Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, a brand-new reimagining of the Rune Factory series developed by Marvelous, released on June 5, 2025. The simulation/action RPG brings together key elements of the franchise into a traditional Japan-inspired setting, while also refining systems and improving playability.
Recently, AUTOMATON had a chance to chat with director Shiro Maekawa and producer Hisashi Fujii about their experiences developing Guardians of Azuma, as well as their ideas about where the Rune Factory series might head in the future.
“This was the first time I participated in the development of a Rune Factory title, so it may not be my place to say this, but I felt a really strong potential for the series, and I believe there’s so much more things we can do with it. In this sense, the Rune Factory still hasn’t reached completion in my opinion. One of my goals is to help it reach that final form through future mainline entries,” Fujii commented. As for how Rune Factory could reach its final, completed form – the devs believe the answer may lie in doubling down on the series’ original roots.
“Mr. Yoshifumi Hashimoto, the original creator of the Rune Factory series, once said in an interview that part of the inspiration came from the idea of ‘getting to live in an RPG world even after you’ve beat the Demon Lord’. In other words, I believe that Rune Factory was originally supposed to be a fantasy world you could just keep on living in,” Maekawa said. “I do think it’s good to keep adding new features over time, but from another perspective, I imagine Rune Factory’s “final form” would precisely be a game with a world the player could keep living in forever. Though, whether we can actually pull it off is a completely different story (laughs).”
While most of the games in the Rune Factory series do offer significant endgame activities after you’ve completed the main story, it seems like the devs would like to push the idea of “living happily ever after” in-game even further. As Guardians of Azuma was a prelude to a bigger mainline entry, it will be interesting to see if the next game gets even closer to the developers’ ideal form.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is out now PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
