If you love simulation games, then you are in for a great time with this mobile-based game developed by one of the best in the niche. Dungeon Village is a simulation adventure RPG developed by Kairosoft and is available on Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch. It was first released in 2012 and has aged beautifully for the simulation genre. Kairosoft is known for its previous sims, which spanned activities like shopping, basketball, wild park management, and football.

Dungeon Village cost me my sleep for the first couple of weeks as I found myself building and strategizing regularly. It is a very addictive game, and you can lose track of time while playing. The first run-through is the hardest and most complicated, but it becomes easier once you get the hang of it. Within a few days, you begin to churn out amazing gameplay.

Classic Simulation Gameplay

You are in control of a role-playing video game town, and you are expected to expand and develop it to a level where heroes would want to live in it. You need the heroes to become a part of your town as some monsters are coming to try to destroy the town. So, you need to work quickly. You get to develop the town in 16 in-game years and are scored based on the quests completed, the buildings built, gold stacked, and a few other metrics. The town is a typical RPG setting with city limits and characters going about their lives. You can easily achieve your goal of attracting heroes by holding city events. The scale of the events will attract famous personalities to see the development of the village into a city. The more heroes reside in your town, the safer it is.

The money the heroes make from battling monsters still comes to your treasure chest. You can use it to develop the town, acquire better equipment, and clear quests. All these culminate in a five-star rating for the town, which is the game’s goal. There is a strategy angle to Dungeon Village as well. If you send too many skilled heroes into an open slot in a battle, the quests become too easy, and you can lose the game’s novelty. In addition, the villagers have specific roles to play in the town but can carry out other tasks you need them to do. For example, an archer can still handle some regular business with an ax in his hand.

Charming Pixelated Graphics

Kairosoft developed Dungeon Village to have a pixelated graphics style. This gives the game a charming simplicity and makes it look like something designed for a younger audience. But make no mistake, Dungeon Village requires mature reasoning and strategic knowledge.

One of the challenges of pixelated games is that they tend to turn blurry when you zoom into them. Dungeon Village is no exception. Zooming in and out is quite seamless, but it may affect the clarity of the area. Still, seeing slain heroes get thrown from haunted houses, sphinx temples, and deep caverns in pixelated frames never gets old.

Monotonous Score Needs A Touch Of Variation

The score of the game is monotonous. The same track plays for the duration of the gameplay, which is unusual for a Kairosoft game. Usually, the score should match the activities or setting of the game. I expected the score to change during battle scenes, regular gameplay, etc.

The soundtrack is minimal and simplistic. Battles come with simple click sounds that do not effectively convey the impressive nature of the pixeled battles.

Controls And Management Are Cool

Depending on the positioning of your device, you may experience difficulty selecting characters or buildings. Also, placing buildings properly can be tricky because of how tightly packed the game is.

However, these minor inconsistencies do not overshadow the fact that the underlying game is so good that you find yourself continuously playing. You quickly find that figuring out the little quirks of the game and their solutions is part of the fun. You gain mastery from past experiences for subsequent game runs. This makes it even more rewarding.

Dungeon Village is also great because it is not designed to punish you for not knowing or grasping certain things immediately. You get the freedom to jump in and try. You can flip to the instructions intermittently, but you will find that you never needed them in the first place.

Pro Tip: Always Aim For The Highest Score

Dungeon Village is a very interesting simulation game to spend a few hours on. Although the learning curve is steeper than in previous Kairosoft games, it is still easy enough to get great gameplay out of.

One of the major challenges with Dungeon Village is that once you have set a great high score, there is a reduced incentive to try and beat it. This challenge would have been nonexistent if it was a more competitive game that ranks you with other better players worldwide. However, this does not reduce the excitement of outfitting the town with the best equipment available, attracting and recruiting the best heroes, and stacking up the loot.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Dungeon Village is an interesting and charming game. If you love to collect loot and have enjoyed previous simulation games by Kairosoft, then you would love Dungeon Village. Instead of forcing you to play the hero like in other games, Dungeon Village allows you to be the guy behind the counter, ensuring the heroes are fed, well rested, equipped, and happy. You quickly see how financially rewarding this position is, and after playing Dungeon Village, you would never want to be anything else but the guy in charge.

This combination makes Dungeon Village worth a download. You will find it matches up to a true gamer’s simulation expectation. You can try the Lite version risk-free or opt for $4.99 worth of unprecedented adventure experience.