I’ve by no means been one for farming video games. They typically require quite a lot of micromanagement and optimisation, ensuring you may have the best crops and the best yields to make sufficient cash to final lengthy sufficient to do the identical factor the subsequent day, and that form of gameplay doesn’t vibe with me. Rune Manufacturing facility: Guardians of Azuma is a special story, although, as a result of whereas it does nonetheless require a few of that busywork, it’s additionally a incredible RPG.
The story setup in Guardians of Azuma is fairly easy. You play as an Earth Dancer, a gifted and gifted particular person whose kindness and religious connection to the land makes them perfect for revitalisation of tainted lands. After an epic battle atop historic dragons, you fall to the contaminated land of Azuma, lose your reminiscence, and begin serving to out the individuals of the Spring Village.
From there it’s a narrative of awakening gods and goddesses, who watch over and supply blessings to the 4 seasonal villages, when you revitalise the land, re-establish farming manufacturing, and assist the villages be one of the best they are often. It’s a strong story, although it does really feel very rushed at instances — your go to to the Summer season village sees you touchdown within the village, retrieving a sword from the wilds, after which leaving for the subsequent village nearly instantly afterwards. There are many causes to return, after all, however by way of story that’s just about all you get. Different villages and facets of the story are rather more fleshed out, however it’s laborious to not really feel like the sport is simply getting all of the pesky story out of the way in which so you possibly can deal with the day-to-day gameplay.
And that’s the place Guardians of Azuma shines. Sure, there’s quite a lot of farming, however it’s not all busywork it’s a must to do your self. When you’ve acquired a village restored and farmlands established, villagers begin transferring again in and are more than pleased to tug their weight. You’ll be able to assign villagers to sure jobs, like farming, wooden gathering, mining, or shopkeeping, and with sufficient villagers your villages ultimately develop into self-sufficient, producing passive earnings when you’re free to dwell your life elsewhere.
That mentioned, counting on villagers is a bit irritating at instances. It takes seconds for you because the participant to plant a complete area of seeds, water your crops, or choose them as soon as they’ve grown, and villagers completely don’t work that quick. When you have sufficient villagers they’ll often get all of the required work achieved by the point evening falls, however it’s in no way assured, and when it’s faster to simply do all of it your self, you would possibly end up simply spending a couple of minutes in your morning routine doing all of it anyway. There may be an upside to this, although, as a result of it means you possibly can assign your villagers elsewhere, like retailers, which generate passive earnings in a means you can’t actually do your self, so it does steadiness out in the long run — villagers are primarily there to assist, to not do all of your give you the results you want.
Your free time is efficacious, as a result of it allows you to spend time with the handfuls of characters you meet all through your journey. A few of these characters are extra fleshed out than others, however they’re all at a baseline pretty attention-grabbing and intriguing, and progressing by their relationships and bonding quests is quite a lot of enjoyable.
There’s some nice writing in right here, and for probably the most half there’s not likely something overly uncomfortable or creepy from both a writing or design perspective. A number of the ladies on this recreation are very well-endowed within the chest space, as you’d count on from a recreation like this, however it’s by no means over-the-top, and the camerawork doesn’t dwell on these physique components. Importantly, each character has an precise character, with ideas and pursuits and character-specific objectives and worries, and none that I’ve engaged with have been overly sexualised or objectified, which is incredible to see.
It’s additionally nice to see that there aren’t any restrictions on similar intercourse relationships. In case you’re a man and also you wish to romance one other man, you’re 100% free to do this with no restrictions or limitations in any respect — all of it performs out precisely the identical as if it have been an reverse intercourse relationship. It won’t appear to be a lot, however it’s these small items of illustration that actually make a distinction in the long run, particularly when a lot of the sport is targeted on constructing these relationships.
The opposite main side of Guardians of Azuma is the exploration and fight aspect of issues. There’s a good quantity of exploration by giant, open areas, with a lot of collectables to smell out and collect. These are sometimes within the type of statues – like frog statues it’s a must to discover and bless – however there are some enjoyable challenges in there as nicely. Each map has a goal to hit with an arrow, for instance, they usually’re typically hidden away and tough to search out and attain. There’s additionally an ongoing questline to search out and ship particular meals you’ve cooked to creatures that dwell in holes, often primarily based on a number of hints in songs they sing to you. It’s quite a lot of enjoyable figuring out what they need and the way to get your fingers on it, and it makes exploring each nook and cranny – and fascinating with the sport’s methods – rather more rewarding.
The rewards for exploring and fascinating with these methods are sometimes crafting recipes, which provide you with new meals to cook dinner, decorations to make and place all through your villages, and weapons and armour to smith. There are additionally loads of sidequests to maintain you going, too, and whereas some are easy fetch quests, like killing a specific amount of archers or gathering a specific amount of cucumbers, some are multi-step quests that have you ever partaking with each a part of the sport.
The fight is surprisingly strong, too. It’s comparatively quick, action-based gameplay, with a number of short-range and lengthy vary weapon varieties and loads of completely different playstyles on provide. I used to be truly a bit of bit shocked to see such an in-depth fight system in what’s ostensibly a farming recreation, however it feels pleasant to wallop enemies, flip their bits into stronger weapons, improve your abilities and assaults, after which return out into the wilderness to wallop a number of extra.
By way of presentation, Guardians of Azuma delivers a principally strong expertise on Change. It appears to be like excellent more often than not, and hits its body charge targets 90% of the time, with a number of hitches right here and there, particularly throughout frantic fight scenes. It’s not sufficient to make it unplayable by any means, however with a Change 2 Version improve simply across the nook, I’ll be very to see what enhancements could be made. I think {that a} strong 60fps at a fairly excessive decision will likely be greater than doable on the brand new {hardware}, however we’ll have to attend and see.
Load instances may stretch just a bit bit too lengthy when quick travelling between completely different areas, one thing that can undoubtedly be improved on Change 2. The excellent news is that when you’re in a area, quick journey inside it’s successfully instantaneous, so it’s solely actually if you’re travelling between, say, the Spring Village and the Autumn Village that you just’re left ready.
Rune Manufacturing facility: Guardians of Azuma is a incredible addition to the collection and the style as a complete. It’s acquired loads to get pleasure from for farming recreation followers, life sim followers, and RPG followers, a beautiful forged of characters, and principally strong presentation that makes it a delight to play. There are a number of shortcomings right here and there, however it’s laborious to not advocate it to simply about anybody on the lookout for a pleasant, laid-back expertise with a lot of allure.
Ranking: 4/5
