Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Welcome to the eastern nation of Azuma! In this fresh take on Rune Factory, use your powers as an Earth Dancer to restore the land, its people, and even its gods. Along the way, battle corrupted monsters, rebuild seasonal farms and villages, and form bonds with the colorful locals.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a rpg, action and adventure game
developed by Marvelous Inc.
and published by XSEED Games, Marvelous USA, Inc. and Marvelous Europe.
Released on June 04th 2025 is available only on Windows
in 8 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean.
It has received 3,537 reviews of which 3,129 were positive and 408 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.5 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 59.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 23.95€ on Eneba.
The Steam community has classified Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma into these genres:
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System requirements
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Windows
- OS: Windows 10 and 11
- Processor: Intel Core i5-10400
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 20 GB available space
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User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma takes a western fantasy-inspired series eastwards in this new spinoff game. And since it’s a spinoff and not a proper numbered entry, that means the game gets to try things of its own. How does it fare? The farming has been simplified, going for the bare minimum. That means there’s no health or levels for soil among others. It’s clear the focus is not on farming on its own, but on the new village building mechanics. You can build houses and other establishments and have generic villagers do various jobs – tending to crops, working at shops, chopping wood, mining, etc. You also have to decorate the village to increase village level and gain various bonuses like stat boosts or improving areas of proficiency for villagers. You can make the villages autonomous, generating cash, so you don’t have to engage with it too deeply either. As a “city builder” type of game, it is competent, but that’s it. One problem is that you either want to make “aesthetic” villages or “functional” villages, since there’s just not enough space to have lots of décor and buildings and make it look adequate, most notably in summer and winter villages (it used to be worse for the former before the patch!!). The combat has a better feel than that of Rune Factory 5 , thanks in part to more open level design, but mechanically also simplified. In previous games, you could customize weapons during crafting or with upgrading, giving special properties or exploiting stat ailments, and there was consideration for trading off defense and offense for different weapon types, and you can’t throw bad stuff at enemies like Object X or failed dishes. That means the combat of this game boils down to choosing bigger numbers and abusing sacred treasures. The visuals are very nice. I praised Rune Factory 5 for having a bright and colorful aesthetic, but this game triple downs on that, the visuals are even more vibrant and stylish. The modeling is great. There’s no 2D sprites for conversations, but the characters are expressive and well animated. The graphics are definitely one of the highlights of this game, especially since arguably none of the previous games were particularly impressive in this department. I noted in my review of Rune Factory 5 that it lacked a jumping mechanic, which could’ve elevated the world exploration and combat. Look at that! Jumping! There’s now an element of platforming and verticality, and the traversal is more enjoyable with jumping, and you can attack in air as well. The world design in general is VASTLY improved, the exploration is much more enjoyable and detailed. I hope they’ll bring the jumping mechanic and these world design sensibilities into Rune Factory 6 . The music is different, this time handled by Noriyuki Asakura, notable for contributing to the soundtrack of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice . All previous games’ music was handled by Tomoko Morita, this time credited for sound design, with some similar jingles like sleeping and levelling up, but easternized. I think the soundtrack is okay, but I prefer the music of previous games. There aren’t many memorable and fun tunes, mostly atmospheric. It probably doesn’t help that with all sound settings being at max, the music is quiet relative to everything else. While not a big deal in villages, the sound effects and voice lines drown it during combat, which means you can barely hear combat or boss battle themes. The story is good. I’ll admit, I wasn’t very invested in it initially, but it does become more interesting later on. First, you go rescue the 4 gods of seasons and their respective villages, and then some shenanigans happen. I like how both gender characters are present at the same time, instead of being a simple binary choice, and you duke it out in the intro. And there’s even one choice with actual consequences and some pretty good emotional moments. The voice acting also helps. Speaking of, the production values are improved substantially, the main story is almost fully voiced, as well as bond stories, and the cutscenes aren’t as stilted. For a game that otherwise has some solid writing, it is disappointing to see the “Let’s Chat” option result in characters saying generic stuff, the chats were more enjoyable in previous games, it reminds me of those generic NPCs of Rune Factory 5 in a bad way. Rune