{"id":52028,"date":"2025-09-17T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=52028"},"modified":"2025-09-17T11:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T02:37:20","slug":"rune-factory-devs-see-the-series-final-form-as-a-game-you-can-keep-living-in-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/rune-factory-devs-see-the-series-final-form-as-a-game-you-can-keep-living-in-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Rune Factory devs see the series\u2019 \u201cfinal form\u201d as a game you can keep living in forever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma - Features Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L_Jjh6CpQF0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis 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\u2019s so much more things we can do with it. In this sense, the Rune Factory still hasn\u2019t reached completion in my opinion. One of my goals is to help it reach that final form through future mainline entries,\u201d Fujii commented. As for how Rune Factory could reach its final, completed form \u2013 the devs believe the answer may lie in doubling down on the series\u2019 original roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250917-520280001.jpg\" alt=\"Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma\" class=\"wp-image-52029\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250917-520280001.jpg 960w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250917-520280001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/20250917-520280001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMr. 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 \u2018getting to live in an RPG world even after you\u2019ve beat the Demon Lord\u2019. In other words, I believe that Rune Factory was originally supposed to be a fantasy world you could just keep on living in,\u201d Maekawa said. \u201cI do think it\u2019s good to keep adding new features over time, but from another perspective, I imagine Rune Factory\u2019s \u201cfinal form\u201d 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).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While most of the games in the Rune Factory series do offer significant endgame activities after you\u2019ve completed the main story, it seems like the devs would like to push the idea of \u201cliving happily ever after\u201d in-game even further. As Guardians of Azuma was<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/rune-factory-devs-created-guardians-of-azuma-as-a-way-to-experiment-with-the-ip-before-tackling-a-new-mainline-entry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> a prelude to a bigger mainline entry<\/a>, it will be interesting to see if the next game gets even closer to the developers\u2019 ideal form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/na.runefactory.com\/azuma\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma<\/a>\u00a0is out now PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma director Shiro Maekawa and producer Hisashi Fujii tell us about the future they envision for the series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":52031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-52028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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