I guess that I am still doing this series... I must be enjoying Rune Factory 4 more than I am aware. Don't be too surprised, it is the mark of a good game!
Left pondering his dilemma, and unsure where to go looking
first for rune spheres, Lest is accosted by a chip squeak monster in the middle
of town. The little pest steals a
Ventuswill feather, a gift to Lest that defensibly means a lot to him. Lest certainly can’t let this minor monster
steal such an important trinket, and his new mission to chase after the chip
squeak, south and out of the main gates of Selphia.
Further chasing causes the chip squeak to visibly move to
the next region ahead of Lest, over to the east towards the forest. Alright I’ll say the cliché line:
Ha-ha-har-hmm.
It’s almost like it’s leading me somewhere…
Chasing it again leads to more
scenes where the chip squeak leads the way right into the forest, and further
chasing leads to more scenes where the chip squeak just leaves as Lest enters,
once to the north, then once more down a … cliff? That’s new!
The chip squeak scenes draw
the player’s attention to a passage down from the cliff top and into a cave
network, a long one with far more dangerous and filled with level appropriate
enemies. The Yokmir cave network is a
tough challenge for the unprepared, prompting me to immediately regret rushing
after the chip squeak and not blowing the whole thing off for time forging. One blessing, though, is that there are only
a few regions in the maze that block further progress until you destroy the
enemies. I found it amenable to run
through cave zones rather than stand and fighter in every region, and I found
getting lost in the maze created a maddening, near constant supply of monster
to fight. Advice: save your sanity –
kill the ones you have to, and leave the ones you don’t.
Also noteworthy is the immense
material wealth of this region. Anyone
short on iron, stone, bronze, and other metals could return her indefinitely
and find a wealth of metals to harvest.
Trouble is, I’m now kicking myself for not stopping by and using Prince
points to order that my backpack be increased!
I have so little that I can carry!
The chip squeak continues to
lead the way, but Lest will have to deviate in his path. Switch gates block the way forward, and
switches are typically close, but seem further away than any region that I’ve
ventured through yet. Careful pacing is
needed to adventure here safely, and the chip squeak is fairly obviously now
stopping to make sure Lest finds it again.
The exit from Yokmir cave is
conveniently located just south of the boss chamber in Yokmir forest, where
Ambrosia/Amber was fought earlier. The
chip squeak again takes all of the guesswork out of this game, and leads slowly
into the boss chamber. If this sojourn
ended with another tussle with Ambrosia, it might be anti-climactic, but as it
happens, Ambrosia, who always showed up on successive days to challenge Lest to
rematch before, got the day off today.
Dead Tree is the boss waiting
for Lest today, and it is a lot more powerful.
Like Ambrosia, it is fairly slow moving, but it hits for a fair bit of
damage and has a few tricks Lest will find hard to dodge. Careful timing and pacing is needed to stay
in this fight to the end, but like all of the others so far, Dead Tree is only
stalling. Rune Factory 4 has yet to
bring any true challenges.
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