Part 7: Carmite Cave Commences
Update 7: Carmite Cave CommencesWelcome 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.




I refuse.

So hey weve got a full HP and RP bar. Collapsing is a pretty sweet deal.

Back to the ol watering grind. Its becoming a little time consuming, so its 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, its 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 arent 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.

Russells books are how you get crafting recipes in this game. His stock changes every day, but its 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 theyre expensive as hell right now, while our main income is still Sardines.

Time to actually progress the plot with a truly baffling conversation. Im 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.

Way ahead of you.

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

Well, almost. Lets barge in on Mists house first. See how she likes it.


Uh.

Uh.

Well see ya.

Donnel is not ready for romance. Hed rather go risk his life in this cave.

Welcome to Carmite.


Okay, Mists a ghost, Im calling it now. Theres no way shes that stealthy normally.

Donnel is remarkably nonchalant about it though.






Look, just make your own joke.

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




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 Im really not a fan, and Im glad newer games in this style (Stardew Valley.) change it.



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


I missed him doing that.

Orb is a verb, let it be known.

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

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



Shes really gone this time.

Anyway, heres the first area in Carmite. Thats the same enemy we ran into at the start of the game.

When you slash at things, the enemys numbers come up in red text, yours in white. Its kinda hard to see whats going on in screens, but its hard in game as well, so theres 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 swords arc doesnt 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 its one of the harder ones in the came because of just how little equipment you have. Also Im 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.




Youre weird, Zavier.


I refer you to the previous Uhs in this update.

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

Well, might as well cover these. Theyre important mechanics.
Mysterious Noise


I really like that line.

Fields In Caves



The game really tutorials hard at you here. I wouldnt mind if it wasnt so much repeat information. This is like the third person to tell us this.

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


So, Runes. Runes are little floaty blue balls that show up after youve grown 9 crops (a single seed packet) in a cave. Theyll 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 cant say I disagree with them. But Ill show it off, because its clearly meant to be a pretty core mechanic.

Now then.

Much better. The Cucumbers from earlier are all set.

Luckily theres 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. Theyre 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. Its a pretty important thing to raise.
Now its 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 wasnt at the counter. So, surely, Donnel can just

Dammit, Donnel.

And now shes here? I wish I had screencapped that, it was weird.


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

Its not Jasper were interested in today, though.




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

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

I love Donnels expression here. Even he thinks this is a bit sketchy.


Tabatha is secretly an Orc Archer in a dress.



The running theme of Rune Factory is Real Estate.

Oh, right. I should get on that.




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 theres not enough wood here. I need more.

Back to Carmite!

Sadly, no wood here either. We cant chop the stumps yet.

Instead I just tilled the rest of the soil. Theres a reason for this, and youll see later.

Anyway, I should probably cover this guy more in depth. This is the Orc. Hes a standard melee enemy, but he hits hard, for about 24 of Donnels 100 HP. The best way to deal with them is to try and dodge their swing, then combo them as theyre 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. Theyre sheerly combat based, though. Leveling up restores all your HP, which can be a lifesaver in a dungeon. Dont count on it, though.

The Orc dropped a Cheap Cloth. This is a crafting material we wont 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 theyre just so easy to dodge.

Not that I dont fuck that up occasionally. Thats the 1 of a 13, not just 1 damage. They arent THAT pathetic.

Still pretty pathetic.

Thats what I wanted.

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

Oh, thats...a little better. The rest were just Cherry Salmon again.

Look upon my Salmon, ye mighty, and despair.

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

Well, thats enough Carmite Cave for now.

Donnels 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.