Marvelous Games has finally given Rune Factory 4 Special an official release date. The game will be released both physically and digitally on February 28th in Europe and Australia, while those in the US will enjoy a slightly earlier release date of February 25th.
Rune Factory 4 Special was announced back in August last year and was originally slated for a Winter release. This was changed due to unforeseen circumstances with fans worried that the day would never come.
There will be a bonus DLC called “Another Episode” downloadable at launch, and will be available free to players for a limited time only. It will then apparently cost £4.49 /€4.99 /$7.50 AUD on the Nintendo eShop after this short period.
Rune Factory 4 Special is a remake of Rune Factory 4 released on 3DS in 2012. The remaster will include a new ‘Hell’ difficulty and additional story content called ‘Newlywed Mode’. This mode adds special episodes about life after marriage with the 12 eligible bachelors and bachelorettes and also feature new voices and in-game cut scenes.
In addition to remastered graphics, the trailer also shows that the character portraits will also be animated compared to the still sprites from the original 2012 game. However, these scenes seem to be after the characters are already married, suggesting that this may be during the Newlywed Mode only.
Rune Factory 4 Special also has a new opening song but with an almost similar opening animations with minor animation changes and scenes.
The game is already available for pre-order on the Nintendo eShop for £32.99/€39.99/$59.95 AUD and will be available at select stores on launch day.
For those interested, the Rune Factory 4 Special – Archival Edition is available for pre-order on Marvelous Game Store for £55
Ominous Beep 