Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
2020
Audio: Japanese, English · Subtitles: English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
- platform
- role-playing (rpg)
- simulator
- hack and slash/beat 'em up
- adventure
- indie
- action
- fantasy
- educational
- single player
The story
In Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, players take on the role of Sakuna, a proud yet lonely harvest goddess who is banished to a dangerous island with a group of outcast humans. Sakuna tames the island by defeating demons using farm tools as weapons while also making ample use of her “celestial scarf,” a magical item that allows her to grapple distant enemies and platforms. Along the way, she establishes a home in a mountain village, which serves as a base of operations for crafting weapons and cooking food. Additionally, as a harvest goddess, she grows rice by following a detailed process that encompasses everything from planting to harvesting. Through this process, across each of the four seasons, she’s able to improve the harvest and hone her battle skills alike.
What it’s like
Warm, hand-painted watercolour landscapes glow under soft daylight, with lush green valleys, mossy stone and drifting seasonal colour shifting from spring blossom to autumn gold and winter snow. The 3D anime figures sit against gently layered backdrops, and the soundtrack leans on bright, folksy strings and flutes with light percussion that swells into brisker battle tunes. Its vibe is cozy and hands-on, with a scrappy, rustic charm: tending paddies, cooking meals and building up a mountain home between bursts of side-scrolling combat. Rhythm alternates between slow, meditative farming days and quick, punchy skirmishes, and the emotional arc follows a proud, lonely goddess slowly learning to rely on the outcast humans she is stranded with. Violence is present but cartoonish: demons are swatted down with hoes and sickles in bouncy, low-blood fights, with no gore and no sexual content, and the frustration comes mainly from the difficulty of some battles. Made for players who want a satisfying crafting and farming loop with a light action edge, and for anyone who enjoys a gentle, character-driven survival story.
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