack it. The Mamadoodle usually attacks only when you're not attacking it, so the weapons that do continuous attacks should buy you some time. Your role is to throw failed dishes at it until it dies. Do it as fast as you can because your meat shields can get knocked out any minute.

I will end this section with a quote from Toru: "Failure will lead to success!"

Festivals

- At the buddy battle festival, don't pick a wooly to be part of your team. >_> They don't fight at all.

Random Fun Things to Do

Here's my to-do list for Rune Factory 4:

- Mass produce cat ears and give them to everyone in town so they'll all wear cat ears

- Upgrade equips with stat-decreasing stuff and give them to Bado cause I hate Bado.

- Collect boss monsters and make them do farm work for me

Rune Factory 4 - Arthur's Events

I accidentally ended up dating Arthur. How did that happen? I pressed 'I love you' for the lolz while he was at 7 hearts expecting him to think I was kidding but he ended up accepting. LOL Well, I planned to marry him anyway. xD Mehehe...

OMG. He says the cutest things. My heart melts every time he says stuff that makes him embarrassed. (/∇＼*)｡o○♡ Argh. Mah heart!

He gets embarrassed a lot cause he has no experience in dating, which isn't surprising since he spends most of his time doing business and other paperwork.

Date Events

Porco's Restaurant

Porco greets Frey and Arthur and treats them to a meal. As both of them sit down and eat, Frey notices that Arthur seems kinda nervous. She decides to tease him and asks him to go 'Aaah'. He then shyly goes 'Aaah' and she feeds him. He decides to feed her too and enjoyed seeing her turn red and stuff. (Ermergerd so cuteヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ)

Ahaha... uhh... yeah. ( ･ㅂ･")

He really is embarrassed~ 

OMG so adorable. WHY. \(//∇//)\

DERMIT TAKE ALL MY GLASSES! ♥（ﾉ´∀`）

Flower Shop

Frey and Arthur head to the flower shop where Arthur suddenly says that he'll try to look for his own favorite flower. Frey decides to give a gift (there's also an option not to), and it turns out they were both thinking the same thing.

So dere! I'm getting a heart attack! (ෆ`꒳´ෆ) ˡºᵛᵉ❤⃛

Blacksmith

Frey and Arthur head to Bado's shop where they make badges. Bado decides to leave them alone in the shop. They tell him that he doesn't have to leave. Then Bado's all like:

Once Bado is out, Arthur makes a joke that they should show him what they're made of. Frey gets surprised. Arthur then becomes embarrassed and tells her that he's just kidding.

So, they proceed to make badges. At the end of the date, they exchange badges.

Daily Conversation

- Arthur says he went on a business trip and picked out a present for Frey, which is a pair of spectacles (Ahaha... not surprising).

- There was also another time where he just suddenly went "I love you." then "Are you surprised by my sudden confession?"

*To be updated as I progress through the game

Rune Factory 4 Town Events

Note: Town events are random.
This post will be updated as I unlock the other events.

Shiny Memories

So there's this bird that built a nest on top of the entrance to Frey's room. Soon, the bird causes trouble for residents by stealing their stuff. Blossom recognized the bird as Twinkle, who used to stay in town years ago when she was still a little girl. Since it's impossible for Twinkle to still be alive, Blossom thinks it's Twinkle's grandchild.

At the general store, the bird swoops down and steals Blossom's pendant, which was one of her treasured heirlooms. Doug gets angry and says he'll get it back for her, but Blossom insists that he doesn't go after the bird because he might get hurt. Doug goes to the nest to retrieve it anyway. As he climbed to the top, his foot slips, making him fall. Suddenly, a mysterious force catches him, saving him from injury.

Blossom scolds him and says that Doug's safety is more important than the pendant. She adds that she did the same thing as Doug when she was still a little girl when Twinkle stole her mother's pendant. She fell and got injured, which was why she insisted that Doug leaves the pendant alone.

