Verdict
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a great time full of agriculture, decoration and making friends. The game is really cold, with an intriguing history and lots to do, but the performance on Nintendo Switch can leave a lot to be desired because of muddy graphics and pop-ins.
I love agricultural games. Really yes. However, I have never played Rune’s factory game, so I took the opportunity to look at Rune Factory: Guardians of AzumaAnd I wasn’t disappointed. Well, mainly. The game offers a wide range of things to do and tasks to take you, but it looks a bit like my OLED Nintendo Switch.
Guardians of Azuma is full of standard cozy, well agricultural tariff. You can fish, deliver your villages, build them, move people and of course grow a wide range of crops. You can go out to the fields and hit some enemies and take off your bosses when you are at the same time, and then return home and repel this special person on a date in the tea room.
The most significant thing that I want to take care of the first is the performance of the game in Nintendo Switch. It works well, but it looks like. I had no failures, the screen tearing or any real problems with the number of frames per second, but the aesthetics suffered a bit. The bushes and furniture appear when approaching, and NPCs are very shaken until you are close. Textures can take a while, leaving paths, mountains and rock faces looking blurred and flat. In general, charging time can also be faster.
The Switch 2 Rune Factory version can fix some of these problems, and may also be less in the PC version. However, if you only have a switch – especially OLED – you can play it. It will not look amazing, but it is a really comical agricultural and management game that pulled me in and should have the same impact on you if you are a fan of these species.
A quick note about screenshots in this review-who has ever moved the screenshots of the switching to the computer to the computer, knows how crunchy and low, so the game is not as bad as they look like screenshots, but you can see the lack of textures and muddy graphics.
Now it doesn’t bother, let’s immerse ourselves in the game. You start as a mysterious land dancer who landed in Spring Village, with a earnest case of amnesia. Soon he presents you with miniature, high sheep and follows you. This is not quite Paimon Impact Genshin, but it is close enough. You almost have immediate work to collect materials and fix the city, along with making friends with people, and then, saving the world.
You really became the head of the village – although it can be a discouraging promotion, it is clear that Spring Village needs a decorative touch. You get a gigantic plot to fill with houses, business buildings and farms. The more you grow, the more money you earn. But don’t forget to assign your villagers to other works. They can collect materials, handle shops, as well as down the line, ranch and fish for you.
I really got to the village management page of this game. I felt when I went to make a preview of Guardians of Azuma at the beginning of this year, but oh, boy if I got my claws. From setting waterways and rice fields to making sure that each village has a general shop, Saltern and at least one UDON stroller, I have my hands full.
At the beginning there are many tutorials, with cutscenes interlaced. Guardians of Azuma allows you to take it all, and drip feeding modern mechanics, so it is not overwhelming at the same time. I mean, after all, you have a whole wheel of tool for utilize, but with time you get them gradually, so you did not drop, wondering what an umbrella, burning sword or drum does … each of them gives you special skills and has different applications in battle, from healing enemies in a mighty top.
I have not touched the fight yet, because this is not the main goal of the game, but you need to take off the boss to develop history. Fortunately, you encourage team members to take with you. The first character impact to the bond unlocks the possibility of having them as colleagues from teams who can attack, treat or debut.
You can easily improve your efficiency in all areas, modernizing weapons in blacksmithing and unlocking modern skills on numerous skill trees. I do not intend to lie, I forgot about it up to about eight hours, and then I had so many points to spend that I barely knew where to start, but now all my skills are well. There is also a difficulty option if you want an basic fight or particularly tough – modes for beginners and difficult will match various players.
Of course, history develops while playing, but I will not spoil what happens – it depends on you. Although I really enjoy this game, I am very content to see what it looks like on Nintendo Switch 2 – and even on PC. The performance of the original switch is not great and while I am pressing with it, I cannot recommend it in good faith if there are better options. When Switch 2 enters my hands, I will update this review about how the game works and looks.
It can still be on our list of our favorite cozy games, and if you can’t wait for Switch 2, you can see which other upcoming Switch games release next to Guardians of Azuma.
