Rufus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
badass_tiger) wrote2025-06-26 10:51 pm
badass_tiger) wrote2025-06-26 10:51 pm
Entry tags:
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma 'review'
This is not a real review and is full of spoilers. It's just yapping.
When I first saw the trailer, I did have my apprehensions about the game as it didn't seem to feature all that much farming, but there was farming and I figured that as long as farming existed, I was going to enjoy it.
Well, sadly, my apprehensions turned out to be correct. While farming does exist, it doesn't do so in the same capacity as mainline Rune Factory games, which has taken out a whole chunk of what I hoped to get immersed in. As such, I feel that I've ended up putting down the game sooner than I hoped. But that's okay because the game is still really enjoyable on the whole.
Regrettably, despite what I said in my earlier blog post about the Rune Factory games, I never did write a review for RF4, but my feelings about it can probably be summed up by the fact that someone in the Discord mentioned the random event system and that single line was enough to trigger my PTSD. The random event system is just one of the many flaws of the game but it's definitely the one that brings the most pain. Most people seem to really love RF4 which straight up I'm just gonna say it, I don't get it. The farming and crafting is fine and good but everything else? Hate it. I could expound on its various flaws but I will simply jump to saying that Frey's outfit is a crime against style, fashion, and good sense, and leave it at that.
Meanwhile, I really loved RF5 and it may be that I am the only person on the planet with those feelings. While it does have its issues, such as the lag which not even I can completely forgive, it was an extremely charming and very visually pleasing game. I am also, it must be said, infatuated with Murakumo to this day. What else can I ask for from a farming sim?
But Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is such a leap in quality from RF5 that it was honestly baffling. While playing GoA, I felt like I must have missed an installment between it and RF5 because how in the heck did the game get so good so goddamn fast? After RF5 struggled to perform with the fanbase, I worried about the future of RF, wondering if we would even get another RF in the future. The fact that the developers strode on and banged out GoA, a gorgeous, expansive, sprawling, polished game after all of that is mind-boggling. During my first playthrough, my jaw was constantly dropping to the floor at the scope of the game, at how many areas and characters it has. RF5 made it seem like wrestling one town into a game cartridge was difficult enough. GoA has four, and many more 'wilderness' maps besides.
While impressive, once I finished the game, I wasn't sure that this wider scope was necessarily a good thing. The world is large but doesn't feel deep. Each of the villages have their own residents and backstory, as well as a story for Heaven and the Underworld (don't look at me, I didn't make this shit up), but the stories are quite simple and definitely have potential for something deeper if they so chose. RF has always been very story heavy and traditionally has focused on a single town, letting them develop the story of the town and its residents quite deeply, whereas each village or domain is just touched upon in GoA.
But this downside is trivial compared to the depth of the characters in the game. While RF has generally been more adventurous with crafting their characters compared to the Story of Seasons games, the personalities that we get in GoA are a standout. Getting to know each of them was extremely enjoyable. I went through all of the bond stories that you can experience with the romance candidates up until the point you would need to ask them out to experience more and was pleasantly surprised by how unique most of them were ... Most of them. Some of them were pretty generic, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a SoS game. But the rest were very interesting! Kanata's story exploring the full extent of her personality was startlingly intense. Clarice's story was very heartfelt and I've heard similar positive reviews for Pilika's story (I don't have the DLC).
The unique stories particularly stand out to me because I was enjoying them despite initially not being attached to any of the characters. Traditionally, I get attached to one of the marriage candidates pretty early on and stick with them. After all, that is one of the upsides to the un-adventurousness of SoS characters, in that you only need to know them a short while to know them. As a matter of fact, I've had a negative experience with RF being the opposite in RF4 where I liked Arthur's kind and gentle demeanour, started dating him and went all the way to his final heart events, where I was then horrified. But back to GoA, I was impressed that I thoroughly enjoyed many of the bond stories without falling in love with any of the characters themselves (to a point), which I think makes for a much stronger story than one where I latch onto someone and don't care for anyone else.
