In this Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma review, we will talk about my time with this game. After spending over 50 hours in the game I have completed the main story line, interacted with villagers, completed various side quests, spent time decorating and tending to my farm. With that being said, there are many more things to do in this fantasy role-play / social simulation game. I will be logging plenty more hours in hopes of building villages that I find aesthetically pleasing, completing the after ‘main story line’ quests, and getting a significant other. I will attempt to avoid as many spoilers as possible, so read on to find out more!
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
Genre: Fantasy Roleplay/Social Sim Hybrid
Developed By: Marvelous
Published by: Marvelous / XSEED Games / Marvelous Europe Limited
Release Date: June 5th 2025
Platforms: Switch / Switch2 / PC (Steam)
Price at time of Review: 59.99 USD
Story and Setting
In this Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma review, I’ll be sharing my experience with the game after spending over 35 hours immersed in its fantasy world. I’ve completed the main storyline, interacted extensively with villagers, tackled various side quests, decorated and maintained my farm, and dabbled in nearly every game mechanic the game has to offer. Despite all that, there is still a lot of content left to uncover. Whether it’s building aesthetically pleasing villages, diving deeper into post-main story quests, or forming romantic relationships with NPCs, Guardians of Azuma continues to offer reasons to return. This review will remain as spoiler-free as possible, so read on if you’re curious about what this game has to offer!
Players take on the role of either Subaru or Kaguya, amnesiac Earth Dancers. You must restore your lost memories and each seasonal village to their former glory. This is done by rescuing or finding the particular season’s god and leveling up each village by completing various tasks such as defeating monsters, purifying corruption, decorating your farm etc Players will be accompanied by their faithful companion, Woolby, a dragon turned cute cuddly fluffball.
The game places heavy emphasis on the story of the game and community building. You can use the experience you gain from slaying monsters to fill out your social skill tree. This will unlock activities you can do with NPCs to increase your bond. Once you get your bond level up with an NPC, you can add them to your party and they will aid you in combat in the world. When they are in your party, they will also gain bond experience.
You must keep the villagers happy by doing a variety of tasks. At the end of each day you will be presented information about the villages, this information includes the villages overall happiness, personal buffs gained from each village and more.
As you explore the world of Azuma you will learn recipes, these recipes will allow you to craft decorations, housing, restaurants, food carts, weapons, armor and most importantly food. Food is the way to many resident’s hearts and you will be rewarded with increased Bond Level, this unlocks many different things per villager. I will not go too in depth with this as interacting with and finding out little bits of information through interaction has been a highlight of the experience for me.
One thing I should mention is that your bond can decrease with an NPC. If you were to gift an NPC something that they disliked or hated, they would let you know and decrease your bond with them. Furthermore, if you were to choose a chat dialogue that did not fall in line with their interests, this would also lower your bond. Keep an eye out for subtle hints and clues from NPCs to find out what they like and dislike.
Although the game is very story driven, the world of Azuma has an open world feel to it. There are many paths that if you choose to explore will reward you with items, recipes, and buffs. you may choose to either run through the story line as fast as you can or take your time, tend to your farm, build up your Bond with villagers, decorate, collect recipes, go fishing, tame beasts and much more.
Combat is deceptively engaging in a game that is so heavily focused on the social simulator side of things. Players can time the enemies attacks to trigger a slow-motion effect, once in this effect you deal increased damage and stagger. You can choose to wield a shortsword which is balanced with speed and power, a longsword that focuses on power, dual wield daggers that sacrifices power but is speed focused, talismans that offer a magic/casting playstyle, and a bow for the ranged enjoyers.
Aside from the normal weapons, players have access to Sacred Weapons, weapons that the gods use. They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as 2 special abilities each and their own unique uses on the farming side of things.
Each enemy and their subtypes have their own weaknesses, this is usually displayed by the health bar. If you use a weapon type that is effective against the enemy, you will deal significantly more damage, the opposite if true if you use a weapon the enemy is resistant to.
Skill Trees are quite straight forward in this game and there is really no wrong build. You will be able to unlock every talent eventually. This is true for both the combat and social skill trees. When you are looking at the skill tree, you have the freedom to pick and choose the talents that would best benefit you in that moment, without fear of having to respec.
As previously mentioned, you can stagger enemies. This becomes more important against bosses. Each boss will have their HP bar, and a stagger bar under it. Timing your dodge and entering slow-motion as well as hitting them with the weapon type and/or element they are weak to will build this stagger faster. Once you stagger a boss, they take significantly more damage. Players can also take the brute force approach and just whack the boss until the health bar depletes. I will not go over each boss but know that there are some interesting encounters ahead, not so much in the beginning.
Visual & Audio
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma’s audio is in an interesting place. Some of the music is serene and adds takes me to another place, the audio queues when chopping trees, picking up items, opening chests and so on further add to my immersion. Other times, the music feels a bit repetitive and some what out of place. When you stand in the middle of your farm and listen to the sounds of villagers chopping down trees or watering plants, insects buzzing with the strum of a traditional Asian instrument it makes the game feel alive.
Visually, the game is good. It does not have insanely intricate detail, you will not be counting the veins on a leaf for example but for the style of art the developers are using, it works. The NPCs in the game are unique enough, the crops and foliage are well created and the visuals from attack animations are beautiful. The environment feels like its bursting with life at times and a bit sparse at other times. Perhaps a bit more density in both monsters and foliage would fix this feeling.
Replayability and Game Length
For the perfectionist, this game has a lot of replayability. you may pursue relationships with different residents of Azuma and the storylines that come with that. You can also choose to play as the other main character, you can play as either Subaru or Kaguya and watch the story unfold from their perspectives. It took me about 34 hours to beat the main story while doing some side quests and a lot of exploration for collectibles. There are plenty more storylines for me to go through and I have no clue how long a full 100% completion would take. If I had to guess, it would be about 100 hours.
Final Thoughts
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is an entertaining game that combines the coziness of games like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon with engaging combat. 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. Designing, building and decorating my farm, as well as increasing my Bond with all the villagers. Is the 59.99 USD price tag worth it? If you are looking for a laid back game with nice visuals, strong soundtrack, solid story telling, lots of customization on a farm with a bit of engaging combat thrown in, then, yes.
Rebuild entire villages and battle monsters in this new action adventure / social simulator. Read on to see if Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is the right game for you.
