Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
Developer: Marvelous
Publisher: XSEED Games, Marvelous
Platforms: Switch, Switch 2, PC (Reviewed)
Release Date: June 5, 2025
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
When it comes to the Rune Factory series, Marvelous has found themselves on something of a tipping point for the franchise. The beloved by many series that saw players managing a farm all while venturing out to slay monsters and dive into dungeons was innovating in the same day all while talking to and romancing villagers has been delving into the past as often as it has created new entries, with their latest release actually being a remastered version of their third game following the earlier and more innovative, if less well-received, Rune Factory 5. Now, carefully presenting itself both as a spin-off and continuation while looking to try and change things up more than ever Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma modifies nearly everything that fans of the franchise might be familiar with in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience, but did they manage to still deliver the core detailed aspects that fans have loved over the years?
Story
Almost fifty years prior to the start of the game a devastating event known as the Celestial Collapse shook the land of Azuma as a colossal object crashed from the heavens and split the land asunder, sending portions into the sky forever and sinking others into the sea. This devastating impact not only destroyed much of the land but also devastated the Runes that help make all living things thrive. With these villages withering and dying, the people began to leave in hopes of finding anything out there beyond the fate of wasting away and it is here in Spring Village that the player finds themselves awakening for the first time. Or the sixtieth time at least going by the game’s calendar as players learn that whether they chose to play as the male or female protagonist, that they crashed through the village temple’s ceiling half a year ago with complete amnesia and have been doing simple chores to maintain the shrine since then.
This all changes when the player receives a mysterious dream and awakens to find a sacred relic has materialized by their side in the form of a pink drum alongside a floating wooly with more attitude than any fluffy animal should have. This is of course because while this mascot character might look cute, it’s far more powerful and familiar with the player’s past than they are and when the village comes under attack from a dangerous dragon looking to sap it’s giant sakura tree of the last of its Runes the player fully awakens to their true power, the power of an Earth Dancer. Someone that can revitalize the land with the power of dance and sacred relics, bringing Runes and eliminating the Blight at the same time. After restoring the Spring Village’s Runes and reviving the Spring God Ulalaka from her forced hibernation, it is clear what the player must do, at least at the start, and that is visit every village and bring back the gods that have fallen into disarray all while serving as village chief to each village along the way.
Now, while the core storyline is fairly tame initially, the stakes do grow more dire and feature a few new twists and turns here and there once players get past the “first act” of the game, which we won’t go into for spoiler reasons, but it must be said that the real enjoyment for the story is Guardians of Azuma, just like in most Rune Factory games, are the characters players can befriend and date. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma starts out slow, perhaps slower than any of the past Rune Factory entries have in quite some time since rather than revolving the entire story around one location where all of, or perhaps at least most of the villagers already can be visited, players will be visiting four seasonal villages and slowly meeting characters and learning more about the story as they progress through each one.
Ironically, this even slower burn than usual actually works out quite well in Guardians of Azuma‘s case as seeing each new face that appears as the story progresses gives players a chance to get a bit of one-on-one time with most of the characters and learn some of their story through events without feeling like they are being rushed to quickly learn all of the named characters’ personalities all at once. In fact this even allows for perhaps one of the largest rosters of both normal companions that players can befriend and see events about but also romanceable options as well. It is also worth noting that same-sex relations are on the table and were developed right from the get go, meaning that all of the romantic character events feel naturally written regardless of who players might feel like wooing.
Interestingly enough, rather than simply include a “returning character” as a simple vendor like past entries have done with Raven and Margaret, this time around Guardians of Azuma brings Rune Factory 5’s Hina as a properly grown-up character seeking adventure and wanting to see the world and the vast discoveries that remain untouched. Interestingly enough, despite being called an Earth Dancer by everyone else, Hina will call the player an Earth Mate as per their usual designation in past entries. Hina is in fact only the tip of the iceberg however as far as bachelorettes go, as players will continue to meet new and dateable characters many hours into the game. Ironically, one of the best few are introduced right off the bat with another great batch closing out the roster of romance. Ulalaka, Hina, and Matsuri serve as a great start while Clarice and even Pilika can be more surprising than they let on and this is only touching on the bachelorette options. Oh, and making the opposite gender that the player didn’t select be a character in and of themselves and also giving them a personality and romance path is delightful.
Of course, there are the bachelor characters too and while we did see what some of their romance routes had to offer, especially the initially stand-offish Fubuki, we didn’t dive too deep but they are likely just as well-written. There are two unfortunate aspects to romance in Guardians of Azuma, one a personal annoyance and the second a troublesome trend. First and foremost Yachiyo and Tsubame are not romanceable in any way other than “forging bonds” with them and the other happens to be a bit more dire and that is both Pilika and Cuilang’s “romance” paths are DLC exclusive as part of the $10 Seasons of Love DLC bundle. Players can befriend them just fine and see their friendship events and missions, but unless players spend extra they cannot actually date these characters which is disappointing. Locking romance options behind DLC is a troublesome trend and one that hopefully will not be a sign of things going forward. This is especially true since Guardians of Azuma offers a fun little mechanic that many fans have wanted that allows players to, after a certain point, travel to an “alternate world” mimicking their own through Rewoven Fates and romance another character to see what “might have been,” giving players a chance to make their own little multidimensional harem if they feel like.