I had scrolled through the character introduction blurbs several times prior to the game (because I was very excited lol) and no one jumped out to me as someone I would like - which, to be fair, has been happening more lately. When I was young, I almost always knew exactly who I was going to like at a first glance, but these days it takes a few interactions before I decide. Or they are just transparently the way I like them and I fall in love at first sight, thanks Murakumo. I was excited to get to know them in the hopes that one of them would jump out to me.
Having played through much of the story, however, there was still no one I liked all that much, so I decided to start getting to know Murasame because he was the serious and dutiful type, can't go too wrong with that in my book. And, to be fair, he didn't go too wrong. I didn't start to dislike him or anything. It's just that after seeing his bond events, it looked like he was in a relationship with his yoma, and who am I to get in the way of that? I wasn't that attached to him in the first place anyway so I decided to consider different options. When I first unlocked Kurama, I was interested in getting to know him, then when I put him in my party, he said 'GGEZ' and I dropped him like a hot potato. Look, I'm not saying gamers can't be attractive, but ... they're not my type.
At that point, I rather begrudgingly turned my attention to Kai. I didn't like him very much, honestly found him very annoying, wished I could step on his face, etc. but he did have something of a sense of responsibility, helped the MC a lot, and as you get to know him, is revealed to really care about Azuma and the people around him, which is something. But I must emphasise the word begrudgingly. I was quite resistant to even liking him at the start. I mean, he had been really annoying. Still was. He's such a good-for-nothing layabout. Not to mention that tab of his. I was baffled as to how a god could be in debt to an izakaya. He's a god! Of the Underworld! You telling me he doesn't have cash to spare? He doesn't have like some ancient trinket or something he can sell? That was my main hangup with him, his tab. Because I was just like, okay he has some responsible feeling, but clearly not that much if he has this issue with being in debt to Yachiyo.
Even now I'm going 'Oh God this is turning into a Kai blog' but allow me to continue. His first few bond events focus on his role as the king of demons which, I knew he was the king of demons but I didn't realise he himself was a demon until you see him talking to an oni and one of the dialogue options is 'Stop right there, oni-wannabe!' and his response is 'I AM an oni!' What, the great big horns should have told me? Anyway, he seems to really care about his people, which is ... okay, yeah, that's nice. But his level 6 bond event, GOD. He plays a prank on the MC which like, the whole time I was like 'This is a joke, right? There's been some misunderstanding, right? Wait ... no ... right?' up until the moment it's revealed it WAS a prank at which point me and Kaguya simultaneously burst into tears. Fucking twat. To his credit, Kai is extremely remorseful about it, and ... okay it is pretty funny. When I got over being furious about it.
That was the thing with Kai up until then. As obnoxious as he was, I just always ended up laughing at him. Then his confession scene wasn't too much, but it did shed some light on how he ended up being in debt to Yachiyo. He talks about how he was just kind of moping around after he got his butt kicked by Ura so he was kind of just partying to forget about it all. Wow, that actually makes some sense. Then his first date is him dragging the MC around to announce the relationship - fucking horrifying. Thank God the MC has pretty much the same reaction as I did which was 'I am SO SORRY about this guy' to everyone Kai was bragging to. Then Yachiyo tells the MC that Kai just can't believe his good luck and he's trying to make it real to himself and when the MC confronts Kai about that he confirms it then gets embarrassed about it. Like okay fine that's pretty cute, good for you.
But then, during his next event, you ask him out on a date again, he seems reluctant at first, but then quickly agrees. On the day of the date, he's made some onigiri for the both of you to have, sits down to eat it, then dashes off! Leading to the absolute best Kaguya face ever:
She decides to follow him and finds Kai helping Tsubame out and - wait. Ain't no way. Is he - is Kai - oh yes, he is. He's working to pay off his tab.
Oh my God.
