Sakuna Of Rice and Ruin

Started playing Sakuna of Rice and Ruin - a mix between a 2D action game and a farming simulator. So far my impressions are really positive. The combat is responsive and fast. The visuals and the music and fantastic and ooze with Japanese aesthetic. The story of a spoiled Goddess who has to earn her position back alongside a rag tag group of humans is intriguing and despite the characters being flawed, they are likeable and charming.

After some hard work Sakuna managed to collect her first harvest. I decided to create white rice out of it, which permanently boosts your stats. Unfortunately the lazy spoiled goddess had no patience and decided to try and run away from her responsibility when winter came and there was less food on the table. That didn't work out for her and she came back. I'm really enjoying the dinner scenes where most of the character building is happening - you get to learn more about the different people in a casual conversation over dinner.

Had my first boss battle in the game against a bigger boar demon. The settlers opened up some new ricefields, but while planting seeds their personal conflicts prevented them from doing work. Tauemon saves the day by advising them to sing a rice planting song while working, which makes things go much smoother. Later Kaimaru found a shiba puppy, who aside from being adorable is very useful at sniffing out demons, which allowed the humans to go out and gather resources while Sakuna is doing her exploring.

During dinner we learn more about Myrthe's mission of spreading her religion to different parts of the world. Needless to say she and the priest she was travelling with weren't warmly accepted. In another event Yui is always following Kinta around and she seems to have a crush on him. She said that he saved her life and she wants to repay him, but I think there might be more to that story.

Had to face a pretty challenging boss - the Camellia Toad. He felt a bit cheap since his attacks were really tricky to avoid and he did a ton of damage. Eventually I prevailed and obtained the ability to light the way at night at the cost of oil. Not sure how beneficial that is considering I can just fight in the darkness well enough - the problem there is that the enemies highly outlevel you.

At one point Kaimaru vanished (again) and Tauemon went after him, but never came back. After another successful harvest Sakuna was strong enough to get through the somewhat confusing water levels and find the missing duo along with a kappa, who asked for her help with a demon oppressing his kind. The lazy goddess reluctantly agrees. We also get to learn more about Sakuna's parents in the dinner sessions. One criticism I have of the game is the mission objectives being displayed during cutscenes, which is why I deselect any active quests whenever possible to remove them - that's a poor design choice.

Continued exploring the water-themed levels. Yui has shown some strange behaviour and it wouldn't surprise me if there's a twist to her being a bird spirit or something rather than human. In the dinner discussions we learn more about how Sakuna's parents met and there were some weird theological debates.

Continued messing around in the water levels and faced a giant turtle boss.

I seemed to have lost some progress from my previous session since the autosave didn't activate when I thought it did. In any case I made up for the lost time and got another successful harvest. I unlocked a new tool for obtain the rice once it's harvested, but in my hurry I used the classic method. There's always next time, I suppose.

Finally faced the leader of the water area - a demonic catfish. He wasn't too challenging and upon his defeat the grateful kappa agreed to help Sakuna with the rice fields. We also learn of Sakuna's parent's fight against the demon lord Omizuchi. There were also a couple of cool side quests used for character development for Myrthe and Yui.

Started climbing the volcano area, which was full of environmental hazards like boiling water, poison gas and even lava. After another successful harvest you get the ability to trade rice with the capital for rare materials. The gods are really enjoying Sakuna's rice and it seems that Kokorowa was not happy with her supposed friend's success. She starts a competing business of selling rice and apparently she somehow stole Sakuna's produce, which suggests there may be a traitor in the group. My money is on either Yui or Myrthe.

After some pretty challenging levels I faced the master of the volcano - the Homusubi Specter, who was the one who revived all the Ashigumo tribe members out of sheer lust for vengeance. It is also revealed that it may be possible that the bandit Ishimaru, who Sakuna kicked off the bridge in the beginning of the game may be the one controlling the demons.

Sakuna secretly goes to the capital to confront Kokorowa about the stolen rice. Apparently it was delivered to her by a demon and out of envy for Sakuna's success and being tired of constantly being in her shadow she accepted the rice. After some turmoil they patch things out and keep their friendship. Kokorowa's voice actress is fantastic - she gives her a lot of personality despite the limited dialogue. Same goes for Sakuna's VA - switching between shrill and endearing isn't an easy task. Aside from that the humans stupidly decide to bring in a wounded demon to take care of in the house - not the smartest move.

Climbing my way towards the fortress. One night Tauemon told Sakuna about his history with Ishimaru and Kaimaru. He also begged Sakuna to spare Ishimaru's life. His pacifism is getting on my nerves.

After a series of boss battles facing previously defeated monsters Sakuna reached the top and the leader is indeed Ishimaru. Upon defeating him she spares his life, which is not a smart move since the guy has shown he holds a pretty serious grudge. Unfortunately he was just a pawn of Omizuchi - the evil god who fought Sakuna's parents. The volcano where he was hiding erupts and destroys everything we've build so far - the houses, the rice fields and most of the supplies. I felt that one considering how much effort I put into building them. Not only that but the soil was corrupted by volcanic ash and is unable to grow the usual produce. When everything seemed lost Kokorowa comes to the rescue and advises Sakuna on how she can fix the rice fields. It is also revealed that Sakuna might have to sacrifice her friend and mentor Tama to even have a chance against Omizuchi. The game certainly made a real sharp dark turn.

