You’re very opinionated, aren’t you? Acting as if your opinions are some fact. No. RF5 is not “objectively worse than its predecessors”. You don’t know what the word means. I can’t even bring myself to finish RF3 special despite how short it is, yet I have about 200 hours in RF 5 all together. I waited 10 years as well, and I was satisfied. All your comment did was prove me right about you being driven by nostalgia. Hell, you said the first one is your favorite. RF 5 was not clumsy. It was just more Rune Factory, and it was damn good at being that. Stop speaking for “the masses”. Your little Reddit community or whatever isn’t the masses. And anybody recommending 3 over 5 is just doing it because of, again, nostalgia. Because 3 is pretty bare bones compared to 5. The only thing about 5 that is “objectively worse” is its performance on Switch. Otherwise, I see it as the 2nd best game in the series.Bluie wrote: ↑Jan 15, 2025 1:12 amOr, you know, we could just be disappointed after waiting 10 years and receiving a product that fails to catch the magic of the previous numbered entries. I like Rune Factory 5 well enough, but it's not ignorant to see 4 is a better, well put together gaming experience. And before you go on about 'nostalgia' again, my favorite in the series is the original, which is extremely hard to swallow gameplay wise in today's day and age. RF4 is in no way my favorite, but it's the most polished entry in the series by far. For numbered entries, 1-4 continually built upon themselves to the point of reaching gameplay that not only pleased the target audience, but got a ton of other people into the series. Rune Factory 5... clumsily tried to transition into 3D like the spinoffs without all their quirky features, and it failed to recapture the audience RF4 had brought in. It humbly sits a being 'OK' or 'Bad' among the fans and masses while they go onto recommend the previous two (remastered) numbered entries instead because they're just better overall gaming experiences. So yes, it's 'more' Rune Factory in '3D', but it's objectively worse than it's predecessors. While I've replayed every numbered entry before 5 more times than I can count each, RF5 has yet to pull me back to it for a second playthrough - because it wasn't as fun, and quite frankly, was a chore to play at times.Guest wrote: ↑Dec 30, 2024 3:49 pm What’s with all the RF5 hate here? Seems pretty ignorant, some of you even calling it straight up bad. I’m thinking you just have nostalgia for the past games, because 5 is just more Rune Factory, but a 3D mainline one. As opposed to the two other 3D ones that did things a bit differently from the numbered games.
Anyways, we have a release date, y'all.
https://www.gematsu.com/2025/01/rune-fa ... hes-may-30
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma - Discussion Thread
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- Anonymous Fish
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- UNoT Extreme Mooomber
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And you're not?
Being opinionated isn't a crime in any case, nor even a flaw.
You're the one who stomped in here acting like only one opinion was okay to have, and insulted everyone whose opinion was different than yours. You're also the one who said "And anybody recommending 3 over 5 is just doing it because of, again, nostalgia." That is stating an opinion as a fact.
Everyone else just says how they feel about the game and leaves it at that. Nobody tells those who like or love 5 that they are stupid or misguided or in any other way insults their opinion. Those who do love 5 seem to be in a minority on Fogu...we haven't done a poll to see what the percentage is, mind you...but there definitely are some.

