Winner: Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
Writeup by Ben Love
Guardians of Azuma represents a bold new direction for the Rune Factory series. The previous installment in the series, Rune Factory 5, was a game that faltered under the weight of its ambitions to deliver a fully explorable 3D world, with performance problems galore and a janky, low-budget feel to the entire experience. At last, Guardians of Azuma realized those ambitions and even exceeded them, creating a vast, fully explorable 3D world influenced by Japanese mythology, a new combat system that is fluid and flashy without sacrificing depth, all on an engine that looks beautiful and runs flawlessly.
The biggest change is the revamp of the farming and social mechanics into a full town management sim, giving you full control over the placement of buildings and approval of residents. The farming and social interactions the series is known for are all intact, but the town management gives an additional layer of complexity and made me feel even more connected to the community flourishing under my direction. A huge step forward for a series that was in desperate need of new direction, and the best “cozy game” to release in 2025.
Runner-Up: Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Writeup by Ben Love
Ah, Level-5, how I missed you. After years of lackluster releases that remained only in Japan, Level-5 finally saw fit to grace us Western fans with the follow-up to Fantasy Life, their underrated 3DS Life-Sim RPG. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time does everything that made the original game a classic, but bigger and bolder. The plot sees you jumping between time periods to delve into the mysteries of a magical island alongside an archeological professor (not named Layton, though he has a similar hat).
Mastery of a bunch of different jobs—some combat oriented and some gathering focused—and many crafting trades is vital to your success, and the cast is unbearably cute and charming in characteristic Level-5 fashion. The cross-play multiplayer features are implemented seamlessly compared to the original’s clunky online play, and there is even a massive open world region called Ginormosia that serves as a nearly limitless playground to explore with friends. It doesn’t have the narrative or mechanical depth of many of the other titles on this list, but makes up for that in sheer variety found inside its joyful little sandbox.