Began the quest to restore Sakuna's powers by hunting down Bounty artefacts to add to the fertiliser. It's a slow process of finding them in already completed levels, which is somewhat of a challenge in this weakened state.

Sakuna's quest to restore her powers continues and the first major obstacle is the spectre of the Camellia Toad. Upon defeating him you get more of the artefacts used as fertiliser. All in not well though since Ishimaru broke into the farm and tried to kidnap Kaimaru. He failed to do so, but this wouldn't have been an issue if the group was sensible and disposed of the injured demonic rabbit. This also shows that there's only one cure for mad dogs like Ishimaru and mercy is not an option. Kokorowa is helping everyone rebuild and even improve their functions and I managed to restore Yui's hut. She also revealed that the humans may be turning into gods since they are able to use more magical powers in their day to day work. Another interesting titbit is that during dinner Yui refused to eat bird meat, which further adds to my theory that she's some sort of a bird spirit.

With Kokorowa's expertise Kinta manages to create a threshing machine for Sakuna, which makes the process much faster. I also faced another spectre variation of a previous boss - the Demonic Catfish. Sakuna went to the capital on Kokorowa's advice to obtain the Orb of Transformation to further heal the soil. To do so she needed to defend a tree from some insect-like creatures.

When sending Kaimaru to gather resources Sakuna decided to follow him to see if he's responsible for the disappearing food. He was indeed the culprit and he was feeding the same demon rabbit responsible for the destruction of our heroes' home. To my annoyance Sakuna decides to show mercy yet again and in doing so the demon is transformed back to a regular bunny. I felt that this was somewhat of a deus ex machina solution, but given that Sakuna is a goddess I can deal with it. On the bright side of things Ishimaru finally got what he deserves as he was seemingly murdered by the Ashigumo spectres.

Did a bit of night exploration to gather materials and eventually I realised that the oil used to light your path also weakens the enemies, who become damage sponges after dark. With Kokorowa's help and Sakuna's material support Kinta got a new blacksmith hut. Now it's time to rebuild the main house.

After some tricky sections in the fortress Sakuna faced the spectre of Ishimaru. Upon defeating him she made the hard decision to part ways with her mentor and parent Tama, so that she has a fighting chance against Omizuchi. It was a touching moment and really showed Sakuna's growth as a person.

Kinta's blade apparently came alive and destroyed Tauemon's sword since it was made with the intent of being the strongest sword around. It's up to Sakuna to find it and stop its rampage. I did a lot of grindy exploration to gather resources, but I finally managed to restore the house. Right after that Kokorowa suggested that we can build a water wheel to automatically thresh the rice and I managed to complete that task rather quickly. Speaking of Kokorowa she's rather ashamed of the envy she felt towards Sakuna, but Sakuna easily forgives her. An interesting point is that neither Ishimaru nor Omizuchi know about her, so whoever bring her Sakuna's modified rice must be one of the gods in the capital. That's an interesting twist and it might involve the head goddess or her adviser. It also turns out that Kokorowa was Sakuna's favourite author writing all these love stories. This girl's talents know no bounds.

After defeating the source of the spectres again Sakuna discovers the missing part of the Hoshidama blade, which means that Tama won't have to sacrifice himself. This development is a bit too convenient for my liking, but it's still a touching moment. On the way back Sakuna is attacked by Kinta's living demon blade, but it is broken when it strikes the Hoshidama edge. Kinta manages to create 2 extremely powerful farming tools, which are the only thing able to hurt Omizuchi.

We also learn the truth about Yui. She was a crane rescued by Kinta and transformed into a human by two goddesses (who look awfully lot like alien spaceships) on the condition that she never reveals her true form to others. Unfortunately Sakuna saw her and she was turned back to a crane. In order to revers this the goddesses tasked Sakuna with showing whether Yui has made human connections. Eventually Sakuna brought Kinta who explained that his appreciation of Yui, which gave her another chance to live as a girl. In an ultimate irony it's revealed that Kinta never meant to save the crane, which sours the story a bit, but it fits well with Yui's one sided love towards him. It also turns out that the twin goddesses also created Sakuna's raiment and operate on a power for a cost principle which is an interesting dynamic.

While gathering resources for a side quest there were quite a few touching moments where each of Sakuna's companions tell their plans to the future. Mythre and Kinta want to go back to their world while Yui and Tauemon want to stay.

Went back to the capital to see what's available there and you can just replay the defence stage over and over for various rewards. Eventually you get into a rhythm and it's not very challenging. Not sure if you earn a lot of amber here in comparison to a normal level, but the rewards were hardly worth it. I also finally measured to figure out that Ventania meal quest - initially I tried some meals that had been described as western, but those weren't the correct ones. Eventually I found the scroll that talked about these dishes and it turns out that there's only 3 correct recipes. This really should've been described in the quest since the chances of you randomly having all resources on hand are pretty low.