Marvelous released Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, the latest entry in the long-running fantasy sim JRPG series, on June 5. While the new re-imagining follows the series’ tradition with dungeon crawling, boss battles, slow life and romance, it differentiates itself from past Rune Factory entries by allowing players to build their own village in a distinctly Japanese-style setting. It also introduces a number of playability upgrades compared to predecessors. In fact, for its creators, Guardians of Azuma was a place to experiment with the formula before tackling a new mainline entry.
Talking to AUTOMATON, game director Shiro Maekawa says that the project was launched as a way to prevent the Rune Factory series from stagnating – a tendency he noticed with recent mainline entries. “When we finished developing Rune Factory 5 (2021), I explained to our higher-ups that the game was essentially a direct port of Rune Factory 4’s systems into 3D. Because of that, the overall impression felt quite close to Rune Factory 4, and I felt like the gaming experience didn’t change that much. To be honest, even when I played Rune Factory 4 back when it came out, I felt that what it offered wasn’t all that different from Rune Factory 3.”
Maekawa believed that if continued into future installments, this tendency would cause the franchise to grow stagnant. “I knew we needed to create something new. However, if we suddenly tried to insert something drastically different into a future “Rune Factory 6,” that would be very risky. Fortunately, since the series already had spin-off titles like Tides of Destiny and Frontier, I figured I could follow that trend to try out something new.”
In order not to disrupt tradition in the numbered entries and risk disappointing fans, Guardians of Azuma became a place for the devs to test the waters. As such, it goes without saying that they’re keeping a close eye on how players are responding to the game. “We hope to carry over well-received aspects of the game into Rune Factory’s next numbered title.”
Speaking of reception, Marvelous’ experimental title has proven quite successful so far, selling over 500,000 units as of August 18 and earning a “Very Positive” rating on Steam with 91% of user reviews positive. The developers have felt this directly: “We’ve been closely following user reactions, and we definitely feel a strong response. I think the combination of Rune Factory’s existing potential and the improvements we made to playability this has attracted a wider audience.”
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is available for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
