Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

Really fun and unique systems. Enjoying it greatly and even more than some other rune factory titles. amazing characters as well. i wasn't expecting them to be so deep and varied. that being said, the designs are typically lacking a little or are not super coordinated color-wise, and the user interface is bland, to say the least. I've recently played indie games with more flare and flavor that are the same scale as GoA (Tales of Seikyu is a good example). Since Rune Factory is from a large corporation and is almost a Triple-A series, it should be even larger in scope and graphics. I don't mind "worse" graphics for better gameplay, of course, but in a game with this big of a potential budget and sold at full price for average popular game titles these days, they can absolutely provide the best of both worlds. I hope they go bigger and better for the next installment in the series, which has been announced but gone silent since, so I don't really know what to think yet. The game is incredibly fun though and the world is still very immersive, I just know it could be even better given more time for the devs to cook/not rush and a bigger dedicated budget. I do think putting romance options behind DLC is ridiculous and the deluxe editions are not worth a single outfit and 2 romance options I'm not interested in anyways. It is a bit disappointing that games like Rune Factory with big backing companies behind it always drop and then are mostly abandoned, when indie titles of the same quality if not better are doing even more and caring for their titles. I understand it's a different situation; I hate company executives and billionaires as much as the next guy. But if we don't say it, they won't even care to think about it. tldr: Guardians of Azuma is a fantastic game, not just a side Rune Factory title. It is by no means perfect and puts a hurt on your wallet at full price, but thankfully goes on sale often now and provides a good amount of gameplay. The graphics are a bit lacking, like the trees and ground being flat and one color. The graphic design is a good start but looks unfinished. The way seasons and characters are handled is nice though, the skill trees provide a FUN grind, and there is a decent amount to explore. Romanceables and storylines for all kinds of people and preferences.