A little while ago, we made a post talking about how Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma was going to become the best entry in the series. Well, I am here to confess that we were 100% correct in that regard and then some. Having locked in close to over 40 hours with the game and having done near all of the story, Guardians of Azuma proves to be the entry the I needed in order to get fully hooked. Not only that but several fellow colleagues have uttered the same statement, declaring this as the 3D Rune Factory entry that they have been waiting for. A lot of this admiration stems from a terrific voice cast and grounded mechanics that while similar to games such as Genshin Impact or Breath of the Wild, stand out enough to warrant their own strengths. From the delicate and often endearing first dates, to emotionally heavy notes of revelation, Guardians of Azuma delivers on these aspects in spades and with amazing depth.

Farming That Feels Open and Less Demanding

Owing it’s core DNA to once having been a spin-off of the original Harvest Moon series, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma has become such a drastic leap in foundation that a lot of the original farming mechanics have become altered. Not in a negative sense, at least from our perspective, but they have become more refined with this release. While Rune Factory has always held farming as its core interaction, Guaridans of Azuma now relegates much of the menial work to your villagers. Being a busy Earthdancer means you are going to have a lot on your plate to manage with the new village management mechanics. So, what Guaridans of Azuma introduces to lighten the players load are villagers that can be assigned an array of jobs. From the simple farmer, woodcutter, stone mason or shop clerk, each one will net you passive income and material generation. While you are still able to plant and manage your crops, sell your produce and harvest materials all your own, these passive options are a godsend. Especially when you factor in having to manage 4 total villages, each with their own leveling system and plots to decorate and fill.

Yet, this small change has had a lasting impact on the flow of its gameplay. The game still requires you to layout the farmland, select the type of crop you wish to grow and keep a general maintenance going for it. The game doesn’t make it feel as if farming was an after thought. In fact the simplicity in how you interact with the farming aspects lends to you wanting to be more involved with your crops and what each village is producing. Your crops of choice still have the old, “grows best in this season” aspect, but what Guardians of Azuma brings to the table is the fact that each one of your villages represents a season. This allows you to freely focus on crop maximization while not having to steadily focus on rotating your crops out. Which again lends to how this games village mechanics lend towards helping make farming feel like less of a chore and more of profitable and enjoyable refresh.

Speaking of Villages, the ability to custom tailor each village to your needs is ground breaking!

As I had touched upon in the above, you are entrusted with the growth and prosperity of four, seasonally locked villages within Azuma. This means that with each newly acquired village comes the objective of clearing its buildable plots of blight and then turning these towns back into the producers that they were originally. While an initially intimidating prospect, the mechanics of this system are quite forward, with the core game story providing much of the needed comprehension for the player. As such this enables and allows the player to explore creative ways to make their villages standout. Want to make the Spring village your crop producing powerhouse? Maybe you want the Summer village to be the tourist destination for your villages instead. The ability to prioritize and choose what you can do, is what makes this aspect of Guardians of Azuma standout the most.

While you do lose the ability to customize a personal house in this entry, you do get a relative freedom to customize each village with buildings, decorations such as static props, fences, tress and food stalls, it doesn’t feel missed. That is to say, I don’t necessarily feel that we lost much on the housing front with the sheer amount of customization that we have at our disposal; including land terraforming. Where I would say this falls a tad flat is in regards to its plot sizing and general lack of item diversity. The latter of which is only an issue late into the game, once you have your villages fully kitted out. While I am unsure of future updates of DLC that may add in more items, as Rune Factory 5 suffered from only having cosmetic outfit DLC, there yet remains a chance we could see some. What I will say though is even without that prospect, the village building mechanics in this title are solid and quite enjoyable.

The most alive and down to earth characters yet in a Rune Factory series.

I wanted to end this post on a point that I feel is a core pillar to this entry in the long running Rune Factory franchise and that is its characters. Long has it been that I have played a game where every, single character has motivation, weight to the personality and sense of goal or objective. This may very well be due to my limited exposure to the series, having only watched my wife play Rune Factory 3 and 5, but I feel confident in declaring them as such. This cast of lovable and endearing characters have some of the wittiest, saucy and emotional dialogue that I’ve seen in a long while. From Iroha’s ambition and caring nature to Fubuki’s timid, loyal but uncertainty of self. These characters are fleshed out and brought to life by their incredible voice actors. In return this lends them a practical sense of weight and relation when you the player are getting to know them and understand them. You feel the weight of Kaguya’s words when she professes her love for the character of your choosing, you can feel the weight burden in Fubuki’s voice when he takes responsibility for the suffering of his people.

The result of which will always stem from stellar VO direction efforts and in the case of Marvelous, they have done a stupendous job in helping each voice actor and actress achieve the needed output. This is what will always help to make a game standout even more. While we are not confident in providing a full length review of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma quite yet, the game has been an utter delight to play between Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam. I can only hope that you all give this entry a chance, especially if you’ve already purchased a new Nintendo Switch 2 and are looking for some outstanding options to pad out your library!

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