Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma - Discussion Thread

Covering Innocent Life (PsP/Ps2), Rune Factory 1 (DS), Rune Factory 2 (DS), Rune Factory 3 (DS/Switch), Rune Factory Frontier (Wii), Rune Factory Tides of Destiny (Wii/Ps3), Rune Factory 4 (3DS/Switch/Steam), and Rune Factory 5 (Switch/Steam).
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Bluie wrote: Jan 15, 2025 1:12 am
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.
Or, 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.

Anyways, we have a release date, y'all.

https://www.gematsu.com/2025/01/rune-fa ... hes-may-30
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.
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Guest wrote: Jan 20, 2025 3:24 pm You’re very opinionated, aren’t you?
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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Velvet wrote: Jan 20, 2025 2:52 pm
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.
Thanks! Does that mean that the game is situated in the same location or close by?
The game takes place in Azuma, located faraway from Rigbarth. Hina is in Azuma as part of her job.
Guest wrote: Jan 20, 2025 3:24 pm
Bluie wrote: Jan 15, 2025 1:12 am
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.
Or, 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.

Anyways, we have a release date, y'all.

https://www.gematsu.com/2025/01/rune-fa ... hes-may-30
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.
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, 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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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Here's some bullet points about information discussed in the US live stream.
Spoiler:
  • There seems to be a lot of voice recording done for the main characters Subaru and Kaguya but gameplay shown indicates not everything is voice acted. Perhaps anything storywise will be voice acted while smaller events aren't. Either way, it seems we can expect a lot more voice acting than usual here.
  • Green areas on the minimap inside a village are called development zones and this is where you can setup buildings, roads, farmlands and decorations. As long as you're within the space, you can reorganize however you want.
  • You can move the camera to have an overview of a development zone to see how things are currently laid out and for planning changes.
  • Classic farming is still present (aka not put in a weird backseat like Tides of Destiny). You can till soil within development zones to turn it into farmland. You plan seeds, water them, harvest them. The usual.
  • You can assign villagers to farming duties so they can tend to crops within a development zone. They will water crops, harvest the yield and seeds and deposit them into your storage for you to do as you please with them. This continues even when you're outside the villages and you will get notified when they collected something.
  • You will have sacred treasures that can help you in your farm duties. The sacred drum can speed up crops growth in exchange of RP. The sacred umbrella will act as the upgraded watering can and allow you to water multiple patches of soil at once. The sacred sword can be used to convert one ready to harvest crop into multiple bags of seeds (think of the seed maker in Stardew Valley) for you to replant. There seems to be more sacred treasures and it doesn't look like that you are starting the game with them either. However, they did not say how those sacred treasures are acquired within the game.
  • You can place facilities within development zones like barns but also shops. For example, you can setup a blacksmith and assign a villager to run the blacksmith. It seems that you can go to that blacksmith to make armor and weapons. What this implies to the classic crafting mechanics is unsure.
  • You will be taking care of the villages (they said that you weren't farming just for yourself but not sure how that is reflected in-game) and in exchange the villagers will help you back. Each village seems to have a Village Level associated. No idea what happens when a village levels up.
  • Combat wise, you can have up to 6 party members accompanying you including villagers and monsters both. However, only three can be active on the field at a time. You can however rotate members in real time (Ex: Member 1 goes back to standby while member 4 comes in)
  • If a party member is KOed, they can get back up after a gauge has refilled.
  • You can fight past boss battles by revisiting their location but you have to manually trigger the rematch.
  • The sacred treasures will also be used during battle, each of them having their element when used (the drum is earth, the sword is fire, the umbrella is water). These might be replacing spells as they are called Dances when in combat.
  • (EDIT BECAUSE I FORGOT): Some of the villagers can be in your party but will not be fighting. Instead, they will provide buffs when they are in the active side of the rotation.
  • You can spend time with romance candidates to deepen your bonds with them. Doing so will actually spend time but it can lead to cute moments.
  • There will a special collaboration with Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin with Sakuna herself being in the game and available as a party member.
I probably missed some details, but I think that was most of it.
Last edited by PSI_Nightshade on Jan 22, 2025 9:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Allie
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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!
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Yes, the gameplay footage gave me some good vibes. I'm confident that I'm going to have a good time when I get to play it myself.
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GUYS, MAURO IS A DE SAINTE-COQUILLE AHHHHH
:lala: Currently Playing :lala:
~Rune Factory 4 Special

3DS Friend Code: 5300-9061-6142
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Allie
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FarmingForDaysMan wrote: Jan 25, 2025 5:32 am GUYS, MAURO IS A DE SAINTE-COQUILLE AHHHHH
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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Allie wrote: Jan 25, 2025 5:43 pm
FarmingForDaysMan wrote: Jan 25, 2025 5:32 am GUYS, MAURO IS A DE SAINTE-COQUILLE AHHHHH
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?
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 :>
:lala: Currently Playing :lala:
~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.
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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.
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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.
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SoS: Jackie | Star Farm | Year 1