Rune Story

Rune Story Review

By, Herman Y.

Rune Story is a free-to-play, 3D social action RPG developed and published by Colopl, Inc., a large Japanese mobile game developer behind the games, Slingshot Braves and Battle Robots! Rune Story was first released in Japan in mid-2014 under the name, 白猫プロジェクト, or Shironeko Project/White Cat Project. After much success and millions of downloads in Japan alone, Colopl, Inc. released Rune Story world-wide on October 21, 2015 and surpassed 100,000 downloads within one week of its global release. Compared to most recent free-to-play, hero-collecting mobile RPGs, Rune Story is a breath of fresh air that features many unique innovations in an over-saturated game genre. Rune Story features simple-to-use, one-handed touch controls, action combat, many Heroes to collect, a town system, and a focus on guilds and real-time co-op not seen in many similar games.

Stage-Based Progression and Story
Rune Story features a large world broken down into many stages and maps for players to play through. Each stage has a unique level design, usually in the form of a semi-linear maze, that involves defeating waves of monsters in multiple zones before taking on a boss at the end of the level. The stages are longer than in most free-to-play mobile RPGs with more running around and monsters to defeat, although it still revolves around the standard 2 zones and then a boss battle. Each stage generally lasts around 2-5 minutes, making it great for casual play while still offering more substance than similar games. Some bosses can be very difficult and can take several minutes just to defeat. Completing stages gives gold, experience, Soul Crystals, and advances the game’s story. Also, unlike most free-to-play mobile games, Rune Story does not have an energy system meaning players can play as long and as much as they like.

The game also has a fairly interesting story that takes form in instanced character dialogue. Before and after certain stages, story characters will interact with each other based on the current plot and events. Although players can choose to play as any Hero in their party, their protagonist story character is a young, red-headed boy who is suddenly thrown into a crazy journey to find the Great Runes, which are mysterious artifacts of enormous power, with the help of many charismatic companions along the way including a diligent priest, an adventurous Elf, and a talking cat. The dialogue can be a bit cheesy at times but offers an interesting lore and additional reason to play through the stages.

Charming Anime Graphics
Rune Story has very cute, anime-inspired graphics that are pleasing on the eyes. The character and monster models appear cell-shaded although the environments do not. Each Hero and monster look very different and unique, and the game has very fluid attack and movement animations for each Hero/class and enemy. The environments are colorful, detailed, and as mentioned before, maze-like in design with hidden treasure chests scattered around. Some maps involve grassy fields with lakes and bridges while other maps feature dark caves and ancient ruins. The skill and attack effects are flashy and each Hero has unique voices and lines that they say whenever they attack. Overall, the art style is quite visually appealing to people of all ages and add a certain undeniable charm to the game.

One-Handed Action Combat
One of Rune Story’s most unique features is its one-handed action combat system as well as the fact that the game plays in portrait mode. Players can control their characters in real-time and can move, attack, dodge, and use skills all with one finger. Players can move by dragging anywhere on the screen, attack by tapping the screen, dodge by swiping the screen, and use skills by pressing the skill button. Players can also switch Heroes by tapping on one of their Heroes in the top right corner. This intuitive control scheme combined with the portrait mode layout essentially allows players to hold their phones and play with their thumb in an incredibly responsive way. Despite the simple controls, players have just as much control over their characters as “joystick/button action RPGs” and the combat is very fluid and fast paced. The action combat is a breath of fresh air from all the automated mobile RPGs on the market lately and makes the game much more fun and enjoyable. Strategic boss battles, varied enemies and environments, and 3-4 Heroes to switch between during battle greatly add to the combat experience as well.

Collectable Heroes and Classes
Rune Story has over 100 Heroes to collect with 6 unique classes. These classes include: Fencer, Lancer, Warrior, Brawler, Sniper, and Mage. Fencers are lightweight warriors with fast attack speed and wide attack range, Lancers are slow attackers with high damage and long, narrow reach, Warriors are like Fencers but with less attack power and more defense, Brawlers are up-close fighters with high attack power, low defense, and low reach, Snipers are ranged archers with decent attack power and low defense, and Mages are powerful spell-casters as well as supportive healers. With the large variety in Heroes and classes, collecting and trying out new Heroes is fun and adds more replay value to the game. It also introduces a level of strategy in which certain class combinations work better than others in specific stages. Each Hero has a Soul Board filled with different paths and upgrades to their attack, defense, combos, and more. Players can upgrade their Heroes via the Soul Boards with Soul Crystals obtained from stages, quests, and achievements, which in term rises the Hero’s level and power. Heroes can also be equipped with special, class-restricted weapons (There are no armor or any other equipment).

