Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is the story of a goddess trying to redeem herself. This is a pretty fun action rpg game from the developer, Edelweiss, published by Xseed and Marvelous. The world of the game is broken into two realms, the Lofty realm, which is the realm of the Gods. And the Lowly realm, the world of man. The story beings with 5 humans wandering into the Lofty realm while a voice of unknown origin is trying to tell them to turn back. During their trek, they run into a bandit. Before the bandit can attack, the heroine and title character of the game, Sakuna knocks the bandit off the bridge. As she leaves the 5 wanderers, she doesn’t realize they followed her. Eventually, Sakuna realizes the wanderers snuck into the Lofty realm. While trying to chase them out, a fire is accidentally started. As a result, Lady Kamuhitsuki, the ruler of the Gods banishes Sakuna and the wanderers to the isle of demons, Hinoe Island. And here is where the game begins.

On Hinoe Island, Sakuna and the 5 wanderers of the Lowly realm inhabit the old home of Sakuna’s parents, the God of war Taikreibi and the formerly human turned Goddess of the harvest Toyohana, which was protected by a member of the Ashigumo tribe. In the beginning, the 5 wanderers seem to be useless dead weight. But in reality, as with most rpg games, they actually have their uses that are vital to your success in the game. Gathering materials, cooking, making weapons, and making garments are some of the things they do for you. But the most important thing one of them does is teach you about rice farming.

This game is literally all about the rice. And the importance of it can’t be overstated enough. Rice farming is how you’ll build Sakuna’s stats, create food for many of the recipes, and even conduct trades with the Capital (something that comes along later in the game). Not to mention you need it to control your fullness level. I have to say, playing this made me develop a new-found respect for farmers. Even though this is a video game, if farmers have to even go through a quarter of this, I have to respect their grind. Farming rice has numerous steps:

Sowing and Sorting – This is where the process starts. You’re given rice seeds at the beginning of the game. You mix these seeds with water and mud (later salt becomes an option). As you mix, the higher-quality rice will float to the top. Once you’re done with that, then comes the sorting. The rice is put into storage boxes here to keep pests away.

Tilling – While your rice seeds are getting ready for planting, the grounds need to be ready. This is tilling. Striking the ground and removing the rocks so that your rice seeds can grow freely is what this phase is about. The better you clear the field, the more room your rice seeds have to grow.

Planting – Once the ground is softened up, now is the time to plant. This is where you place your seeds into the ground. The idea here is for you to place the seeds in the best position possible to maximize growth. You don’t want them too close or too far apart. This is something you’ll master as time goes on. Once your seeds are planted you have to be mindful of both the water level and the fertilizer used. The ingredients used for the fertilizer with determine how Sakuna grows and what kind of food boosts you’ll get from the rice you grow.

Harvesting – This is where your hard work gets tangibly noticeable. Harvesting is basically cutting down the wheat stalks in the field. Once they’re cut down, the next step is hanging them out to dry

Threshing – This is one of the more tedious steps of the rice process. This is the part where you’ll be separating the rice from the wheat stalks. Of all the parts of the rice farming process, this was the most dreaded one for me personally. The saving grace for this part of the process is the fact that you’re almost done

Hulling– Hulling is the final part of the rice creation process. This is where you’ll process and pound the rice. Here is where you can end up with one of three kinds of rice. Brown, mixed, and white. Brown rice is what is used for food bonuses. White rice is what gives you overall, lasting stat growth. And mixed right is a lesser combination of both.

*** It’s also worth noting that majority of the farming tasks are made easier later in the game thanks to inventions made, but I won’t spoil the story for you.***

Now on to the general gameplay. Sakuna is equipped with farming tools and her raiment. Farming tools have both light and heavy attacks. The raiment can be used for level traversal as well as dodging and grappling enemies. Aside from general basic functions, both your fighting tools and raiment gain skills over time. However, unlike Sakuna’s character, who grows stats by rice farming, your fighting skills get stronger in the traditional way. That being simply using them to gain proficiency. For the most part, the general gameplay resembles some of Vanillaware’s games. That’s a good thing since Vanillaware makes some damn good games.

One final important note to mention about this game is the passing of time. The game has a time flow of the seasons and general day/night cycles. And they’re tangibly visible through the game. How your rice grows is affected by it as is how you have to alter how your field is taken care of. The time effect extends to battles as well. The stages can get so dark that you have to leave due to poor visibility (that can be fixed with oil later in the game). There’s also the added issue that enemies get stronger during the nighttime.

Length-wise, the game isn’t really too long. It spans only seven chapters assuming you’re only trying to go through the story and not get everything. It’s a worthwhile action rpg that you can find pretty easily. As it stands, even the collector edition can still be found cheaply. But if you’re a collector, you know how that can change so I’d suggest grabbing this while you can. Outside of that, the game is very enjoyable. Some of the backtracking gets a little tedious, but what rpg doesn’t have that problem? So I’m not even sure if I can use it as a complaint. This isn’t a big-budget title but that doesn’t change that it’s worth giving a shot. If you’re into Japanese rpg games, do yourself a favor and try this one out.

You can see our playthroughs of the game here

Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin Divine Edition

Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin Standard Edition