The MC confronts him and Kai confesses that he's working on his tab because he feels guilty about it hanging over him. Not to mention that he's been thinking about his future with the MC, like what if they want to have a house or he wants to go somewhere - Stop. Just fucking stop. I'm not going to like you, Kai. You can't make me. Oh fuck, he's made me.
As if Kai manning up about the one hang up I had about him wasn't bad enough, the next date/bond event you have with him, he invites you to go talk to Ura so that he can patch things up and ask him to be his deputy. Oh my God Kai stop I didn't even like you to start with - I didn't even want to like you. How could you just - be so cool and manly. Ugh. He's still obnoxious as hell but good God if his character development didn't make me soft on him. Damn you, Kai. Damn you ...
And of course once I started liking him, I started to notice all kinds of things about him, like how good-looking he actually is. I didn't really care for his flashy kimono at first but he wears a beautiful yukata for festivals. He is annoyingly, endearingly shy about affection at times for all he's such a braggart when it comes to his own qualities. But he also becomes more confident about it as your relationship progresses. I love that once you're married, whenever you have dinner with him, he remarks that he never thought he would be making dinner for someone every day but you're 'damn right' that he'll do it for you. One of his lines when he gives you lunch is that it was made by the Valiant Herald himself and since it's made with love, it's EXTRA blessed. What the hell. Kaguya has the demon king domesticated and making her lunch every day. Oh and your second child with him has tiny demon horns. How freaking precious is that?
Oh heck this did turn into a Kai blog. Anyway, just to say that his character progression is really great but ... ugh ... okay, moving on.
Guardians of Azuma frankly barely feels like a Rune Factory game, for better and for worse. There are definitely many aspects from previous RF games that I miss like the resource management required in crafting and farming. On the other hand, the graphics are beautiful and the world feels very alive. The characters are very fun. I think there's definitely space for RF to take on the good parts of GoA and incorporate them into a more traditional RF, perhaps for RF6. It definitely makes me highly optimistic for the future of RF. I was anticipating this game very highly in the lead up to launch and it has not disappointed. Well worth the money. Putting this one at a solid - what the fuck, did I seriously put RF5 in S-tier? I'm a maniac. Still putting GoA in A-tier. Bite me. That's what I said last time too.
When I first saw the trailer, I did have my apprehensions about the game as it didn't seem to feature all that much farming, but there was farming and I figured that as long as farming existed, I was going to enjoy it.
Well, sadly, my apprehensions turned out to be correct. While farming does exist, it doesn't do so in the same capacity as mainline Rune Factory games, which has taken out a whole chunk of what I hoped to get immersed in. As such, I feel that I've ended up putting down the game sooner than I hoped. But that's okay because the game is still really enjoyable on the whole.
Regrettably, despite what I said in my earlier blog post about the Rune Factory games, I never did write a review for RF4, but my feelings about it can probably be summed up by the fact that someone in the Discord mentioned the random event system and that single line was enough to trigger my PTSD. The random event system is just one of the many flaws of the game but it's definitely the one that brings the most pain. Most people seem to really love RF4 which straight up I'm just gonna say it, I don't get it. The farming and crafting is fine and good but everything else? Hate it. I could expound on its various flaws but I will simply jump to saying that Frey's outfit is a crime against style, fashion, and good sense, and leave it at that.
Meanwhile, I really loved RF5 and it may be that I am the only person on the planet with those feelings. While it does have its issues, such as the lag which not even I can completely forgive, it was an extremely charming and very visually pleasing game. I am also, it must be said, infatuated with Murakumo to this day. What else can I ask for from a farming sim?
But Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is such a leap in quality from RF5 that it was honestly baffling. While playing GoA, I felt like I must have missed an installment between it and RF5 because how in the heck did the game get so good so goddamn fast? After RF5 struggled to perform with the fanbase, I worried about the future of RF, wondering if we would even get another RF in the future. The fact that the developers strode on and banged out GoA, a gorgeous, expansive, sprawling, polished game after all of that is mind-boggling. During my first playthrough, my jaw was constantly dropping to the floor at the scope of the game, at how many areas and characters it has. RF5 made it seem like wrestling one town into a game cartridge was difficult enough. GoA has four, and many more 'wilderness' maps besides.
