by
Evan Norris
, posted 12 hours in the past / 468 Views
What higher time to reinvent your long-running franchise than with the launch of a model new console? Such is the case with Rune Manufacturing unit: Guardians of Azuma, which is technically a sequel to Rune Manufacturing unit 5 (one of many youthful characters from that recreation seems all grown up right here), however seems like one thing of a comfortable reboot. It encompasses a never-before-seen nation, new skills and weapons, deeper romance choices, and a model new village rebuilding and job task system that considerably adjustments the tenor of the sport.
Guardians of Azuma takes place about 50 years after a cataclysmic occasion known as the Celestial Collapse, throughout which a large object crashed into the jap realm of Azuma, sending fragments of the earth into the sky and throughout the ocean. This nice shattering had a devastating impact on the land, draining runes — the life drive of the world — of their energy, inflicting the seasonal gods to fade, destroying mountains, withering fields, and leaving the denizens of Azuma with out hope. On this determined time, an Earth Dancer affected by reminiscence loss arrives in Spring Village to return life and religion to the realm.
The story in Guardians of Azuma is sweet, if somewhat clichéd. A lot of its concepts and themes — an amnesiac protagonist, a group rallying round a heroic determine, the return of prosperity to a withered, poisoned land — are typical of Rune Manufacturing unit and the style usually. But the sport, just like the overarching sequence, is just not actually about plot. It is extra about temper; environment; forging bonds with neighbors, buddies, and romantic pursuits; and leaving your mark on the land, each bodily and symbolically. Judged on these standards, Guardians of Azuma may be probably the most profitable Rune Manufacturing unit but.
The recipe for achievement in Guardians of Azuma is a sequence of dovetailing, synergistic methods that reinforce and strengthen one another. In brief, that is a type of video video games the place the person methods aren’t distinctive on their very own, however when mixed they create a tapestry of guidelines, suggestions loops, and contact factors that is distinctive.
The middle of this tapestry is the village. Guardians of Azuma has 4 seasonal villages, every with their very own plots of farmland, guest-giving NPCs, patron god, and adjoining dungeon house. And every has the identical expectation: fulfill your duties as village chief by working in improvement zones, happening adventures, and speaking with residents. It is throughout the confines of the event zone the place the sport makes its greatest, most addictive change to the Rune Manufacturing unit establishment.
The event zone is the place you may do all of your farming — a staple of Rune Manufacturing unit. You will until the earth, sow seeds, harvest crops, and place the literal fruits of your labor in a delivery shed to earn earnings the next day. That is all par for the course. What’s totally different on this installment is a village rebuilding system, which lets you clear the land of toxic Blightbloom after which assemble & place buildings, attractive folks to return to every village and contribute. As you plant extra crops and assemble extra homes, retailers, and amenities, not solely will extra residents flock to your hamlet, however the native deity will enhance the extent of the village, which permits for a bigger inhabitants, new gadgets within the retailers, and so on. It is a rewarding, habit-forming course of the place you have got the liberty to mildew the village as you see match whereas concurrently having fun with a satisfying sense of progress and momentum. And issues solely get higher whenever you attain degree three in Spring Village.
At degree three, you may assign villagers to duties, which provides a captivating folks administration facet to the sport. Villagers assigned as farmers will plant any seeds you personal in open fields and paddies, water crops, harvest totally grown crops, and place these crops within the delivery shed. These assigned as loggers will acquire lumber from bushes throughout the confines of the event zones. And people assigned as miners will return to the village with materials stone and ore. You’ll be able to even make a villager a dealer and assign them to a café, flower store, or smithy, and earn some enterprise revenue within the course of. There is a model new layer of town-planning gameplay right here that considerably boosts the strategic potential of the sequence. That is now not “Harvest Moon the place you wield a sword”, as Yoshifumi Hashimoto famously put it. It is Harvest Moon (or, extra precisely, Story of Seasons) the place you wield a sword and a tough hat.
The sword continues to be a significant a part of the equation; don’t be concerned about that. The monsters and demons within the lands past every city aren’t going to slay themselves, in spite of everything. And since virtually the whole lot in Guardians of Azuma influences one thing else, the selections you make within the improvement zone again on the town will have an effect on your efficiency within the monster-infested dungeons adjoining to it. By inserting sure buildings and decorations, you may degree up your character’s HP, Rune Factors, power, magic assault, and so on. And naturally you may want that village revenue to forge and improve your weapons and armor.
