After four years, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is finally returning with a brand-new spin-off game, as well as a brand-new anime series to follow up the original, as officially announced by Sakuna. Released in 2020, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin was developed by Edelwiess and released through Marvelous. The game defined itself as an action RPG wherein players would take on the role as Princess Sakuna, a goddess tasked with exploring and residing in the mysterious Isle of Demons to clean up the demon population while tending to a small human village. Similar to another Marvelous title called Rune Factory, Sakuna offers its players a dual-gameplay experience, alternating between a hack-and-slash platformer and a laid-back farming simulator.
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The new game, which will be titled Sakuna Chronicles: Kokorowa and the Gears of Creation, is set to follow Princess Kokorowa, a close friend of the Goddess Sakuna. Edelweiss also announced that the franchise would be receiving a currently untitled smartphone game as well as a brand-new anime series that, as of writing, hasn’t received a proper release window. The first season of the anime, which adapts the events of the original video game, was produced by P.A. Works in July 2024 and had a 13-episode run. While it hasn’t been confirmed if the same staff and studio will be handling Season 2, the first season was directed by Masayuki Yoshihara and written by Jukki Hanada.
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Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin Is a Dark Horse In Anime & Gaming
Despite sounding like a relatively niche franchise, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin was a massive commercial success when it originally launched in 2020, which only continued into 2024 with the release of the official anime adaptation. With generally positive reviews, the game sold 850,000 units from its original release to January 2021, and by June that same year, managed to hit over one million copies sold. The anime received decent reviews as well despite game adaptations having a reputation of not hitting well with audiences. While the first season of the anime is currently sitting with a 6.74 on MyAnimeList, many positive reviews say that the anime did an excellent job of pulling them into the world of Sakuna, and made them want to pick up the source material for themselves.
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin follows the titular Goddess Sakuna, who is initially introduced to audiences as being a spoiled warrior princess and harvest goddess who has been banished – along with her adorable, mascot-worthy familiar Tama – to the Isle of Demons with a group of humans who attempted to enter the Lofty Realm, a place where only the divine is meant to reside. Despite her efforts to stop them initially, Sakuna is ultimately punished alongside the humans, and is now tasked with cleaning up the Isle of Demons while she waits for the right moment to send the humans back to their original home. Despite being a relatively niche blend of action RPG and farming simulator, Sakuna does what it aims to do extremely well, making it a franchise that fans of games like Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, and Rune Factory should add to their wishlists, especially with new content being right around the corner.
