Here we go! Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma on Switch 2 — yeah, I’m talking about a game that’s all over my headspace right now. It’s this mash-up of action RPG and farming. Perfect combo or what? You’re an Earth Dancer (whatever that is, right?) on a mission to Azuma, this supposedly never-before-seen land in the series. Just picture traditional Japanese vibes — monsters, festivals, quirky items — the whole nine yards. I watched the trailer, and it just pulled me in. Reminds me of those late-night anime marathons.
Azuma’s a hot mess though. Something called the Celestial Collapse — sounds like a prog rock band — totally wrecked the place. It’s like some huge cosmic thingamajig crashed, stuff got thrown all over, and now, runes aren’t doing their thing. Nature gods ghosted out 50 years back, and now it’s our job to save the day. There’s this Black Dragon spreading doom and gloom. No pressure, right?
There’s gameplay stuff too, like three difficulty levels. You’ve got Story, where it’s chill and more about the plot; Balanced gives you a more standard challenge; and Hard is — well, hard. Pretty straightforward. You play as either male or female, which is cool, and you can even pick your name and birthday. I wonder if it does anything, like those old-school horoscope games.
Controls? Yep, you move with the sticks. Attack with the Y button. Jump and dodge too. It’s all there. There’s a Sacred Treasure ring — not sure why, but the name sounds like something out of a treasure hunting movie. Camera moves around with the right stick, so yeah, you’re not going in blind.
Did I mention saving? Yeah, pretty important. If you forget, you might find yourself replaying more than you’d like… which is either annoying or fun — depends on your mood, I guess. You can sleep to get back your health — sounds like real life! These villages you travel to need rebuilding because they’re practically ghost towns now. People just bailed after everything went kaput.
Since it’s Rune Factory, you’re farming too. Planting, watering — you know the drill. If you’re anything like me, you might forget to water the crops and, uh, they kinda die. Oops. There’s a Drum Dance thing too, which helps stuff grow or come back to life. A bit magical, huh?
And then there’s the character skill development. You can learn new skills by spending XP. Just watch out for that Sleep-HP drain thing. Stay up too late, and your character just crashes out. I feel that on a personal level.
Oh, and there’s voice acting in English — didn’t see that coming. All wrapped up in a $70 package (ouch?), but it looks like they’re upgrading systems or something. If you have the earlier version, there’s an upgrade option, kind of like hitting refresh on your browser. Who knew?
For DLC fans, there’s the digital deluxe set with costumes, art books, and probably more things I can’t remember off the top of my head. That’s gaming for you — a rabbit hole of extras.
Anyway, big thanks to Marvelous for the game copy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some runes to fix and crops to water… again.
