Last week my friends Jamie, Shadey and I completed a playthrough of Sengoku Dynasty, an open-world survival game set in medieval Japan. Developed by Superkami, Sengoku Dynasty does a fantastic job of immersing you in its historical setting, but I have to admit that I found it in need of several bug fixes and a number of quality-of-life improvements. The game was officially released in November 2024, but development is still ongoing. I have every reason to believe that the issues I encountered will eventually be resolved, yet during my playthrough they were, at times, frustrating.
In Sengoku Dynasty, one of the main objectives is to build villages and provide homes and work for refugees while managing resources. I enjoyed the concept of constructing settlements, welcoming refugees, and gathering materials, but I didn’t find the resource management aspect, keeping villagers happy and productive, particularly engaging. For instance, to keep your villagers fed you might set up a fishing hut and assign someone to catch fish. However, they can’t fish without nets, so another villager needs to make nets. Nets require straw, which means another villager must produce straw, and to do that someone else has to gather grass. On top of that, you may need yet another villager to cook the fish. This chain of dependencies is just one example of the many systems you must balance, and for me, it quickly became more of a chore than a source of fun. What’s worse is that there are also ‘special projects’ such as constructing bridges and lighthouses that require a large number of villagers to complete between season changes. This meant constantly readjusting roles and reassigning jobs in an attempt to keep everything balanced.
Jamie was, as usual, highly creative and built two impressive villages, which we named Village-san and Village-shire. I have to say that Jamie’s creations looked far better than any of the example settlements included by the developers. I genuinely believe Jamie would make an excellent world designer for games like this. Although the quality isn’t the best due to the way my computer hardware is set up for work, I did manage to record 2 short walkthrough videos to showcase our villages. I have also included some of my favourite screenshots.
While Jamie was busy creating the villages, Shadey and I focused on gathering resources, crafting weapons and armour, and working on liberating the regions of Sengoku Dynasty. This involved completing the aforementioned special projects and taking down enemy camps and their leaders. Liberating regions unlocked resources, buildings, and items we needed to progress. Although the progression arc is fairly straightforward, it is always satisfying to work towards unlocking the next tier of items. After roughly 35 hours of play, having liberated all the regions, earned ‘The Great Unifier’ achievement, and built two villages, I feel the conditions have been met to add Sengoku Dynasty to my list of completed games.
I mostly enjoyed playing Sengoku Dynasty. The setting is interesting, and exploring an open world is always fun, but more than anything, it was great to share the experience with my friends. To be honest, I’m convinced that even a game of tic-tac-toe with them would be entertaining. I’m not yet entirely sure what we’ll play next, but Shadey has mentioned wanting something a bit more imaginative and less focused on realism. I have to agree with him on that.
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