The adventuring facet of Guardians of Azuma advantages not solely from this interlocking system however from the nuts and bolts of fight, which underpin the perfect combating framework in the complete sequence, palms down. For one, motion is exceptionally snappy and fluid right here, a noticeable enchancment over the considerably wobbly physics in Rune Factory 5. For an additional, the brand new good dodge mechanic provides a tactical quirk whereby gamers can decelerate time and create a gap for a targeted counterattack. For yet one more, the flexibility to kind a celebration made up of various character varieties — attackers, defenders, buffers, healers — provides much-needed strategic depth. Lastly, a large assortment of weapon varieties, together with brief swords, lengthy swords, talismans, twin blades, and bows, permits for a lot of totally different offensive approaches. If there is a draw back to fight, it is that it falls on the straightforward aspect. I recommend setting the issue to onerous if you wish to be challenged.
Aside from blades, talismans, and bows, you may deliver Sacred Treasures, bestowed by the gods, into fight. The Sacred Drum, for instance, sends out shock waves, whereas the Sacred Sword ignites something within the neighborhood. And, due to the sport’s dovetailing design philosophy, these things additionally play essential roles in farming. Should you bang the Drum close to planted seeds, you may spur their progress, and in case you harvest totally mature greens and fruits with the Sword, you may acquire solely seeds, a few of which have the next degree than the unique crop.
That is not the one synergistic system, although. To be able to invite a villager to affix your adventuring celebration, you need to first elevate the bond degree between the 2 of you, which is a central conceit of the ultimate important pillar of Guardians of Azuma: relationship-building. There are over 20 characters you may befriend within the recreation, together with a few dozen you may turn into entangled with romantically. Fortunately for gamers who take pleasure in unpacking this facet of the sport, Marvelous has severely expanded the choices obtainable to construct a robust rapport. Now not are you restricted to easy greetings and items. Now you may crack jokes, inform tales, stroll collectively within the forest or over the mountain, and even exit for dinner. It’s much more strong.
With so many issues to do and so many relationships to construct, each inside and outdoors every village, Guardians of Azuma is a protracted recreation. It would take you roughly 40 hours to finish the primary storyline and 120+ hours to see the whole lot Azuma has to supply. There’s sufficient content material right here to maintain you busy for months.
Guardians of Azuma improves upon its rapid predecessor in a number of areas, together with fight and romance. It additionally represents an enchancment in the case of efficiency, though at a price. Maybe as a result of Rune Manufacturing unit 5 suffered from so many technical points on Swap — frame-rate drops, pop-in, and, no less than in handheld mode, poor picture high quality — Marvelous has pared again the graphics significantly, delivering a clean, steady expertise on Swap 2. The draw back? Very primary property. There is a flat texture-less high quality to the sport’s outside environments that is off-putting. Now, take note this does not apply to the primary characters and monsters, all of whom profit from a comfortable cel-shaded look and wonderful character designs from Atsushi Igarashi and Yongjian Jin. The world during which they function, nonetheless, is anemic at instances.
There’s nothing anemic concerning the recreation’s soundscape, because of atmospheric ambient noise, serene songs that includes conventional Japanese devices like shamisen and taiko drum, and several other beautiful voice performances anchored by Brandon McInnis as Subaru and Suzie Yeung as Kaguya. Apparently, all of the superior friendship and romance situations are totally voiced, demonstrating Marvelous went the additional mile by way of voice performing, even when it minimize a number of corners visually.
Some visible inadequacies aren’t sufficient to tarnish the general package deal in Guardians of Azuma, which ranks among the many greatest Rune Manufacturing unit video games. By retaining the core elements of the franchise — farming, combating, and flirting — and infusing them with addictive city planning and folks administration features, deeper tactical and strategic fight choices, and extra significant romance pathways, Marvelous has pushed the franchise ahead in a daring new course. It is going to be thrilling to see the place Rune Manufacturing unit 6 takes it from right here.
This overview is predicated on a digital copy of Rune Manufacturing unit: Guardians of Azuma for the NS2, offered by the writer.
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