Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is the latest spin-off entry in Marvelous’s fan favorite Rune Factory series, and it is also my first exposure to the series. It is also quite a complex game with many different gameplay systems interacting with each other to build up the full experience, and it’s an experience that I’m not quite sure lives up to the full potential of its disparate parts. Though it’s by no means a bad game, my time with Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma left me with a desire for a more balanced experience.
This entry sees players explore the titular world of Azuma. After an event known as the Celestial Impact shattered the world and disrupted the flow of life-giving energy called runes, the lands of Azuma began to die, and the gods of the world lost their power. You take on the role of one of two amnesiac earth dancers: powerful beings with the ability to channel and guide the flow of runes through dance and other rituals. It’s up to you to restore the land, people, and gods of Azuma to their former glory and defeat the entity threatening to plunge the world into eternal corruption.
Guardians of Azuma’s story is fine. It’s a decent hook to send you on your quest, but it probably won’t surprise or wow players with familiarity with action RPGs like it. I’m fine with this, as the main appeal of the game is the town-management systems and the many different characters you can interact with and, should you choose, romance. The game has sixteen different romance options: eight men and eight women, and players can choose whichever partner they desire regardless of the player character’s gender (which is something I greatly appreciate).
Guardians of Azuma’s characters are fine (save for your mascot companion). Woolby: an entity I find quite annoying and wish to turn into a stew of some kind). They’re largely inoffensive and distinct enough that you will easily pick a favorite either by design or by their personal quest. They have to be given that their main appeal is as potential love interests. During combat, they’ll largely spout a handful of one-liners relating to their one unique character trait (being a fighter, an archaeologist, an explorer, etc.) that you will no doubt tune out during your dungeon crawls. The real meat of the cast comes from their bonding quests, but I found these to be dull, as they were, by and large, cutscenes where the player character would interact with the cast member in question and help them with some kind of problem, no gameplay required. I could forgive the lack of gameplay if I found the character quests narratively interesting. I didn’t find the characters that narratively interesting. Guardians of Azuma, in its drive to create a cast of loveable waifus and husbandos for players to woo, plays it disappointingly safe with its cast.
On the opposite end, I wasn’t disappointed with its town management systems. Though prior entries tasked players with tending to farms alongside the dungeon crawling aspect, Guardians of Azuma reduces the farming and expands the social simulation mechanics into a more complex field. Players will become the stewards of multiple towns and will have to manage the populations and economies of each to ensure the towns thrive. You can farm (of course), build homes and businesses, and assign townspeople to jobs to make your towns more self-sufficient. Each of your villagers has their own skill sets for different kinds of work they’re specified to, which adds a layer of decision-making to what jobs you pick for them and what villages they’re best suited towards. Your villagers also need to eat, and that costs money. Now, you can earn money through the passive income gained by your villagers, but sometimes they will need a guiding hand in their endeavors. The player is never encouraged to take a back seat to their town management. Keeping your towns afloat will always require some level of active management, and it can get hectic as you continue to gain more villagers, towns, and property.
I wish the combat was as hectic. I found the action-RPG side of the equation to be extremely lacking. The different weapon archetypes the game gives you all feel unique to use. It’s just that the basic combat is very barebones. You have your basic melee combo, which amounts to mashing the square button; a ranged sub-weapon; and different sacred treasures that you can expend rune points or parts of a spirit gauge to unleash various effects. It’s all perfectly serviceable, but it never reaches a level past serviceable. There’s no greater complexity beyond the button mashing and occasional swapping of a sacred relic to counter an enemy. There is a dodge button, and you can execute a perfect dodge with it if you time it right. However, neither the main combo nor the sacred relic combo flows into your dodges well, and it makes the flow of combat feel clunky as a result. In the end, Guardians of Azuma’s combat feels clunky and underbaked compared to its more interesting life simulation aspects.
When I did some light research on Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, I saw it described by some as a “cozy game.” While I don’t necessarily agree, I do find that there is a quaint charm in its more laid-back aspects. Though its story, characters, and combat disappointed me, I do acknowledge the fun to be had in its town-management systems and can see people lost countless hours to it. I give Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma a 6/10.
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Related: Reviews by Josh Freeman
I love games and love talking about games. Some of my favorites include action games (both 2D and 3D), metroidvanias, roguelikes, shooters, and Indies.
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