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If You’re Excited for Rune Factory 5, Play My Time at Portia


Like Rune Factory 5, My Time at Portia shares elements with games like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon but with its own unique twists.

After initially being teased during a Nintendo Direct last year, Rune Factory 5 finally received a trailer and a tentative 2021 release date during September’s Partner Showcase. The game combines the farming and simulation elements of beloved games like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley with an emphasis on the dungeon crawling and combat that those games have but downplay.

There’s no shortage of casual simulation games that involve farming for fans anxiously awaiting the next Rune Factory game to play in the meantime. However, one that stands out is last year’s My Time at Portia. Like other games in its genre, My Time at Portia features open-ended gameplay with a storyline to follow at your own pace, resource gathering and management, and relationship building elements that allow players to befriend, date and marry NPCs. However, My Time at Portia and Rune Factory both feature unique spins on the true-and-true formula.

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Related: Stardew Valley: What We Know About Version 1.5

Not Another Farming Sim

Just as Rune Factory trades a farming focus for action-RPG elements, My Time at Portia has players go through the game as a builder. Instead of mainly planting and harvesting crops (though that is an option), players have to gather resources to use in various crafting recipes with the goal of becoming the best builder in town. In addition to main missions, which are often time-sensitive and result in unlocking and developing areas of the world, players can also take on smaller requests to improve their workshop rank and earn relationship points. The player will also have to compete with in-game rivals who have already established themselves within the trade.

Gathering resources also means traveling into dungeons and mines, wielding tools and weapons to find resources and take down monsters. This is where the game most directly resembles Rune Factory, though My Time at Portia‘s combat is much more limited and not the focus of the game.

Related: Nintendo Switch Online May Be the Switch’s Biggest Disappointment

Dynamic Relationships

The city of Portia and the surrounding areas are filled with people for players to get to know, and perhaps the most interesting aspect of the game is how dynamic character relationships are. In most games like it, players can usually befriend everyone if they want to with no consequences regardless of what different NPCs canonically think about each other. However, in My Time at Portia, characters belong to different relationship networks based on their family and friends.

While not everyone is connected to everyone else (most characters only have one or two connections), this does provide realistic consequences for befriending one character whose work or beliefs conflict with another’s. For example, befriending Petra from the Research Center will earn you points with her mentor and friend Merlin, but it’ll also negatively impact your relationship with Church of the Light minister Lee and missionary Nora, as the two organizations are often at odds with one another. The ability to make friends (and enemies) combined with the fact that these affect how others in the world see you makes it really feel like the builder is a part of a living community.

Plus, for those who enjoy Rune Factory and similar games for their romance options, there are loads of characters for players to date and marry. There are 28 marriage candidates (18 bachelors and 10 bachelorettes), with almost all NPCs who are not children, elderly or already married able to be romanced by the player regardless of gender. Different spouses come with unique perks, such as store discounts, help around the player’s workshop and additional Gols, which makes each feel distinct.

Related: Monster Hunter Rise: What We Know About the New Game

Hidden Secrets

You wouldn’t be able to tell just from looking at it, but My Time at Portia is actually a post-apocalyptic game. Hundreds of years before the player moves to Portia, a series of calamitous events caused humanity to plummet from the heights of technological advancement to the destruction of just about everything from cities to civilization to knowledge itself.

From the start of the game, mysterious buildings and ruins imply that something has happened here and that Portia isn’t the generic small town setting of most games like it. While going through the main story missions, players will learn more about the past and the society that arose from the Age of Darkness. This history helps explain certain elements of the world, like the animosity between the church and the scientists, and emphasizes the player’s importance as a builder in a world that is rebuilding.

But despite the darkness in its lore, the game itself is still colorful, welcoming and optimistic. As Rune Factory did before it, My Time at Portia maintains the charm, style and fun of other casual simulation games while putting its own unconventional twists on the genre that make it a unique experience.

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