Gameplay
Generally Rune Factory games have players fall into a fairly predictable routine and that can still be the case in Guardians of Azuma, but this gameplay loop is far different than any other entry. While past entries may have seen players waking up, watering their crops, tilling the fields, breaking stumps and rocks, all while using RP (Rune Points) and selling their crops before making the rounds with their favorite villagers and then delving into a dungeon to fight monsters before running low on RP, in Guardians of Azuma there are quite a few more aspects to work with. Sure, all of these aspects are still there but they have all been modified with many being expanded upon and combat being a lot more simplified.
In Guardians of Azuma players will, in short order within visiting and completing each seasonal village’s initial quests, find themselves the village chief of the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter villages and with this responsibility of managing the town and revitalizing it also comes with it some extra powers. Every village, of which players can quickly fast travel to at any point in time, even in the middle of combat, has different “development zones” that players can do literally whatever they want with. This can include simply telling Woolby to make some fields to place so crops can be planted and grown, planting fruit trees or those that are simply there for lumber, to having town decorations and buildings built at the local carpenter and then placed however the player wants within these locations. Some of these buildings simply help provide housing for additional villagers that can come in as players upgrade the level of the town by completing various tasks such as defeating enemies, shipping or harvesting a certain number and type of crops, accepting quest-board quests, etc. while others can provide useful town boosts to agriculture or vending or provide ingredients daily while decorations can often provide a “visual boost” to the town’s stats while also boosting the player’s own stats as well. For example placing a Lucky Cat down can automatically reward the player with a sizable strength boost, but only once for each item.
As players gain villagers they can assign each villager, random NPCs that join the town, a task through an easy to use villager management system that covers every village and villagers can be assigned to take care of the fields where they will water, harvest, and plant crops as the days goes by, automatically selling the crops while using new seeds they acquire every harvest to plant new ones, chop wood, mine for ore and materials, eventually manage the monster barn that players unlock shockingly late into the first act, and even manage a variety of shops that players can create to help bring more income into the town and also create more items that they themselves can purchase. It is worth noting that the latter option can require very specific villager types for some jobs, such as a carpenter or smith needing someone with a specific trait to actually run the store properly.
Unfortunately since the “traits” villagers have when they appear are random it sometimes means players may need to “evict” a useless one and hope they’ll get lucky the next time around or move a villager from one town to another, hoping they won’t get too upset at the prospect. It is also worth noting that the villager AI when it comes to managing the fields is incredibly strange. Most of the time players will have more than enough seeds available for planting and even have crops ready for harvest and see that they have empty field slots and unharvested or even unwatered crops. Thankfully players can utilize some Sacred Tools, such as Ululaka’s drum, to revitalize and even speed up crop growth, meaning that even though villagers can take care of most of the work, players will find that they will want to be checking on them to make sure things aren’t going to hell when they aren’t micromanaging them.
Since players no longer need to worry about their RP running out on simple chores, and even mining and chopping at trees doesn’t reduce it while out in the field, the only actual use for RP is using the Sacred Tools during exploration and combat. For exploration players will use a variety of tools to solve specific puzzles and clear Blighted pathways that might block their path or hide a secret and in combat they serve as powerful damage dealers with each weapon having a unique elemental type. Each tool also has a couple of different “ultimate” skills that players can utilize when they have enough meter and have the skill unlocked, either dealing straight damage or providing an area-of-effect type that varies from weapon to weapon. Speaking of weapons, players will find that Guardians of Azuma dials back the weapon types a bit and keeps things a bit more simple. This includes shortswords, dual blade, longswords, bows, talismans, and a few more but not nearly as many as past entries. Similarly there is no magic system or any unique spells outside of the aforementioned talismans and use of Sacred Tools, meaning magic has drastically been reduced.
Actual combat with the weapons available feels quite fluid and easy to handle, with players gaining EXP with each weapon type and being able to unlock additional attack strings and improve their damage with a weapon type. Locking on and making use of a precisely timed dodge can slow down time and allow players to really lay into an enemy, especially bosses that can have their stamina broken down and leave them wide open for attacks on their weakpoints and dealing massive damage to them. Another aspect of the game’s combat system is the fact that it was designed around actually having a full party with the player at pretty much all times. While past games could have players bring one or three allies with them into the field, Guardians of Azuma has an entire party menu that allows players to assign their party of bonded characters that will venture out to fight alongside them. It is worth noting that since players only need a level 1 relationship with them to unlock this, every character including non-combatants can quickly become a potential ally. Eventually players can even bring monsters that they have tamed out as party members as well, including the ability to ride on specific larger monsters and attack from their backs. Even some bosses can be tamed though doing so is a hard challenge for a number of reasons, mostly since they tend to require specific offerings.
