Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Review
A Bold New Direction
The Rune Factory series has long captivated players with its unique blend of action RPG combat, farming simulation, and captivating relationship mechanics. Throughout its history, it has consistently offered comforting yet engaging gameplay loops, allowing players to delve into dungeons and cultivate crops in equal measure. With Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, the franchise embarks on an ambitious new chapter, steering its familiar formula into an entirely fresh and vibrant direction: a setting steeped in the rich tapestry of traditional Japanese culture. This latest iteration seeks to honor its roots while forging a distinct identity, aiming to appeal both to long-time enthusiasts eager for new experiences and to newcomers curious about this compelling hybrid series.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma transports players to the enchanting, yet troubled Azuma, a beautiful Japanese-inspired land that is a significant departure from the Western fantasy settings of previous titles. Not only has Azuma been shattered into floating islands by a calamity that struck long ago, but what remains is in peril, succumbing to a mysterious “blight” that drains life and runes from the land. Players step into the shoes of an Earth Dancer and are initially given the monumental responsibility of restoring vitality to dying villages by restoring each one’s local deity. Furthermore, they’re tasked with clearing the blight from the surrounding lands and dealing with multiple factions, each with their own plans for Azuma. The meta story is fascinatingly woven together with both local and world-spanning plots and offers some exciting small call-backs to fans who’ve played previous entries, while giving enough explanation that newcomers can understand.
This overarching narrative provides a clear and compelling motivation for every action, from tilling the soil to vanquishing monstrous foes. The main story unfolds linearly, with objectives clearly listed and marked on the map, ensuring players always feel a sense of purpose and progression in their grand quest to cleanse the land. While there is a focused main quest, the carefree nature of a farming and life sim is omnipresent, ensuring a satisfying experience without the stress of needing to solely focus on any one gameplay element for too long. Themes of renewal, community, and the delicate balance between nature and human endeavor resonate deeply throughout the journey, providing a rich backdrop for the many activities players can choose from.
Central to the appeal of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is its fun village management system, which breathes new life into the traditional farming loop. Unlike most previous titles, where farming was primarily a solo endeavor, Guardians of Azuma places a strong emphasis on town building. Players are not merely growing crops; they are actively building and expanding a living, breathing village. This involves constructing various buildings and assigning villagers, each with their own unique skillsets, to specific jobs on farms, shops, monster barns, or elsewhere. Villages can level up based upon meeting dozens of listed goals, with higher-level villages able to support a larger population of productive villagers.
Each villager has a certain daily cost, special abilities, and production level. Players can freely move villagers to other villages or evict hungrier, lazier inhabitants. Everything that villagers collect daily is either sent to a shed to be sold off or, for more important resources, placed in the player’s storage. The integration of villager management with the farm-life aspect adds an interesting layer of choice to players. Full automation of villages can be achieved for those not wishing to engage in the more granular aspects of a farming sim, or farming can be done manually, with players planting every seed, watering every tile, and harvesting every crop. There’s even a well-designed top-down 2D mode in that makes doing so a snappy endeavor.

Low output plus a high daily food cost should lead to this villager getting a quick eviction notice.
While housing needs to be constructed via a carpenter for said villagers, it’s not the only thing players will build. Countless shops and decorations can be built in the various villages to boost production, happiness, or even the main character’s stats. One of the smallest, but most convenient, little touches in the game is a small icon that shows players in construction mode what villages already have said decorations or buildings. This is extremely useful, as it takes significant resources to build new things, but the bonuses for placing them can only be applied once per village.
While daily life in the village provides a cozy RPG experience, the wild areas outside of towns call for a different kind of engagement. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma fully embraces its action RPG side, presenting a combat system that is both engaging and refined. Players have access to a wide variety of weapon types, from swords and spears to bows and special elemental weapons, each offering unique styles and strategic advantages. Players have two main weapon types as well as multiple special elemental weapons available mid-combat at the press of a button, making on-the-fly changes to weapon loadouts a breeze. The ability to bring up to three human or monster companions into battle, each with their own specific skills, adds a tactical layer to combat encounters, encouraging players to experiment with different party compositions. Party composition is a breeze, as it’s handled through a menu system. Gone are days from previous titles of throwing equipment at party members to have them equip new stuff; management is thankfully handled like most other RPGs. Various weapons and armor can be equipped to each party member, and an option to have their appearance that of other decorative equipment is available.
Whereas in previous Rune Factory titles experience was earned for every little thing such as walking, sleeping, using a hoe, or swinging a sword, there’s a new mechanic in Guardians of Azuma. While a small amount of experience is gained using various weapons or tools, the vast amount of experience is poured into a large pool of general experience. Instead of actions leveling up automatically, players can customize what they wish via the introduction of skill trees. This is a net improvement for the series but doesn’t come without a small stumbling block in its implementation. Many weapons-based skill trees are pretty useful, with multiple skills available to unlock, but there are far too many spaces that are nearly pointless stat upgrades. When a single decoration placed in a village can offer high double-digit stat increases, it’s hard to justify spending several game days’ worth of experience on something like INT +1.

