Back in February 2020, Rune Factory 4 Special hit Nintendo Switch bringing one of the best Nintendo 3DS games to a modern system with a slew of enhancements, improvements, and additional content. I expected a PC port to arrive soon after as is the case with most Xseed Games releases, but it felt like the ship had sailed. Fast forward to today and Rune Factory 4 Special has arrived on not only PC, but also PS4 and Xbox One at a budget price with previously-paid DLC included in the base game.
I adored my time with Rune Factory 4 Special on Nintendo Switch and wasn’t going to pass up a chance to play it again on new platforms. I’ve now been playing it on both Xbox and PC to see how this enhanced 3DS game feels on different platforms.
Rune Factory 4 Special PC requirements
Considering Rune Factory 4 Special is an enhanced remaster of a Nintendo 3DS game for Nintendo Switch, the PC requirements are pretty low barring the memory requirements. If you play on an older laptop, you will likely have no trouble with Rune Factory 4 Special.
Rune Factory 4 Special PC minimum requirements
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-6400
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics HD530
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 5GB available space
Rune Factory 4 Special PC recommended requirements
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-9300H
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1650Q
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 5GB available space
Rune Factory 4 Special PC settings
Unlike the Story of Seasons games on PC that let you adjust the settings from within, Rune Factory 4 Special has its own launcher where you can toggle button prompts, adjust any options, and display settings. Rune Factory 4 Special’s PC port is bare-bones when it comes to options. You can adjust the resolution (up to 4K), display mode, toggle v-sync, and toggle high resolution textures. There are no detailed options for specific graphics.
Barring that, there are no frame rate options with the game seemingly capped at 60fps at least now. You can adjust the button prompts and rebind controls here. The only other options are language where you can adjust the text and voice language. Rune Factory 4 Special has dual audio support on PC as well as consoles.
Rune Factory 4 Special PC performance – frame rate and resolution
On a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5-3550H processor (2.1GHz Base speed up to 3.7GHz), 16GB DDR4 RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GPU, I had no trouble playing Rune Factory 4 Special at maximum settings with everything enabled. The game does seem to be capped at 60fps though. With both v-sync toggled on and off, I didn’t have any frame rate issues or drops below 60fps.
The only issues I did have were with the camera movement feeling a bit sluggish. This is also present on Nintendo Switch and Xbox. It seems to be a hardcoded movement issue but I’m not certain why it has yet to be addressed. The game is very smooth barring these lower frame rate screen and camera movements. Load times are also nearly instantaneous.
Visually, Rune Factory 4 Special scales up nicely on PC with the high resolution texture option and higher resolutions. Comparing it on my laptop to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox version running on Xbox Series X, the character model clarity is much better on PC than both the consoles. Barring that, the environments and other objects on PC are similar to the console versions.
The biggest issue right now on both PC and Xbox is the same as the Nintendo Switch version. The text size in some of the description boxes and the interface is too small. I was hoping these new ports meant that this would be addressed, but you still have to hold down a trigger to zoom in if the font is too small.
Rune Factory 4 Special control options – keyboard, mouse, and controller support
Rune Factory 4 Special has support for keyboard and mouse gameplay (with button prompts) in addition to controller support with button prompts for PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch controllers. With Steam input disabled, it detected my PS5 DualSense controller and Xbox controllers correctly. I did have to manually change the button prompt symbol though. Thankfully, you can swap between controller button prompts and keyboard prompts on the fly. I wasn’t too pleased with the default keyboard and mouse controls. You can rebind controls thankfully. I did run into an issue where I couldn’t type into the text box when a controller was connected. Hopefully this can be fixed in a future update.
Rune Factory 4 Special Switch vs PC, Xbox, and PS4
Rune Factory 4 Special on PC and Xbox (and PS4) has the same content as the Nintendo Switch version in addition to the paid Another Episode DLC being included in the new ports for free in the base release. The swimsuit DLC does not seem to be available as of now. It is unclear if this will be sold separately or added in later.
The advantage to this release is getting the base game with the Another Episode DLC at a much lower asking price than the initial Nintendo Switch version. If you already own Rune Factory 4 Special on Nintendo Switch, you aren’t missing much by skipping these new ports. If you don’t own it though, the PC version is the best way to experience the game unless you value portability above all.
Should you buy Rune Factory 4 Special on PC?
Rune Factory 4 Special on PC is well worth your time. The base game on Nintendo Switch was already an essential purchase in 2020 and I’m glad to see it finally make its way to PC with DLC included for free at a lower asking price. The Rune Factory series’ PC debut brings a fantastic game to the platform that will keep you busy for a long time. It was already one of the best games available on Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch.
It already had a plethora of new content and enhancements when it made the jump to Nintendo Switch. Having now arrived on PC, it sees visual improvements and even quicker load times. While the PC conversion is bare-bones when it comes to graphics options and there is no ability to modify any of these while in-game, it is still worth your time on PC if you skipped the original release. If you’ve been aching for a new relaxing game with a lot of charm on PC, you will adore Rune Factory 4 Special. Hopefully the wait for a PC port of Rune Factory 5 isn’t too long after its Nintendo Switch release in the West.
