After Rune Factory 5, which was a bit of a rough transition for the series as it made the jump to 3D, I was a little unsure if they would be able to stick the landing on the second attempt. I am happy to report that Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma might be my favorite entry in this long-standing series yet, bringing a fresh new aesthetic, gameplay innovations, and a far better-performing game on PC.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
Developer: Marvelous Inc
Price: $49.99
Platform: PC (reviewed), Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with a Steam code for review
Anime Harvest Moon. Anime Stardew Valley. Cozy Anime Farm Sim. I always hear this thrown around when Rune Factory is brought up, and it’s never really sat right with me. I most certainly understand the sentiment, but I’ve always enjoyed that Rune Factory dialed up everything to 11, not just combat, RPG elements, or an anime aesthetic. I think the series has continued to evolve and innovate over many iterations at this point, gaining more and more fans as it continues to sharpen its edge. We were all excited for Rune Factory 5 to make the jump into the third dimension, and while it was fun, it didn’t quite hit the same way previous entries did, and on release, it had some pretty horrific performance for many people, and on consoles. I ended up not beating it in the end.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma absolutely smashed my expectations for a small improvement, and may have delivered my favorite entry in the series. We’ve gone to a new region for the series, which has brought a heavy eastern flavor to the world and character design, which feels evocative of just how NEW this game feels. It’s visually a beautiful game, bringing series staple designs up to a new standard, while bringing a ton of new ideas, enemies, bosses, and characters to the table as well. I think this is an entry that is going to impress series veterans as well as serve as an excellent starting point for new fans. It didn’t take me long to realize I had suddenly sunk 40 hours into the game, and hadn’t even beaten the story or completed a character romance to the end.
In the eastern country of Azuma, there was once a great calamity called The Celestial Collapse that sent fragments of terrain flying into the sky and sea, shattering the earth and the flow of Runes across the lands. Runes are the magical life force energy of the planet that causes plants to grow and life to flourish, so it’s not exactly a good thing. You start out choosing a male or female protagonist, get your prerequisite main character amnesia, and start to find out what happened to the gods of nature and how you are going to disco fever the world back to health.
In Rune Factory, you play as the Earth dancer, a special person with the ability to commune with the earth and control runes. Similar to Earth mates from previous entries, the Earth Dancer you play as does a whole lot of farming to utilize this ability, but there is a whole lot more than that to do. Even with that, I think that Rune Factory has some of the most well-crafted farming in the genre, allowing you to level up crops, which allows you to sell them for more, as well as making things you cook with them become even more effective. Even more than ever, with a couple of rougher edges smoothed out, all of the many systems in this game interface with each other cleanly, building each other up and benefiting your operations as a whole.
Combat feels much better than in Rune Factory 5, with weapon switching feeling great and a wide variety of weapon types to play with. Your party members feel much more active and contribute more to combat as well, and you can even rotate in new characters mid-battle to take advantage of things like breaking a large enemy’s defence to maximise damage. The Gods that you interact with team up throughout the story, also give the earth dancer their divine instruments, adding another layer to combat, letting you control the elements for attacks, defense, and support. Heck, they even have uses on the farm, letting you mature crops once a day, harvest multiple at once, or sacrifice a crop to gain a leveled-up seed of that crop.
The Farm isn’t the only thing to do, though. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma brings you 4 different towns with a robust town-building system to go with each one. Every town is themed after a season as well, letting you grow crops year-round regardless of the current season. You will level up each town, which makes the resident god more powerful and lets you have more villagers, more areas to build and farm on, as well as other in-game bonuses that you will want to achieve. I was genuinely surprised by how in-depth this felt, even if sometimes managing 4 different towns got a little overwhelming at times, but once I realized you can set up villagers to automate things a bit and relax, I was able to manage my time much better.
Almost every single aspect also has its own skill tree that you can level up as well, weapon types, divine instruments, gathering skills, social skills, just about dang near everything rewards you for engaging with it. You unlock nodes to gain stat points, new skills, passive bonuses, and more. It’s pretty basic, but I enjoyed having that progression ingrained in everything I do beyond just a little level-up pop-up. Getting further in the game, I did find myself wishing the interface was a little bit snappier while dumping 100s of exp points into newly unlocked trees to catch them up, however.
Speaking of social skills, the cast of characters, both romanceable and non-romanceable, is as strong as ever. There is even a familiar face in there that was a nice surprise to see. I really enjoyed my various bromances with villagers whom I would also fight monsters at my back, everyone has their own little questlines that unlock as you raise their friendship levels, which were a lot of fun to seek out and see how they fleshed them out. Ulalaka is the best girl, but there are 13 other romanceable characters in the base game, with two more coming as DLC. I wish they were just included since I know a lot of genre fans’ favorite part is interacting with the characters, but I guess that is exactly why it’s DLC. I did enjoy how many things there were to do post “falling in love” with the characters, it seems everyone has a ton of unique questlines for that as well. I chose to fall in love with a god, and had to deal with the reality that she will outlive me, and it actually got pretty heavy for a bit, which was a surprise.
I could not put this game down, I honestly think it was the most Rune Factory I’ve indulged in the shortest amount of time ever. The way everything melded together in satisfying ways, the time management clicking even more than ever with the new systems as you balance adventuring with actually generating the supplies and money you need to be at the top of your game equipment wise, the fun characters building towards a grander story than I expected, just all of it was so satisfying after I came into this feeling a little unsure of what to expect. If you love cozy farming games, but wish there were a bit more impactful things to do beyond that basic framework, I think Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is in a prime position to give you a brand new game to obsess over. My girlfriend has been eyeing me over my shoulder when I play, and she is a certified Stardew girl who is very excited to dive into this world of Rune Factory just from her small exposure.
The Final Word
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma absolutely smashed my expectations, delivering one of the most robust and feature-rich games in the farming/cozy/life sim genre while also being no slouch at its action RPG elements either. This game puts its best foot forward when it starts its sprint and doesn’t slow down anytime soon. I am still locked in and can’t wait to play even more of this gem, it stands shoulder to shoulder with some of my favorite similar games like Harvestella. Fans of the series and first timers, this is not a game to miss out on.
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