The Running Sign

One night, the townspeople notice that there is vandalism all over the houses. Everyone starts to suspect that Dolce might be behind it. After Frey talks to Dolce, a talking signpost suddenly appears and greets them. Dolce immediately suspects that Pico is the one behind all this, so she chases the signpost around town.

The vandalism outside the inn.

The townspeople get amused by Dolce's attempts at trying to catch the signpost that they don't find Dolce as hard to approach anymore.

Soon, Dolce finally corners the signpost that runs to the lake. Suddenly, Pico appears to Frey and Forte who are standing outside the clinic. They're surprised  to find Pico with them when Dolce ran all the way to the lake. Pico then tells them that she just threw the signpost for Dolce to chase after. lol In a short while, Dolce appears and puts on a "What would I do without you, Pico?" drama, touching Pico's heart and making her show herself to Dolce. Then, Dolce goes:

Smart move, Dolce! xD

She proceeds to squeeze Pico, who goes "I'm dying! I'm dying!" but Dolce just replies "You're already dead. You can't die a second time." and doesn't stop. Forte then says that Dolce and Pico aren't as scary anymore. Funny thing. She still denies the fact that Pico is a real ghost. xD

Don't Fall For It, Vishnal!

When Frey wakes up in the morning and talks to Vishnal, he mentions that he's sad about knocking over a bucket while cleaning. He wonders why he ends up messing up when he tries so hard. Frey either cheers him on or tells him he sucks (I picked the cheer him on option). lol

When Frey heads to Bado's shop, he tries to sell her a statue that supposedly makes you awesome at stuff. No matter how much Bado tries to convince Frey, she just doesn't buy it so he gives up.

Later, Frey talks to Vishnal and finds out that he bought the statue from Bado. He actually fell for it and believed that owning the statue would make him better at what he does. So, Frey breaks to him the news that he's been tricked. Vishnal gets shocked and goes off to find Bado.

You're right. I won't believe it.

I'm sorry, Vishnal. It's a scam.

When Frey catches up, Vishnal is smiling again, so she assumes that everything has been settled. However, Bado only told him that the statue houses a guardian spirit. (Bado WHY?! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ ) So Vishnal happily runs off with his statue.

Someone please arrest Bado.

I am thinking of ways to kill you.

Frey tries to convince Bado to take the statue back and give Vishnal his money back, but he refused. After a few days, Vishnal suddenly becomes better at doing things. OMG. He actually managed to make non-failed dishes!

Unbelievable.

So Vishnal enjoys a few days of failure-free activities. He believes that the statue really caused his success, so he offers flowers to it and stuff as if it's some kind of religious icon. One morning, he accidentally breaks the statue, and then... he's back to sucking at things again. He's devastated but Frey tells him that it was because of him and not the statue that he was able to succeed. He immediately recovers and goes "I'll do my best!"

A Performance Without an Audience

Margaret tells Frey that she wants to have a big performance on stage one day. Later, Dolce tells Frey that there's someone who wants to hear Margaret perform, so Dolce requested Frey to bring Margaret to Obsidian Manor. Frey brings Margaret there and Dolce shows up suddenly soon after, which scares Margaret.

Margaret wonders why no one else is around, but Dolce tells her that the one who requested her performance is already there. Suddenly, a lady appears onstage and tells Margaret that she was the one who wanted her to perform, but the score for the song seems to be missing. Frey doesn't know how a score looks like so she brings Margaret along, who is apparently really afraid of ghosts.

As they look for the score, Frey hears two people talking. One is a girl named Marina and the other is a guy named Julius. Marina approaches Julius, who is a violinist, and tries to talk to him. Frey and Margaret move to another location and hear them again.  Marina tells Julius that she's glad that they're able to easily converse now.

As they, keep moving, they hear Marina and Julius once more except this time, they're having an argument. Marina is complaining about how Julius is always busy with his music. Julius tells her to leave because he has to finish this one composition. Marina storms out feeling hurt.

Finally, Frey and Margaret find the score. Margaret recognizes the piece. Apparently, it's the same one she always plays at Porco's restaurant. She learned the song after leaving the Elven kingdom.