Factory 4 is still the king in this regard. The addition of hanging out is a positive and I would like to have it in future games. Sure, the options are generic and typically result in a short cutscene, but it’s better than nothing. Bond is easier and more enjoyable to level up, with characters having preferences for different activities. I also like the bond stories, though they are only available for romance candidates, they do a decent job of fleshing out the characters and giving interesting stories to chew on. I also like dialogue when outside of villages, with some NPC combinations bouncing off each other. Same-sex marriage integration has been improved. No longer is there confusion about how to get a child for couples of the same gender. Not only is it better mechanically, even lore-wise I like it more. For how hyped the feature was for Rune Factory 5 , the way you get a kid was actually a let down. You pray to the tree and it just gives you babies. In this game you pray to the shrine, and plant a turnip and it grows into a kid. It feels more unique and natural for the series. There are a few changes that make the game lose a little bit of Rune Factory identity in my eyes. RP is now a generic mana pool. In previous games, RP was both mana and your stamina, pretty much everything you did required RP, combat, farming, crafting, you name it. In this game, it’s only used for Sacred Treasures (expect for Plum Branch). While in combat, they act as powerful attacks or healing in case of Sacred Drum, which can be pretty useful. As for farming, only Sacred Drum and Sacred Sword are worthwhile, which is half of sacred treasures that can be used for farming. They even renamed some items like flowers from unique names like Toyherb -> Daisy or Charm Blue -> Bluebell Flower, which makes the game (and the series if you haven’t played previous games) appear more generic. Feels like they didn’t have the creative juices to make up some new fantasy flowers/crops exclusive to Azuma. The skill progression has been gamified. You gain All-Purpose EXP for doing general activities like farming, combat, shopping, etc, and then there’s specific EXP for stuff like different weapons or sacred treasures, crafting or social activities. All-Purpose EXP can be a substitute to specific EXP in case you don’t have enough. You use EXP to unlock stat boosts and some perks in various skill trees, like making sell prices better or unlocking new combat moves. This system feels a bit more generic in comparison to how your character growth was handled before. Also, it’s funny to imagine that you can unlock an ability to share a kiss with your loved one by fishing days long (that is a real unlock by the way). Overall, while I am positive about Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma , and it might be a better game than Rune Factory 5 if we take into account production values and polish... I prefer the gameplay of mainline entries. Some of the streamlined, simplified and removed elements mean there’s less engaging mechanics to occupy yourself with, there’s little satisfaction in doing general activities on their own, and there’s not as much stuff to do. I do think this game is a worthy addition, though maybe not $60. There’s some fun to be had, it has an interesting story, lovable characters, pretty visuals, and some elements worth bringing into future entries. I like to think of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma as a distraction, a vacation of sorts. And everyone deserves a vacation.
This is amazing for a spin-off!! I'm really hopeful for what's in store for Rune Factory 6 after playing this new one. There's 4 different villages you can decorate, and a fully voiced story. It's way longer, and I think better than the other RF stories! The voice actors chosen for this were outstanding. It makes you like the characters even more than you thought you would have before! It's sort of like Genshin Impact, without the gacha elements. Plus, the protagonist gets to talk a lot more! Woolby isn't interrupting you all the time. He always lets you speak, even though he seems to always be there by your side. There are SO MANY bonding events. I was actually surprised by how many hours worth of scenes there are in this game. I thought it would surely be a short story, considering it's a spin-off. But I actually think I liked Guardians of Azuma more than Rune Factory 5! And speaking of bonding, I want to mention that you can gain friendship with the townsfolk by doing activities with them! That's right. Say goodbye to gift spamming! It's easy to get their bond levels up if you do something they like, or love, every day. This is a great addition, and I hope that future RF's have these activities as well. I remember how long it took to get the ingredients I needed to make 50+ copies of the same dish for my friends previously. The combat is as fun as always! I have nothing more to say than I just love it. All of the different weapon types make it even better than it would be with only a sword. We got a bow in this one! Something that was never there before. Talismans are also new. I like those more! It's not as focused on farming as all the other games are, but that's okay with me. I'm happy with having something different for a change. I treated it more as an RPG, while the others were more of a mix. I love Rune Factory for that! I always will. The sacred treasures. Did I forget to mention the sacred treasures? All of them are amazing! I always used the Sacred Fan for combat. Parasol was my second favorite. They were a lot of fun to use! I think that's all I have to say for now. Happy to say that I'm optimistic about the future of Rune Factory!
