Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma - Switch 2 Review

For a series that has predominantly been on handhelds with a top-down, low-poly art style, the Rune Factory series has strived to revolutionise the farming simulation genre with action-RPG combat. While it has struggled in recent years, with Rune Factory 4 on Nintendo 3DS back in 2012 being the last critically acclaimed entry, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma aims to revolutionise the franchise with dynamic third-person mechanics set in the Japanese-inspired world of Azuma.

Playing as either Subaru (male) or Kaguya (female), you are thrust into a world where the Blight has infected the farming lands, and it’s up to you to restore them and the islands’ gods to their former splendour. The world of Azuma contains a series of sky islands, with four main islands each representing a different season with its own god to save. You’ll travel across these islands, dealing with the challenges that each one faces, ridding them of evil along the way.

The Good

Rune Factory has always been a series that’s aimed to be experimental, taking new approaches to the standard farming simulation formula. In the past, it stuck with the standard top-down perspective while adding in some fairly run-of-the-mill action combat and RPG levelling mechanics—and for many iterations, this is how it remained. However, in 2022, Rune Factory 5 launched with the goal to take the series in a more third-person adventure direction, and the results were… poor. While the fifth entry had good intentions, it failed to deliver on many of its promises, but it’s wonderful to say that where Rune Factory 5 failed is where Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma shines ever so brightly! The world is expansive, the characters have depth to their personalities (despite being a tad tropey), and the story is genuinely engaging—a massive improvement over the bare-boned plot of the previous entry.

Medieval anime settings have been, in my opinion, exhausted for all they’ve been worth. Each previous Rune Factory title has opted for this setting, and it makes sense considering the schtick of the series has been adding action-RPG elements to a straight-laced genre. And yet, in this new entry, Marvelous has decided to opt for an imperial Japanese setting with a slew of influences from its library of mythological folk tales, and the end result is a perfect fit. Even down to the finer details of Japanese culture, such as cleaning a Jizo Statue and it rewards you with an onigiri, is simply heartwarming. Players have recently been treated to an increasing amount of Japanese-inspired games, from grand open-world adventures like Ghost of Tsushima to games in a similar vein like Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, and Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma shines amongst this current trend.

This entry into the long-running series shows just how much an increased budget can elevate the franchise to new heights. For the most part, Rune Factory was a series that released on the DS and 3DS systems and its limited hardware capabilities gave it a charm, but a niche charm at that. Marvelous then took a break with the series, likely to determine its trajectory when the Nintendo Switch became the new handheld norm, and Rune Factory 5 simply didn’t live up to these lofty expectations. However, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma knocks it out of the park with wonderfully dynamic visuals, a beautiful open world to explore and bursting personality from its NPCs. You can even fly on a dragon’s back to go between sky islands Skyward Sword-style!!

We first got our hands on Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma on the original Nintendo Switch and, unfortunately, the performance was quite lacklustre. 30 frames per second only at the very best of times and gritty visuals, making us pine for the next-generation version all the more. As soon as we booted up the game on the Nintendo Switch 2, it was such an immediate difference. A mostly stable 60 frames per second, beautiful visuals and, quite frankly, everything we hope to see performance-wise for third-party Nintendo Switch 2 games.

Part of the reason we like seeing third-party games make it to Nintendo’s consoles is the way they sometimes implement the console’s unique features. We’ve been burned in the past (Call of Duty on Wii and DS spring to mind), but when these features aren’t forced, they can be wonderfully complimentary. On the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, you can enter Mouse Mode in the bird's-eye view when farming. This allows you to place fields, rearrange the terrain, plant seeds, water crops, and harvest, all at a click of a… bumper? Anyways, the actions are wonderfully intuitive and as soon as I tried it, going back to standard controls felt like a chore.

TL;DR

• A fun new take on an old formula finally realised
• Imperial Japanese setting works a treat
• Increased budget pays off
• Incredible performance on Switch 2
• Mouse controls for farming are intuitive

The Bad

The depth of combat was never the main selling point of the Rune Factory series, but it certainly feels quite clunky here in Guardians of Azuma. It’s not bad, per se, simply that attacks and various actions lack the impact one would hope for in a game that is 50% action. Much of the combat feels repetitive and while there are special items that provide unique attacks at the cost of Rune Points (RP), it’s not quite enough to make the combat feel exciting. There’s also a special counterattack that is useless when your character isn't the one being targeted.

The lacklustre combat is further dampened by some pretty questionable enemy AI. We’ve encountered glitched enemies stuck in place, enemies spinning in circles, lack of detection and even gliding across the ground when their walking animation didn’t trigger. It can sometimes feel like fighting a slew of pin cushions that lack creative autonomy—like an indie 3D action game from over a decade ago.

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is quite story-heavy and aims to keep the momentum moving briskly towards the beginning so as to hold the player’s initial attention; however, this results in some tutorials feeling rushed and glossed over. While I’m no expert, I feel quite versed in the farming simulation genre, and there were plenty of moments early on where I felt overwhelmed and confused. There are multiple farms to tend to for each of the four seasoned islands and with that, you can delegate tasks to villagers, but with that, ensuring your finances are in the green, building houses and stores, getting villagers to run said stores, maintaining villagers’ happiness levels, village missions, decorating the islands, improving the village levels, and, you know, saving the world—it’s all quite overwhelming.

TL;DR

• Lacklustre combat
• Questionable enemy AI
• Sometimes overwhelming

Final Score: 7/10

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a giant leap forward in the right direction for the series, especially after the disappointment that came from the fifth installment. The Japanese-inspired setting, dynamic characterisation and sheer scope of the world provide dozens of hours of fun for the player, all while respecting their time and moving a surprisingly engaging narrative along. What perhaps lets it down is the lacklustre combat and the overwhelming quantity of tasks to complete and maintain; so while Guardians of Azuma promises a bright future for the franchise, it still has plenty of room to grow.

Thank you for checking out our Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Switch review, thank you to Marvelous (via Decibel PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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