They return to the stage and Margaret starts her performance with a speech, saying that the song she's about to play is made for someone special to the composer. As Margaret plays the song, Marina says something like "So this is the piece you wanted me to hear". Julius appears and tells her that the song conveys his feelings for her. They happily thank Margaret and disappear together.

Dolce then fills everyone in on what was happening. Julius was a composer who made a song for Marina's birthday. He was to pick her up and perform for her onstage then tell her something important after. Unfortunately, he died in a landslide as he was on his way to pick her up. For centuries, Marina waited to hear the song Julius made while Julius waited to let Marina hear the song. Dolce tells Margaret that thanks to her help, she finally reunited the couple.

Margaret feels embarrassed about being afraid of them. Dolce tells her that she could keep the original score and take care of it. Margaret then asks Frey if she could stay in the concert hall for a while. When she finally exits the mansion, she tells her that she wants to compose a song for someone special one day like what Julius did.

Someone Has the Wrong Idea

Arthur and Frey talk about how things are going with princess duties. Volkanon happens to pass by and hears their conversation. He misunderstands what he hears and assumes that Frey wants to give up the throne. Determined to not let that happen, he does a bunch of things to keep Frey's motivation: pretending to be a villager asking for directions (though it was sooo obvious that it was just him), leaving cans everywhere for Frey to pick up, and hanging on to the cliff where Margaret's house stands so Frey can "save" him (though he was the one who pulled himself up). Finally, he tells Frey that she shouldn't give up the throne. Frey tells him that he misunderstood the conversation. Happy to hear that she had no plans of giving up on being princess, he sheds manly tears in relief.

[Review] Rune Factory 4

Developer: Neverland Co.
Genre: RPG
Released: Oct 2013 (English)
Platform: Nintendo 3DS

I finally got around to playing the game. Yay. Ahh~ So much nostalgia.

Like in nearly every Rune Factory game, the main character, Frey, gets amnesia again and falls out of an airship after being ambushed, then lands on the dragon Ventuswill. The people assume she's a princess, until Arthur comes along. Arthur, the Prince of Norad, leaves his duties to her so Frey ends up having princess responsibilities.

Soon, strange things start happening so you explore dungeons, and defeat the boss there to get a new bachelor/bachelorette to add to your harem. I won't spoil so much because I want you to feel the feels when that certain scene happens while you're playing the game. I swear this game had the most feels out of all the Rune Factory games.

New things I noticed:

The most obvious new thing there is the extra responsibility you have as a princess. So, you need to earn princess points to draw in tourists and develop the place. Thanks to that, this game has a lot of goals you can slowly fulfill, so it's hard to run out of things to do. You also need a licence before you can purchase cooking ware, a forge, and a crafting table.

They added in a new shop feature where you can sell your items at a stall. So you talk to customers and try to convince them to buy your product. Customers tend to pay higher than the item's shipping price.

The battle animations and stuff look a bit cooler now compared to Rune Factory 1, 2, and 3. It totally motivated me to go kill more ants and woolies and other weak things (bully mode). There's also the 'gloves' as a weapon that lets you beat things up with your fists.

There are also more skills this time?! Were the skills this many before?! And it's recommended that you eat everyday so you'll grow stronger. I quote Volkanon: "YOU... MUST... EAT! Repeat after me!"

The choices are more hilarious too. Ex. "Bow down before me, peasants!"

DOWN WITH MY IDENTITY.

Oh, and you can also confess to random people in town... except for a few people like Volkanon. (I wish I could have Volkanon in my party though. That guy's strength is insane!)

One last thing, there's more SPACE! *tears of joy* (。┰ω┰。) I had problems with having too many times in Rune Factory 3, now I have like... so much space! I don't care if I have to chop wood and crush rocks to get it!

Thoughts on characters:

Ventuswill

Ventuswill is the native dragon that lives alongside the people of Selpha. She just sits around all day in the palace.

