Tasked with raising the farm around the massive Sharance Tree, Micah discovers that for reasons unknown the tree has not bloomed for fifty years, and since then the land started decaying. After recovering the ability to transform into a golden wooly, he discovers that he is a half-monster and decides to keep his true nature a secret from the other human villagers. He also makes contact with a Univir settlement located in a desert, but only interacts with them in his wooly form, hiding his human persona from them. He learns that both the villagers and the Univir had a friendly relationship in the past, but something happened to drive them apart.
The player lives day to day, socializing and tending to season specific crops. There are multiple avenues to make money, such as growing crops, fishing, and foraging. In addition, there are dungeons to explore. Micah can fight the monsters found there, or tame and ride them.
New Features:
Transform into a golden sheep for unique interactions.
Villagers can join the player in battle.
Magic Seeds instantaneously sprout to assist with battle or travel.
New item "Love Potion" to quickly boost relationship levels.
The Special remaster adds a new Hell difficulty, costumes based off of Lest and Ares (must have Rune Factory 4 and 5 data on console), and a Newlyweds Mode (short stories). Sharance labyrinth remains in-game but the multiplayer aspects of it have been removed.
Notes / Series Differences:
Can only play as a boy.
Uses 3x3 crop fields.
Field chemicals effect only a single plant.
Food items can be stacked (must be same level).
Boss monsters can not be tamed.
Character events are triggered via a request board.
Romance is initiated by NPCs according to friendship level.
Must complete the main questline to enable marriage; must marry to unlock final dungeon.
Can only take 1 villager, monster, or seed into battle.