There's a lot to say about Rune Factory 5. It's mostly a mixed bag with a lot of good things that will tailor to specific people.

The sound of Rune Factory 5 was what really sold me on the game and I think it's easily the best aspect. I wasn't originally thinking of getting the game because I'm not a huge fan of the series. I bought the 4th one like two years ago but never played it and when 5 was announced, I thought it was cool but didn't think too much of it because there's already so many games in the genre. But then I started getting into anime last year and I noticed that Rune Factory 5 has an incredible cast for both English and Japanese. I can't say much about Japanese but the English cast is one of the best that I've ever seen for a game.

The main voice cast of the game has 11 voice actors that I'm a big fan of and a handful of others who are big in the industry and that says a lot. It's a ton of star power and they all do their roles very well. It's very easy to get really immersed in the voice acting. The music is also pretty good with a few solid tracks here and there but the voice acting is what really sells it for audio. As an extension of voice acting, the characters are all really cool and well developed.

Unfortunately, audio is really the only high point in Rune Factory 5. Everything else is either lackluster or too similar to the 50 other games in the genre to really make much of a difference. The gameplay has a few cool mechanics but they're mostly just an extension of the story and world and there are times where the world feels too big and empty.

I can play a game like Stardew Valley and run around the town doing different things for hours but running around from place to place in Rune Factory 5 can seem more like a chore at times. It gets worse when you're out in the wilderness because sometimes it just feels like enemies, objectives, and items are too far spaced out at times.

You might not even like the farming aspect if you're just a casual player because it takes a little while to really find a groove. It feels like that mechanic is designed for Big fans of the series or genre die-hards. The three main things that you're going to be doing in Rune Factory 5 is farming, fighting, and flirting, and the way I see it is that you're going to get bored of two of them quickly and the one you don't get bored of is what will keep you going.

For me, it was all the characters. I treated the game less like a farming game and way more like a happy lifestyle game. I got bored of the farming and exploring pretty quickly but I was always intrigued by the characters, by all the different interactions and developments you could have with them, by the romance, and by the voice acting. I kept playing because I genuinely wanted to see and hear what was going on with each character.

For others, it might be different. Once they get into the farming groove, they might like the farming a lot but find romance as a distraction when trying to become a millionaire. It's going to be different for each player but no matter how bad some aspects are for you, there will always be that one that pushes you forward. The game will get really addicting once you narrow down what you're going after. If you're going after all the characters moments, you'll spend many hours playing. If you want to focus on the story, which isn't bad, you'll get some enjoyment out of the plot, if you love the farming, you'll never stop.

I also want to talk about value because if you paid full price for just the game by itself, you did it wrong. The only way you should be paying for Rune Factory 5 is by buying the Earthmate Edition, which is amazing in terms of value and content. Paying $60 for the game is not worth it unless you already go into it knowing that you can get a lot out of the characters, story, and farming. I can easily get 100 hours out of characters and interactions and some people will farm a lot, but not everyone will get $60 worth of content. Thankfully the game has been 20% off a few times, which is much better.

But this is where the Earthmate Edition comes in, which is one of the best values I've seen in a while. If you already got the Earthmate Edition or can find one in a store like GameStop or Best Buy for $80, you're in luck because that's the only way you should be paying unless you find the game by itself for under $50.

You're basically paying an extra $20 on top of the game for a really cool art book, a steel book, a physical soundtrack and a cool collectors box. The art book alone is worth the $20 easily because it's not like one of those small ones you get with an NIS game. The book is nearly 100 pages and has a ton of info, including a paragraph on each character, the English and Japanese voice actors, and even a space to get signatures for each actor.

The Earthmate Edition also has it's own unique cartridge that has DLC exclusive to this edition already installed. The worth of the DLC is around $10 but you can't buy it separately if you already own the regular physical or digital copy. You're easily getting an extra $40-60 worth of stuff by spending an extra $20.

On its own, the game is good if it's a reasonable price and with the Earthmate Edition, it's amazing. As for an overall grade, it's very close to a 9/10 if you heavily invest your time into characters, audio, and farming. For the average, casual player, it's more like a 7.8/10.

Sound: 10
Graphics: 7
Addictiveness: 6
Story: 7
Depth: 10
Value: 5