Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin Reviews

MIGHTY SAKUNA RULESS ! Such a great game, but a bit short ;D Where the DLC ATTTH

Just have a couple of hours in the game, but I played more than 30 hours on Playstation, so I bought the game on Steam too as I can use it on the Steam Deck (too bad there is no cross save). The game is a eastern twist on farming sim and action combat. You end up in a place where there are monsters to kill for resources, and have a field to tend to make rice. Your objective is to clear this place from evil and make rice. Simple and straightforward. The farming is quite fun, as you do the rice cultivation by hand, growing husks, then planting then controlling the water level and removing the weeds that grow in the field. You need to keep an eye to the soil quality too and produce fertilizer, mixing it with different other items that increase the quality of the rice you will eventually haverst. The goal here is not just to produice some rice but also to make the rice better each batch you make, and to do so you need items that you gather from combat. So combat is pretty much required. Combat itself is the classic side scrolling like castlevania/metroid; with jump and 2 attacks. The twist is that your tools are your weapons, so you have to improve them by collecting special items as you play the game, and that increases your attack power. You also have your sacred robe which acts as "dodge" mechanic as you throw your robe appendixes as if they were the chain that Scorpion uses in Mortak Kombat, so you can either use it to close distance with an enemy and flicker behind them, or to grab them and stomp/throw them around (this is also a power you evolve as you progress). You also use the robe to traverse, as it let you reach places that a regular jump won't cover. Combat is fun overall, although simple; and mixed with just having to deal with rice is a great combo for the main game loop. You also have other characters around you, that will help and give you things to do, like missions for example. One of your friends is also the cook so every evening you decide the menu that the whole group will eat, and that is based on what you collected during the day or got stored away, so you also need to manage food and go hunt when needed. All in all I give it a 7 out of 10. Story is different; farming is very peculiar and done differently from other games, and combat is engaging enough without have to be too simple or extremely complex. Also seeing the protagonist grow from where she starts, is really nice; as she learn a lot on the way, not only in terms of combat but also in terms of how to deal with others.

One of the best games I’ve ever played. I haven’t felt this excited and thrilled about a game in years. From the beautiful soundtrack, the storyline, the character relationships, to the side quests that gradually build up the village – everything was just amazing. The combat is a solid 10/10. Even though it’s not as flashy as modern 3D games, the feeling of slashing and dodging is incredibly satisfying. And the rice farming system? Absolutely the best part of this game! I’ve never felt that any game poured so much soul into such a system before. Starting from sorting seeds, plowing the fields, planting seedlings, fertilising, controlling water levels, managing weeds, harvesting, drying, threshing, and milling rice – every step was so enjoyable. Plus, you can see your skills improving, letting you work faster, and getting new tools that Kinta makes for you was just so satisfying. Honestly, just farming rice endlessly was already super fun. There’s also the incredibly detailed food system, where you choose 5 dishes for your meals and can preserve food as well – absolutely brilliant. P.S. Sakuna was great too. From being such a bratty kid at first, in the end she grew into a magnificent and respectable goddess.

After all the struggle and field work (both field work and literal "field" work lol) I learnt to appreciate farmers...and modern technology, namely REFRIGERATOR. The only way to preserve food is storing it in the fertilizer bin (it resets the spoil time) but I can never do that! Jokes aside, a legit game. Solid combat, good skill combination (although some skills are quite unimpressive compared to others), unique farming process. I'd recommend it whenever there's a over 30% discount, otherwise the game would be a bit pricy for the hours it can offer.

A magnificent game. Rice farming system has a lot of depth and very unique in how it works than the usual farming games. There is a bit of a learning curve for the rice farming part but is very rewarding once you get the grasp on how to do it. It is the perfect balance between combat and the rice farming simulation. You cannot skip the farming part as it is an integral part to become more effective in the combat aspect of the game. Overall a very good game with great narrative and storytelling.

