Part 7: Carmite Cave Commences

Update 7: Carmite Cave Commences

Welcome back. Last time Donnel was so into farm maintenance that he collapsed.



Thankfully he is not dead.



When you run out of HP in the Overworld, you wake up the next day at Edward's at 10:00 AM. There are really no consequences other than that, so honestly sometimes it's a good time-saving strategy to just work yourself to death.

: It's okay to collapse outside, but collapsing in a cave is risking your life.







I refuse.



So hey we’ve got a full HP and RP bar. Collapsing is a pretty sweet deal.



Back to the ol’ watering grind. It’s becoming a little time consuming, so it’s nice that the first can upgrade will be available soon.



It also cuts into my RP like a motherfucker.



Now, I noticed that PARTS sells some “Special Items”, and I was curious as to what they were, so I dropped by there next.



I just fainted at like 1:00 AM and a doctor yelled at me, it’s great.



I think this is pretty much all Jean says. No wonder Rosetta has to do most of the work.



Oh, these are the Special Items. Accessories (Or as this game calls them, “Decor”) work like armor in this game, giving you some defense and stat bonuses. These are all way too expensive for Donnel right now, and they aren’t very good anyway.



Donnel also visits the library in an attempt to learn. This will go poorly.



Who is Mr. Shield? Can we meet Mr. Shield? I would take Mr. Shield over like half the NPCs in this game.



Russell’s books are how you get crafting recipes in this game. His stock changes every day, but it’s useless for us for now because not only do we need to buy the proper tools for the house from Ivan, but we also need to upgrade the house for most of them, which is still miles away. Also they’re expensive as hell right now, while our main income is still Sardines.



Time to actually progress the plot with a truly baffling conversation. I’m leaving this in screenshots so you can see just how baffling.













Okay, so, is it just me, or are there like 3 places in that conversation where it looks like a line was skipped, or switched around or something? Like I said, the RF1 translation is...not the best.

: I issued you a pass to the caves, but take care. If you don’t have a sword, I recommend you buy one at Leo’s shop first before entering the caves.

Way ahead of you.



A quick return trip to PARTS to buy Cucumber Seeds, and we’re ready to depart for Carmite.



Well, almost. Let’s barge in on Mist’s house first. See how she likes it.





Uh.



Uh.



Well see ya.



Donnel is not ready for romance. He’d rather go risk his life in this cave.



Welcome to Carmite.





Okay, Mist’s a ghost, I’m calling it now. There’s no way she’s that stealthy normally.



Donnel is remarkably nonchalant about it though.

: By the way, I didn’t tell you. There are monsters living in the cave. Be careful!

: Uh, okay. Thank you. Is that what you came to tell me?


: Yeah. I was worried about you.

: Thank you. By the way, what’s that funny shaped thing?

: I’ve never seen it before either. I wonder what it is. It looks kind of scary.

: It looks like it’s where the monsters come out.

Look, just make your own joke.



I’m not sure why Mist decides to go parenthetical here but I mean okay.

: Well, I’ll look into it.

: Okay. Be careful!


: Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.



Mist is here to explain to us the concept of mortality.



This is easily my biggest design gripe with Rune Factory 1. Swinging your sword gradually kills you. And the combat is pretty button mashy. I get why they did it, but I’m really not a fan, and I’m glad newer games in this style (Stardew Valley.) change it.

: Got it. I’ll be careful.

: Okay, I’m outta here.



She does the “Walk off screen and come back” gag again.

: Oh, I forgot. I wanted to give you this spellbook.

: Spellbook?

I missed him doing that.



“Orb” is a verb, let it be known.

: It will bring you back to the entrance of the cave. That’s right on this spot.

Okay, so this is what I said Teleport did. I guess I forgot what Teleport does. I’ll test it out later.



We’ve had that X icon next to the B one for ages, but nothing to do with it. Here you go.

: Remember, using magic will deplete your RP, unless you cast Escape, which doesn’t use any RP. Wow, that’s sweet! Alright, see ya.





She’s really gone this time.



Anyway, here’s the first area in Carmite. That’s the same enemy we ran into at the start of the game.



When you slash at things, the enemy’s numbers come up in red text, yours in white. It’s kinda hard to see what’s going on in screens, but it’s hard in game as well, so there’s not a ton I can do about that, sorry.



Basically, those big metal things are monster spawners. If you kill the monster while the spawner is still up, it will spit out a new one, so ideally you want the spawner destroyed before you kill the guard. Really the biggest issue, though, is the hitboxes being very sketchy on a lot of these enemies. You have to have them front and center, the sword’s arc doesn’t really count for shit.



You can see how low my HP and RP are already. Carmite Cave is actually a pretty tough dungeon, I think it’s one of the harder ones in the came because of just how little equipment you have. Also I’m bad at this game.



Off to the left, some fields! And Zavier.



We never formally introduced ourselves to him, just spied on him a couple times.





: Oh, no, no. I’m not the one that made the move. She…

: Mist made a move on you? No way! My Mist would never do anything like that!

You’re weird, Zavier.

: But that’s what happened…

: Mist...why? Why him? *Sigh* No, this must be some kind of mistake.

I refer you to the previous “Uh”’s in this update.



Well, he seems remarkably more chipper now that I talked to him again.



Well, might as well cover these. They’re important mechanics.

Mysterious Noise

: Listen. If you ever hear a weird beeping kind of noise in a cave, you’d better watch out. That’s a sound you start to hear when your HP gets low. Sometimes while exploring and digging you might let your HP drop down to zero before you notice.



