There are certain games that barely need to be reviewed. A easy “If you like this sort of thing, you’ll like this game” is all anyone really needs to know. I’m talking about games like Halo 3, Rock Band 2, Mega Man 9; games that fans of their genres will completely love, but non-fans just won’t.

Rune Factory: Frontier is almost that kind of game. If you like the time/resource management, farming, and dating stuff that has made the Harvest Moon games so successful over the years, you’ll really like this game. If you hate Harvest Moon, well, it’s not likely that Rune Factory: Frontier will be for you.

This review is for the people in between, those that sometimes like Harvest Moon, but other times hate it with a passion. People like that might still get into Rune Factory: Frontier for its sizable amount of action/dungeon crawling. Sure, the game is still about watering turnips and getting the local girls to marry you, but it’s also about cleaving goblin’s heads open with a broadsword. For me, that’s a big deal. I’ve always wanted to enjoy the Harvest Moon games, but I just couldn’t. The series’ signature combination of passivity and constant responsibility just doesn’t jive with my inherent need to be completely lazy and violent at all times.

Were these action elements enough to get a non-Harvest Moon fan to like a farming sim? Hit the jump to find out.

Rune Factory: Frontier (Wii)
Developer: Neverland
Publisher: Marvelous Entertainment/XSeed Games
Released: March 17, 2009
MSRP: $49.99

I’ve been trying to get this review finished for weeks. It’s probably been the toughest assignment I’ve done for Destructoid yet, both due to the game’s big size, and also due to a certain indescribable quality the game possesses. Just last week I was telling Anthony Burch that reviewing Rune Factory: Frontier is like trying to review the Television show Friends one episode at a time. It’s all technically above average, all a tiny bland, but most of all, its body of work is so nondescript and inoffensive that it’s really hard to even speak about.

Rune Factory: Frontier is a game about a slightly girly amnesiac (clich

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