Medieval Dynasty

This game started as a stray experiment as I looked around for something that could scratch that 3D city/building/managing sim itch. However, it blossomed into so much more when I started playing with my autistic daughter, who at 17, took to this game right away. It is our go-to relax game that feeds us things to do while we converse away on Discord. I absolutely love this game for having brought my daughter and I closer. She opens up to me in ways she never did before simply while we're cutting down forests of trees or cooking up a new batch of potage. It's amazing!

I really love this game. I’ve spent a lot of hours building my village, hunting, managing people and planning each season. The progression from nothing to a proper settlement feels very satisfying. It’s relaxing but still makes you think ahead. I’m definitely looking forward to future updates.
There are just a few things I would love to see added or improved.
First, food variety. At the moment there isn’t much reason to produce different or higher quality meals. Once food needs are covered, it doesn’t matter much what you make. It would be great if better meals improved villagers’ mood or productivity. That would give real purpose to cooking more advanced recipes.
Second, treasure maps. Exploring the map is fun, but after a while there’s less reason to do it. Finding treasure maps from traders, bandits, or random events would make exploration exciting again.
Hunting could also use some improvement. I currently need to kill 45 wolves and boars, and honestly it turns into running around the map like crazy, using alcohol and sober potions, crossbow always loaded. A tracking skill that shows nearby animals or footprints would make hunting feel more realistic and less random.
It would also be nice to have a hunting statistics screen. Something that shows how many of each animal you’ve killed, maybe with trophy points and special rewards. Even decorative trophies for your house would be great.
Building repairs could be better too. Sometimes I have spare time and I’d like to repair buildings before the next season, even if they’re only partially damaged. Being able to repair them in stages would make management smoother.
A few caves with bears, bandits and hidden treasure would add adventure to the map. Not too many — just enough to make exploring dangerous and rewarding.
I’d love to see the option to build a watermill as a late-game building. It fits the medieval theme perfectly and would feel like a big achievement.
I also noticed animal breeders don’t visibly pick up manure or do much physical work. It would be nice to see them actually collecting manure or interacting more with the animals.
Another idea would be rare villagers with higher stats that appear occasionally in different villages. That would give more reason to travel and look for special recruits.
Finally, some kind of monuments that give bonuses would be amazing. For example:
-A chapel to improve mood
-A watchtower to reduce bandits
-A market monument to improve trade
-A founder’s statue to boost reputation
Overall, I really enjoy the game. It has a strong base and a lot of potential to grow even more. I’m excited to see where it goes next.

TLDR:
The problem with this game is:
a. early game is basically a very good first person survival/base building game
b. then it turns in mid/late game into a bad colony management sim
The problem is that the first part (early base building) is absolutely brilliant and the second part when it turns into a colony management sim is not really fun anymore because some key features are missing.
Full Review:
I’m convinced the problem after early game could be fixed and I really wonder why this part of the game received so little love from the developers. It's really frustrating because this game could be really outstanding.
Some examples:
- extremly clunky and inefficient way to configure (and constantly re-configure) the output of each building (why can't sliders be moved by dragging them with mouse????) you have to basically click "+" a hundred times (or keep it pressed for a while) to set someting to 100% lol
- clunky interface when it comes to building overview and reassignment of people
- no possibility to sell 2 items of different categories in the same market stall (if your village would produce 2 goods: say daggers and hats, you have to hire 2 separate sales villagers to sell these in 2 different stalls instead of just having one stall with one seller)
- no possibility to assign one villager to two buildings (as if caring for 2 chickens would be a full time job)
- Not a single interface (except the inventory) seems to support drag and drop or mouse sliders
- insufficient GUI information for the managemnt part of the game, usually just some red symbols pop up if "something" is wrong and it takes a few more clicks to find out what it is. This happens often many times per game day and is just tiring and frustrating
- no way for villagers to buy necessary items outside of the village
- it would be much cooler if new recipes or unlockable decorations could be bought or gained from villagers who specialize in certain tasks or wandering merchants etc etc
- illogical tech tree where unlocking simple recipes (for a log to sit on) cost silver
- no central overview screen for all stored resources
- no building support from villagers
- some very unreasonable output stats of some building (really, filling 2 buckets of water costs a full day for some villagers?)
- farming interface could be much improved, however is not the worst part of the game
- clunky house decoration mode with illogical cost progression
- generally lack in village building progression motivation (why should I earn the next stage?). no titles to earn, no real achievements.
- lacking fight and military aspects, no real story for bandits, no real incentive to defend village (not so importnat for me and probably would eat up lots of dev resources to get right)
So it is unnecessarily tedious (mainly due to lack of information and interface design) to establish and maintain a village supply chain from raw material to final product. However all basic mechanics are there...ressources gathering, refinement etc. They just need a better interface to be managed.
I have started the game 3 times now (also once co op with friends) and always enjoyed the first 10-20 hours and then we stopped playing because it was just not fun anymore.
Positive:
Nice sound and graphics, nice building system, nice general atmosphere, nice combat mechanics (or at least I've seen a lot worse), nice idea with the multi-generation dynasty though I never was motivated to actually play that long, this obviously was a passion project at least for parts of the game, so I'm recommending the game, however I am not motivated to pay for any DLC or would ever consider buying a part II.

