When Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma was first teased as Rune Factory: Project Dragon, my curiosity was piqued. I was always drawn to the mythological legends involving dragons, and the design of it all just appealed to me. However, what really piqued my curiosity was the Marvelous news broadcast that talked about how different the game would be from your typical Rune Factory.
While I was ready to jump in last month, Project Dragon was actually delayed from its original May 28 release date to become a Nintendo Switch 2 launch title. Rune Factory 5 was pretty infamous for being very poorly optimized on the original Switch, so can the Switch 2’s increased power bring about a much better experience? Well, that’s what I want answers for!
Restore the Power of Runes
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma‘s story revolves around the Celestial Collapse, where a strange comet fell into the world, draining the land of the runes, or in other words, the life that courses through the world. Due to this impact, the power of each of the guardian deities that reside over Azuma has been steadily waning, causing them to go into hiding. Without their blessings, trees start to dry up, and crops start to wilt.
With all hope seemingly lost, this is where you, the protagonist, come into play. You are what is known as an Earth Dancer, and with your powers of dance and the gods’ sacred instruments, you have the power to restore the flow of runes and expel the curse of the Blight so that they may flow freely again. So, together with your talking Wooly friend, you set out on a journey to restore the four seasons back to Azuma so that the Celestial Collapse’s effects are reversed.
Right off the bat, this game has a rather fast-paced Prologue, to say the least. During the first 30 minutes of gameplay, you go from “mysterious person that suddenly fell inside the dragon shrine” to “chieftain of a village”, and the game just does not give any buildup to it. It’s…confusing, to say the least.
My understanding of the story is that somehow, from the initial cutscene where both the female and male protagonists are at odds with each other, a six-month-long timeskip happens, and now you have amnesia. However, that doesn’t get properly conveyed to the player at all, leading to a rather rushed narrative that only makes sense later on. In fact, the amnesia plot point only gets brought up when it’s convenient, to the point where it makes me ask if they just added it in after the story was already written.
What may come as a shock to some is just how much progress you can make alone in such a short time. This is something I’m sort of used to, because even in previous mainline games, such as Rune Factory 3, and even Rune Factory 4, I remember being able to get to the third major boss before Spring even ended. This feeling isn’t so different here in Guardians of Azuma, but there is a lot of content for you to enjoy.
The Dance of the Bonds
Over the course of your journey, you’ll meet many faces, and this is where another charm point of the series makes its appearance. With the exception of village NPCs, certain characters will allow you to interact with them. You can choose to have these characters accompany you during your travels, or you can also hang out with them and give them presents, which will increase their Bond level.
Upon reaching a certain amount of Bond with some characters, you’ll steadily unlock what are known as Relationship Quests, which will give you a glance at that character’s personality. This is where romance can start to blossom. Similar to its predecessor, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma does not have any restrictions on who you choose to romance, as both the male and female characters are available.
The character designs of Guardians of Azuma have got to be some of the best I’ve seen, and the voice acting in Japanese was on point. My favorite character has to be either Kai from the Autumn Village or Murasame from the Spring Village. In fact, for the first time in a while, I was torn on who I would romance, which doesn’t happen too often. Still, with sixteen different characters, I absolutely love the variety we have going here.
The New Village Chief
After you get the Terra Tiler sacred instrument from your partner Woolby, the “self-proclaimed” descendant of the dragon who created the land of Azuma, you’ll be introduced to the game’s Build Mode. Inside each of the villages, you’ll notice green square-like areas. These are called Development Areas. Inside their boundaries, you can place several amenity buildings such as general stores and houses, or you may place trees and fields. The former is used to collect Wood, and the latter for growing crops.
The more you develop your village, the more people will move in. Villages have a rank associated with them, which increases as you construct more buildings, ship out more crops, and more. Each villager can be assigned to one of several roles: Farming, Woodcutting, Mining, or tending to a specified shop, such as the Blacksmith or the Teahouse. All villagers who enter will have the Farming role set by default, and each villager has a set of traits that will influence how well they can perform certain tasks. Still, I haven’t had many problems regarding money in-game, especially later on.
Besides tending to your villages as chief, each of the zones also contains a whole area to explore. Scattered across these areas are various statues. By using the Dance of Bonds at these locations, you can unlock a new recipe to craft new pieces of gear, cook items, and, of course, purify the areas that are afflicted by the Blight. These areas can vary from dried-up trees you’ll use your drum on, to several rose-shaped blots that each require a different instrument.
Beautiful Performance on Switch 2
Now, as for the performance on Nintendo Switch 2, it’s certainly a huge step up from Nintendo Switch, with the game consistently running at a smooth 60 frames per second. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect, as you can still notice some frame drops here and there, particularly when you enter the loading zone between the villages, or when multiple enemies are on screen. However, in terms of load times in general, it is extremely snappy, especially when warping around the map.
In addition to the frame rate improvements, the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma allows you to use the mouse functionality of the Joy-Con 2 controllers, where by pressing on the left stick, you can enter a bird-eye view, allowing you to use the mouse to place down items with a much more precise control. Furthermore, this mode also allows you to do many of the actions, such as harvesting and watering your crops. However, you cannot remove Blighted areas while in this mode, nor can you take advantage of the sacred instruments’ abilities. This makes it extremely easy to do your daily chores around the village, though I wouldn’t exactly say it is a required feature that sells the Nintendo Switch 2 version.
Wait, Where’s the Crafting!?
What made Rune Factory so endearing to me was how it masterfully blended the farming genre with an RPG. However, in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, the farming aspect takes a heavy backseat. When you set a villager to be a Farmer, they’ll proceed to do every single aspect of farming for you: they plant the seeds, water crops, harvest them, and even take them to the Shipping Shed, where they’ll be sold for profit the next day.
Furthermore, in previous Rune Factory games, you were able to craft armor and upgrade it yourself, provided you purchased the necessary tools to do so. But in this game specifically, your only option is the Blacksmith, which means you’re limited to the operating hours of the building. Plus, the smithy you assign will require a hefty fee on top of the materials you’ll provide to upgrade based on the gear you wish to craft. Granted, money isn’t an issue, as I’ve mentioned previously, and the Blacksmith is never closed for an extended period that causes inconvenience. Still, I can’t understand why the option was removed, as it was fun to experiment with new recipes.
The Most Different Rune Factory Ever
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is certainly a unique title from the Rune Factory franchise, and that is a true double-edged sword. On one hand, you have a really cool concept: the power of dance combined with the Japanese aesthetic it draws from. On the other hand, many features have been changed beyond recognition compared to what the series is usually known for. This leaves us with a true Ship of Theseus dilemma: is this still a Rune Factory game, or is it another game merely disguised as one? And the answer, to me at least, lies somewhere in between.
I had a lot of fun with the game—don’t get me wrong—and there are many aspects that clearly build upon elements of the series. Still, I can’t help but feel wary that Marvelous might start to shift away from the true essence of the series in an abrupt, potentially irreversible way over time. That said, Guardians of Azuma offers a great experience for both beginners and veterans alike.
Disclaimer: Marvelous provided Final Weapon with a Nintendo Switch copy of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma for review purposes. The reviewer purchased the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade separately.
