Chris InglisSengoku Dynasty is a mix of open-world survival crafting game and city builder set in the Sengoku period of Japan. In released on Steam early access on August 10, 2023, and I jumped in with Justin to play some co-op sessions. We’ve been blown away by the outstanding graphics, high attention to detail to replicating the period with scenery and buildings to suit, and at how smooth this early access period has been so far. There are some niggling issues but nothing that was game breaking and we’re having a heap of fun in this slower paced survival game.
Players take on the role of a nameless samurai who must build a village, manage resources, and recruit people to stay and work in the village. At present there is no character creation tool so you are thrown into the game with nothing but the clothes on your back and you must pick up everything to make basic tools and go from there. There are some story quests to guide you through the initial set up of your village and taught the basics of villager management where you can use people you come across to work in your village and automate collection of resources like wood, stones and even hunting for meat to feed the village.
Simple tools like a hammer, stone axe and an adze can be crafted with sticks and stones, and these get you started to harvest logs, bark, planks, and other items to be able to build a bell tower which is the start of your village and building a name for yourself to grow within your dynasty. As your village grows and you start helping other npcs around you, you will be a name and reputation for yourself, and your dynasty level will increase. There is a broken bridge a bit further into a valley which is your first major story goal but there’s plenty to do first. You can also switch from third person to over the shoulder, or first person by pressing V which was a great feature.
I played Sengoku Dynasty co-op with Justin and the game takes a minute or two to load in for the first time. Once you are in-game though, the game runs extremely smoothly for an early access title. My thinking is that the initial load time gets everything set up and in place so that once you are in the world, there’s no loading screens and very little lag. You can see trees spawning in the distance as you run along, but this is a minor detail in an otherwise silky-smooth experience so far. It is worth mentioning that when cutting down trees, the tree trunk falls in a janky way where it’s a smooth drop in single player. The developers stated this is caused by the connection speed of the co-op host & the clients. All other interactions are lag free from our experience.
The game’s setting is absolutely stunning from the vast cherry blossoms to sweeping plains, and the sunrises and sunsets are incredible. Rainstorms didn’t affect frame rate at all, and the odd thunderstorm had a great effect. It gets super dark at nighttime, naturally, and while you can use a torch to guide your way, it’s better just to head back to a village hut or erect a tent if you’re out in the wilderness and sleep the night away. When in co-op, you both must coordinate and sleep at the same time for time to advance.
There is a lot of freedom to explore and build in Sengoku Dynasty, and the game offers a sense of progression as players develop their village and their skills. While there are story and side quests to do, you are free to grow your village as you see fit. There are wandering traders in the wilderness that is an opportunity to sell some junk items, but they also sold things like iron that we didn’t have the tools yet to be able to harvest ourselves. This gave us ideas of things to work towards, and any npcs that were willing to join us can be put to work in one of the crafting buildings in the village to automate collection of wood, stone, meat and more.
You need to make sure your village happiness is maintained, usually by keeping up supply of food. You will want to cook foods like meat, eggs or other meals from traders and store them in food stores in your village. You can keep tabs on your dynasty population, happiness, dynasty level and season information in the dynasty window. Seasons last up to 5 days and this brings you to repairing a bridge further into the valley. Once you erect a special building to repair the bridge and have a villager work at it, you’ll need to wait a couple of seasons for the work to be complete. Completing the bridge opens up more quests and access to more resources, more things to craft and the map really opens up. The latest patch fixed some things we made note of in our playthrough which are now improved upon, and the development roadmap shows some steady progression as we expand beyond our starting village and quests.
Overall, Sengoku Dynasty is a promising survival and building game that is one of the better performing early access games I have played of late. I was impressed with the detail gone into the presentation and depth of the environments and buildings we could craft. If you are a fan of survival crafting games or the Sengoku period, then I would highly recommend checking this game out. It’s only going to get better over the next 12 months of the early access period.
This review utilised keys provided by Toplitz Productions and Sengoku Dynasty is out now on Steam early access.
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Daniel Agius