Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Reviews
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma reshapes the series with better structure, improved combat, and satisfying village building. Farming takes a step back, but there’s still plenty to do between quests, upgrades, and relationship building. A few pacing issues and simple AI hold it back slightly, but the overall experience feels more complete than past entries.
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.
Once it finds its footing, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is an engaging romp through a charming and dynamic world.
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.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a game of two halves. You have the village management where you’re decorating empty spaces and making numbers go up - this is the half that’s generic and shallow. The other half is a more-than-decent action-adventure populated with a pretty great cast.
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 is packed full of exciting content, memorable characters, and unforgettable adventures.
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.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma confidently advances the life sim genre while still keeping one foot comfortably in the past. With streamlined farming and town management mechanics, deeper yet-still-accessible combat, and the usual great writing and character work, Guardians delivers a consistent good time for new and old players alike. This beautifully animated game is a great way to break in that Switch 2.
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.
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: Guardians of Azuma is a solid direction for the series to make the already deep building elements as set dressing for a more narrative-focused Rune Factory experience. It can be jarring for long-time players of the series, though.
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.
Review in Chinese | Read full review