I really like her personality. One moment she's all stiff and formal, then later she acts like a best friend you've known for a long time. lol I've grown attached to her through the game... ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚

Vishnal

Doesn't he look like Hayate the combat butler to you? I mean... butler + blue hair. Yeah. It's so adorable how he's always trying his best to become the ultimate butler. I like the expression he has with the fire in his eyes. He's always going "I'll do my best to win at this festival!" And so far... he hasn't won a single one. lol Poor Vishnal.

Vishnal, I will train you to become a combat butler!

Arthur

Personally, I like meganekkos so Arthur's appearance totally appeals to me. He has an air of mystery and nobility around him (well, he's a prince so... yeah). He's also a workaholic. Every time I ask him to join me in an adventure, he declines cause he's busy. ╭(๑¯д¯๑)╮

What's bothering me is that he sometimes spouts out lines related to enjoying pain. Could it be he's a...?!

I'm so tempted to give him cat ears so he'll wear them all day. LOL

What about the ones on your face?!

Doug

He's like a more active Gaius. I ship him with Dylas...!!

Kiel

He's a shota who reads books. For some reason, the fortune teller person said our compatibility level is uber high.

Margaret

Her appearance reminds me of Daria, but her personality is definitely not similar cause Daria isn't as afraid of so many things as Margaret is.

I ran out of space to put all my cooking and crafting tables in my room, so I just placed half of them in her house cause it's spacey. Ahahaha... So Maragaret's house became a sort of extension of my house. Well, she's not complaining~

Xiao Pai

For some reason, she reaally reminds me of Colette from Rune Factory 3. That build! That affinity for food!

Clorica

Reminds me of Karina from RF3 and my real life friend Toru. In fact, any lazy girl I encounter in anime, manga or games reminds me of Toru.

Clorica has the sleeping ability that can rival Nanaki-sensei from Hatoful Kareshi. She can also cook delicious food while sleeping?! What madness is this?!

Forte

She looks like Saber!! And her personality reminds me of Kuruna from RF3!

She really really looks like Saber.

Amber

This girl is so tiny! And cheerful! Take all my apple juice, Amber! (∩˃o˂∩)♡

Doug once said that if the world was full of Amber, then there would be no war cause they'd just chill out and drink juice. lol

Dolce

Another tsundere! This game is like... tsundere heaven! Ahh.. Dolce is so adorable!

Pico

She's the ghost who haunts Dolce. Pico is like... the most awesomest ghost friend ever. She even wrote this outside the inn:

You don't want to know what anime her name reminds me of. Seriously. To those who can relate,... uh... yeah... I should just shut up.

Jones

Why is he taken?! lol I blame Atelier Elkrone for making me like older meganekko guys who are doctors or alchemists. No, wait. Now that I think about it. He looks kinda like Clemens sensei. Nuoo!

Clemens sensei, is that you?! ((((；゜Д゜)))

Nancy

OMG. I tried confessing to her once and she actually said she would have considered me if she hadn't married Jones. LOL

Badass Nurse Nancy.

Lin Fa

She's so pretty. Why isn't she date-able? Then again, I'm playing as a girl. lol

Lin Fa's character reminds me a bit of Shino (Sakuya's mom from RF3), except Lin Fa is really clumsy yet has enormous luck that her mistakes turn out well.

Volkanon

This guy is amazingly strong. I mean, how'd he break all those gargantuan stumps by just running through them?! And how did he jump to the other cliff and build a bridge in mere seconds?! #game logic

BUILDING BRIDGES IS EASIER THAN PUTTING ON PANTS?! REALLY?!

Bado

I swear. All this guy cares about is money. And, he's even lazier than Clorica if you take him in your party. He's like... level 35 but he NEVER attacks. Like... EVER. If you try confessing to this guy, all he talks about is money! (╯°Д°）╯︵/(.□ . \)

Illuminata

Tea-loving detective who points at people and go "You're the criminal!"

Other Comments:

This game requires you to go chop wood and break stones more than any Rune Factory game. If you want to progress faster in the game, you have to go chop wood or break stones. >_<

Another annoying thing is that each cooking utensil has its own table. What?! They take up so much space! But then you can like... exploit others' houses. Mehehe...