Combat feels like Dust: An Elysian Tail but a more polished and refined. There is a large pool of special attacks for Sakuna to choose from. I love being able to parry almost everything (even falling rocks). You can even knock projectiles back, though the timing is very tight for fast arrows. I played with keyboard and mouse. Controls cannot be rebound but I got used to it and found it to be extremely fun and engaging.

Rice farming portion is surprisingly in-depth. Expect to prepare your own fertilizer, control water levels, harvest, dry, thresh and hull rice yourself. It can be time-consuming at first but can some parts can be delegated to NPCs if you don't enjoy it.

As someone who enjoys both side-scrolling beat-em-up combat and Stardew Valley-type farming simulators this has been thoroughly enjoyable. The strong story with compelling characters interwoven into the game-play tie everything together.

Visually, its a work of art that is a little reminiscent of a Miyazaki movie. The soundtrack is fantastic. Performance was pretty smooth. I had a couple of crashes but the auto-save is quite generous.
Also you can pet the dog, the cat, and carry both around. There does not seem to be a button to put them down. Carry them forever.

overwhelmingly cute loli rice god.
the combat get awhile to get used to. but once it clicked it's really good.
I just kill the first boss while massively under level and it felt great.

will grow rice again
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edited at 45 hr.
I clear the game and Amagaeshi shrine lv100 with only level 37 Hime.
This game combat is amazing if you're under level a bit and have to be creative.
The story and music are amazing as well.

it's truly as ppl said
Rice is love. Rice is life

As comedian Mitch Hedberg once said: "Rice is great when you're hungry and you want 2,000 of something." You can buy it anywhere. Everywhere. But those grains don't come from nowhere – they are grown in huge flooded paddy fields, filled with workers who painstakingly harvest the stalks, dry them on racks, hull them, and process them into white rice. It's not a process many are familiar with, but every single grain of rice has been through it, and you just shovel 2,000 of them into your mouth like it doesn't even matter. Rice just wants to feel appreciated, you know.

Enter **Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin**, possibly the only ever game to lovingly recreate, with great care and attention to detail, the arduous task of rice farming. What's more, it does so with the punishing addition of not actually telling you how to farm rice. At least, not in a tutorial. Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin doles out its information slowly, and secretly, in the form of NPC dialogue and hard-to-find scrolls that give more information. It also doesn't tell you that, though.

The story is about a spoiled, exiled goddess who must learn the values of humility, teamwork, and discipline through manual labor and ridding the world of demons. Each day, Sakuna has a certain level of energy, provided by the meal she ate last night, to perform a few tasks. This can be tending to the rice paddy – sowing the seeds, fertilizing the soil, pulling weeds, catching pests, or harvesting and milling the grains – or it can be spent out in the world, in various action-platforming levels filled with monsters. In both cases, Sakuna starts ignorant, unskilled, and weak. Every enemy poses a real threat, and every stage of rice growth will leave you wondering if you did it right this time. Improving the rice will enhance the meals you eat the day before, giving Sakuna extra boosts to her experience, health, and strength. Exploring areas as much as possible will level up the general map, opening new places with new forageable items that can be turned into new equipment or fertilizer.

The farming and life simulation part of the game is done in full 3D, where Sakuna can run between the blacksmith, tailor, rice paddy, and main building to complete the first few tasks of the day and furnish herself with new equipment. But the demon-slaying part takes place in an almost entirely different style: a 2.5D action-platformer, in which Sakuna must use her hoes, shovels, and sickles to fight monsters, along with her godly grappling-hook Divine Raiment, which looks a lot like a big, glowing scarf¹.

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Overall, "Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin" combines the delicate art of rice farming with fast-paced combat, creating a unique and engaging adventure. While it has a learning curve and lacks clear tutorials, its deep systems and charming cast make it worth exploring. 🌾🔥