Rune Factory: With Guardians of Azuma, brings a gigantic spin-off that bravely expands the series

Finally relax again with a video game: Marvelous invited for the newto Paris and I was able to remember for three hours why the play loop from the administration of your own farm, dating with fictional figures and action-JRPG works so well. The new spin-off of the series even surprises with some completely new elements, such as the city administration, a larger world and even deities that are included in the Bachelor and Bachelorette pool. I mainly played on the PC, but there was also a Switch version that I also tested a little.

Somehow ironic that a Japanese studio only now takes on part of the locations that are so popular in Japan, of course still with a large pinch of fantasy. In the world of Azuma, a unitifiable object has been incorporated and since then the power of the runes and the gods of nature have disappeared. For people, this means: sterile country, a decline in the mountains, water and a bleak life with a barren harvest. You are the only hope in the role of either Kaguya or Subaru, which gain a special ability: the power of the earth dancer.

Of course we start in the spring city dipped in cherry blossoms. Our journey should lead through four cities, based on the four seasons. The architecture remains largely classic Japanese. In the winter city, which I can also play later, we work a lot with snow, for example, but there are also cursed buildings, the function of which I have not yet quite looked through. This is because the story develops slowly and I skipped a few steps so that I could get an extensive picture of the gameplay. But what I take with me are very different locations with many elements for the individual cities. A much more extensive world, as I don't know about Rune Factory.

In principle, the new power of the main character gives some new skills that Rune Factory fans are not yet used to: they call the gods in human form to your city and with them you can then go out in the course of history, as with many other figures. But they also breathe new life into dead plants and let you be batching several fields at the same time. They also enable special skills in combat. For example, surface damage that is not possible with the sword, which can also switch into shoulder perspective as a bow as a bow.

The fights are much more complex than I know from the main series. The bosses with their own combat patterns are really fun. However, real-time fight fans can still not expect too complex or action-packed animations, as we know them from some free-to-play games. I am also very much looking forward to the city administration, because in combination with your own farm you can also build shops and assign them to this employee, I seem to be just the right addition to Rune Factory. But the administration of the farm is twice fun from the new top-down perspective.

So far, I have nothing to complain about, as withSo far there was no. Neither on the PC version nor on the Switch, which I was able to test briefly - not even when going through the open world with its dungeons. However, the open areas still seemed somewhat dreary and not very contemporary. But I do not know whether this changes in the course of history with the life that we are supposed to immerse yourself in the world as an earth's dancer. All these things and how much more the characters set to music or how well the many new animations of the Bachelors and Bachelorettes have succeeded, you can see very detailed in the video above. Have fun!

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma appears in30. May 2025For PC and Nintendo Switch. In addition, an improved version for the Nintendo Switch 2 appears immediately when the new console is publishedJune 5, 2025.