Man.. the rice farming in this game really stress me out lol the technicalities of the game can be quite a pain, it's a " like and dislike situation " for me. The quality of this game is so good I cannot do a thumbs down, idk lol help.

[h2]Addicted To Carbs[/h2] Once I picked this up I couldn't put it down. It's like Rune Factory, but with a stronger focus on combat than farming. Due to you essentially farming one type of crop however, they've fleshed things out in ways games like Story of Seasons and RF don't. Bugs can eat your sh*t. Weeds can strangle 'em. Food can straight up catch diseases out in the field and you have learn how to deal with it if you want better yields. Of course, you can certainly grow and consume Ebola Rice if you so choose and complete the story just fine. Your crops are linked to your strength in ways though so you may not be OP after eating 14yrs of H1N1 Rice (that's how long it took me in-game to finish the story, by choice, there's no timer), but it can definitely be done. You can also adjust the difficulty. I didn't feel the need to. The art style is adorable and the soundtrack is good. Combat is pretty fun if you're any good at high speed action games such as Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, Nier and so on. The potential for long-string aerial juggles is simply delectable. Buttons feel great and while the story is simple, it's quite enjoyable. There are tons of weapons and armor to craft and a lot of skills to collect and upgrade. Heard they're working on a spin-off and a sequel further down the line. I'm eagerly awaiting my return to the fields.

Expected a classic beat them up game, ended up loving the farming and the ancient hunter gatherer vibe. The farming gameplay and mechanics really made me appreciate the fact that i can have enough food in my table nowaday. Many details taken from ancient rice farming knowledge is included (read from the wiki), and that must be the weirdest random kind of wisdom i have ever absorb from the Internet. The combat is fun, for it is not as hard as other games where the players are provided with enough features to make less punishing. I think it is fair, because the gameplay consist of 2 main part: farming and hunting. Beside the 2.5D visual and map design really made me hooked. The story is easy to follow and is engaging enough, and the music and sound quality is pretty good. All and allthe game helped me go through the rough Covid time so i might be biased. But hey, overall it is nice.

Sakuna is bizarre mix of charm, jank, attention to detail, and sloppy, obtuse mechanics. It's a lot of fun, and I recommend it if you're into ambitious, Japanese PS2 games. Pros: * This game doesn't just plop in farming mechanics, they _really_ want you to know about rice cultivation. Their love for it is honestly a little infectious. * The physics-y combat is pretty fun, with swinging enemies into each other, and gliding around with the raiment is very zippy. * The dialogue and character animations are charming. While not set in real-life Japan, the game is overflowing with affection for Japanese culture and mythology. Cons: * The platforming and combat can feel _very_ stiff until you play it the way it wants you to play. Dashing is one of the few things that cancels animations, and you can even dash through enemies. You can also jump cancel your dashes, so there's a lot of attack -> dash through -> jump cancel -> grapple to next enemy. * The combat build part is a bit opaque. If you're struggling to do damage, is it the food you ate? Last year's rice harvest? Element type? Time of day? * The farming and gathering mechanics are all kinda-sorta intuitive, but a lot of it isn't explained at all, while other parts are tediously overexplained. * Many enemies are too slow, too passive, and too one-note to pose any challenge, so they compensate by throwing 85 enemies at you per encounter, with a bunch of hard-to-see and unpredictable explosives. If you've played the hot garbage levels in Mario Maker, it feels like that, but with more swords. * The main game loop requires juggling your farming with your exploring, and a lot of progression is locked behind "exploration level", which is achieved by farming pointless side-objectives in each area. Instead of building a narrative pace, you often have to stop to revisit previous areas to kill 40 enemies with blunt damage, or harvest 10 salt, etc. Overall, the game requires some tolerance for janky, old-fashioned experimental design, some slippery controls, and forced pauses in the narrative to go appreciate farming or revisit previous areas. If you enjoy that kind of thing, you'll love Sakuna. Otherwise, you could find less frustrating action platformers and/or farming games.

If you like combat and farming so detailed you need to refer to the Japanese Government's site, this game is for you.