Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, from developer Edelweiss (Astebreed), is a fascinating combination of gameplay ideas, with a hybrid of farming simulation and side-scrolling action. The combination works surprisingly well, even if the overall experience suffers from some pacing issues.
It's a big change for the developer, and Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin oozes charm at every turn. Sakuna's story takes place in what's known as the Lofty Realm, a realm of gods separate from the world of humans. The game's title character, Sakuna, is a spoiled harvest goddess living the good life by using her mother's vast stores of rice as tribute. After a group of humans breaks into the Lofty Realm, Sakuna finds herself exiled with said humans to an island infested with demons, all with the goal of taking it back.
Sakuna starts the game as a pretty detestable hero, a whiny brat that wants to do nothing but relax. Against her wishes, she has to band together with the humans to survive, who are already a ragtag bunch of misfits. There's Taumon the atypical samurai, bad at both fighting and farming, Mythre the refugee from a European-influenced country, Kinta the hotheaded young blacksmith, and more.
Sakuna's gameplay is essentially divided up into two different halves: farming and 2D exploration and combat. Sakuna gains power by growing and harvesting rice, and the farming system is surprisingly complex and requires players to learn the ins-and-outs of the trade. There's a definite learning curve to the farming system in Sakuna, and even though the game has a series of scrolls to help teach players, there's a lot of trial and error. Growing rice is directly tied to Sakuna's growth, as a better harvest will help grow her stats and level up even more. As Sakuna farms more she'll learn extra skills that make things easier, although if players want they can hand off the work to one of the humans as well, sacrificing potential growth in exchange.
When not farming, players explore the island in 2D platforming style. There are a wealth of locations selectable from the island map, and each one has several objectives to complete to raise their exploration level. Raising exploration level will in turn unlock more locations to explore. The 2D gameplay controls fairly well, and Sakuna uses farming tools for light and heavy attacks. Her divine raiment also lets Sakuna extend cloth that lets her grapple up to higher spots, or around enemies. Combat skills and raiment skills are unlocked through rice harvests and provide more options as the game progresses. Combat feels fast and fluid, and the only major issue is that players can't hit enemies that have fallen down, as they have to go through an animation to get up first. Because of the speed of combat, this can slow things down at times and gets a bit frustrating.
The other issue combat suffers from is that there's no good way to quickly level up and get stronger. Kinta will forge new weapons for Sakuna if she collects materials, but the only way to level up Sakuna is through rice harvest, which takes quite a while. This means if players are stuck on a particularly hard boss battle, they need to bide their time until the harvest ends, or keep throwing themselves against the boss.
The game's biggest strength, by far, comes down to its delightful art style and cast of characters. Sakuna practically hates her human companions at first, but over time they all grow closer and come to understand each other. Every day ends with a meal that'll boost Sakuna's stats, but more often than not the group has a conversation over dinner. These conversations dig into the history of each character, their ideas on topics or problems, and Japanese mythology in general. Overall the story is lighthearted and fun, and it's a great experience to see these characters grow more complex and become closer as they face hardship. The game has an overarching theme of finding your place in the world, and the growth that Sakuna goes through as a person drives that home. It's all made stronger by every facet of gameplay tying directly into Sakuna's growth. Over time more characters and creatures will join the settlement, like a group of lovable Kappa that increases the available farms, or a lazy cat that players can pet and carry around.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is a charming experience, and its charming cast keeps things surging forward, even while the main story drags on for a bit. There's certainly a bit of a learning curve, and the game could do a better job with tutorials, but there are deep systems to dig into once players get the hang of them.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin launches on November 10 for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PC download code for the purposes of this review.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin features two types of gameplay. The first is side-scrolling platform action where players use farm tools as weapons. Special, quick, and heavy attacks help defeat beasts, and mastering divine raiment is essential for grappling distant platforms.
The second type is 3D simulation gameplay focused on agriculture. Players follow steps from planting to harvesting to grow rice crops. Sakuna, the harvest goddess, gains strength with each successful crop.