Rune Factory creator and longtime Story of Seasons producer reveals new guild management fantasy RPG with romance elements

Key art for Progress Orders.
(Image credit: Hakama)

Longtime Story of Seasons producer and the creator of the Rune Factory series, Yoshifumi Hashimoto, is producing a brand new fantasy RPG, and a short reveal trailer has given us our first look at what it's about.

As Automaton reports, the game – which is being developed by Rune Factory studio Hakama – is called Progress Orders, and it'll see the protagonist join a guild in order to look for clues about their missing grandfather. In the process, they also awaken to a special ability – clairvoyance – which allows them to both see and hear via others, enabling them to help out other guild members and improve their relationships with them.

Did someone say relationships? Yes, it was me – but seriously, fans of the Rune Factory and Story of Seasons games will likely be pleased to know that romance will be included in Progress Orders, although it's not clear right now how many characters your protagonist will be able to fall in love with. That's only part of the overall package, though, as it sounds like a large part of the RPG will consist of managing the guild, with activities like mining and farming.

『PROGRESS ORDERS』PV第一弾 - YouTube 『PROGRESS ORDERS』PV第一弾 - YouTube
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We've only seen a short amount of gameplay footage so far, which you can take a look at in the trailer above. It includes a glimpse of a battle (which immediately struck me as having a similar sort of look as the Etrian Odyssey games), as well as the player character exploring the world and going fishing. Hey, you can never go wrong with a fishing mini game. 

Progress Orders is currently set to release on April 10, 2025 across both Switch and PC in Japan – a global release doesn't appear to have been confirmed at the time of writing. Back in August, another Hakama game, action RPG Elrentaros Wanderings, left Japan around 10 months after its initial launch, so it could be that Progress Orders meets a similar fate and gets an English localization a bit later down the line if it doesn't get an immediate worldwide launch. 

The new Rune Factory spin-off looks like much more than a Stardew Valley-like JRPG – its breathtaking Eastern-inspired world has dragons, magic, and more.

Catherine Lewis
News Writer

I'm one of 12DOVE's news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.