Lakeburg Legacies

So, I've read all the negative comments and knew what I was getting into. With that in mind, I love this game.
I am the kind of person, that played Rimworld excusively with medieval and baby MoDs.
I am the kind of person, that builds family trees and *ahem* breeds humans in an endless grind (like in Sims). It's not a cute casual town-building game with romance choices, it's a grindy strategy-management game with a bit more life.
I Love how there are so many traits you have to be beware of. Like lifespans and love life of your people. Some families pop out babies like crazy and still continue after they're appearantly "too old" for babies. While others die single at the age of 19. Random divorces and quarrels keep the town dynamics and family lineage projects interesting.
You have to check up on them at work too, because they just might start a fight with they're colleagues and your work output will shrink and people will die of the consequences of lacking resources -NO STONKS- So you have to place them strategically with the other towns folk.
I think the problem for most reviewers is that there is no real goal or satisfying end to the game. Its an endless project of your own making.

Scratches the itch to manage and let the gays kiss. it would be cool to see more genetic stats and maybe craftable/findable items that can change villagers likes/aspirations or stats (especially for royalty)
also match making can get really annoying late game. It would be neat to have a building that hired villagers as match makers that allows players to approve or deny matches as they came up. The matchmaker could deal with the success of the date instead of the player late game to make it less annoying. Matchmakers could also be the ones to approve divorces but having unhappy couples stay together could give the family a debuff. sorry for the rant i just love where the game is going
I'm really excited to see updates in the future :)

When I bought this game. I didn't understand why it got "mixed" reviews overall.
It's probably because the early release and this game is still in development.
I'm glad I decided to buy because its VERY ADDICTIVE and reminds me a bit of Crusader Kings 2/3 but instead of nobles it's
commoners who you manage and there is no war or conflicts. It's a medieval type sim.
There is obviously much room of growth for this series, since Character customisation is still a new feature.
In all honesty, if I had bought the game without that feature I would have been annoyed also. So that might explain the earlier bad reviews.
What should be improved in future?
*The UI of the villagers seem a bit messy at the moment, which means its very easy to lose track of or struggle to locate.
*Notifications for when a significant event happens to alert the user would be good. Right now what happens is that a bubble icon shows instead of notifications.
* Customise Characters clothes and traits would be an awesome feature
* cheat codes to spawn money or hearts.

This is surprisingly addicting! I think there's more to it than I am aware of, but I overall feel that this is a simple game to grasp and have fun with. I wish that after each game, you had stats: oldest villager, number of assassinations, couple that had the most children, etc. For replayablility, I think that after 5 or so games, I'm not really sure what else to do. Events are random so I don't feel I have much control to make each game very unique.

I'm so glad I got this game despite the concerning first two reviews. It is so so so fun. If you are like me and absolutely love the idea of matching people up and then they have kids and then you get generations of different couples and kids and genetics - you will love this too. I definitely recommend it to people who enjoy that mechanic. Also I find the matchmaking minigame very easy/not annoying, but that's just because I take a photo of the hobbies before it starts lol. I STRONGLY preferred social mode, for the record. The regular game mode feels very tedious and stressful. A little challenge is nice, but it seems more centered on the challenge. My one request is that they add more worker slots to buildings for social mode (in social mode you wind up with a lot of people).

As a lover of social simulation and strategy games, I do enjoy Lakeburg a great deal (as demonstrated by my 140+ hours of game play at the time of writing this). You're free to customize certain aspects of your villagers including their hair, facial features, and names, and you can marry them off to suitors of your choice (the Matchmaker is a unique feature that I've never really seen in a game before).
I appreciate the need to pay attention to the traits of villagers you recruit and wed to each other, as these affect how well they will perform at their assigned jobs, and these traits can be passed on to their children as well. This presents an interesting strategical challenge.
I will say that this may not be for you if you're looking for "infinite" game play. Sure, there is an endless mode, meaning the game won't end after X amount of in-game years. However, there is a limited tree of unlockable buildings/careers, and the special events begin to feel repetitive after a while, but unfortunately, I don't believe the devs will be adding more content.
That being said, I still recommend this game if you're looking for something "cozy" to play for a couple hours. If you work from home and you're having a slow day between projects/tasks, this is an easy and entertaining way to pass the time.

Very fun game tbh, but I would reccomend getting it on sale. It's fun but easily repetitive and quite difficult to manage at times.
Love the romance system but its excruciating waiting for the love points; The profiles of the different people is super cool too, its a mix of romance and town management.
However, I will say that the workers are hard to manage; Wish there was a panel to view and reallocate all of the workers because you have to move them all individually and its super annoying. However the detail put into it is amazing, it just gets difficult and repetitive fast with the lack of free choice with town management.

Overall worth playing, but get it on sale, brings so many hours of fun, but has a lot more room for improvement, as it will get boring pretty fast. Thank you for reading!