8.8/10 - I so badly want to give it a 9 because this is one of the most enjoyable Rune Factory games I have every played (I have been here since the release of the first Rune Factory game and have played every game since), but a series of small gripes that piled up during the late-game hold me back. PROS: -Game is gorgeous! I often feel sad about the lack of 2d portraits in these types of games, but I actually didn't notice it at all in this game! The 3D models are very expressive and nice to look at. The world is pleasantly populated between the NPCs, villagers, and townsfolk, without being overwhelming. -SO MUCH QUALITY OF LIFE like seriously. Warping is convenient, building is convenient, the map shows you right where all of the characters are. Almost everything you need is right at your fingertips at all times, and even if it's not, it's just one quick teleport away. The game has built-in records for monsters that includes what region they're in, what they drop, and lots of other useful info. -frogs :) -Collectibles are not ridiculously hidden, and give frequent rewards that help them not to feel like a slog. Normally I hate collectibles, but I felt these were incorporated into the world very well and were very satisfying to complete. I didn't need any guides to finish them, either. -The characters are very diverse in personality and SO lovable. I can't say TOO much without giving spoilers, but I really enjoyed the bond quests of even characters I didn't think I would like! The interaction between characters is also MWAH *chef's kiss*. The characters' personal stories have a nice mix of light-hearted banter and more serious moments, that help to give the characters more depth without breaking the overall cheerful vibes of the game. -I enjoyed the majority of the story! Though it wasn't especially moving or hard-hitting, it was engaging and the characters are so well done that it's a pleasure to watch them interact every time. HOWEVER... See cons for my one complaint about the main story :( -Exploration is fun without being overwhelming. Maps vary from pretty big (outside towns) to small, dungeon-like areas. There's no need to check every nook and crevice, but there's still some fun environmental puzzles like "how do I reach that!?" that take advantage of the various mechanics in the game. -I love checklists! Yes! Tell me about how I completed 15 requests and check it off the list!!! Half-jokes aside, I do like to have nice clear-cut goals and requirements for progression. Events are logged, main story quests are logged, and your villages' progression... yeah, that's logged too! You can choose not to look at it if you don't want to, but it's there if you lost track of something. -Building is really fun! It's much easier to use than house furnishing in previous games, and honestly looks pretty good too. Making little themed areas feels cute and satisfying~ Min-max type players might hate it though, as important stats such as max RP are affected by your buildings/decorations. -Each weapon and sacred treasure feels very different to use. The combat isn't deep, but it's smooth! NEUTRALS: -this is entirely dependent on how you play the game, but I... have done very little farming in my farming rpg!? The villagers handle just about everything for me. This is really nice in that it allows me to skip the daily chores and focus on exploring, talking to people, etc. but as the game progressed I found myself missing that daily routine. In post-game, I have made the active choice to remove all villagers from the farming role so that I can get that feeling back, and it's been really nice! I also choose to water and plant my crops directly, rather than through the much faster and impersonal overhead view, but I really enjoy how this system allows for so much flexibility in play style. -I find the music in most areas not very memorable. However, the music isn't bad, and in some areas I did quite like the music! In many ways, it's just pleasantly unobtrusive, which might be perfect for some people. -accessing post-game is locked behind a function ( having a kid ) not all players may wish to engage with. Although this will not be a problem for the vast majority of players, I think it is worth noting. -contests are something that you schedule, rather than fixed events. It's... an interesting idea, at least, and certainly makes it more convenient for the player. However, it trivializes them as "contests," because there is no impetus not to wait to hold the contest until you can guarantee a win. On the one hand, it takes out the stress that contests could cause... on the other hand, it almost feels like "what's the point." CONS: -I have a few gripes with the main story, particularly the ending feels quite rushed, and unfortunately I feel some of the characters fall into the same pitfall that Rune Factory 5 had - not enough development of the characters and issues at stake, leading to an underwhelming conclusion. The setting, as well, sometimes leaves something to be desired - many of the bad things in the world are glossed over or swept under the rug in order to maintain the game's cheery atmosphere, but I wish they would have acknowledged and explored more of it. -Managing villagers is a bit of a chore, as it's one area of the game that lacks some QoL. Moving villagers between towns requires an empty space (no way to swap villagers), and villagers cannot be sorted or filtered by job/trait/anything. -There is so many recipes that I spend a lot of time scrolling through lists trying to find something, even with the recipe lists broken down by type. Some kind of search or filter function would have been really nice, but overall it's a minor complaint that's just symptomatic of how much stuff there is lol -I played on normal, and the combat was pretty much trivialized by the sacred treasures. Even bosses melted once I became more liberal with using spirit dances. Although I'm not looking for a challenge, I do wish that the regular weapons didn't feel so useless outside of killing low level mobs. -Seasons don't matter. The calendar is really just a formality in order to have birthdays and festivals. There is no "neutral zone" where the seasons changing affects crops or changes how things look. Each area is fixed to the season of its god, and what season you're in on the calendar changes nothing. -no polearm/spear weapon, which was my favorite in previous RF games :( -can't date Yachiyo... Or Kusatsu... guys do you think they know I love Rune Factory?