Speaking of offerings, as players explore the world they will come across a number of icons throughout each land and dungeon. These can range from being nodes where resources can be gathered to collectables like frog statues that reward the player with recipes, little shrine statues that when cleaned reward the player with rice balls, fishing spots which arrive shockingly late compared to a usual Rune Factory title, larger shrines where equipment recipes lay within, and more. Finding and obtaining these little collectables, including doing things like shooting targets or finding specific treats for mysterious creatures in holes help add a little extra spice to standard exploration alongside clearing the land of Blight. Interestingly enough, there is a new type of punishment for players who stay out “late” at night, perhaps to balance players no longer needing RP to perform standard tasks and having it slowly regenerate. Staying up past a certain point will start to rapidly reduce the player’s health making them either need to constantly heal or eat food to restore it or simply retreat back to their closest home and sleep.
Now another newly modified aspect in Guardians of Azuma is the entire relationship system. Before players would simply find a character to talk to and give them whatever gift they may think they like and that’d be the most of it usually. Now however, players can talk with characters for a minor boost, adventure with them for an even smaller boost, and primarily “spend time” with them for the most relationship points. Anytime players spend time with a character they will be given four choices, all of which take different amounts of time. Simply making small talk about weaponry might only take ten minutes but if it is something players haven’t done before with a character they might not like it at all or give a very basic reaction. Similarly trying to ask a character out to eat too early will have them turning down the player if they aren’t close enough yet. Gifting items is always an option but players will need to guess what a character might like at first, though if they happen to find an item they like, love, or even dislike and hate it will be marked in their journal as a permanent reminder. That being said, there are some hints dropped through conversation and clues alone like Ulalaka liking her own spring blossoms and Hina still having a sweet tooth from Rune Factory 5. This creates a far more dynamic interaction system and allows for unique, albeit short, cutscenes here and there especially when players start to get into more romantic relationships with characters and have unlocked enough of the “communication” skill tree to obtain specific interactions.
One thing that is interesting to note is that while the game does technically have “seasons” and a calendar that includes character’s birthdays, the calendar is more for show than anything else. This is thanks to the fact that each village represents a season in and of itself, meaning growing winter plants in the Winter Village is always possible even in the middle of Spring. It is also worth noting that since players are the village chief now, there are no actual festivals in the game, outside of a couple specific ones. Instead, players will find that they will eventually gain the ability to set when a festival should be held and what type of festival it can be. Increasing the village level of specific villages can unlock additional festivals such as cooking, produce, fishing, and more.
Now it is worth noting that we reviewed Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma on PC and have experienced a flawless experience even running on higher settings and using a locked framerate of our choosing and did not experience any slowdown during even the most chaotic looking fights against bosses and our party members or bugs beyond some dumb villager AI. It is unknown to us how well the Switch might be able to handle a game such as this, though the Switch 2 will likely be okay.
Audio & Visuals
One of the key aspects in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is the fact that the developers have chosen to stylize the game around Japanese architecture and themes. While monster designs are as similar as many fans will remember, with returning favorites and a few too many reskins to be comfortable with, the villages that serve as home bases are decidedly Japanese in influence and design. Even the numerous crafting recipes that players gather for decorations all lean in this aesthetic and for the most part it honestly works quite well. The character models for the standard villagers are all outstanding and most have at least one other costume in the form of a swimsuit or something else that players can change at will and, as mentioned before, the fights are as fluid looking as one could expect and never experience slowdown in my time with the game.
The title comes with both an English dub as well as the original Japanese voice track and players can choose to swap between them at any time. The English voice cast does a solid job handling their characters well, with the boisterous Matsuri making bold cheers and claims as she fights at your side or the cute cheers of Suzu as she heals and buffs the party at the sidelines, nevermind their actual core storyline dialogue and side-quest dialogue that is all voiced as well. Those who want to listen to the Japanese voice track on the other hand will find it readily available. The soundtrack features a solid collection of background music that is all themed around Japanese themes that fit the nature of the game and work well both during exploration of towns, fields, and fighting in the dungeons though none of them really stand out much.
Overall
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma tries something new in almost every regard and in many ways it manages to succeed. Sure, villager AI can be a bit too dumb to manage crops properly and longtime fans may not like farming taking a bit of a backseat compared to building and managing each village, but these experiments are actually entertaining and chances for the franchise to grow. Combine this with a solid storyline and an absolutely wonderful cast of characters, both romanceable and non-romanceable and players will find themselves eagerly sinking countless hours into this Rune Factory just like the last, even if some of the combat elements and customization aspects aren’t as deep as before.
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