Rune Factory 5
As the newest ranger of a peacekeeping organization known as SEED, protect your community by rounding up rowdy monsters and going on special missions. Cultivate your farm and friendships alike while unravelling rune-related mysteries!
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Rune Factory 4 Special on Steam
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Journey to the vibrant world of Rune Factory and experience the legendary fantasy farming adventure like never before!
Rune Factory 4 Special is a rpg, farming sim and adventure game
developed by Marvelous Inc.
and published by XSEED Games, Marvelous USA, Inc. and Marvelous Europe.
Released on December 07th 2021 is available only on Windows.
It has received 1,907 reviews of which 1,682 were positive and 225 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.4 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 29.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 7.29€ on Instant Gaming.
The Steam community has classified Rune Factory 4 Special into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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System requirements
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Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-6400
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics HD530
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 5 GB available space
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User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
After enjoying RF: Guardians of Azuma a lot, I wanted to try out other Rune Factory titles. RF4 is amazingly detailed game and I really love how characters interact with each other. However, I am finding combat very tedious. I'm playing on easiest difficulty but even then I am finding the combat rather difficult - the combat mechanic itself is simplistic but every so often there is a huge difficulty jump due to a huge enemy stat inflation which force players to grind to upgrade weapons and armors. I was thinking about ignoring main story so I don't have to farm materials to upgrade my gear to win against enemy bosses - however, there are characters locked behind story progression. Therefore, I am begrudgingly working towards upgrading my gear but it is so painful, I am contemplating whether I should just drop the game altogether. Overall, I found it enjoyable enough to play 40 hours but much less so than RF: Guardians of Azuma. I would have given it a neutral rating if the option is available and would recommend to get the game on a sale. EDIT 1: I've sunk in more hours and managed to finish story arc 2. The highs of this game were much more impactful than Guardians of Azuma but the low points were also worse than Azuma. I'd say I enjoyed both Azuma and RF4 about equally for different reasons. EDIT2: The more I play it, the more I like this game despite it's flaws. It certainly became one of the most memorable game I've played.
My absolute favorite game of all time, and the title that got me into Rune Factory as a whole, now available on modern platforms. It's a dream come true! I would recommend Rune Factory 4 to anyone who loved Stardew Valley who wished the combat was a greater part of the game, or who wished for a more in-depth story, or just generally enjoys a cute anime aesthetic. And of course, fans of the parent franchise Story of Seasons (Harvest Moon) as well, and just any farm life sim fans who also love JRPGs. Particularly with how cheap RF4S goes for on sale, you really can't lose. Rune Factory 4 has such a charming setting and cast of characters. They're all a bit tropey in that shounen anime sort of way, but I personally find that aspect super endearing. Likewise, while the story isn't super deep or complex, I found it very emotionally engaging, and the same goes for the individual character arcs. The crafting is super in-depth, with plenty of ways to customize your equipment as you see fit, and plenty of little hidden secrets to discover. Unfortunately, it's rather grindy to max out your crafting skills (which is effectively required when it comes to forging weapons, at least), but the game does offer some decent options to alleviate that, and I find the satisfaction of playing around with it satisfying enough to balance out. (And this is the sort of game where it's best if you enjoy a good mindless grind every now and then, anyway.) The combat is fun and satisfying, particularly in combination with the crafting, though it can be frustrating how bosses can easily stunlock you into death. Still, the sense of satisfaction upon finally defeating a tough boss, and seeing how far you've come in power upon going back to grind for crafting materials, is a great reward. The farming has a fair amount of depth in spite of being only half of the game's focus, particularly with taking proper care of and improving your soil, as well as leveling crops and making giant crops. It's also very fun seeing the goofier ways the game ties your fields into the RPG adventuring, between crops that can be used as weapons, and being able to grow dungeons. The biggest shame with RF4S, I feel, is just that it doesn't feature same sex marriage (a feature that wasn't introduced until the franchise's return with RF5). There is the workaround of using the postgame feature to change your appearance to that of the other protagonist, but you will still be referred to with the opposite pronouns and gendered terms, so it's not quite satisfying. It's understandable that adding in same sex marriage was too much to ask for for an enhanced port of a 3DS game, but still, it is unfortunate given how much of the market for this game would be looking for exactly that. If we ever get a full remake of a prior game (or even RF4 itself), I would hope to see that implemented. Regardless, RF4S is an incredible game, and absolutely worth it for anyone who's a fan of both farm life sims and JRPGs.
