Trivia / Rune Factory 5

• Acting for Two: Veronica Taylor voices Simone and Julian, mother and son, with many cutscenes shared between the two.
• Development Hell: Rune Factory 5 was announced right before Neverland Co.'s (the original company behind the Rune Factory series) bankruptcy and was undoubtedly affected by it. In addition, the 9 years between this game and its predecessor, Rune Factory 4, hints at a troubled development.
• Dummied Out:
  • Unused voice lines in the code show that Radea, Livia, and Terry were once love interests and could marry and have children with the protagonist. There are even variations based off the player character's sex.
  • Both Misasagi and Elsje have unused, voiced pet-names for the protagonists, complete with variations for both the male and female player characters. Pet-names are normally only seen when the player is dating the respective character and could indicate that Misasagi and Elsje were once considered as love interests for the player at some point.
  • There is unused data for the player running a shop, which was something players could do in Rune Factory 4. This data includes a directive to getting a shop license.
    • Other directives included unlocking an aquarium, accessing an unique weapon from Randolph, and controlling how much Doug, Margaret, and the unused Mistress Trupin^note Mist in all but name, who was the renamer in Rune Factory 4 visit Rigbarth.
  • Gideon and Oswald also have unused data pertaining to them running shops, as well as unused map icons.
  • Many characters have unused dialogue or unused voice lines. For example, Misasagi and Elsje have dialogue that hints at them developing romantic feelings towards the protagonist (with Misasagi in particular having an unused line where she kisses the protagonist while saying, "I love you!"), and Murakumo had an extra voiced line that appears to have been meant for his proposal cut scene where he shouts to the protagonist, "I love you!". The game also contains some unused takes on certain lines as well.
  • There are data of several unused bosses and regular enemies which indicates they'd be used for more floors in Rigbarth Maze, or elsewhere, or that there would be more areas in the game. This data includes names and information such as whether the monster would have been tame-able, its item drops, and its preferred taming items.
  • A file, NpcStatusDataTable.json, in the original Japanese version of the game contains ages for the NPCs. Based off the ages shown, it seems to show what ages the designers used when designing the characters, with the exception of Radea, Livia, and the protagonists' children. These ages can be seen here. To note, these are not the same as the canon, official ages, which are currently unknown and can vary across regions.
• In Memoriam: The English-language credits end with a dedication to Brad Venable (Gideon) and Philece Sampler (Yuki), who both passed away the year prior to the game's release.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: By way of Everyone Is Bi as of the game's western release, Alice and Lucy share their bisexuality with their respective dub VAs, Allegra Clark and Erica Lindbeck.
• Sequel Gap: Rune Factory 5 came out nine years after its predecessor.
• Shrug of God: Ryker is the Rune Factory series' first halfling, but what that means from a lore perspective isn't explored. When the series' director Shiro Maekawa was asked in an interview what traits Ryker had that made him a halfling, Maekawa admitted that the dev team hadn't thought about it too much and mostly just did it because it was a fantasy trope they hadn't explored yet. However, they did say that his "phases" (sleepy and slow in the day, magically powerful at night) were connected to his halfling nature.
• What Could Have Been: The American official website for Rune Factory 5 included a grayed-out, inaccessible "DLC" tab at the top of the screen. This tab was fully removed before the game's release. Notably, the unused romance files for Livia, Radea, and Terry were also marked in the code as being meant for DLC.

---