Sadly, the forging skill tree is filled with costly, but minuscule stat upgrades and almost nothing forging-related.
A system with zero stumbling blocks this time around is the relationship-building with the various townsfolk. Every day, players can raise their relationship level with any of a couple-dozen characters by simply chatting with them or asking them to engage in a selection of activities such as taking a walk along a beach, dining out at various eateries, telling jokes, as well as the traditional giving of gifts. The game keeps track of what activities the various characters enjoy or dislike and clearly shows how many relationship points are earned. The ability to add characters to one’s party, get their help cooking, receive gifts, and more are unlocked by raising relationship levels. Along with all that, each character has a small character arc that unfolds as players befriend them. These subplots are very well written and the small-scale storytelling is definitely a highlight of the game. More than half of these characters can be romanced, married, and families started with them; further, same-sex relationships are allowed.
Rune Factory titles are notorious for having multiple hundreds of crafting or cooking recipes to unlock and complete, and Azuma rides a fine line with cutting back a bit but still having a ton to do. Various weapon and armor component numbers are cut way back in this title, offering large stat increases between each subsequent version instead of having dozens upon dozens of each type of weapon with very little variation in stat increases. This is a welcome change, keeping players out of blacksmithing and crafting menus as often. On the other hand, the food recipes are a different story. In a game with farming as a main gameplay element, it makes sense to keep hundreds of recipes available to players, however, the UI for searching through this plethora of choices could be improved upon, shortening extremely long lists into more manageable chunks. As a final note on food, all previous Rune Factory titles include a very Japanese-centric menu full of sashimi and various rice and curry dishes despite their very Western-centric settings. The traditional Japanese setting for this title finally pairs nicely with the available cuisine choices.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a vibrant spectacle. The game’s anime-style aesthetic is beautifully rendered, capturing the essence of traditional Japanese art and architecture. From lush forests and serene rice paddies to bustling village marketplaces, every environment is imbued with a distinct charm. The character designs are equally impressive, showcasing intricate details and expressive animations that bring the inhabitants of Azuma to life. Audibly, Guardians of Azuma features well-crafted melodies that enhance the serene moments of daily life and intensify the thrill of combat, but the real audible treat is the voice acting. Almost every interaction in this title is voiced and done superbly. Each character has a distinct voice and style, and they all sound simply amazing. Marvelous did an excellent job selecting and directing this cast.
When the last new mainline title in the Rune Factory series was released on the Nintendo Switch, it was plagued by some pretty hefty performance issues. Blessedly Guardians of Azuma fares far better, with only a noticeably slow pop-in of the townsfolk when fast-traveling between villages. As part of this review, when the Switch 2 version became available, a portion of this was played on that new system and the pop-ins became a non-issue. Also, the upgraded Switch 2 version featured improved graphics and quicker load times. Whichever Switch version RPGamers choose to play, outside of the minor foibles mentioned above, performance is excellent.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma stands as a triumphant evolution for the beloved franchise. By boldly venturing into a new, culturally rich Eastern setting, it breathes fresh air into its established formula while retaining the core elements that fans adore. The cohesive integration of its various gameplay elements—from the strategic depths of village management and the relaxed rhythm of farming to the engaging action of its combat and the heartwarming intricacies of its relationships—creates a truly satisfying experience. The game’s strengths lie in its innovative approach to community building, its refined combat system, and its deeply endearing cast of characters, all presented with captivating visuals.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.


Excellent storytelling both in the main quest and smaller subplots
Combat with multiple weapons and styles is snappy
Village management system is new and extremely fun
Eastern setting is a fresh improvement, and it pairs well with available recipes
Hours of excellently voiced story and relationship scenes
Graphics pop-in when moving locations is noticeable
Skill trees too often contain multiple rather costly yet minuscule stat changes
Cooking UI needs better organization options
There’s probably no good “foraging” increases because that’s a “forging” skill tree.
Haha, thanks for the catch!