The Classic 77 Metacritic Farming Sim That Let You Steal a Man’s Bride at the Altar

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The Rune Factory series is a well-established favorite in the cozy gaming world. It actually came from the same roots as Stardew Valley, building on the original Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games. Before Stardew Valley existed, Rune Factory took the farming and life simulation elements of Harvest Moon and added a unique twist: combat! This created a “fantasy Harvest Moon” experience. Over time, Rune Factory went beyond just adding a fantasy setting and action-based battles, experimenting with different gameplay features to stand out. Surprisingly, the most unexpected thing you can do in the series isn’t winning the game with a farm tool – it’s causing trouble in the relationships of other characters, specifically in Rune Factory 2.

The Rune Factory series had some surprisingly scandalous moments in its early years, like gatecrashing weddings or proposing to someone else while already married. While it’s definitely wrong to cheat on your spouse in Rune Factory Frontier, some players argue that the ability to dramatically woo another character right before their wedding, as seen in Rune Factory 2, would be hilariously fun if a remake ever happened.

Ruining Weddings in Rune Factory 2

In Rune Factory 2, there’s a unique feature that Harvest Moon fans refer to as the “rival marriage” system. This means if you don’t marry the character you like quickly enough, another character might marry them first! To avoid this, you need to win over and propose to your chosen partner before a specific date. If you wait too long, you’ll receive a wedding invitation from one of the other characters in town who has paired up with someone else.

Who’s That Character? Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

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Okay, so in pretty much every other Harvest Moon game, if you mess up and don’t get a girl’s heart, that’s it – you’ve lost your chance to marry her. But Rune Factory 2 is different! If you’ve done everything right, you can actually walk up to the couple after they’re married – like, after the vows and the kiss – and decide whether to congratulate them or…confess your feelings to the bride! It’s not like those cheesy movies where you interrupt the ceremony; you do it after it’s already over!

Since the player character is designed like a classic JRPG hero who always attracts romantic attention, the girl readily accepts his confession without hesitation. They leave the church together, leaving her bewildered ex-husband behind. The only real downsides are that the rival character’s affection points drop to zero, and the player misses out on the usual wedding scene. The game then jumps to the next morning, where the player and his new wife act like a loving couple, completely ignoring the humiliation they caused at the wedding. Surprisingly, no one else mentions what happened after the event, except for the rival’s understandably lowered opinion of the player.

Has Wedding Crashing in Rune Factory 2 Aged Poorly? Does it Even Matter?

It’s understandable to be shocked when you first learn about the ‘bride-stealing’ feature in Rune Factory 2 – it is pretty terrible! The only penalty is losing a small amount of friendship points with the rival, suggesting you weren’t that close to them anyway. This raises the question: why would the game allow such a questionable act, and why was it included again in later versions?

Honestly, the bride-stealing thing totally threw me for a loop. The whole vibe of Rune Factory is pretty chill. Yeah, there’s fighting, but it’s not like you’re killing monsters – you’re basically teleporting them home with charmed weapons! So, this super-nice farmer who doesn’t even harm the creatures he battles suddenly decides to… convince someone to leave her husband? It’s wild! And the kicker is, the husband’s the only one upset about it. Everyone else, even the town minister, is like, ‘Oh well, she’s happy, good for her!’ It just felt so out of place.

Okay, so there’s this really quick, one-off thing in the game, and it’s never brought up again. That tells me the developers just threw it in as a joke – they weren’t trying to make it a core part of the game, and they knew it was kinda weird for my character to do. But honestly, if they remake Rune Factory 2, I hope they keep it! It’s clearly just an Easter egg, something silly to find. And honestly? It’s way less harsh than some of the stuff you can do in Stardew Valley, like… divorcing your spouse and turning your kids into birds. Seriously, that’s a whole other level!

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2026-02-24 15:05