Welcome to another review of the beautiful world of Kairosoft. This time, we will take a look at the dungeon village builder – RPG-mix…? Oh, and it’s named Dungeon Village. If you ever wanted to create your town of the likes in the anime of Log Horizon or Sword Art Online, well, you are in for a treat!
Kairosoftie
I have a particular weakness for Kairosoft titles, as you might have figured out by now. I don’t know what it is, but these games have a special touch I can’t ignore. So, I picked up Dungeon Village a while back when it was on sale, and can’t stop playing it ever since. Just as a refresher:
This Japanese studio is very well known for the hefty amount of simulation games they developed. Most of their games are mobile based, which isn’t strange. The controls for most of these games are easy to use, and the gameplay is designed for short bursts of gameplay. Does this means it’s a strange fit on the Switch? On the contrary!
Dungeon Village
So, welcome to your town, in which you start with a humble hamlet, but are challenged to build it into a mecca for the land’s most ambitious adventurers! Luckily the warriors that stop by your blossoming burg will defeat monsters and earn you money. So, make sure you have the weapon shops up and running and provide them a place to sleep. Host events to conquer dungeons and clearing out hordes of monsters, which will bag you loot to stock your shops. And if your hamlet flourishes, adventurers will want to set up house and settle down, which gives tax income!
While leveling up your village, you can build training facilities like Combat Schools and Magic Labs to hone your heroic denizens’ skills and boost your village’s Popularity. The more faces that flock to your cause, the bigger the baddies you can beat! Including a recurring dragon-event, which will lead to mass murder on this dragon’s family. You should have listened to your Witcher. New in the Nintendo Switch version is the “Cauldron” feature. The addition of the Cauldron will allow you to test your alchemic expertise. Toss items obtained from quests or shops into the Cauldron and your armory might receive a rare addition.
Gameplay
Dungeon Village is fun, addictive, and highly motivational, thanks to the kind words of your adventures. Oh, and it’s full of references towards existing hero’s and people (like Clown Stripe, and Lance A Lot, puns on Don Quichotte). This gives the game a deeper layer, which I appreciate. The narratives are fun, which is essential in games like this. After all, the gameplay itself isn’t outstanding, but a little repetitive. But due to the challenges (upgrading your town), events, and loveable characters, you keep coming back.
Graphic-wise & soundwise, this is one of the best installments to date. Dungeon Village looks pixel-perfect and has some nice touches in its ever-changing overworld. The game map is your standard field of grass, in which your adventures discover new spooky forests or monuments. Meanwhile, random encounters pop on to the map for your heroes to fight off. And while your heroes are batteling off some amusing looking characters, you can upgrade your bakery or inn to accommodate more people because happy heroes become residents – which will lead towards tax income and a stable metropole of monster-slaying badasses.
Conclusion
To conclude – For a Kairosoft title, Dungeon Village surprised me. It’s in the same league as the clothing store game I reviewed a while back. Keep in mind, like always, these are games for a particular crowd – and I’m one of them. It’s easy to play, hard to master simulator, which will take you more than one try to get the hang off. Once you have that certain feeling covered, it will be one smooth ride.
