Latest news with #RuneFactory
Evening Standard
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
Gaming fans rush to buy new Nintendo Switch 2 before stock runs out
He said: 'I don't think it's hype bubble. I'm only picking it up today mainly because my husband's got a couple of games he's wanted to play that are coming out today, along with the release, like the new Mario Kart and Rune Factory.
Digital Trends
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a solid first RPG for Nintendo Switch 2
Sometimes you need to put a game down in order to appreciate it. That's exactly what happened to me while playing Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. For its first six hours of the RPG, I was thoroughly unimpressed. I enjoyed its town-building and farming systems enough, but a dull story left me feeling like the niche series simply wasn't for me. I put it down and switched to the next game on my queue, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. It was far more similar to Rune Factory than I expected, using the same action RPG meets life sim hook. I sank a good seven hours into it before a surprising thought crossed my mind: I missed Rune Factory. Recommended Videos That anecdote speaks to the ultimate power of Guardians of Azuma. What starts as another run-of-the-mill farming game soon blossoms into an obsession thanks as its sticky hooks reveal themselves one at a time. Even with a bland story and thin combat, there's an engrossing adventure here that will give Nintendo Switch 2 owners their first meaty RPG to sink their teeth into. Learning to love Rune Factory Like previous entries in the long-running Rune Factory series, Guardians of Azuma is an RPG that's just as much about slashing enemies as it is tending crops. This entry follows a (surprise) amnesiac hero looking to heal a world thrown into chaos by an event known as the Celestial Collapse. There's a whole lot of story here, and that's consistently the weakest part of the package. While there's some thrill in battling dragons and uncovering the Gods of the world, flat writing and long bouts of dialogue can feel like more of a chore than, well, the actual chores. While that turned me away initially, the fact that I came back is a testament to what Guardians of Azuma does so well. More central than the high stakes story is the farming and town-building hook surrounding it. This time, my hero needs to take care of four different villages in towns named after the seasons. Each one has polluted plots of land that I can clear out and start building on. I start small in Spring Village, making a 3×3 patch of vegetables that I water, harvest, and sell in a shed. Then, I begin to expand. First I create a blacksmith's shop so I can upgrade my weapons. Then, I'm adding extra business like flower carts to give my town character. Soon enough, I'm obsessing over every detail down to the placement of small decorations. There's not too much thought behind my decision making at first. I'm simply crafting whatever items I can and placing them in spots that seem nice with a grid-based decoration system (it's much easier to use a classic overhead view to decorate than trying to place objects in third-person). The deeper I get, the more I start to pick up on the nuances. Certain shops will raise my stats, while others will give a boost to stats like trading. I begin to make more deliberate decisions, just as I start amassing villagers and assigning them to tasks. Soon enough, I'm making thousands in passive income each day. It's around this point that I bounced off of it and moved on to Fantasy Life. At first, it was a relief. It's a much more streamlined life sim despite having a lot of the same hooks. I spent hours picking up eggs and chopping down trees, happy that I didn't have to keep a spreadsheet to keep track of it all. But as my chores began to feel tedious, my mind started wandering back to Rune Factory. I began to miss my fully automated villages and the dozens of stats powering them. I yearned for all those complicated RPG hooks that gave me a constant sense of progression. Before I knew it, I picked my Switch back up and went back to that digital life. What I found calling to me was the incredible sense of automation that's possible in Guardians of Azuma. In the countless games I've played like it, my constant input is needed to keep the world running. I need to water the flowers, to harvest the crops, and to bargain with merchants. Here, I feel more like the mayor of four towns that can run themselves so long as I'm willing to invest in the right infrastructure. If I build houses, I can court more capable workers. If I construct businesses, they'll make money for the town. If I lay down soil, my farmers will take care of the rest. My job becomes more that of a financier who is setting these towns' economy in motion. There is a sense that the world moves even when I'm not there, and that's a very rare feeling for a video game to truly nail. Of course, there's plenty of work for me to do even when I'm not creating functional towns. The action side of the story has me flying to floating islands and slashing my way through dungeons full of orcs and tanuki. The combat is fairly repetitive, mostly requiring me to mash one button to attack and time dodges to activate slow motion counters, but I even come around to that with time. There's a lot of character building to be done through dense skill trees, equipment to upgrade, and spells to learn that are tied to tools like drums and umbrellas that are unlocked through the story. Most of my fights still tend to go one way as I slash enemies with my dual blades and poke their weak spots with a bow, but I have a lot of control over my build as well as six slots for party members. But frankly, I'm in no rush to see the story through to the end. After trying to blaze through it initially, I've found it more enjoyable to slow my roll and make my villages better piece by piece. I love hunting for frog statues out in the world that unlock more food and decoration recipes. I'm trying to tame as many beasts as I can and turn them into farm animals that hang out in my towns and produce goods. I'm still deciding which of my companions to marry as I go through each one's surprisingly lengthy side-stories that are often more engaging than the primary quest. And above all else, I simply love waking up on a new day and seeing a giant list of yields pop up in the corner of my screen, showing me just how much work my villagers did while I was out adventuring. Guardians of Azuma requires a lot of patience from players and that's something that may keep the Rune Factory series firmly in its niche despite a more vibrant art style that makes it look as grand as a Fire Emblem game. Give it enough time for the wheels to start spinning, though, and you'll find that it's hard to get it off your mind. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma launches on June 5 for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Making a real Switch 2 cartridge instead of a game-key card was "not an easy decision" for the Rune Factory publisher, but "building up goodwill with our fans is always a good investment"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Many third-party publishers are taking advantage of Nintendo's game-key card option for their Switch 2 titles, a fact that's causing no shortage of consternation to physical game collectors. One exception is Marvelous USA, the publisher behind Rune Factory and Story of Seasons, but it was apparently a tough decision to go with proper physical cartridges. "It was not an easy decision," as Marvelous USA co-founder, president, and CEO Ken Berry tells RPG Site, "as it had to be made many months ago when things were very uncertain and we were still learning about how the Game Key Card option worked, but the more we found out about it the more I thought our fans would much prefer the ROM option." Berry shows his own love of physical media by noting that he "didn't purchase a PS5 Pro until I could secure the disc drive add-on first," and says it's Marvelous USA's long-time commitment to releasing lavish physical editions with full manuals and other inserts is "a combination of personal preference and long-term business strategy." "As a big fan of physical I'm always disappointed when I open a case and only the disc or game card is in there, while building up goodwill with our fans is always a good investment," Berry says. Marvelous USA's upcoming Switch 2 games include Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, and Daemon x Machina: Titanic Scion, which alongside Cyberpunk 2077 are the only third-party Switch 2 games currently advertised to come on full cartridges rather than game-key cards. It's important to distinguish Marvelous USA here, as Marvelous in Japan is not so fully committed to proper cartridges – the Japanese version of the new Daemon x Machina is already set to come on a game-key card, after all. "Though I'd love to say all Switch 2 releases from us in the future will go the full ROM route, nothing is guaranteed," Berry says. But he adds that strong sales for Marvelous USA's lineup on physical media could help make the case for the publisher to keep following through. Here are all the Switch 2 launch games you need to know about.