I don’t normally do reviews, but I wanted to give fair warning to anyone specifically interested in this game because it’s titled as a Rune Factory game: While it is a fairly *good* game, it is NOT a Rune Factory game. I understand it’s a spinoff game, but the only similarity it has with previous titles is that Woolys happen to be in it. The mechanics are wholly different and the gameplay revolves around combat and rebuilding villages— it feels like a completely different genre from the usual Farming/Life Sim. If you’re curious about some of the differences, a huge one is that farming is not a main activity and it’s almost entirely automated. Heck, you don’t even have your own farm or customizable home. The farming that does exist also lacks depth from what fans are used to. Take for example being able to plant every type of seed all year around and said seeds being essentially free/plentiful. On top of this, seasons in the traditional sense are gone— those are replaced by seasonal villages you fast travel between. To add to this, there’s also almost no festivals. So, aside from birthdays, the calendar is almost entirely worthless. Relationships don’t seem as deep as RF4. You level a person’s bond once (equivalent to one heart) and they’re already best friends who would die for you. That’s not to say some characters don’t have interesting stories, because some absolutely do. Recruiting monsters is also entirely optional, despite it being a staple of the series. You can literally just kill monsters for their materials (eggs, milk, honey, etc). And in fact, killing monsters for materials is faster unless you want an AFK means to get milk and such. While yes, recruited monsters can produce higher quality materials to give food dishes a small HP bonus, it is entirely optional and is only “required” for a few villager requests (which don’t reward anything of value). And, as far as I can tell, you can still make every dish with the lowest quality materials. You don’t even need them to produce things like mayonnaise and cheese, which are easily obtainable from random jars littered throughout the maps. In short, main purpose of higher quality goods is just to sell for more money. It’s very clear combat is the main focus of this game and they did a very good job of upgrading it. If there’s one thing RF6 inherits from this game (and hopefully not much else) I hope it’s the combat. If anyone is curious about the difficulty, even on “hard” the game itself isn’t particularly difficult. Combat had some good balance at that level, but I very seldom had a reason to enhance my weapon past level 2 before forging a brand new one. The main gripes I had with the difficulty was outside of combat. Things like every collectable being shown on the map/minimap— which not only ruins the exploration aspect, but it left me staring at the minimap rather than enjoying the environments firsthand. The AFK-ness of it all also left me with little to do each day aside from interacting with the villagers, progressing the main quests, and killing random things. There’s more I could say, but I think you get the picture. All-in-all, I had fun and it’s a good game in its own right. It has an interesting story, characters, and mechanics, BUT, you will be extremely disappointed if you get this game for a proper Rune Factory experience.
Alrighty. SO this will be one of those times where I wish there was a "maybe" option on do I recommend this. Allow me ot start this with: I own EVERY rune factory game. EVERY one. From 1, 2, Frontier, 3, Tides of Destiny, 4, 4 Special, 5, 3 Special, I own every copy of rune factory possible. I'm a fan. Very much so. This doesn't come off as a rune factory game. Is it fun? Yeah. Its a solid play that's casual chill nad enjoyable. Is it a rune factory game: no. Rune factory is sort of a game about grinding out skills, farming, enjoying a fantasy life and doing insane things for the sake of "vibes." Most rune factory games have a near limitless level scaling. (Seriously. Try to reach level 999 in any skill in RF4 WITHOUT cheating. Count how long that takes by the week.) What this game has, is...a genshin impact style combat system, some of the best characters and voice acting of any rune factory, a mediocore story, but some of the best bachelors and bachelorettes we've had. Ever. This game is disappointing in some ways, and frankly amazing in others. Its a huge improvement from five, but its not 4 or Tides of destiny. If you are already a fan of Rune Factory: There's a reason it has mostly positive reviews on steam. There IS things to enjoy here, especially if you ARENT a fan of rune factory. This is one of those games that actively appeal to hte NON fans of the series. Time for my curve scale explantion. Every game starts at a 5. A 5 is a completely average game. You gain or lose points from a five. +2: Amazing voice acting, performance, and character humor. -3: Two of the romance options, (Including best girl Pilika) is locked behind a DLC. [Yes. I bought it. I wanted to experience all the possible romance routes.] -1: This game is so short and has so limited post game content. It has no reason for the stat scaling from each village. +3: Our side characters are all charming and have character. Most are absolute riots and have their own aspirations. Total: 5+2-3-1+3 cancels out to be: 5+1 = 6. This game is decent. It has its moments. It just suffers from calling this "rune factory" frankly. Yes its a spin-off, but that doesn't excuse the lack of what makes rune factory great. 6/10 Would Go Eat Dango at Iroha's teashop again, but maybe wait for a sale.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is currently priced at 59.99€ on Steam.
No, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 59.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma received 3,129 positive votes out of a total of 3,537 achieving a rating of 8.52.
😎
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma was developed by Marvelous Inc. and published by XSEED Games, Marvelous USA, Inc. and Marvelous Europe.
Yes, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is not playable on MacOS.
No, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is not playable on Linux.
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a single-player game.
Yes, there are 5 DLCs available for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. Explore additional content available for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma on Steam.
No, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
No, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 08 June 2026 10:01 |
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| SteamSpy data | 08 June 2026 23:10 |
| Steam price | 13 June 2026 20:57 |
| Steam reviews | 13 June 2026 12:03 |
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Game modes
Features
Online players
132
Developer
Marvelous Inc.
Publisher
XSEED Games,
Marvelous USA, Inc.,
Marvelous Europe
Release
04 Jun 2025
Platforms
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