Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Review

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About half a century ago, the realm of Azuma fragmented into numerous floating landmasses following the Celestial Shattering. To make matters worse, the life-force that upholds our world, known as the runes, are rapidly depleting. As the Earthdancer, your mission is to rejuvenate the gods, restore the runes, and mitigate this catastrophic environmental crisis.

Quite the mess for a hero to clean up, eh?

In a more straightforward manner, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma seems to have elements reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Stardew Valley combined. Fundamentally, it’s an action RPG that involves traveling through various areas, battling powerful enemies, and embarking on a mission to save the world.

This sticky core is wrapped with various aspects of urban administration, monster hunting, and a romance simulation game. (Not to mention uncovering numerous cooking recipes.) Each component has its unique traits, yet when combined, it creates an enjoyable outcome.

Adventuring Against The Clock

The in-game timekeeper of Azuma’s realm fosters an enticing “just one more try” gaming experience. Since it operates in real life, players must manage tasks according to monster emergence times, NPC movement schedules, and internal game occurrences.

In addition, every facet of this game encourages engagement in various tasks. While adventuring may not bring much wealth, it unlocks new blueprints for structures and equipment through the collect-a-thon tasks. Constructing a settlement enhances your stats for adventuring. The dating simulation serves dual purposes, improving a team member’s attributes and offering valuable recipes.

Experiencing this circular mechanism within the game “Guardians of Azuma” is simply exhilarating. Almost every action you take impacts various aspects of gameplay differently. Although an individual task might feel monotonous, the compensation for your preferred element makes it worthwhile.

Besides earning experience points by defeating monsters, you’ll also accumulate skill points. These skill points can be used to upgrade various weapons and engage in different activities, each offering a tree of perks for purchase.

… the cyclical feedback loop feels fantastic …

In the thrilling world of Rune Factory, it’s intriguing to note that taming monstrous companions doesn’t seem to have its own dedicated skill tree. Instead, this captivating aspect of the game isn’t unlocked until you reach the Autumn Region, roughly 10 hours into your adventure. It’s as if my newfound friends and I are forging our bond organically within the game’s narrative, making every moment feel unique and immersive!

As a gamer, I’m constantly earning versatile Experience Points (XP) from my daily gaming activities that I can spend anywhere in the game. This XP helps me catch up on skills I might have missed and learn new abilities. Alternatively, I can save up these XP to buy powerful perks more swiftly.

This adaptable XP system offers a delightful touch in its architecture, encouraging players to make impactful decisions while minimizing repetitive tasks. It maintains a gradual yet consistent pace, ensuring that every day’s progress feels rewarding.

Exploring Azuma

Azuma’s islands are structured for unrestricted exploration, offering diverse spaces that emphasize the four major regions crucial for resurrecting the seasonal deities. These expansive areas host a minimum of one additional, more linear sub-region – typically the challenging boss dungeons. Each region is open-ended in nature.

The game, titled Guardians of Azuma, fosters curiosity through a range of discoverable items, much like the Zelda series or a Metroidvania-style adventure. Frequently, you’ll revisit previously explored zones, employing freshly acquired abilities to gather the remaining objectives.

While the game offers an engaging exploration experience, its map significantly undermines this aspect. Most items of interest are clearly indicated on the map, making it easy for players to simply walk past them without interacting with them.

Although I’m not convinced we should revert to the aggravating searches of the 90s, like those for Gold Skulltulas, this map does take away some of the excitement. However, in later areas, discovering a collectible frequently becomes an engaging quest.

To put it straightforwardly, the jumping mechanics on this platform occasionally seem a tad unrefined. While they’re usually manageable, there are moments that can be quite frustrating. For instance, due to the camera being positioned within a bush, you often need to estimate your angle for certain jumps.

A positive aspect is you can definitely maneuver around certain obstacles in Skyrim. Some of the most gratifying moments I’ve experienced in Guardians of Azuma have been executing jumps where I should have returned after learning how to glide.

Fighting For A Challenge

Conversely, the battles in Guardians of Azuma are relatively mild compared to other games. Initially, I opted for the ‘Balanced’ difficulty level to grasp the authentic gaming experience as designed by the creators.

After spending approximately 20 hours of gameplay, I only utilized two consumables in the boss battles. To make things more challenging, I decided to level up the difficulty to “Hard.” Now, even though I’m not a seasoned Soulsborne player, playing on Hard definitely requires me to keep a close eye on my party’s health status.