I really like that line.

: So watch out for that beeping noise!

Fields In Caves

: When it comes to exploring caves, the most important thing is the ground.

: How come the ground is so important?

: Ugh. Don’t you know anything? Listen, whether we’re using swords or hoes, we lose RP. In other word(sic), rune points. When you run out of RP, you can’t use magic. You can use a sword, but when you use one without RP, you start losing HP. In caves, running out of HP means death, you know.

The game really tutorials hard at you here. I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t so much repeat information. This is like the third person to tell us this.

: So you have to think about replenishing your RP as you go along. That’s why fields are so important. Are you with me? Runes are a crystallized form of the power of the earth.

Oh shit OP was wrong there are Runes in this game. Whoops.

: And the power of the earth grows crops. In my experience, you can get one rune for every nine crops you have. If you take the runes, they’ll be gone for the time being, but there’ll be more the next morning. So if you plow fields and grow crops here and there inside caves, you can replenish your RP at each place.



So, Runes. Runes are little floaty blue balls that show up after you’ve grown 9 crops (a single seed packet) in a cave. They’ll keep respawning as long as the crops are there. This is a good way to restore RP in dungeons, as touching a rune gives you an instant boost. However, it takes a while to grow crops, and some people just ignore this mechanic entirely, just bringing alot of food along for RP instead. I can’t say I disagree with them. But I’ll show it off, because it’s clearly meant to be a pretty core mechanic.



Now then.



Much better. The Cucumbers from earlier are all set.



Luckily there’s a river right here where you can refill your can.



Now I should probably leave, but…



Across the bridge is one more enemy type.



This is the Orc Archer. They have less HP and Attack than their melee counterparts, but they can shoot from a range with these slow moving projectiles. They’re not really a huge threat.



They can also only aim in 8 directions. Sucks to be an Orc Archer.






A single 3 hit combo does the trick.



Swordsmanship skill goes up when you hit things with your weapon, and reduces the RP/HP cost of attacking. It’s a pretty important thing to raise.

Now it’s time to actually get out of here.



Camus reveals that Kardian Gossip is just the most boring shit.



I headed to the baths, but Melody wasn’t at the counter. So, surely, Donnel can just…



Dammit, Donnel.



And now she’s here? I wish I had screencapped that, it was weird.





Now rejuvenated, it’s back to the J A S P E R Z O N E.



It’s not Jasper we’re interested in today, though.



: If you get along with the monsters in the caves, you can become friends with them! If you have this friendship glove, you can become friends.




Yes, the monster recruitment tactic in this game is just AGGRESSIVELY RUBBING THEM. It’s great.

: But be careful, you may be attacked before you win the monster over.

Monsters will not stop trying to kill you while you rub them.



I love Donnel’s expression here. Even he thinks this is a bit sketchy.

: The way to get along with something without speaking is through showing how you feel. Even if the monster hits you, you have to show it that you want to be friends.

: Okay, got it. You seem to know a lot about this, Tabatha!

Tabatha is secretly an Orc Archer in a dress.

: Yeah, well...I know…. Hehehe!




: Remember that and this important fact. You need a monster hut to get along with monsters.

The running theme of Rune Factory is Real Estate.

: Tell Mr. Camus, and he’ll build you a monster hut. No matter how much you use the friendship glove, you won’t befriend monsters without a monster hut.

Oh, right. I should get on that.



: I wonder what delicacies are in there? My stomach rumbles just thinking of it!





Incredibly excited over the possibility of having my very own Orc Archer, Donnel begins to chop wood furiously.



Logging is also its own skill.

But there’s not enough wood here. I need more.



Back to Carmite!



Sadly, no wood here either. We can’t chop the stumps yet.



Instead I just tilled the rest of the soil. There’s a reason for this, and you’ll see later.



Anyway, I should probably cover this guy more in depth. This is the Orc. He’s a standard melee enemy, but he hits hard, for about 24 of Donnel’s 100 HP. The best way to deal with them is to try and dodge their swing, then combo them as they’re in the recovery animation.



Also, he seems to have dropped something…



Oh, great! Yeah, in addition to all the skills, Levels are also a thing. They’re sheerly combat based, though. Leveling up restores all your HP, which can be a lifesaver in a dungeon. Don’t count on it, though.



The Orc dropped a Cheap Cloth. This is a crafting material we won’t have any use for for a long time, but hey, nice to grab it.



I wonder what fish live in Carmite?



Oh. Shocker.



North of here we have some rocks. These are unbreakable for now, but keep them in mind.



I crossed the bridge to beat up on some more archers. These guys are my preferred grinding targets, because they’re just so easy to dodge.



Not that I don’t fuck that up occasionally. That’s the 1 of a 13, not just 1 damage. They aren’t THAT pathetic.



Still pretty pathetic.



That’s what I wanted.



Well, maybe there will be more interesting fish over here?



Oh, that’s...a little better. The rest were just Cherry Salmon again.



Look upon my Salmon, ye mighty, and despair.



They’re pretty shitty Salmon too. This was the highlight. I had a level 17 one last update.



Well, that’s enough Carmite Cave for now.



Donnel’s adventures will resume after he sleeps away all his fishing and swording wounds.

But your contribution adventure can begin RIGHT NOW!

Submit any names you like for:
Orcs
Orc Archers
Bees (we haven't seen it yet but I trust you know what a bee looks like)

And I'll take them into consideration for when I start taming monsters.