For nineteen years farming fans have had the joy of taking care of a farm, recovering their memory, and befriending monsters to work and fight for them in the popular Rune Factory series. Recent years have included remakes of earlier games from older consoles, so the announcement of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma created quite a stir, with gorgeous 3D models and a variety of new skills that look intriguing. The wait is over, so does it live up to the exciting trailers?
The tutorial is executed well with easy-to-follow instructions, although returning fans will be familiar with most of the mechanics. Picking either the preset male or female character has the minor disappointment of being unable to choose hair colour. Considering several other prominent characters have white hair, it leaves the protagonist, with their snow white hair, a bit plain, but when later plot twists happen, it then makes sense why white was chosen.
As usual, the starting point is being an amnesiac who is happily accepted into the first village, which is spring themed. The world is quite grim after the Celestial Collapse, which sent some land into the sky, and had the gods and goddesses retreat, leaving a gloomy world for those that remained. As an earth dancer, it is up to the protagonist, either Kaguya the female or Subaru the male, to use the power of dance to entice the deities back to their respective villages, and help bring life back to Azuma, alongside their Woolby companion who has its own secrets. Being an earth dancer carries the vibe of being more in tune with the planet than previous titles, as dancing is such an integral part of farming and fighting, with a variety of celestial treasures providing both combat and agricultural aid.
All four seasonal settlements have a myriad of personalities, including local gods and goddesses. These and other key characters can be part of the main party eventually, as can befriended monsters. Although thankfully if monster catching isn’t a preferred activity, it can for the most part be skipped. There is a wide variety to find and befriend – just make sure there are enough items to entice them! There is nothing worse than befriending a creature and having nothing to give them to win them over completely. It takes quite a bit of time to reach the monster collecting part so patience is crucial.
Being an amnesiac farmer isn’t all bad. The farming really shines in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. Activating farming mode by pushing the ZR button pulls up a grid system so the player can, once appropriate tiles and items are acquired, terraform the area. From the ubiquitous turnip, to rice paddies and bountiful fruit trees, it can all be planted on the fertile soil. The initial amount of available land area is fairly decent, and unless special skills are used, no energy is used up in farming, unlike previous Rune Factory games.
Additionally, if ZR mode is activated, not one minute of time passes by while farming. Farming can be done outside this mode but it is not recommended as a lot of time can pass while debating whether to plant in rows or eye-pleasing square plots. Even watering costs no energy and there isn’t a well in sight, just an unlimited watering pail and a traditional wooden ladle that waters a square at a time. It is nice not to need to change farm tools, although a bit sad to not gain better farm tools by the usual levelling up method and see the various colour changes from these upgrades.
There are new ways to improve seed levels to gain better value harvests. These feel innovative and use a bit of energy but that can be replenished with easy-to-make food and potions. People rather than monsters can take care of crops, but often they do not water most of the crops, which is annoying especially in summer. Plus if farming is a person’s reason for existence, it feels odd to leave it to an NPC. It means if people hate farming but want to enjoy the rest of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, they can spend all their time adventuring and fostering friendships.
However, farming is rewarding, especially later in the game when crop levels need to be high to win the seasonal competitions. There is even a character from Rune Factory 5 Special to enjoy seeing again! The extra DLC content provides cute summer swimsuits for characters to wear and extra marriage candidates, which add to the overall experience.
Making items is simply a case of having the correct shop and materials, and with blacksmiths and carpenters everything can be created. These can be for personal use while out adventuring or sold for money, which is necessary to purchase multiple weapon upgrades. Even on the easiest setting it is always worth making the effort to upgrade equipment as soon as possible, for there is often a strong boss or two around the corner that can result in accidental death, which does not have a game over but is frustrating. Saving often is the key to not redoing an entire dungeon, and the thirty save slots are plenty.
Fighting, just like farming, is essential for quests, which have their own noticeboard. Many are repeat requests for materials or slaying particular foes. Some tasks involve learning certain skills for specific weapons. There are skill trees for all weapon types and the sacred treasures that are acquired through story progression. In theory it is possible to play without ever upgrading these, but the upgrades affect personal stats and improve gameplay enough that only those loving a challenge will ignore utilising the experience points collected.
These are acquired as weapons are used, and at the end of the day there are generic experience points that can be used on any skill tree. Eventually up to six other members can be added to the team – human or monster – although some characters forcibly add themselves in set scenarios and they can’t be removed until that quest is over. Acquired weapons can be given to party members, so it is important not to neglect NPC gear, too.
There are the usual friendships to build, including going on outings to various places with people to increase their friendship bonds. Depending on the character, romance can be in the air, and reaching higher ranks of friendship simply requires consistent interaction through ordinary chats for a few points, to outings ranging from 10 to 60 minutes. The more a particular interaction is used, like eating at a restaurant, the higher value of points are added. Taking friendship further into love is done in a charming fashion, although in that case the Japanese voiceovers do not match the English translation in terms of endearment meaning. The actual Japanese used is simply the person’s name, not one of the preset chosen nicknames.
There are many nods to earlier games including certain sound effects and music moments, although the soundtrack is mostly a new arrangement and is easy on the ears. The overall aesthetic is Japanese style from the environment, decorative items such as red bridges, lots of red torii gates, and various types of shrines that upon interaction provide a new recipe or item and add to the completion list. The clear and easy menus evolve over time as new features become available.
One feature involving information on each village including progression tips oddly only appeared once the winter village was reached. This would have been more useful from the start, but maybe it is held back so as not to overwhelm those new to the Rune Factory series. Fortunately there are only minor issues like this that are the sole negatives to the gameplay. The few times the character gets stuck in a corner can be fixed by going to the nearest warp point.
There are exquisite gameplay features that can’t be spoken about to avoid spoilers, but these are what make Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma more exciting than previous titles in the series. Happily, dragons feature in a prominent way, making dragon enthusiasts ecstatic at the significant gameplay element. The plot has many twists that are not too predictable. Major decisions have to be taken midgame that affect what happens next, and provides more reason to replay and try the different route.
Returning to dungeons for item acquisition becomes part of daily play to get enough materials for better equipment. They are fun to explore, so it is a joy and not a chore to traipse through them multiple times, and finding every monster species and the colour variations will take time. Completionists have a lot to finish both in the main story and long after credits roll, including finding every shrine, collecting every fish, and much more. All efforts are rewarded with prizes at significant goals obtained. Additionally, there is the challenge to max everyone’s friendship, which will take more than the 40 hours spent completing the main plot.