It’s understandable if one might expect the game titled “Guardians of Azuma” to be tough, given that difficult games seem to be popular in a landscape filled with FromSoftware clones and roguelikes. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it should be hard.

In my opinion, I find the challenging mode enjoyable in this game since it pushes you to utilize resources generated by your town. This aspect enhances the overall loop. However, while I believe a more difficult setting should be the norm for most games, Guardians of Azuma doesn’t seem to gain from being any tougher.

A significant issue with the combat system is its limited complexity. The main weapon’s moveset is essentially a sequence of four left mouse clicks (or equivalent input on controller). By holding down, you can charge up an attack, and upon performing the fifth click, you unleash a powerful “ultimate” move that inflicts additional damage. To evade enemy attacks, you press Shift, which, when timed correctly, provides a temporary “bullet-time” effect for counterattacks.

As I advance through the game, I accumulate powerful “Sacred Artifacts.” To unleash their elemental might, all I need to do is right-click (and perform a combo in a similar fashion). These artifacts can deal massive damage, but using them depletes my rune points (RP) in the process.

In simpler terms, battling increases your Spirit meter, allowing you to cast abilities from your Sacred Treasures. These abilities are incredible and powerful, yet sometimes I find myself overlooking them. Unfortunately, I unintentionally defeated the first boss with Earth Drum’s Flower Storm in one hit, but since then, their power hasn’t been as significant.

In Guardians of Azuma, each battle tends to follow a similar pattern. The bosses signal Area of Effect (AOE) attacks and possess a Stun meter. Once this meter is filled, the boss becomes immobile and takes increased damage. As a result, the primary combat strategy in the game boils down to “repeatedly click the Left mouse button until the boss is stunned, then quickly press the Right mouse button.

At a higher level, the increased health and damage of enemies in combat make it more rewarding since you can’t simply absorb damage without thinking. Ducking becomes significant. Although it isn’t terrible, the combat in Guardians of Azuma seems to lack excitement or diversity.

Storytelling By Trope

This dialogue occurs within 10 minutes of starting a new game.

In the narrative and backdrop of Guardians of Azuma, there’s no denying its deep roots in Japanese culture. If you’re a fan of anime motifs and Shinto elements, you’ll find this game a delightful treat, much like a favorite comfort dish. However, if Japanese culture doesn’t resonate with you, you might find it challenging to connect with this game.

The story’s start could be described as somewhat abrupt, with a quick introduction of eight significant characters within an hour’s time – these characters are potential party members. However, this swift development might lead to a blurred distinction between stereotypes and over-the-top portrayals.

After finishing the Spring Region (roughly at the five-hour point), I found myself quite critical about the game’s storytelling. It might be a case of Stockholm Syndrome, but as I progressed, I couldn’t help but feel that the character development and dialogue became more engaging.

Initially, the setup may seem rough, but as you progress and unveil all four regions, the diverse characters function harmoniously. These non-player characters (NPCs) frequently visit other villages, foster connections, engage in community activities, and maintain their own routines. Over time, the world becomes more vibrant as the cast grows.

If you like anime tropes … this game is your comfort food.

Refining character development for romantic non-player characters (NPCs) is achieved through “relationship building missions.” These are essentially humorous or emotional scenes that follow a short storyline, occasionally including a task to gather an item (fetch quest) or battle a boss (boss fight). Despite their initial stereotypical nature, these missions effectively add depth to the characters by providing them with background, motivations, and emotions.

frankly speaking, I can’t help but draw parallels between the romantic aspects in “Guardians of Azuma” and those in Persona 5. Needless to say, it sets quite a standard.

In some instances, the narrative of “Guardians of Azuma” can be average, particularly at the start, but it’s equally as good as the standard fare in the shonen anime genre. The writing quality tends to surpass that of many shonen series, and it’s significantly less cheesy or awkward.

The English voice actors truly deserve a round of applause. They skillfully employ a wide range of emotions, injecting humor, solemnity, and warmth into the entire game of Guardians of Azuma, making its voice acting exceptional and a key contributor to the overall quality of the game.

Closing Comments:

Despite some imperfections in its individual gameplay aspects, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma skillfully combines them to create an entertaining and hard-to-stop loop. This game almost achieves greatness as an RPG, demonstrating the power of “the sum is greater than its parts.” For me, it’s an outstanding weekend RPG – a relaxing game that will keep you engaged for countless hours with the promise of just one more day. If you enjoy the idea of Zelda combined with Stardew Valley, I suggest giving Guardians of Azuma a try. However, if this blend doesn’t appeal to you, it might not be worth your time.

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2025-06-02 10:09