The Ranking
| 80.72% | Overall Rank: 1.453 Score based on 18 reviews |
Description
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma's greatest accomplishment is its ability to pile so many gameplay elements into one big adventure, and to make all of them feel integral and organic. Whether you're farming, fighting, exploring, or romancing, every task-like the game itself-feels like it's worth completing.
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I went into this playthrough blind and expected the game to take me roughly 10 hours to finish the main story, I was pleasantly surprised by the length and even more so by the story. Now that I’ve finished the story, the real endgame has begun.
The Rune Factory series continues with more characters to befriend, more locations to farm and more monsters to fight in Guardians of Azuma.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma manages to reinvent itself while still maintaining the bones that make the Rune Factory series feel like itself. It takes bold new strides in unexpected directions that thankfully pay off. Guardians of Azuma is a must-play for Rune Factory fans and would be well-enjoyed by newcomers to the series as well.
For me, it's a brilliant weekend RPG—a laid-back game that will keep you playing "just one more day" for hours. If Zelda plus Stardew Valley sounds fun, I recommend Guardians of Azuma. If that combo doesn't excite you, give it a pass.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma manages to make the sum of its parts evolve a series with several palpable problems. Some of those hurdles remain, but for those looking for a content-packed management and combat game, this is a worthy representative... as long as you can overlook the poor technical aspects.
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.
The journey through Azuma is a journey packed with a mish-mash of boring dungeons and weak RPG progression tools, supported by a fun cast of characters and decent story.
Despite character events being the best they've ever been, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma fails to offer much depth after its opening hours.
Rune Factory keeps getting better, making Guardians of Azuma the best series entry yet.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma perfectly blends the farming and combat experience with Japanese influences. The result is an immersive cultural experience that you don't want to put down. You actually feel like you are rebuilding villages and restoring prosperity to the land instead of just being a landowner. While it isn't perfect despite several improvements to the formula, it nevertheless delivers a fun experience that you won't soon forget.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma does a little bit of everything, and thanks to some very complementary core gameplay components, the whole is remarkably cohesive and a good deal of fun. There are plenty of aspects requiring a bit more polish, though, so don't go into it expecting a masterpiece.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma might just mark a fresh new beginning for the series. While it doesn't break much new ground, it approaches farming, building, management, and romance with genuine care and delivers each of them as well as it possibly can.
This is the strongest entry in a beloved series, and made all the more special because, after the original developer of the series closed shop, it looked like the entire series was dead for several years. This is a pretty good statement that there’s still so much more that it can offer yet.
The farming and construction mechanics are designed for expedience and ease of use, exchanging realism for simplicity, a real bargain given the satisfying main story and likeable characters. Even the helper/partner Woolby ended up growing on me by the time I had rolled credits. Guardians of Azuma may do as much to spoil farming games as invite players to earlier Rune Factory entries, but it's a worthwhile dance that marches to the beat of its own, confident drum, and I'm hopeful we'll see more like it.
Overall, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a very solid spin-off of the franchise. It does a good job of capturing what makes the Rune Factory games enjoyable while throwing enough twists and turns into the mix that it doesn't just feel like Rune Factory 6. The town building is engaging enough that I worry that a Rune Factory without it might feel lacking now. The combat is solid but simple, and the cast is likable but not super special. Only the general poor performance drags down the game somewhat, but fans of the Rune Factory franchise should find a lot to like.
As a long-time fan of Rune Factory, I was pleasantly surprised by Guardians of Azuma's additions. The beautiful traditional Japanese setting, engrossing village-building mechanics, and increased transparency around relationships all come together to make for a great time.
Combining classic farming simulation elements with a more fluid combat system, new customization options, an engaging narrative and a cast full of charismatic characters, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma stands out as a great game and marks a significant step forward for the franchise. Even though it doesn't belong to the main numbered series, the title manages to generate plenty of excitement about the future of the series.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is the series’ most ambitious entry yet. From its well-told story to its surprisingly deep village-building system, it’s a game that fully embraces the joy of planting turnips at dawn and saving guardian deities by night. For longtime fans and newcomers alike, Azuma is a harvest of everything Rune Factory can be when it dares to dream big.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma takes bold gameplay risks with mostly positive results. Despite AI quirks and weaker combat, its engaging story and lovable cast make it a worthy time sink.
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