While impressive, once I finished the game, I wasn't sure that this wider scope was necessarily a good thing. The world is large but doesn't feel deep. Each of the villages have their own residents and backstory, as well as a story for Heaven and the Underworld (don't look at me, I didn't make this shit up), but the stories are quite simple and definitely have potential for something deeper if they so chose. RF has always been very story heavy and traditionally has focused on a single town, letting them develop the story of the town and its residents quite deeply, whereas each village or domain is just touched upon in GoA.
But this downside is trivial compared to the depth of the characters in the game. While RF has generally been more adventurous with crafting their characters compared to the Story of Seasons games, the personalities that we get in GoA are a standout. Getting to know each of them was extremely enjoyable. I went through all of the bond stories that you can experience with the romance candidates up until the point you would need to ask them out to experience more and was pleasantly surprised by how unique most of them were ... Most of them. Some of them were pretty generic, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a SoS game. But the rest were very interesting! Kanata's story exploring the full extent of her personality was startlingly intense. Clarice's story was very heartfelt and I've heard similar positive reviews for Pilika's story (I don't have the DLC).
The unique stories particularly stand out to me because I was enjoying them despite initially not being attached to any of the characters. Traditionally, I get attached to one of the marriage candidates pretty early on and stick with them. After all, that is one of the upsides to the un-adventurousness of SoS characters, in that you only need to know them a short while to know them. As a matter of fact, I've had a negative experience with RF being the opposite in RF4 where I liked Arthur's kind and gentle demeanour, started dating him and went all the way to his final heart events, where I was then horrified. But back to GoA, I was impressed that I thoroughly enjoyed many of the bond stories without falling in love with any of the characters themselves (to a point), which I think makes for a much stronger story than one where I latch onto someone and don't care for anyone else.
I had scrolled through the character introduction blurbs several times prior to the game (because I was very excited lol) and no one jumped out to me as someone I would like - which, to be fair, has been happening more lately. When I was young, I almost always knew exactly who I was going to like at a first glance, but these days it takes a few interactions before I decide. Or they are just transparently the way I like them and I fall in love at first sight, thanks Murakumo. I was excited to get to know them in the hopes that one of them would jump out to me.
Having played through much of the story, however, there was still no one I liked all that much, so I decided to start getting to know Murasame because he was the serious and dutiful type, can't go too wrong with that in my book. And, to be fair, he didn't go too wrong. I didn't start to dislike him or anything. It's just that after seeing his bond events, it looked like he was in a relationship with his yoma, and who am I to get in the way of that? I wasn't that attached to him in the first place anyway so I decided to consider different options. When I first unlocked Kurama, I was interested in getting to know him, then when I put him in my party, he said 'GGEZ' and I dropped him like a hot potato. Look, I'm not saying gamers can't be attractive, but ... they're not my type.
At that point, I rather begrudgingly turned my attention to Kai. I didn't like him very much, honestly found him very annoying, wished I could step on his face, etc. but he did have something of a sense of responsibility, helped the MC a lot, and as you get to know him, is revealed to really care about Azuma and the people around him, which is something. But I must emphasise the word begrudgingly. I was quite resistant to even liking him at the start. I mean, he had been really annoying. Still was. He's such a good-for-nothing layabout. Not to mention that tab of his. I was baffled as to how a god could be in debt to an izakaya. He's a god! Of the Underworld! You telling me he doesn't have cash to spare? He doesn't have like some ancient trinket or something he can sell? That was my main hangup with him, his tab. Because I was just like, okay he has some responsible feeling, but clearly not that much if he has this issue with being in debt to Yachiyo.
