REVIEW: ‘Sengoku Dynasty’ Is A Life Sim With Lifeless Moments (PC)

Sengoku Dynasty, a life sim game from Superkami and Toplitz Productions, combines city-building, crafting mechanics, and open-world exploration. Originally released as an early access title, Sengoku Dynasty’s 1.0 launch promises numerous improvements and new mechanics, perhaps eclipsing its predecessor, Medieval Dynasty, in the process.

Unfortunately, while Sengoku Dynasty does have features that kept me engaged in my 20 or so hours of playing–such as expanding my village and recruiting more survivors–it’s also hamstrung by glaring issues. These include a lackluster presentation and poorly paced quest progression.

Sengoku Dynasty is set during Japan’s Sengoku Jidai period, an era of civil war and strife, where feudal lords vied for control of the country. You can create a custom character at the start, though the options are fairly barebones. From there, you’re whisked away to Nata Valley, a mysterious land, also called the Peasant Kingdom. Far from the reaches of the shogunate and warlords, it’s up to you to carve your own path as the leader of your own realm.

I found the above premise quite intriguing, and I spent my first few hours acclimating to mechanics I’ve learned from other survival and crafting games I’ve played over the years. These included gathering resources, such as stone, wood, fur, and the like, and making tools such as axes, hammers, adzes, knives, and more. Hunger and health were also important factors to remember, which meant keeping some extra food and salves for good measure.

Most of my time was spent growing my initial settlement, which I named “Neko Village” since I love cats (even though there are no cats in the game). I started with but a small territory where all the houses were burned out and abandoned. From there, I obtained the necessary materials so I could construct residential housing and production buildings. The process wasn’t automatic since I had to use my hammer tool to fully construct each part, from the foundations and flooring to walls, roofs, and mandatory furniture.

At first, I appreciated this concept since it added an extra layer of immersion. Sadly, the process became unbearably tedious over time, especially for buildings that had numerous panels and fixtures. It came to a point where I didn’t bother settling additional villages, even though the opportunity was there, because the mechanic was glaringly tiresome to a fault.

Another of Sengoku Dynasty’s core features is the ability to ask refugees and survivors to join your burgeoning settlement. In turn, you can assign them to a particular task, such as foraging for berries, hunting animals for meat and fur, fishing for fish and shells, cooking different types of meals, felling trees to get logs and planks, and making all sorts of beverages for your tavern.

This is one facet that I truly applaud, given the streamlined approach. All I had to do was open a menu, choose a villager, and pick a job for them. At the end of each day, I’d see all the resources they’ve collected end up in the shared storage space for the village. Because the survivors can acquire so many materials in such a short span of time, I could sell excess items to amass more gold.

Regrettably, this system does have a few flaws, too. For instance, if I change a villager’s bed/sleeping quarters, their job would be reset. They also don’t help with construction–I’d have to manually hammer every wall and furniture while unassigned villagers just walked by or swept the floors for no reason. I couldn’t help but think of Palworld, where creatures in my base happily finished building stuff while I was out questing.

Some of the most notable shortcomings of Sengoku Dynasty concern its open-world presentation and sandbox progression. While there are several regions for you to explore, the world itself is predominantly static. There are a handful of settlements and most NPCs just stay there, never leaving their original areas. These outposts, at best, only have a single quest chain, which often requires bringing certain resources to complete a task.

The countryside can be characterized in the same way. You’ll find lush vegetation, winding rivers, cave systems, and wild animals, but wandering NPCs are nearly non-existent. There are also bandit strongholds, which you can capture to aid you in controlling a region. However, enemies like deserters, vagabonds, and ronin still stay in those locations. Not once did I get waylaid by roving bandits while exploring vast lands.

Speaking of enemies, the combat in Sengoku Dynasty is very clunky, from attack swings to movement animations. Likewise, I found that enemy attacks were easy enough to parry and avoid, and it was possible to clear out an entire stronghold without breaking a sweat. I would much rather see a slight increase to combat difficulty, complemented by a new mechanic that lets you bring a party of villagers to raid hostile camps.

Sandbox progression in Sengoku Dynasty also needs a few tweaks. In my playthrough, I had early-game quests from settlements that tasked me with providing certain resources and items. The problem was that these were either late-game items or the information wasn’t made clear at all.

For example, there was a village NPC that asked me to bring 15 iron ore, which could only be mined by using a bronze pickaxe. Oddly enough, there was no tooltip telling me how to get bronze, let alone how to make a pickaxe, so I kept searching far and wide to no avail. Little did I know that bronze could be crafted by combining copper and tin via a workshop smelter. However, the smelter wasn’t categorized as a mandatory fixture for the workshop, and I only stumbled upon it while checking every single build menu and panel. Needless to say, more informative tooltips would improve the overall flow of the sandbox campaign.

Sengoku Dynasty has all the right ingredients to make for an interesting romp through feudal Japan as you slowly expand your domains and gain the help of other survivors. Unfortunately, each feature also has its respective failings, leading to a rather laborious affair. While the game may have left early access, it still feels incomplete.

Version 1.0 of Sengoku Dynasty is available now on PC via Steam.