At the Natsume booth, RPGamer had a chance to view Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. This game is set to come out 4th Quarter 2010 on the DS.

Rune Factory 3 is a story-driven, action RPG where the protagonist is half human and half monster. This means that your character can change between human and monster forms at will. Your background is quite unique for this story since the humans and monsters have stopped talking with each other for a long time; even the Elder of the Monsters, who is about 200 years old, doesn't know why the humans and monsters have such a bad relationship. The whole story is about your efforts to reconcile the relationship between humans and monsters.

Rune Factory 3 has much to add to the Rune Factory series. The frame rate and the rate of attacking is much faster. There are more combo abilities, and you can choose from seven different weapon types. Enemies also drop more items, which is always a plus for those that love to collect loot. You can collect more loot with up to two other friends through local wireless connectivity. If you aren't playing with friends, you can invite AI characters to fight with you.

It would seem like this game offers everything previous Rune Factory games have given you, like crafting and cooking, plus a lot more. Overall, Rune Factory 3 will take players about 40-60 hours to complete the main story. If players continue on to the multiplayer dungeons, there is over 400 hours of content, mainly because you need to be level 200 for some dungeons. Based on what I saw, if you are a fan of the Rune Factory series, these new additions will not disappoint.