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- Custodian of Corn
- Posts: 457
- Joined: Jul 26, 2009 12:11 am
The game takes place in Azuma, located faraway from Rigbarth. Hina is in Azuma as part of her job.Velvet wrote: ↑Jan 20, 2025 2:52 pmThanks! Does that mean that the game is situated in the same location or close by?PaleSunflower wrote: ↑Jan 20, 2025 12:50 pm Hina from RF5 is definitely in RF:GoA. She's grown up now (so she looks different), but she's present.
I would hope that a game released for the Switch in 2023 would be more expansive than a game for the DS back in 2009. RF3 Special being a remaster doesn't change that it's fundamentally a DS game. It also doesn't change that RF5 is rated lower than the other rated RF games on Metacritic, except for RF:ToD, which is rated lower than RF5 by critics. Looking at the average audience reviews, RF5 is the worst rated RF game, including RF:ToD.Guest wrote: ↑Jan 20, 2025 3:24 pmYou’re very opinionated, aren’t you? Acting as if your opinions are some fact. No. RF5 is not “objectively worse than its predecessors”. You don’t know what the word means. I can’t even bring myself to finish RF3 special despite how short it is, yet I have about 200 hours in RF 5 all together. I waited 10 years as well, and I was satisfied. All your comment did was prove me right about you being driven by nostalgia. Hell, you said the first one is your favorite. RF 5 was not clumsy. It was just more Rune Factory, and it was damn good at being that. Stop speaking for “the masses”. Your little Reddit community or whatever isn’t the masses. And anybody recommending 3 over 5 is just doing it because of, again, nostalgia. Because 3 is pretty bare bones compared to 5. The only thing about 5 that is “objectively worse” is its performance on Switch. Otherwise, I see it as the 2nd best game in the series.Bluie wrote: ↑Jan 15, 2025 1:12 amOr, you know, we could just be disappointed after waiting 10 years and receiving a product that fails to catch the magic of the previous numbered entries. I like Rune Factory 5 well enough, but it's not ignorant to see 4 is a better, well put together gaming experience. And before you go on about 'nostalgia' again, my favorite in the series is the original, which is extremely hard to swallow gameplay wise in today's day and age. RF4 is in no way my favorite, but it's the most polished entry in the series by far. For numbered entries, 1-4 continually built upon themselves to the point of reaching gameplay that not only pleased the target audience, but got a ton of other people into the series. Rune Factory 5... clumsily tried to transition into 3D like the spinoffs without all their quirky features, and it failed to recapture the audience RF4 had brought in. It humbly sits a being 'OK' or 'Bad' among the fans and masses while they go onto recommend the previous two (remastered) numbered entries instead because they're just better overall gaming experiences. So yes, it's 'more' Rune Factory in '3D', but it's objectively worse than it's predecessors. While I've replayed every numbered entry before 5 more times than I can count each, RF5 has yet to pull me back to it for a second playthrough - because it wasn't as fun, and quite frankly, was a chore to play at times.Guest wrote: ↑Dec 30, 2024 3:49 pm What’s with all the RF5 hate here? Seems pretty ignorant, some of you even calling it straight up bad. I’m thinking you just have nostalgia for the past games, because 5 is just more Rune Factory, but a 3D mainline one. As opposed to the two other 3D ones that did things a bit differently from the numbered games.
Anyways, we have a release date, y'all.
https://www.gematsu.com/2025/01/rune-fa ... hes-may-30
Guest, you are allowed to enjoy games that other people either found disappointing or bad. RF5 is not a princess whose honor needs protecting, especially when you give such faint praise such as it being less bare-bones than a game from nearly 15 years before it.
Anyway, enough taking the bait. I am assuming that the Guest is a troll.
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- UNoT Extreme Mooomber
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All I'm reading here is that you really clicked with RF5 and take it as a personal insult when people don't enjoy it as much as you. Please go drink some water and touch grass, if it's available to you in the middle of winter.Guest wrote: ↑Jan 20, 2025 3:24 pmYou’re very opinionated, aren’t you? Acting as if your opinions are some fact. No. RF5 is not “objectively worse than its predecessors”. You don’t know what the word means. I can’t even bring myself to finish RF3 special despite how short it is, yet I have about 200 hours in RF 5 all together. I waited 10 years as well, and I was satisfied. All your comment did was prove me right about you being driven by nostalgia. Hell, you said the first one is your favorite. RF 5 was not clumsy. It was just more Rune Factory, and it was damn good at being that. Stop speaking for “the masses”. Your little Reddit community or whatever isn’t the masses. And anybody recommending 3 over 5 is just doing it because of, again, nostalgia. Because 3 is pretty bare bones compared to 5. The only thing about 5 that is “objectively worse” is its performance on Switch. Otherwise, I see it as the 2nd best game in the series.
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- Tubular Turnip Farmer
- Posts: 386
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Both Marvelous JP and Marvelous USA did live streams to preview this game. The JP stream was done using the Switch version and the US stream was done using the PC footage.
The Switch ver footage starts at around the 1 hour mark.
And the PC footage starts at around 28 minutes here.
While the PC version clearly has cleaner visuals and better performance, I think the Switch version looks and runs just fine.
Both the streams showed off some romance cutscenes. The one with the male MC closely hugging Hina and them talking to each other is some intimacy I didn't expect seeing from Marvelous. Here for it though! I'm also really digging the emphasis on quality animations.
The Switch ver footage starts at around the 1 hour mark.
And the PC footage starts at around 28 minutes here.
While the PC version clearly has cleaner visuals and better performance, I think the Switch version looks and runs just fine.
Both the streams showed off some romance cutscenes. The one with the male MC closely hugging Hina and them talking to each other is some intimacy I didn't expect seeing from Marvelous. Here for it though! I'm also really digging the emphasis on quality animations.

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- UNoT Extreme Mooomber
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Thanks for the footage 
The Switch version looks...odd. Not bad, but like it was 'filmed' poorly. Like the processing speed was too slow or something...it looked like the character was moving so fast that the pixels couldn't keep up with them, lol. The sharpness would snap back in suddenly...you'd see every blade of grass and it looked great...and then suddenly it'd be blurry again.
I can't tell if that's a problem with the recording, or with the game's own performance on Switch.
The PC version footage seems to have the issue less, though. But then, you can always get the game on PC, I suppose! They do release on the same day.

The Switch version looks...odd. Not bad, but like it was 'filmed' poorly. Like the processing speed was too slow or something...it looked like the character was moving so fast that the pixels couldn't keep up with them, lol. The sharpness would snap back in suddenly...you'd see every blade of grass and it looked great...and then suddenly it'd be blurry again.
I can't tell if that's a problem with the recording, or with the game's own performance on Switch.
The PC version footage seems to have the issue less, though. But then, you can always get the game on PC, I suppose! They do release on the same day.

