Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin Reviews
What a fun little surprise Sakuna Of Rice and Ruin has been. If you like 2D action rpgs and have always been curious about rice plantation, this is definitely the game for you.
Review in Italian | Read full review
This rice is anything but bland.
A delicious action/management hybrid, ideal for lovers of Japanese atmospheres and for those who appreciate the two genres that characterize it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin combines complex rice farming and grappling hook based combat to create a truly memorable experience.
This unusual take on virtual farming has you battling demons – when you're not tending to rice paddies
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is a breath of fresh air that shouldn't be overlooked. It's hard to believe that a game with this much detail and depth is from just two developers. The team at Edelweiss have created such a unique game with amazing production and polished gameplay. There are a few little features like enemy repetition and lacklustre level layouts at times that could be improved. However I think Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is definitely one of 2020's exceptional releases.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is ultimately a charming and fun adventure. The farming mechanics could have been explained more explicitly, but once everything clicks, you come to appreciate how well both the farming simulation and sidescrolling action adventure aspects complement each other. Sakuna starts off as a spoiled goddess with no concern for anyone but herself. But as she learns the value of hard work through harvesting rice and bonds with her group of outcast humans, she truly grows into a heroine fit to conquer the Isle of Demons.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin succeeds at offering both an exploration-based beat 'em up adventure and a relaxing life-sim experience. The combat may not be perfect and the difficulty feels uneven at times, but the addicting gameplay loop and charming world more than make up for it.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is a wonderful mix of the two ideas. As a platformer, the game wouldn’t have enough driving force, and would wear out quickly. For farming, while it’s truly lovely, there’s too much downtime with not enough to do. Each of these things in a game of their own would be draining, but together it creates a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of a game that deserves recognition and continues to feel fresh and enjoyable even after 20 hours in.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is charming and challenging in all the right ways. Even now, as I sit here spending time working on this review, I wish I were playing the game. In spite of a few frustrating puzzle sections here and there, Hinoe calls to me. Knowing that my rice needs tending to and my pantry probably needs more dried meat so we can make it through the winter is all I want to focus on. That's when you know a game has its hooks in you. Pretty, addictive hooks that have me all in.
Where Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is difficult to comment on is the whole experience. Making farming such a critical part is going to turn off a lot of people and even skipping it makes things more tedious than it needs to be. As for combat, it's fun, though not overly deep. I found myself having fun and easily knew what to do to prevent dying, even if I still occasionally got overran. Unfortunately, a lot of this hinges on how much of a deal-breaker farming is. Even if you can skip most of it, things just get harder or you need to devote different amounts of effort to it. For some that is fine but you need to make that call for yourself.
It’s a robust game with a fresh atmosphere and it’s found its own little niche where it undoubtedly has full reign... It’s safe to say I’m going to be knee-deep in water and checking on my rice for seasons to come.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin seamlessly blends 2D platforming action with 3D farm management.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is definitely an interesting title, mixing the mundanities of rice planting with 2D hacking and slashing. While an acquired taste, those who like their games unique should have a fun time with Sakuna. If you can forgive an unlikeable protagonist and some repetitive gameplay at times, Sakuna is a solid title that shines even with its flaws.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is more complex than one might expect, which is a pleasant surprise. The delicate and relaxing art of rice farming juxtaposed against the smooth and fast-paced combat makes this a unique but wholly engaging adventure. While combat can be a bit of slog until Sakuna has more abilities up her sleeve, it’s worth persevering with, because the result is a side-scrolling action title unlike no other.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin isn’t perfect, but the good more than outweighs the bad here. It’s just frustrating for me personally, cause there were so many things about the game that could have translated to a perfect experience. There’s just too many missteps for that. Thankfully, what’s here is still very much worth the price of admission. If you want a game you can sink hours and hours into while enjoying a meandering and surprising story, you have to check this one out.
But the whole thing is presented with such care, patient attention to detail, and downright love that it’s impossible not to enjoy the heck out of this game. It’s the sort of game that I highly recommend to people who may naturally only be inclined to one side or the other of this particular melange, because you might find yourself enjoying it more than you expected.
Sakuna is eye-opening, not only because it shines a light on the nourishing, temperamental, and soulful qualities of rice but also because it demonstrates how a small team of two people can produce greatness by combining two seemingly incompatible genres.
Sakuna of Rice and Ruin is, at the end of the day, a game that dips its hands into the realm of RPG, sidescrolling hack-n-slash, platforming, and farming simulator. It reaches into so many baskets and does so to great success.
Overall, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is a very unique experience. The game mixes an action game with a pretty robust farming simulator and the results are pretty solid. The farming is very tedious at first, but it is great watching Sakuna grow and improve with each harvest. The combat is fast and fun, even if there are some issues with platforming aspects. The storytelling is great with a cast of likable characters that you will grow to love in your over 20 hours of gameplay. I think this one needed just a bit more polish, but I still think it is worth a go for anyone looking for something a bit different. Its charms really do outweigh its faults by a lot, and is well worth the $39.99 asking price.