I love chill games, and this one delivers. You chop wood, hunt deer, and slowly build a village from nothing no rush, no pressure, just peaceful growth. Watching your villagers automate farming while you relax by the fire. Peak cozy. But don't think it's only cozy. Wolves, boars, and bandits bring real combat. You'll need spears, bows, and quick reflexes when a bear crashes your berry picking trip lol
If you want a slow burn mix of Stardew Valley and light survival RPG, this is your game.

Yes... but dont expect to much.

It is called dynasty, but you will "finish" the game long before any but your first generation becomes relevant.
Your settlement will quickly become a "city" and suddenly there is nothing more to do than optimizxing the maximum building count and making a medival town pretty.

Still had fun though.
Mod support would probably be great.

TLDR: If you’ve been looking for a cozy, realistically-styled wilderness building and crafting game that doesn’t force you into lethal combat or intrusive missions, try this one. I know it’s tagged as management, but you don’t have to do that.
After experimenting for about a decade with different survival games, looking for the cozy, slow-paced, pleasantly grindy game of my dreams, I can’t believe I’ve finally found it! I know this is primarily a management game, but it is possible to play it without ever touching that system. If you’ve been on forum after forum, looking for a game where you get to build, craft, forage, cook, hunt, and brew with absolute minimum interruption by combat, missions, or annoying time limits, this is the one.
The survival mechanics are customizable and you can even disable them completely. I like to have to eat and drink. It gives me a reason to cook and draw water. What I don’t like is dying if I can’t eat for a day. I want a reason to put on a coat, but I don’t want to freeze to death if I happen to forget it. I want to make potions to get quality of life buffs, not to avoid death as I run away from whatever wants to kill me. I’m not saying any of that stuff is wrong or bad. I just prefer slower paced, immersive gameplay. Boring to some. Fun and relaxing for me. This game delivers.
Not only can you customize, you can do it on the fly. Want to turn off hunger and thirst while you’re exploring the map and then turn them on again when you’re working on your homestead? No problem! Like having to drink more water in the summer, but don’t want to freeze to death in the winter? Toggle temperature effects whenever you want.
As far as building and crafting go, I am thrilled with the level of effort required. Not a horrible grind, but enough of one to make you feel like you’re actually making things. Collecting different resources requires different techniques, different tools. Recipes are just complicated enough. Crops and forage are seasonal. There is planning involved in most projects. Stuff breaks and needs to be repaired or replaced. And you can do it all yourself.
The skill trees are well balanced. Progression feels meaningful as each point adds another thing to make your life easier. Keep in mind, I’m coming at this as a solo homesteader, not a village manager. I don’t know how the progression feels when you play the game as intended.
Medieval Dynasty’s world has relatively realistic graphics with seasons, weather, and decent looking water and fire. Lighting is a little janky during sunrise/sunset if you’re in a wooded area, but it’s a small price to pay. The day/night cycle is too fast for my purposes, but sleeping takes about two seconds and is a very minor interruption. You don’t have to sleep at all unless there’s a season change, but trying to do anything outside when it’s dark starts to strain my eyes. And there is a rhythm to the day/night cycle that is pretty relaxing once you get used to it.
Another box this game ticks for me is third person perspective. I tend to get dizzy or nauseated in first person unless I’m able to find the sweet spot in the field of view. (For the record, Medieval Dynasty has first person too and you can adjust the field of view.) The character’s appearance and animations are pretty basic, but not distractingly so. And you can play as female, but only on one of the two maps (The Oxbow).
A word here for cozy players used to the insane character and building customization of games like the Sims. This is not that. The character creator is very simple, though not without charm, and the buildings are templates whose interiors you can not decorate. That may change at some point, but right now, play this game for the feeling of living out in the wilderness, hunting, gathering, and farming, without being harassed by zombies or cannibals or zombie-cannibals.
To specifically address combat, there is some that may be unavoidable if you want to explore the whole map, but don’t let that intimidate you if you’re a cozy player. You can easily set your HP and Stamina to unlimited so you can stand there and laugh while they hit you or just sprint away until you lose them. If you do end up standing your ground and killing them (which takes a max of 20 seconds), you get good loot, good crafting materials, and go merrily on your way. There are no attacks, bandit or animal, on your homestead and on one map (The Valley), I’ve read that you can turn off bandits entirely.
I should mention here that HP, hunger, and thirst each have a different meter, so it’s possible to have unlimited HP and still need to eat and/or drink. This makes me happy.
As far as questing or missions go, nothing is mandatory. So no frustrating requests you can’t ignore as you try to live the wilderness life. (Red Dead, I’m looking at you.) I did the first few quests in The Oxbow – which were cute, lucrative, and useful as a tutorial – and haven’t engaged with the story since. I probably will once I’ve established my homestead though, ‘cause it looks interesting.
There are only two sticking points for me and both are solved by using a trainer. There’s no built-in money cheat and no way to stop your character from aging and eventually dying. If you’re familiar with the trainer Wand (formerly WeMod), there’s a cheat where you can set your character’s age and one that lets you set your money amount.
For the record, making money in the game is not that hard, but the money cheat was useful when I was exploring the game mechanics. And, of course, the aging problem can be solved by just playing the game as intended and having an heir to carry on your saga.
Now, I’m going back to the beautiful, lakeside spruce forest in The Oxbow to finish building my homestead.

