Strategy Tips

​I expect there are players now who are far more experienced than I with the changes and additions that have been made with games in the Rune Factory series.  No doubt there are guide writers better than I.  My strategy guides and sites for games always have been personal.  I am a writer and I cannot suppress that instinct and indeed have no desire to do so.  When long ago I wrote a guide for one of the Harvest Moon games for Brady Games, a subsidiary of Penguin, my contact told me it was too long with too many little details that really did not matter.   I fought to retain them because at the end of the day, my name would be on the book.  Yes, it is not an earthshaking novel or a poem that will soar to the heavens and reduce readers to tears, but it is my heart invested in this world of the imagination that lessens the distress and pain of fighting against death in more than one form every single day now.  

So if you are interested in the way Guardians of Azuma intersects or mirrors the real Japan and its traditional festivals, this site has a post about that and I will continue to research and add details about that.

On a practical level, however, I have discovered some shortcuts and benefits that one can obtain or find now that I have gone through this fabulous game more than once.

My first instinct in a game always is to see how quickly I can complete everything.  I did that in my second game and my walkthrough reflects that goal a little but now I am making files about the Pure Azuma Quests and little strategies that can give a player a small advantage.

For example, by virtue of increasing the village levels of Spring and Summer significantly in the very first week of Spring I was able to put villagers at the helm of all the shops on the Summer High Street including the Chemist.  When you fight and defeat monsters in that early time frame, I have  found that many of them are the villagers with specialist skills and abilities.  Thus, I had three potential Carpenters, two potential Blacksmiths and two potential Chemists even before I unlocked the Winter Village.  I also was able to set a villager to work at the Aydin Cart on the Summer High Street.

It may not be particularly significant, but I was able to mix medicines and buy Udon to make dishes high in restorative value before Zara ever gave me the tasks and recipes for the Chemist and Udon Cart.

Guardians of Azuma is a multifaceted game and a player has a multitude of diverse goals.  How each person prioritises those goals is really a matter of personal preference.  In a way, they all bring progress to the game and at the end of the day, it would be a mistake to ignore any of them.  On the other hand, there are absolutely no time limits.  I think that my own advice now, after completing the game a few times and marrying a few different eligible partners would be to enjoy yourself.  I have seen posts in various forums by players who complained that they completed the game too quickly.  I have not seen any complaints about completing it too slowly.

In my own life, my first game went very slowly because I had not played the new Rune Factory games or any new RPGs or new combat games for a long time.  Instead, in times when I needed an escape from cancer and other real adversaries,  I enjoyed replaying Rune Factory 4 not on the Switch even, but on my old DS.  It was an old friend who persuaded me to try Guardians of Azuma and I hesitated for a couple of months to accept her offer of that gift.

To make this at all relevant, the point here is that, after starting a second game and going through all the quests at lightning speed in order to marry Kai as soon as possible, I did not erase that first game but returned to it later and completed it.  What is interesting here is that ultimately the timeframe was not THAT different between the two games.

There are many different menus in Guardians of Azuma and for an inexperienced player, that can require some real determination to address each and every one.  In my first game, I never really looked at those soon enough.  I therefore went into battle alone, did not increase my power with the Sacred Treasures as much as I could have done and had no idea what was going on with my Villagers and my increases in Village Levels.  I did make an effort to obtain the best weapons and equipment and experience as many Bonding Events as possible from the very start.  After all, Friendship and Taming Monsters is at the very top always of Rune Factory 101.  It is kind of amazing that I did as well as I did but I could have avoided a lot of frustration if I had learned the ‘ropes’ sooner.

Here is another tip:  Your first move every day, if you are unmarried, should be to go to the Request Board to accept new Ema Quests.  These Requests not only are linked to advances in the Story but a method to gain materials and gold you need. 

Now it is mid March in the real world and I am playing three different Giardians of Azuma files.

1.  I started a new game with a protagonist named Cybele.  As always, I am pulled towards Kai and each time I play through the story, I appreciate him more.  His initial appearance as an irresponsible drunkard is so very deceptive.  He actually lacks the power to act until the four seasonal gods of Azuma are restored to power.  He is a refugee from the Underworld but Ura cannot be deposed from power until you have activated the four seasonal Kagura shrines AND found all the Astral Shrines.  Then and only then can he regain his divinity and lead you through the Underworld before helping you find the Goddess of Heaven, his divine counterpart.

In any case, the events that allow him to begin to act actually are a chain of events that occur at Yachiyo’s.

You first meet him in your quest to find Kurama, the god of Autumn.  He mentions the Mikoshi Meleé only as a hint.  This brings Kurama into your life as he invades your dream world to forbid you to facilitate the festival.  The land of Autumn has lost the winds and only Kurama has the power to revive the land but he refuses to emerge from hiding.

The second event is when you return at night to Yachiyo’s to speak to Kai again after being warned off by Kurama.  Kai opens the gate essentially to the Autumn wilds and the Mechanical Maze and tells you to recover the hidden Mikoshi for the village.

The third event is when you have found the Mikoshi.  Kai begins to organise the Melee.  If your Village Level is high enough, there will be enough bearers to engage.  You are told to rest, however and wait until noon the following day.

So far, three events with Kai but you are unable to interact with him properly or raise his Bonding Level.

The fourth event is when the Melee drives Kurama out of hiding in his Tengu form and he flies to other corner of the Autumn wilds.  You are told to give chase.  When you reach him, you must defeat him and a host of other Tengu.

Kai is there when Kurama, defeated, resumes his humanoid form.  

Kai has done Kurama a favour actually, bringing him back to his divine position and he asks if Kurama is not glad to be in the sunlight.  Kurama, being Kurama responds by hurling Kai into the sky.

From this point, you will find Kai at Yachiyo’s every night, but will not be able to carry on a dialogue with him or raise his Bonding Level.  You have many quests to complete before Kai enters the story as a character with whom you can interact fully.

First you must go to the Winter Village, and defeat the Winter God Fubuki in his form as White Wolf.  That having been accomplished, you must take to the sky to activate the four seasonal Kagura Shrines.

Here are the events both on the Main Quest list and for Kai’s Bonding Events that show how pivotal he is:

You can see here how inextricably progress in the Story is linked to his actions.

Once Kai commits, he is ‘all in’.  He never wavers, never retreats.  At the same time, he is willing to admit when he is wrong and accepts guidance.  He is sensitive and loyal, and he is the one who works out the strategies that are needed every step of the way.  Kurama may hurl insults at him, calling him an imbecile and a barbarian, but he is neither.  If you marry him, you will find him the very best of partners and an exemplary father.

For me, another reason I was so drawn to him was that he was a refugee and born of two different races, forever a little insecure as to his identity and role.  Yet he never betrays the gods, humanity or the Oni.  He walks a fine line, constantly assessing the course he follows, but he does not run and hide ever  once his divinity is restored.