Typically, the big reason the Rune Factory series always appealed to me a bit more than its sister franchise Harvest Moon, was because of the more fantasy-focused setting. While Harvest Moon always presented a pretty chill and down-to-earth Japanese farm fantasy, the Rune Factory series always leaned a bit more Western and high-fantasy in its style. I’ve come to associate that setting with the series, which made the initial reveal of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma and its traditional Japanese twist on the setting make me feel a bit conflicted. Despite a vibe shift and new setting, though, this game is an incredible new take on the Rune Factory series that shines just as bright as my favourite entries.
While I wasn’t immediately sold on the shift in setting for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, something that I was immediately excited about was the approach to character design and romance options in the latest entry of the series. Like any life-sim farming game, dating the hot guys and girls in your town is a staple of the genre. The Rune Factory games, though, typically have you playing as a protagonist with a pretty young look. Most of your eligible romance options end up being just as young or younger, while the adult characters with equally exciting personalities and designs often stay on the sidelines. Nearly every character in this game, including your romance options, have more adult design or personality, and as someone who grew up playing the series, it’s nice to see the newest entry age along with me and focus on romance options that feel a bit more geared toward me.
Bonding with your favourite hunk or hottie happens pretty regularly in between the smorgasbord of other activities you’ll engage in throughout the game, from action RPG battles to crop caretaking and settlement building. There’s a bit of a tighter narrative pushing along the events of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma compared to past games, and having every character directly involved in those story beats makes your eventual courtship all the more exciting. I was even blown away by a surprising quality-of-life feature introduced in this game that ties into the romance options – Rewoven Fates.
This feature lets you hop into alternate timelines that are fully standalone parallels to your main game, letting you experience the full romance route of any other characters without having to do an entire new playthrough of the game. It helps retain the importance of who you end up picking in your main playthrough, while easing some of the FOMO of missing out on the stories and dialogue from options unexplored.
One of the other major new features in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is that settlement building loop I mentioned earlier. As you progress through the story, helping gods reawaken and a small village rebuild, you’ll eventually be able to recruit NPCs to tend to your gardens and crops automatically while you go off battling bosses and running errands for townsfolk. It’s a really fun feature that helps put a more obvious sense of progression on the farm-life aspect of the game, which is usually a bit more self-driven in these games. It also helps make the game world feel so much more naturally alive – my biggest gripe with the previous Rune Factory game was that your town felt more like a bunch of standalone buildings lazily plopped into an open map than it felt like an actual lived-in village. As your settlement grows in this game, though, it does such an amazing job of adding life to the world in a way no other entry in the series has.
While combat isn’t necessarily the main focus of the game, it thankfully feels better than ever before. You’ve got a wide variety of weapon types to use, each with their own unique movesets and styles. Different enemies have certain weaknesses and vulnerabilities, but you can typically approach battles in whatever style you prefer and make it through just fine. Plus, bringing your favourite characters into battle with you adds another fun avenue to interact with them and feel immersed in the blooming friendships and romances as the calendar ticks by.
I ended up absolutely loving everything about Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, even the parts of it I was initially put off by in its announcement. The world and your town feel so alive, and it has some of my favourite characters from across the entire franchise. It reinvigorates the Rune Factory formula on every level, feeling like the proper evolution and upgrade this franchise has needed.