In a new gameplay trailer released today, you can see the full Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin experience. It’s really two games in one. The first is a farming simulator in which the goddess Sakuna must plant rice to help feed a hungry village. If you’ve planted much of anything, you already know that tilling is the first part to loosen up the soil and remove stones. The game then moves on to sorting, which allows you to add mud and salt for a higher quality but lower yield harvest. After planting and harvesting, the next steps are threshing and hulling with a similar tradeoff in choosing between white and brown rice with different benefits. Lastly, you can enjoy your harvest in a dinner with the villagers.
The other side of the game is combat. Sakuna must earn her rice by the sweat of her brow in the field of combat as well. She will defend the villagers from monsters in a 2D style brawler. There is a cool mechanic shown where she can quickly swing up, behind, or around opponents making the battles very fast-paced compared to farming. We also see mobs of smaller enemies and one giant fish boss.
The XSEED Games Blog also posted the names of the English voice actors today. Laura Post will voice Sakuna, and she was previously Kasumi in Persona 5 Royal. Tama, Sakuna’s guardian dog, will be voiced by Frank Todaro. Tauemon will be voiced by Patrick Seitz. Carrie Keranen will voice Myrthe, a foreign missionary exiled to the island. She doesn’t speak the language very well at first, but her language skills will improve. She’s also the voice of reason in the game. Kinta will be voiced by Bryce Papenbrook, who also voices Adol Christin in the Ys series. He is a small boy and a brat to boot.
You can check here for the rest of the character’s names and info, but it looks like the voice cast is stacked with plenty of experienced talent. If you prefer the Japanese voice cast, it will also be included.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is available on November 10th.
