One of the games we demoed over at XSEED/Marvelous Games’ booth was a uniquely styled, side-scrolling adventure game called Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. At last year’s E3, the game had little to offer for demo. This year, not only did we get to adventure through one of the game’s stages and fight a giant demon fish, but we also planted and harvest rice.
You play as Sakuna, a harvest goddess that was banished to an island with outcast humans and crawling with demons. Sakuna resides with the humans, growing rice to strengthen her power and remove the demons on the island with her magical scarf and farming tools. Sakuna’s scarf was used like a hookshot, letting players zipline to one platform to another, but can be used to spin around enemies to help avoid attacks.
When first seeing the demons on the island, I pictured the creatures to be more diabolical looking, but the game’s designs were less than that and based off of general creatures such as rabbits and warthogs that can walk and attack like a human. You could say they were humanoid creatures. Not only did the game’s art style draw me in, seeing role-playing (RPG) elements integrated in the game, such as displaying damage-inflicting numbers when attacking, and the enemy’s health gauges are actually displayed.
Boss battling with a giant demon fish was entertaining — a little tricky at first while figuring out the attack pattern, but enjoyable at the very end. During the battle, I would constantly see my character knocked to the ground, but it took quite a number of seconds to get back on my feet. I would catch myself mashing the action button to try to speed up the process. While it may be the developer’s idea to pace the time from on the floor to standing up, this would be something I wish could sped up just a bit, especially during a boss battle.
After defeating the demon fish, I moved to a second demo of the game, growing and harvesting rice. With no knowledge of harvesting rice, the game itself gives simple instructions from digging up dirt to creating white/brown rice. When first digging, it took me a few minutes to figure out I had to hit the ground with my hoe and drag as I was constantly hammering the ground to dig up soil. Luckily I had assistance from a booth member to help direct me on how to dig dirt faster and only have to do 20% in the demo. I could then start planting my seeds, then water them to make them grow. Afterwards, I could finally cut down the plants once they were grown enough, hang them up to dry, store them, and begin making brown or white rice. Brown rice took much less time to create than white, as the longer you play to create, the tougher it was to actually create it. As I harvest to create brown and white rice, the game’s camera shots made the sequence feel more animated, making white rice more enjoyable.
After the demo, I felt as if I knew more about rice than before, though I cannot say I am an expert. The demo showcased each season of harvesting back-to-back, but when the game is released, each season will be set between battling. I would actually prefer this rice growing and harvesting to be one segment rather than multiple. Overall, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin looks to be a promising title for PlayStation 4 players as the game is set to release this winter in the west.