Rune Factory 4 is interesting. I prefer RF3 to RF4 solely due to the cast but this is still a good game in the series. Compared to RF3 it's got quite a bit more depth with the crafting mechanics as all items and components have levels now, and crafted items get a bonus for using high leveled components. You can even combine 2 accessories to add their passive effects to a single slot which is a big improvement to having to carry around a bunch of item swaps with you. Improving from RF3, you are allowed to pick a gender for the first time in the series with this game and there are 6 people you can marry from each gender. There isn't gay marriage sadly so if there's someone you've got your eyes on you'll have to pick your character's gender up front and plan for that. Aside from there being half as many options for either gender as RF3 has available to you (11 bachelorettes in that game) I don't find any of the female options to be very interesting as they either recycle character concepts from RF3 (Xiao Pai feels very similar to Sakuya from RF3, Clorica is almost the same as Karina, Amber is almost a carbon copy of Shara). Thankfully romance and marriage isn't required for the story this time around so you can choose to ignore it entirely if you prefer to keep it as more of a farming rpg kind of game. As with all the rune factory games (other than RF2 as I recently found out) your character has amnesia and has to build a new life in the small castle town of Selphia. You end up mistaken as the new prince or princess of the town that was supposed to be coming in, and put right to work running the farm and helping the townsfolk. The story is in 3 distinct arcs with credits rolling after each one finishes so don't be put off by credits rolling thinking the game is over after not a lot of gameplay. The first arc has you travel to various dungeons around the town and defeat bosses that are actually people who have been transformed into creatures. I won't spoil anything past that but there's quite a bit that changes in the story as you progress compared to RF3 which was quite a bit more straightforward with its plot. As the prince or princess of the town you earn some points with almost any action you do, completing requests being the most points but you also get a small amount from simply talking to people every day and defeating monsters and bosses. These can be used to buy upgrades such as unlocking festivals, expanding your inventory, and building barns to house monsters you can recruit. As with RF3 there is the same style of randomized postgame dungeon available for purchase for 3000 PP after Arc 2 is completed. The levels for this game's dungeon range from 350 to 1000 although power in this game is a lot more gear dependant than level dependant. With endgame gear you can get close to 100% immunity to all elemental damage and status conditions and also just be strong enough to ko the bosses in the sharance maze before they can do much. This does take a lot of prep and grinding but it shows that the crafting can be quite deep if you choose to explore the mechanics of it.
My favorite thing about Rune Factory has always been the satisfying and constant progression of your character's stats and strength and how well it ties in with both farming and exploration/combat. In terms of story, I'd say this would be the one that hit me most emotionally since I have a soft spot for lonely dragons (or any lonely ancient being for that matter). For gameplay alone, I didn't have as much fun here compared to RF3 Special which had newer and less grindy QoL changes. I especially disliked how events were randomized which ruined the pace of the story for me as having to wait out love/marriage events was tedious. For achievements, if you have an extra 30+ hours to kill and have the stomach for terrible drop rates or just enjoy grinding. Meh
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Frequently Asked Questions
Rune Factory 4 Special is currently priced at 29.99€ on Steam.
No, Rune Factory 4 Special is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 29.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Rune Factory 4 Special received 1,682 positive votes out of a total of 1,907 achieving a rating of 8.43.
😎
Rune Factory 4 Special was developed by Marvelous Inc. and published by XSEED Games, Marvelous USA, Inc. and Marvelous Europe.
Yes, Rune Factory 4 Special is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Rune Factory 4 Special is not playable on MacOS.
No, Rune Factory 4 Special is not playable on Linux.
This information about Rune Factory 4 Special is not available yet.
This information about Rune Factory 4 Special is not available yet.
No, Rune Factory 4 Special does not support VR.
Rune Factory 4 Special is a single-player game.
No, Rune Factory 4 Special does not currently offer any DLC.
No, Rune Factory 4 Special does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
No, Rune Factory 4 Special does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, Rune Factory 4 Special is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Rune Factory 4 Special.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 29 September 2026 22:01 UTC |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 17 October 2026 08:30 UTC |
| Steam price | 26 October 2026 19:44 UTC |
| Steam reviews | 19 October 2026 21:47 UTC |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Rune Factory 4 Special, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Rune Factory 4 Special
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Rune Factory 4 Special concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Rune Factory 4 Special compatibility
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Game modes
Features
Online players
53
Developer
Marvelous Inc.
Publisher
XSEED Games,
Marvelous USA, Inc.,
Marvelous Europe
Release
07 Dec 2021
Platforms
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