allright i finished rune factory 3 and it's a lot better than tides of destiny
- the economy works a lot better in rune factory 3... in tides of destiny,the shops never change their stock other than the crappy stuff they sell at the beginning so in the end there isn't a lot to buy,worse of all an item that uses certain ingredient might result in an item priced less than the sum of the ingredient or sometimes,item that can be made with cheap ingredients can be sold for 5 times the return,it's really easy to end up a millionaire without nothing to buy... in rune factory 3 each item is priced more according tough rune factory 3 introduces random dungeon,the random dungeon gives you lot of free stuff which can be sold for lot of stuff so it's not perfect either but at least the shop DO restock with new,rarer,powerfull more pricey items
- upgrading your skills in tides of destiny is a chore,material are hard to come by so you are stuck doing the crappy items over and over until you become proficent in what you want,in rune factory 3 you can buy any crafting material you have sold at least once (tough what material you can buy are decided at random when you start the game so lot of reset happens when the shopkeeper doesn't bother selling what you want) and be done with it,better yet you can use the most common material to train yourself so skill progress goes a lot faster
- there are a lot,lot,lot more item,especialy things you can cook,a lot of item also have secondary effect,some even stupid (like the pair of shoes that change the sound effect of your step) every item also has it's own graphic where in tides of destiny all of the katana looks the same
- progress is easier to do,in tides of destiny the plot goes on when you solve certain quest but these quest seems to appear when they feel like it (but usualy close enough to each other) so there are moment where you are like "wtf i'm supposed to do now?" but in rune factory 3 each dungeon automaticaly brings you to the next... the only painfull part of rune factory 3 is that you have to marry to finish the game,so if you haven't bothered to

the girls before finishing the penultimate dungeon,you are stuck with nothing to do until you marry (at least you can still do the random dungeons... they even feature their own bosses!)
- combat feels better,in rune factory 3 it kinda plays like 2D zelda,where tides of destiny is ultra choppy and sluggish... also in rune factory 3 you can learn spells and tinker around with magic staves so that you can use enemy attacks but in tides of destiny,you are stuck with whatever magic comes with the magic staff
- i also like the character more,in rune factory 3 quest and character progress are united together,so each character gets their own miniplot (kinda like persona s.link and kinda like persona s.link each girl plot ends up with them trying to jump on your bones) but in tides of destiny quest and character progress are separated and each scene where you get closer to a character is more akin to 1 minute skit
i think i'm going to check rune factory 2 at this point