When a celestial collapse sends shards of the earth hurtling into the skies and seas and leaves behind a foreign object, odd things happen. These strange things lead us to Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, where you wake up from a dream involving ancient dragons and feel the pull of a new quest.
The gods of nature are gone, and runes no longer create power… so what do you do? Follow your heart and get to work fixing up the village you crash-landed in, and start farming, of course! I got the chance to preview Guardians of Azuma and dive into the new Rune Factory game, testing the farming, romancing, and combat.
This is the first Rune Factory title set in Azuma, welcoming players to the previously unseen Eastern country. Guardians of Azuma takes place as a side story from the mainline series, bringing back loved elements and adding much more to do.
I’ve not played a Rune Factory title before, but I have played my fair share of farming, town-building, social-sim games, and let me tell you – this pulled me in. Right from the start, meeting Spring Town’s citizens and getting to work felt familiar enough to be easy, but in a new setting to keep interests piqued.
Immediately, the game introduces you to tools that allow you to clean the place up, till land, plant seeds, and water crops. Pretty soon after completing some farm-adjacent tasks, you become chief of the town, and now it’s your job to go forth and build it up, add businesses, and farm while ridding the land of the blight that took hold. This journey will take you through four villages – another series first – with different vibes and locals to get to know. Just make sure you keep your HP and RP bars filled so you don’t run out of stamina to complete your tasks, OK?
You can also talk to an eager kid who asks you to find all of the frog statues scattered over the land and report back to him with all the details you can, including their “size, shape, smell, and taste.” Yep, the taste, too. The statues give you food and recipes, though, so I recommend tracking them down.
Moving on from smelling frog statues, let’s look at farming. It’s a pretty standard routine – clear the ground by bashing debris with the hoe, then till the land, sow a seed, and water. Thankfully, you don’t have to swap tools for this, as the watering can automatically appear. When your produce is grown, you can sell it overnight by putting it in the shipping shed. And that’s kind of the early game. You grow and sell items to earn some money, then fix up the village and start building.
The preview allowed me to skip forward to a save later in the game, set in the Autumn Village, where my task was to build some more businesses and find a date. I got to work tilling fields to plant rice, then cleared some land to erect a carpenter’s shop. Then, I stood there wondering when someone would man it until I remembered that I had the power to summon a staff member.
In Guardians of Azuma, you can move villagers between settlements so they can do jobs that fit them properly. Each character has different abilities, and not everyone can do every job. For instance, I brought a ‘hobbyist woodworker’ over to tend the carpentry store. Then I bought some furniture and housing and placed them in the village. Essentially, if you build it, they will come. They being the people, and ‘it’ being the required houses and businesses to attract people.
So I mentioned going on a date, right? Guardians of Azuma has a pretty hefty romance and social system, and each person you meet has preferred gifts. You can hang out with people and gossip to your heart’s content to improve your ‘bond’ with each citizen.
I found a brunette, kindly looking man named Murasame and asked him out. While he didn’t quite sweep me off my feet, he did say I could come along on an errand to deliver a sword. Great, that sounds truly romantic… but hey, maybe it will lead somewhere in the future. If not, there are 15 other candidates to try my luck with, including the male main character (as I chose the female option).
After my hot date delivering a package, I went out into the field and tried my hand at combat. It’s quite in-depth for a farm-based game – though again, I’ve not played any previous Rune Factory titles, so this may be standard fare. There are combos, dodges, and counters to perform as part of a team with healers, buffers, attackers, and defenders.
As you progress through the game you unlock new weapons, thankfully, as the bow I used against a boss didn’t do much damage. I was relying on my teammates who remain on the field and attack (or heal, etc.) alongside you.
I’m really excited to dive further into this game and experience it all as it builds up. The preview barely scratched the surface, judging by the skill trees, relationship menus, and sheer amount of things to do. The game felt easy to use as well, so I imagine it will translate very well onto the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch. Bring it on, I say. I’m ready for a new agricultural adventure.