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- New Seedling
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Oct 06, 2024 1:30 pm
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- Anonymous Fish
I'm really excited after watching the livestream! They did a great job of showcasing it and there's so many things that stand out as improvements, particularly from a character standpoint which is my favorite part of these sim games. First, one detail worth mentioning is seen in the US footage at 45:01 and 45:38, party members talking to each other and not just the mc!! Murasame talking to Suzu (who also interests me as a party member who doesn't fight but debuffs instead), and then Suzu talking to Iroha and even getting a response. It makes the party you've formed feel more real and I know being able to hear conversations like that between party members after combat while walking around will make dungeons so much better!
Then there's the fact that we've upgraded from just dates and love events to also initiating cute everyday activities together! At first I thought they would all be short and sweet like the kiss (which even that would still be an upgrade for me for the sake of variety). But even better when we get to the handholding one and there was so much dialogue and expressions! I'm happy you've linked the Japanese livestream too so that I could see the hug, which was really adorable as well. Also it's great that it's confirmed that different candidates will prefer different activities (like how Hina is smart so likes intellectual discussion, but others might not prefer it). I look forward to learning everyone's preferences and trying out all the options!
Then there's the fact that we've upgraded from just dates and love events to also initiating cute everyday activities together! At first I thought they would all be short and sweet like the kiss (which even that would still be an upgrade for me for the sake of variety). But even better when we get to the handholding one and there was so much dialogue and expressions! I'm happy you've linked the Japanese livestream too so that I could see the hug, which was really adorable as well. Also it's great that it's confirmed that different candidates will prefer different activities (like how Hina is smart so likes intellectual discussion, but others might not prefer it). I look forward to learning everyone's preferences and trying out all the options!
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- New Seedling
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- Huggy Chickens
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- Anonymous Fish
Wow is he?? I had seen speculation but nothing confirmed, that's so cool! Our first male DSC candidate!!
That makes sense now with his cutscene with what looked like Porco's airship, and also it's interesting he's a treasure hunter. Maybe he's looking to expand his family's wealth or maybe the DSC family have fallen on hard times lately?
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- Huggy Chickens
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Yeah, I had a friend tell me this morning that he had been confirmed as a DSC in the Japanese gameplay video :D He was already my first choice of the bachelors, but now he’s 10000% my first choice :>Allie wrote: ↑Jan 25, 2025 5:43 pmWow is he?? I had seen speculation but nothing confirmed, that's so cool! Our first male DSC candidate!!
That makes sense now with his cutscene with what looked like Porco's airship, and also it's interesting he's a treasure hunter. Maybe he's looking to expand his family's wealth or maybe the DSC family have fallen on hard times lately?


~Rune Factory 4 Special
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If anyone has no idea who Mauro is, and doesn't want to watch YouTube videos of people yapping away about their opinions on the candidates just to see who the candidates ARE, you can go to the official English site and look at nice, crisp images of all the characters, along with short blurb on each.
Mauro is the blond wearing a cap with aviator goggles on it.
His looks don't suit me at all and I don't care what family he comes from, even if I did want to marry Porco...it doesn't carry over to the rest of his family automatically. So he's probably not the one for me. Unless someone's personality blows me out of the water, I'll probably choose one of the older-looking guys. Or an androgynous one. I know what I'm like, lol.
EDIT: Oh. Just to spare everyone some disappointment (or give you some relief in advance)...the wooly is not a romance candidate, as far as I know. It's just there because it's the one other character we know about. It's the MC's sidekick.
Mauro is the blond wearing a cap with aviator goggles on it.
His looks don't suit me at all and I don't care what family he comes from, even if I did want to marry Porco...it doesn't carry over to the rest of his family automatically. So he's probably not the one for me. Unless someone's personality blows me out of the water, I'll probably choose one of the older-looking guys. Or an androgynous one. I know what I'm like, lol.
EDIT: Oh. Just to spare everyone some disappointment (or give you some relief in advance)...the wooly is not a romance candidate, as far as I know. It's just there because it's the one other character we know about. It's the MC's sidekick.

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- UNoT Extreme Mooomber
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Funnily enough, the one thing that caught my attention the most is that Sakuna and Tama from Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin are going to be villagers via DLC. They might be purely cosmetic, but I think it's a really nice thing to have. It's great that Sakuna became popular enough to not only have an anime adaption, but to get a cameo in the farming sim spinoff that no doubt inspired her own game.
Spoiler:
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- Crazy Cow Herder
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Ehhh on the love interests. I prefer the RF5 bachelorettes over these ones, and Murakumo over everyone. I appreciate that we have more variation with these love interests, like they look pretty distinct from one another. Though they also feel kind of generic for me, like they could be from most visual novels or gacha games.

SoS: Jackie | Star Farm | Year 1