I'm Excited For Rune Factory: Guardians Of Azuma, But I Wish It Didn't Look So Much Like Genshin Impact

screenrant.com:

I'll be honest: I haven't played a game since the very first one came out for DS back in 2006. Over the years, my need for RPGs and cozy farming sims was filled by other games, like and, more recently,. I've always looked back fondly on, though, as one of the first (if not the first) to combine the two genres in a way that shouldn't have worked but did.

So when I saw the trailer for, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, it looked like a step into the modern age of gaming for the series, leaving behind the dated look of for some fresh and crisp new visuals. On the other hand, instead of looking like a game, it made me think very strongly of . Sure, the game is getting a massive upgrade from the last one, but I wonder if it leans too far into looking like the popular free title from HoYoverse.

The original was subtitled and looked exactly as expected from the name. Created by Natsume, the title combined the mechanics from the farming game with the monster battling aspect of typical RPGs. It looked visually similar to for the DS, which had come out the prior year, but with a much less vivid and saturated color palette. set itself apart from the cozy farming sim with a grittier feel.

As the genre of cozy games grows, so does the confusion over what exactly makes a game cozy, or even if it’s related to the game or the setup.

Subsequent games continued the theme of the "Fantasy " even when the subtitle was dropped from the third title onward. Looking back on them now, had a certain charm. There is something inherently cozy and «farm»-like about their style, even as the games became more and more about the fighting and story than about the farming.

All the previous titles had a somewhat dated feel, with even which was released in 2022, looking like it belonged on a previous generation of consoles. And I don't mean that in a bad way — there's something charming about the presentation of all the previous games. They might not have had the most cutting-edge visual style,