Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin - PS4

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Release Date: 2020-11
Moby Score (1-10): 7.3
Genre(s): Action, Simulation, Side view, Platform, Anime / Manga, Fantasy, Beat 'em up / brawler, 3rd-person (Other), 2D scrolling, Direct control
Media Type(s): Physical

Spoiled harvest goddess Sakuna finds herself banished from her opulent celestial home to an island overrun with demons. In the untamed wilderness, she must rediscover her birthright as the daughter of a warrior god and harvest goddess by weathering the elements, fighting monsters, and cultivating rice, the source of her power. By her side in this forbidding place is her guardian Tama and a group of outcast humans. Together, these unlikely companions must join hands to tame both the soil and the demons of Hinoe Island.

Developed by Edelweiss, the indie team behind the acclaimed Astebreed, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin combines side-scrolling action with deep crafting and rice cultivation in a powerful tale about finding one's place in the world.## KEY FEATURES

Refined Side-scrolling Platforming Action
Using farm tools as weapons, chain together quick, heavy, and special attacks to take down demonic beasts, while mastering the magical “divine raiment” will be essential to grapple distant platforms, evade danger, and overcome powerful enemies.

Detailed 3D Simulation-style Gameplay
Learn the ancient art of agriculture by following detailed steps from planting to harvesting to cultivate the perfect crop. As a harvest goddess, Sakuna’s strength grows with each rice crop, with attributes such as aesthetic and flavor directly correlating to her combat abilities.

Creating a Home in the Wilderness
Sakuna’s mortal companions make weapons, armor, and meals for her using the materials and ingredients she gathers on her adventures, and completing quests for them will unlock even more options.

A Fresh Take on Japanese Mythology
The heroine is part of a pantheon of gods and demons inspired by traditional Japanese mythology but featuring many unique twists. The story and world are filled with lovingly rendered details, some familiar and some completely original.

There is trouble in paradise. While fleeing war and famine in the Lowly Realm, a group of five humans have crossed the bridge connecting to the realm of gods and fed themselves with the rice in the Divine Garner. Attempting to chase away the rice thieves, harvest goddess Sakuna causes a bigger problem - she accidentally burns down the Divine Garner. Preeminent goddess Kamuhitsuki would take no excuse from Sakuna and for penance, she banishes both Sakuna and the trespassing humans to the Isle of Demons with the mission of reining in the isle into Kamuhitsuki's domain. No longer in a position to enjoy rice offerings from up high, Sakuna has to hunt, forage and grow her own food, all while fighting demons.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is a game of two genres. While out exploring the Isle of Demons, you play a side-scrolling beat 'em up. Sakuna brings two sets of weapons for these stages: One-handed weapons for light attacks, two-handed weapons for heavy attacks. Sakuna's most notable ability in these stages is the use of her hagoromo - called "Divine Raiment" in this game. When Sakuna launches her Divine Raiment at an enemy, she swings herself around to the other side of them. With the Raiment Skills assigned to a directional button, she can do other things with the Divine Raiment like swinging the enemy around instead of herself. Enemies take damage from crashing with each other at high enough velocity and a significant part of the combat involves throwing enemies around. Raiment Skills share the same SP pool required to activate Fighting Skills, which rapidly refills when not being drained. Like Raiment Skills, Fighting Skills can also be bound to a directional button, but unlike Raiment Skills, Fighting Skills can be improved via repeated usage.

The Divine Raiment is also your platforming tool since it can attach to a static surface and pull Sakuna to that surface.

When Sakuna returns to the hub base on the Isle of Demons, the game switches to over-the-shoulder camera and you can engage in forging new weapons, weaving new garments and preparing meals to refill your Fullness meter, but most importantly engage in the farming simulation gameplay. The game simulates the full cycle of growing rice, from sorting rice in mud, to growing rice seeds in a seed bed, to tilling the field, to planting the seedlings, to mixing and spreading fertilizer, to harvesting, to drying rice, to threshing rice, to hulling rice. Throughout the stages of rice growth, you are expected to irrigate the field via 2 canal gates so that the rice temperature is kept in control, which is also affected by the weather and the seasons. Weeds can grow in your field depending on the fertilizer's herbicide quality, which must be plucked. Pests can infest your field depending on the fertilizer's pesticide quality, which must be caught. At the end of the harvest, on top of the rice itself as food, Sakuna also receives permanent stat growths depending on the nutritional value you have mixed into the fertilizer throughout the year and the ratio of white rice over brown rice. Hulling converts brown rice into white rice for a lower yield. Shinto deities receive white rice as offerings and as one such deity herself, Sakuna grows stronger from creating her own offerings. Aside from repetition of Fighting Skills, farming rice acts as the game's other progression system.

*** Data by MobyGames.com ***

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