Even now I'm going 'Oh God this is turning into a Kai blog' but allow me to continue. His first few bond events focus on his role as the king of demons which, I knew he was the king of demons but I didn't realise he himself was a demon until you see him talking to an oni and one of the dialogue options is 'Stop right there, oni-wannabe!' and his response is 'I AM an oni!' What, the great big horns should have told me? Anyway, he seems to really care about his people, which is ... okay, yeah, that's nice. But his level 6 bond event, GOD. He plays a prank on the MC which like, the whole time I was like 'This is a joke, right? There's been some misunderstanding, right? Wait ... no ... right?' up until the moment it's revealed it WAS a prank at which point me and Kaguya simultaneously burst into tears. Fucking twat. To his credit, Kai is extremely remorseful about it, and ... okay it is pretty funny. When I got over being furious about it.
That was the thing with Kai up until then. As obnoxious as he was, I just always ended up laughing at him. Then his confession scene wasn't too much, but it did shed some light on how he ended up being in debt to Yachiyo. He talks about how he was just kind of moping around after he got his butt kicked by Ura so he was kind of just partying to forget about it all. Wow, that actually makes some sense. Then his first date is him dragging the MC around to announce the relationship - fucking horrifying. Thank God the MC has pretty much the same reaction as I did which was 'I am SO SORRY about this guy' to everyone Kai was bragging to. Then Yachiyo tells the MC that Kai just can't believe his good luck and he's trying to make it real to himself and when the MC confronts Kai about that he confirms it then gets embarrassed about it. Like okay fine that's pretty cute, good for you.
But then, during his next event, you ask him out on a date again, he seems reluctant at first, but then quickly agrees. On the day of the date, he's made some onigiri for the both of you to have, sits down to eat it, then dashes off! Leading to the absolute best Kaguya face ever:
She decides to follow him and finds Kai helping Tsubame out and - wait. Ain't no way. Is he - is Kai - oh yes, he is. He's working to pay off his tab.
Oh my God.
The MC confronts him and Kai confesses that he's working on his tab because he feels guilty about it hanging over him. Not to mention that he's been thinking about his future with the MC, like what if they want to have a house or he wants to go somewhere - Stop. Just fucking stop. I'm not going to like you, Kai. You can't make me. Oh fuck, he's made me.
As if Kai manning up about the one hang up I had about him wasn't bad enough, the next date/bond event you have with him, he invites you to go talk to Ura so that he can patch things up and ask him to be his deputy. Oh my God Kai stop I didn't even like you to start with - I didn't even want to like you. How could you just - be so cool and manly. Ugh. He's still obnoxious as hell but good God if his character development didn't make me soft on him. Damn you, Kai. Damn you ...
And of course once I started liking him, I started to notice all kinds of things about him, like how good-looking he actually is. I didn't really care for his flashy kimono at first but he wears a beautiful yukata for festivals. He is annoyingly, endearingly shy about affection at times for all he's such a braggart when it comes to his own qualities. But he also becomes more confident about it as your relationship progresses. I love that once you're married, whenever you have dinner with him, he remarks that he never thought he would be making dinner for someone every day but you're 'damn right' that he'll do it for you. One of his lines when he gives you lunch is that it was made by the Valiant Herald himself and since it's made with love, it's EXTRA blessed. What the hell. Kaguya has the demon king domesticated and making her lunch every day. Oh and your second child with him has tiny demon horns. How freaking precious is that?
Oh heck this did turn into a Kai blog. Anyway, just to say that his character progression is really great but ... ugh ... okay, moving on.
Guardians of Azuma frankly barely feels like a Rune Factory game, for better and for worse. There are definitely many aspects from previous RF games that I miss like the resource management required in crafting and farming. On the other hand, the graphics are beautiful and the world feels very alive. The characters are very fun. I think there's definitely space for RF to take on the good parts of GoA and incorporate them into a more traditional RF, perhaps for RF6. It definitely makes me highly optimistic for the future of RF. I was anticipating this game very highly in the lead up to launch and it has not disappointed. Well worth the money. Putting this one at a solid - what the fuck, did I seriously put RF5 in S-tier? I'm a maniac. Still putting GoA in A-tier. Bite me. That's what I said last time too.