Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Review – A Great New Spin on the Series Formula

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Review

If you are reading this review, there’s a good chance you are a veteran of the Rune Factory series. I’ll admit, I am not. But I did play Rune Factory 5. As I said in my review of it back in 2022, it was a huge game, with lots of great gameplay. The problem was, it was like many different games — that didn’t quite gel together. Now, having played Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, I can say that it takes a lot of the good things about Rune Factory 5 and improves on them. Guardians of Azuma might be a spin-off, but it’s a great game that is worthy of the Rune Factory name.

Many of the familiar Rune Factory elements are back. You wake up in a village, unaware of your full identity or purpose. You’re tasked with restoring the village, befriending its residents, and learning to farm. There’s building and cooking recipes to learn, wood to chop, and of course monsters to slay (who sometimes turn back into normal people who join your village) …

… (breath) Grow your village, gather resources, sell your crops and develop your relationships with NPCs to the point even of marriage … Rune Factory games are just so crammed with content, it’s crazy. In the case of Rune Factory 5, it didn’t work as well as it should have. Mostly because the parts never quite came together. I played the farming part for a while, then stopped and did some monster hunting, then switched to developing character bonds because I hadn’t done that in a while. It felt a bit disjointed. And unfocused.

A Big Step Forward

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma improves on all of this greatly. The parts are much more integrated, and as a game it’s a much more cohesive experience. I think that’s in large part due to the more linear story this time around. Guardians of Azuma leans heavier on Action RPG, with a clear main quest that keeps you from losing focus. You’ve got clear objectives this time around, made obvious by markers on the map and in your view. Unlike Rune Factory 5, with Guardians of Azuma I always knew what I needed to do next, and what to prioritize.

Now that I was able to focus better on what was important, the story in Guardians of Azuma felt much more satisfying and memorable. In the country of Azuma, you control the protagonist who is a special person called an “Earth Dancer.” Using your powers such as dance, music and both ranged and melee weapons, you are tasked with ridding the country of the Blight. The Blight is like a curse that infects Azuma, brought by falling fragments of earth in an event known as the Celestial Collapse. Your job, as one of two possible protagonists, is to cleanse Azuma, one village at a time.

Seasons Change

Seasonal cycles from previous Rune Factory games have been replaced this time by making each village connected to a season. So, your starting village in the Spring village. Once you’ve fulfilled your main quest objectives there, and made it flourish once again, you move to the Summer village, and so on. I think you already get a good idea of what I mean when I say Guardians of Azuma has a very clear, focused linear story. And it’s an interesting one that I wanted to keep pursuing — partly just to find out what this Celestial Collapse was, and why it happened.

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma has open world elements as well. I encountered them mostly when I was sent out on quests. But you don’t really just go out and just wander the land outside the villages. You’re always seeking an objective, and I liked that. You fight monsters, using bows, blades and even new items like musical instruments which cleanse the blighted parts like trees. Combat is real-time, but you can avoid having to constantly fight by just not getting too close to the aggro zone of monsters. So how much fighting you do is somewhat your choice. I liked that because honestly, the low-level fights get a bit repetitive after a while.

All About the Bosses

There’s about the same enemy variety in Guardians of Azuma as I remember from Rune Factory 5, for better or worse. You’ve got low-level foes that you can just spam the attack button on. Also there’s medium-sized ones that are spongy and take more spamming and can hurt you more. And at the end of quests, there’s Bosses, who are huge, powerful and have special attacks. For these, you have to avoid their powerful counterattacks and even dodge. Plus, you often need to take advantage of the Stun, which is a temporary state of paralysis Bosses fall into when you damage them enough. The combat in Guardians of Azuma isn’t revolutionary, but like previous titles in the series, it can be fun and challenging in Boss battles especially.

I really liked using the bow, especially in Boss fights. It’s a bit finicky at first, as there’s no auto-lock. But once you get used to it, it’s almost an exploit to soften up Boss from afar, trigger their Stun, then move in for some big melee damage. I also loved the way I could easily switch weapons on-the-fly using a button touch, allowing me feel like a skilled badass in battle. My only frustration with combat in Guardians of Azuma was the limited field of the camera view, which had me concentrating more on keeping enemies in my sights than fighting at times.

Fighting is Better With Friends

A great example of how Guardians of Azuma feels very interconnected and coherent is the fact that you can bring newly-made companions into battle with you. As you level up relationships, companions can join your party, and they actually follow you around the map. And that’s great. It makes you feel like your hard work befriending NPCs is actually bringing some benefit. But in battle, they’re … just ok. I might not have gone far enough to fully maximize companions’ potential powers, but in my time using them in combat, they didn’t seem to inflict much damage. Mostly they helped as a distraction for enemies. And admittedly, this did help sometimes.

I can’t possibly recount all of the things in this game, or my review would be 5,000 words. And my editor would be really mad at me. Farming is back, and it’s been improved somewhat as well. In Rune Factory 5, I cursed the tedious menu-hopping needed to simply switch farm tools. Guardians of Azuma streamlines it so you just press ZR + Left Stick to choose your tool. Ah, that’s much better. You also build in Guardians of Azuma, using building recipes to add forges, shops, houses and other structures to expand the village. It’s fun to see the village come to life and it also unlocks options to make weapons, cook new foods, and add more NPCs.

It Looks Beautiful

I would like to talk about the production values, though. They’re much better than Rune Factory 5 (which I admit isn’t saying much). The visuals are beautiful. High-quality models make this feel like a AAA title. Environments are gorgeous, and the traditional Japanese theme makes Azuma a place you’ll want to spend time in. Music is a big part of the game, so of course it is also excellent. Cut scenes are fully voice acted, and have a cinematic feel. My only quibble is maybe the character models. They’re actually quite nice, but the designs feel generic. Characters lack a distinctive look that makes them unique. Looking at just the character images, you might think you were playing Genshin Impact. Otherwise, Guardians of Azuma looks great.

I am sure I have not mentioned everything this huge game offers. But Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a great game that I wholeheartedly recommend. It’s got the many-games-in-one content extravaganza that previous Rune Factory games have had. But unlike Rune Factory 5, this time it really works together and meshes into an addictive and immersive experience. I’m no series expert, but I played dozens of hours of this. And I feel like I barely started. If you’re looking for an action RPG where you can play music, fight monsters, grow turnips, and get married, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is the game for you.

***A Nintendo Switch game code was provided by the publisher ***