Medieval Dynasty

I have been playing video games in one form or another for almost 40 years and this is so close to my ideal game that I could cry! It is a survival/crafting/management with optional combat. I have been building up my settlement and improving my skills for 35 hours and haven't even touched the quests yet. I don't have anyone else in my village either cos I want to have a go at everything myself and build up a really good supply of resources before recruiting new villagers. I have chickens and pigs, a farm and an orchard. I am not very good at the hunting or fighting mainly because I am old and have terrible reflexes but the options allow you to reduce the hp of animals and bandits whilst also reducing the damage they do so I at least have a chance of beating them (I still die a lot). I have seen a few people play optimising money making and recruiting early etc but the really great thing is you can play however you want and at your own pace, there are no deadlines to building your settlement (except that you age and can die of old age but if you have married and have an heir aged 18 + the game carries on as the heir!). I am loving playing slowly and I don't care if I'm "doing it wrong" it really doesn't matter so keep your disparaging remarks to yourselves! xxx

new update is great with players now able to have babies with each other. My girlfriend now is with child but chooses to fight bears, drink beer n wine and is the town blacksmith our child will be pretty hardcore

I started as a character who had escaped from a life of slavery when bandits attacked the caravan.
Five years in, I sit back and look at the town that I have built entirely on my own. Every house that my villagers complain isn't fancy enough, every farm field the I plowed myself where my villagers complain that they have to sit in a chair and watch over, every piece of furniture that my villagers complain isn't good enough, every gravel path the my villagers ignore, and half the food in the storehouse that I went out and hunted myself so that they can complain that there isn't enough variety and whine that I haven't cooked it all for them myself.
I look upon all that I have accomplished. My applause is yet more villagers complaining about how none of it is good enough and why haven't I solved this problem the same way I solved all their previous problems after literally chopping down an entire forest of trees and building the very homes that they live in.
It is only then do I realize... I never truly escaped from slavery.
I then spent the rest my avatar's life just hunting down bandits. They had to pay for what they did. I was better off before when I only had one ungrateful master to torment me.

Great city building and management game. Lot's of room for creativity and a lot of game customisation options meaning you can make it completely peaceful. Although there is combat, it isn't a heavy focus of the game as of writing this so manage your expectations if that's what you're looking for.

You'll probably like this if you enjoy:
The Sims - Designing + Decorating
Red Dead - Being out surviving in the wilderness + Hunting
Minecraft - Designing towns + Creativity + Decorating
Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Time period + Map
Mount & Blade - Time period + Visually
Going Medieval - Town Builder + Town Management + Time Period
Stardew Valley - Town Management + Decorating

You won't like this if you're not a fan of:
The grind
Running back and forth missions (although you can pretty much play without doing any missions)
Games with no 'ending' i.e. no final boss or end credit mission. The years just keep rolling on.
Games with no main objective i.e. there's no end goal, you just keep on managing/building your town
Being creative, the most enjoyment I've had out of it is the designing of my towns.

Great game, truly addictive. After 100+ hours you still feel as though there is a plethora of things to do and learn (both in-game character and yourself).
Looking forward to the addition of a future bandit revamp. As it stands, there are bandit camps; you have a massive arsenal of weaponry with which to deal with them, ranging from swords and shields to throwing rocks and crossbows. Armours to protect yourself. Yet currently they are quite obsolete as any gamer worth their salt can tackle a huge camp with just a bow and stone arrows (or kite bandits with just a stone axe).
My biggest gripe with the game is the memes/pop-culture references.
Absolutely hilarious for the first 5 minutes, but then becomes extremely tiresome and you find yourself rolling your eyes and feeling a little dizzy, every time you approach a villager, from the constant 360's your eyes are doing.
A lot of people talk about how the game should be played as an immersive sim, yet these in-game memes do their best to pull you out of that immersion; with the developers pointing a finger at their own game while exclaiming "HAHA look at that reference, do you get it? DO YOU GET IT!?"
Little kids walking around saying "ka-me-ha-me-ha" (voiced as Goku would say it)
May the forge be with you - Star Wars
I hate grain, it's course and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere - Star Wars
Winter is coming - Game of Thrones
No one can destroy the Metal. The Metal will strike you down with a vicious blow - Tenacious D
Get to the copper - Predator
Gotta catch 'em all - Pokemon
I once heard a man say "winds howling" even though it was nothing but a gentle breeze - The Witcher
To infinity and beyond - Toy Story
I love you 3000 - The Avengers
Me think, why waste time say lot word when few word do trick - The Office
I had a dream in which we were all had green diamonds over our heads and talking gibberish - The Sims
I met a guy called Sparrow. Sorry, Captain Sparrow. And I think he stole my money. - Pirates of the Carribean
Alright then keep your secrets - The Lord of the Rings
I'm just scratching the surface, here. Trust me there are many many more and you will hear them over and over again. Very rarely do villagers talk about normal things, like the Weather or crops or any other day-to-day activities. EVERYTHING is a meme or a pop-culture reference or a tongue-in-cheek jab at the game's development or even Steam itself "I don't care if you bought it within 2 hours. No refunds!"
To repeat myself. It's funny at first, but gets tiring very quickly; especially after playing 100+ hours.
I feel as though the development team hired that guy from the Key and Peele sketch, where they are brainstorming ideas for Gremlins 2, "you want 20 Witcher references in our game!? Your crazy and I love it, it's in!"
I'm fun at parties and I recommend this game

Love this game, but I have to say that the writing is absolutely cringe-worthy. The dialogue options funnel you into roleplaying as an obnoxious, disagreeable, fedora-wearing jerk at every turn.

Sometimes you're provided several dialogue options that you must choose from, but all of them force you to adopt a particular opinion - presumably, the opinions held by the game dev. For example, you're forced to agree that taxation is unfair robbery, and to be condescending to a random woman who says that being a mother is the best job (take your pick of responses from: 'nonsense', 'whatever you say', or 'there are better jobs than that'). The man that collects taxes is also cartoonishly villainous.

In summary, it's a great roleplay game, as long as you're happy to roleplay as the game dev's alter ago.

Definitely one of the better sandboxy village managers. It is especially good for people that don't really mind "progressing" and just enjoy building up your village and decorating it a little.
BUT. Even though I recommend it, I do have one huge gripe with the game - the dynasty thing just doesn't work. There is not enough content in the game and reaching playing as you heir simply takes too long. On default settings you won't play an heir until you've played at least 108 hours! By this time you will be either bored, or done with everything the game has to offer.
Even if you change the length of seasons to 1 day, it will still be 32h+ at least. Not counting the initial gameplay and how long it will take you to even get a wife.
So yeah, just keep in mind the whole Dynasty thing doesn't exist unless you plan to play incredibly long.