Building Your Own Town
An interesting feature in Rune Story is that every player has their own town to build and upgrade. This feature, however, does not resemble strategy games in which players go around attacking each other’s towns and such, but rather, is more of a player bonus enhancement type of thing. In the town, players can build structures such as Facilities, Training Halls, decoration, and warehouses, and interact with their Heroes. Facilities include Gold Mines that periodically generate gold, Restaurants that increase the max number of followers (friends), Inns that increase max party costs, and Armories that increase max weapon capacity. Training Halls include Headquarters for each class that provide combat bonuses, such as more attack power, to the respective classes. Decorations include cosmetics such as trees, and the warehouse gives more inventory and Hero storage. Each structure can be upgraded to increase their bonuses and the town is essentially a way of generating gold, upgrading storage and party bonuses, and training classes. Players can also interact with their Heroes by simply tapping on them (as they randomly walk around in the town) which improves their relationship with the player.

Guilds
Guilds play a large role in Rune Story. The game is quite social-oriented and joining a guild greatly increases the amount of enjoyment to be had in Rune Story. All stages in the game can be played cooperatively in real-time with guild members, or instead, players can choose to bring along a guild member’s AI-controlled character with them into battle. Being in a guild allows players to easily team up in any stage they like and to easily communicate with others. Personally, I think the guild system is great in forming a sense of community, and very few mobile stage-based RPGs allow players to team up with others in real-time for any stage in the game.

Cash Shop/In-App Purchases (IAP)
Rune Story has very fair and simple in-app purchases compared to most mobile RPGs. The only in-app purchases in the Shop are Hero and Weapon Summons. With Jewels (premium currency), players can summon random Heroes and weapons between 2-4 stars, and that is pretty much it. There is nothing else to buy in the store except to purchase Jewels. Rune Story does not have an energy system so no energy purchasing is necessary. The game is also very generous and gives out a lot of Jewels for free from quests, achievements, and login rewards so players will be able to summon new Heroes and Weapons often for free and the rates are better than in most other hero-collecting games. Overall, Rune Story has one of the better cash shop systems out there that isn’t pay-to-win or paywall-based, and is generous in giving out free Jewels often.

Final Verdict – Great
Rune Story is a great mobile online RPG that takes an old concept and makes it feel fresh again with many creative innovations. With intuitive one-handed controls, smooth, action combat, multiplayer co-op, an interesting story, and features such as a town and guild system, Rune Story redefines the mobile hero-collecting game genre and provides a very enjoyable experience for both casual and hardcore players.

Rune Story Screenshots

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Rune Story Videos

Rune Story Links

Rune Story Official Site
Rune Story iOS
Rune Story Google Play
Rune Story Official Facebook

Rune Story System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Android 4.0.3 and up / iOS 7.1 or later.

Rune Story Music & Soundtrack

Rune Story Additional Information

Developer: Colopl, Inc.
Publisher: Colopl, Inc.
Platforms: Android, iOS
Release Date: October 21, 2015

Rune Story was developed and published by Colopl, Inc., a large Japan-based mobile game developer behind Slingshot Braves and Battle Robots!. Rune Story was first released in Japan in mid-2014 under the name 白猫プロジェクト, or Shironeko Project/White Cat Project. After much success and millions of downloads in Japan alone, Colopl, Inc. released Rune Story world-wide on October 21, 2015 and surpassed 100,000 downloads within one week of its global release. Rune Story is one of the few portrait-mode mobile action RPGs and utilizes one-finger touch control for all in-game commands. Colopl, Inc. is also the developer and publisher of the popular mobile games, Quiz RPG: World of Mystic Wiz and Meow Meow Star Acres.