Sengoku Dynasty is a great game worth playing, but it is not better than Medieval Dynasty, which will cause problems for the developers in the months ahead.
Singleplayer.
Co-op Multiplayer.
While Superkami the developers of Sengoku Dynasty accomplished a lot during Sengoku Dynasty‘s short time in early access, one of the biggest issues we had with Sengoku Dynasty when we reviewed its early access launch has been addressed. The issue is how quickly tools break, a problem so evident that it caused us to dub Sengoku Dynasty an “axe crafting simulator” when it originally launched.
After playing version Sengoku Dynasty 1.0, I am sorry to say that this issue has not been fixed and, in the case of some tools, is actually in a worse place than it was during early access.
A perfect example of this is how players must craft two wooden mallets to construct a single small house, which is honestly shocking, considering that in real life, wooden mallets can last for multiple years and even decades when used for their intended purpose (building things).
To put it in perspective, in Sengoku Dynasty, a standard wooden mallet will break after 30 seconds of constant or 1 minute of sporadic use and axes fair a little better even when players take advantage of durability upgrades, with a standard stone axe lasting around 1 minute when cutting down trees.
Because of this, players who wish to construct even a small house will need to craft around 5-6 stone axes to cut down enough trees for a single house, and several hundred stone axes will be consumed in this manner before players progress enough to create better tools.
It is even more unfortunate that the developers acknowledged this was a problem shortly after Sengoku Dynasty entered early access in August 2023 and assured the community they would address it promptly.
Unfortunately, it seems that any measures they took to address this were not enough or have been somehow rolled back in later builds, as the durability of tools is still appealing, and at least as far as I am concerned, it is no better, if not worse than it when I last covered Sengoku Dynasty in August 2023.
One of the points I touched upon in the early access release of Sengoku Dynasty was its unstable performance; however, I am pleased to say that it has improved tremendously.
While there is room for improvement (something the developers have acknowledged and promised to address as part of their post-launch roadmap), the huge FPS drops we saw in early access are no longer an issue.
When running Sengoku Dynasty at maxed settings at 1080P, I got a consistent 60FPS no matter where I went when running the game on an XT 7700 GPU.
At launch, I commented that Sengoku Dynasty was a nice-looking game that utilised Unreal Engine 5 well, and that is still mostly true; however, I feel that it has not improved as much as I would have liked during early access, considering how many other games have achieved even better visuals with lower performance overheads in the last 12 months.
Don’t get me wrong—Sengoku Dynasty is still a good-looking game that performs well. However, it appears that Superkami used its time in early access to increase the scope of Sengoku Dynasty rather than improving its quality, which is disappointing, considering how, despite being only just over one year old, Sengoku Dynasty appears somewhat dated compared to other titles releasing in 2024.
I do not wish readers to get the wrong idea, I do not think that Sengoku Dynasty is a bad name, nor do I think the developers wasted their time in early access; on the contrary, they added many new and very welcome mechanics that have improved upon the core gameplay loop including a more robust coop mode, a female character model, and most recently the introduction of a new combat focused mechanic that allows players to liberate areas of the map and recruit additional villagers to their cause.
The developers have released a post-launch roadmap that includes many things the community has been asking for, including enemy raids, an enhanced system, a new map, new mechanics, and even new animals to help make the map feel even more alive (and potentially more dangerous!).
While the roadmap does not mention changing character models, I would love to see them given some attention.
While the game’s key art features a very attractive couple, the in-game character models are lacking and limited in customisation options. Adding more options, such as additional hairstyles and additional face models, would make playing coop much more enjoyable.
Please understand that I am not asking for “hot” characters or pinup girls, but it would be nice to have characters whose faces do not look like they were created for a game intended to be released in 2009.
Oh, and while you are at it Superkami, do something about my character’s hair despawning when I lean too close to a tree, please? He looks bad enough with hair, and being bald (in addition to being butter-faced) isn’t doing much to increase his chances of finding love and starting a dynasty, even if the local ladies do not seem to mind he looks more like an overworked middle-aged peasant farmer, than the handsome samurai featured on the game’s key art!
I like Sengoku Dynasty, and It’s a well-made game whose developers kept almost every promise from their original roadmap (even if a few items didn’t make it into version 1.0).
The developers should be commended for keeping the community informed throughout development. Because of those efforts, Sengoku Dynasty can be compared to the Medieval Dynasty in both quality and scope.
However, a lot has changed since Medieval Dynasty entered early access in 2020, especially when it comes to base building and survival games, which have seen unprecedented innovation in the last 12 months alone, let alone the past four years.
Sengoku Dynasty and Medieval Dynasty are very well-made games, and Sengoku Dynasty keeps pace with its predecessor in almost every aspect.
Unfortunately, keeping pace with a game first released in 2020 won’t be enough to ensure its long-term survival if the player base doesn’t grow substantially, as its launch day numbers must have been bitterly disappointing for the developers, with Sengoku Dynasty’s full release peaking at just 1,399 concurrent players on Steam, less than 10% of Medieval Dynmasty’s launch numbers, and less than 5% of Medieval Dynasty’s all-time high concurrent user count of 31,057 concurrent players on Steam in December 2023.
While a multiplatform release of Sengoku Dynasty will go a long way towards funding ongoing development, and in the days following release, [game-title] saw substantially better numbers than it did on day one (3,832 concurrent users on 9 November 2024), these numbers are still not great considering that Medevial Dynasty, which originally launched in 2020, peak at just shy of 5k players on the same day (4.917).
Despite being substantially newer than Medieval Dynasty, Sengoku Dynasty is failing to attract players away from its predecessor. This indicates that either the setting doesn’t interest them or that players feel “Dynasty fatigue” due to multiple “Dynasty” titles being released over the last seven years.
Sengoku Dynasty is a simulation video game developed by Superkami and published by Toplitz Productions, it was released on 7 November 2024 and retails for $24.99.
Sengoku Dynasty is available exclusively on PC.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Sengoku Dynasty is unrated and contains:
Ultimately, Sengoku Dynasty is a good game, and there is much more to do and see in version 1.0 than during early access; in addition, it is fairly priced, well-polished, and looks nice for an AA game.
However, like in my original review, I must caution you that Sengoku Dynasty isn’t Ghost of Tsushima or Mount and Blade, and players looking for that kind of experience would be better served elsewhere.
