Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma review for Nintendo Switch – also coming to Switch 2

System: Switch (reviewed) / Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025
Developer: Marvelous
Publisher: Marvelous

In the far eastern region lies the misty country of Azuma – a once-prosperous land now choked by elemental blight and fractured runic energy. After a cataclysmic impact disrupted the flow of life itself, Azuma’s crumbling terrain and brittle fields whisper of a world in quiet ruin. And as is tradition in the Rune Factory series, an amnesiac hero shows up right on cue. But this time, their role is more than just farmhand-turned-savior – they’re the Earth Dancer, a chosen conduit of divine power, tasked with uncovering the truth behind the dying gods of the land.

If that sounds heavier than the usual “plant turnips, flirt with villagers, and occasionally poke monsters in a dungeon,” that’s because it is. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma doesn’t just flirt with genre shift, it has boldly committed to stepping boldly into action RPG territory while still trying to keep a toe in the cozy soil the series was built on. The result? A surprisingly smooth fusion that trades cozy afternoons of farming for elemental warfare all while never fully forgetting its roots, but if you forget the roots, trust that a villager will water them for you, maybe, possibly. Unless they happen to be lazy. That’s a thing.

At its heart, Guardians of Azuma is still a tale of personal growth, community, and the quiet unraveling of world-ending chaos. The core story leans more mythic than mundane: A handful of ancient gods, corrupted guardians, and seasonal villages that each carry a piece of the larger mystery. The Japanese influence is everywhere: shrine-like aesthetics, yokai-inspired enemies, and a reverence for nature that permeates every inch of the land. Azuma is truly beautiful, its wind-swept plains and winding paths through forests and mountains alike feel like they only exist to invite you to traverse them.

The gameplay loop will feel familiar, but your list of priorities will entirely shift from what you might be used to in the mainline Rune Factory games. You’ll still farm! Of course, yes, the crops are back – but now you’re also building up villages, assigning tasks to their inhabitants, and shaping communities by hand. It’s like someone sprinkled a bit of ActRaiser into your Rune Factory stew, and if I must admit, with no surprise at all? It works. The mix of real-time combat with town-building and questing gives you a satisfying sense of progression, even if the romantic subplots are a bit more subdued this time around, which also isn’t unwelcome as a 35-year old parent of a toddler. I’m not in the mood to really romance anything; just let me plant corn and make swords. Could I marry a cute cat girl or a really nicely toned sword guy that I get to watch train every morning from the steps of my shrine? Sure. But I think I’m here to make dragons into hats, actually.

Combat has received a significant upgrade. Blessed tools and elemental weapons give fights a flashy Demon Slayer-like edge, with each region’s blight requiring a different element to clear as well. Bosses are memorable, too – epic in scale and tinged with tragedy. This isn’t just about slashing your way through; it’s about healing what’s broken, one zone at a time. As you fight through each region and get to know its inhabitants, you’ll get to know why the gods slumbered so long, why the runic flow has ceased, and what you can do to help. Of course, you’ll be accepting all the duties the gods see fit to assign to you, but if you’re anything like me you’re more than willing to play errand girl. It’s positively beautiful out there! Put me in coach!

Exploration is where Guardians of Azuma really shines. Every corner of the region feels handcrafted with purpose—lush hillsides give way to secret caves, misty groves hide crumbling ruins, and you’ll constantly find yourself veering off the path because something caught your eye. The usual “run through the area, fight a boss, move on” routine is flipped on its head here; this is a game that rewards curiosity. Scattered throughout Azuma are frog statues and elemental shrines that don’t just look cool – they’re your key to unlocking new recipes and crafting techniques. Instead of relying on the RNG of skill bread like in previous titles (which always felt like rolling the dice with your lunch money), you now earn your progress through exploration. I found myself actively seeking out every statue, just to see what it might give me—finally, a system that respects both your time and your desire to see everything the world has to offer.

This deeper focus on exploration also feeds directly into village progression. Each town has its own Ema Board, a sort of community quest hub filled with side tasks from residents. These aren’t just “kill ten Buffamoo” errands either (though, yes, you’ll still be doing that, collecting 20 bear claws, etc, as one does); they’re part of how you grow your bond with the people and build up their communities. Completing these sidequests levels up your villages, which increases the population cap, unlocks new facilities, and even grants you new decorative options for designing the town layout. Decorating is not just form, but function: decor gives passive buffs to farming and fighting. It’s a satisfying loop: explore, discover, help, grow. Every action you take, whether it’s clearing out a blighted zone or delivering a villager’s favorite dish, contributes to a larger sense of restoration and purpose.

Let’s talk about something I was personally worried about at first, and honestly skeptical over when I first saw the announcement trailer for this game: performance – because after the technical potholes of Rune Factory 5, I braced myself for the worst. But here’s the surprise: Guardians of Azuma runs smooth. On my mid-tier Nintendo Switch, both docked and handheld, I didn’t experience a single crash, no crushing slowdown during enemy-heavy battles, and not once did it feel like the system was struggling to keep up. Whatever optimization magic Marvelous has cooked up here? Keep it coming. This is such an amazing improvement from my last Rune Factory experience on Nintendo Switch that I am excited to see the comparison for how the game behaves on the Switch 2 hardware.

The visual design is vibrant and painterly, with each season’s region bringing its own lush palette. The villages feel alive, and while character models still lean into the series’ anime aesthetic, the environmental detail is what really caught my eye this time. From the tops of a windmill standing under the full moon’s light, Azuma is simply a joy to look at. Nintendo Switch’s hardware really is showing off here, as draw distance is fairly big, and there IS admittedly a little enemy pop-in at a distance, its nowhere near as jarring as it is for players of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, for example. I never felt like the game was chugging or limited by the console.

Controls are intuitive and tight – especially in combat. Swapping between tools and abilities is seamless, and the game does a solid job onboarding new mechanics without overwhelming. There’s still some occasional jank when placing objects or navigating village layouts, but it’s minor in the grand scheme of things. I generally found myself caught up in switching between village editing modes and farming modes, but one other great feature here is the context sensitive tool usage. I have long been a player of both Story of Seasons and Rune Factory, and older games had way more clunky controls that had you switching between your various tools (which each took an inventory slot, too) manually. This took time and was a little slow, but it was just the way of things in the farming simulator genre. Azuma has an approach where you can water, harvest, and remove rocks and stones from your land without having to manually switch. This feels great and kept my momentum rolling when I’d spent part of a day tending to various farm plots.

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a leap – not just forward, but sideways. It’s a series pivot that trades slice-of-life sim energy for elemental action and mythic storytelling, and honestly? It pays off. There’s still plenty for longtime fans to dig into, but this is undeniably a bolder, darker flavor of Rune Factory. It’s less about wooing the local grocery store owner’s daughter (who also likes wine, by the way) and more about restoring the balance of nature with a flaming sword and divine purpose. Sure, I can stop and do some fishing. I can plant some seeds. But I can also do insane crazy town building and kick out lazy workers without a care in the world for their continued existence. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is an entirely different world. And yet, somehow, it still feels like home.

If you’ve stuck with the series through its highs and lows, this is a rejuvenating step in a promising new direction. And if you’re new? This is a fine place to start—just don’t forget to water your crops between boss fights. This game set with eastern flair has me incredibly excited for what’s to come with Rune Factory 6. If you’re new to the farming sim genre, or were turned off before by how slow everything seems to be paced and found yourself wishing for a more robust combat system and a little more action, this is the perfect time to jump in on the series.

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review. Learn about the free Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin collaboration here.