Medieval Dynasty has claimed a top spot in my forever favourite games.
Everything about this screams that the devs want us to have fun - from perfectly paced build progression to narrative quests to quality of life mechanics that I now can't live without.
Everytime I thought "Oh it'd be super fun if X,Y,Z", MD had already thought of that and was lined up to give it to me. When I became super attached to my little town, having watched it evolve over a hundred hours of gameplay, I thought "it'd be nice to get a little map tag for it!" and bam - MD already had something in place for me.
Bandit camps evolve, narrative quests add and remove characters and unique dialogue, building works intuitively and is super satisfying and peaceful, and the villager management is so easy even I could work it out.
This game wants you to have fun and grants you the tools to do so. At one hundred hours in, I was drunk and punching on with a badger to unlock a new town crest and just thought. "This is awesome." There are a ton of specific things I could point at that make MD a wonderful way to spend your time - the fact that dying has no real consequence, the tavern automatically attracting the band once you build it so you can party on in your own township, the dialogue of your villagers changing depending on your standing with the king/if you're overencumbered/if you're dressed nicely, the kids sounding like actual cute little kids (I would die for my child and he WILL outrun his own shadow one day), the NPCs having different personality types and preferring different kinds of gifts but the description of the gift doesn't outright say what personality suits it and you have to infer from critical reading who enjoys what (using my brain! My big brain to work out a game mechanic!), SHARED STORAGE. Oh my gosh. Shared storage, my beloved, how did I ever live without you and how will I ever again? Chuck a log into a storage barn on the other side of town? Congrats, it's in your pocket and you can use it wherever, within a certain radius. Oh, but that radius can be expanded with another storage barn? Fantastic. No more over-encumbered walk trying to get to your build site, no more opening a dozen chests looking for sticks (I cannot stress enough how much I love that I don't have to go hunting for a specific resource).
Add to that the obvious love the devs have for the game and their players - the Nature DLC giving us the option to beautify our towns with hedges and bushes and trees (our designated Beautification Council (my fiance) had a great time giving our village, Eagle's Rest, a glow up). The 5th year anniversary event that planted gift baskets all over the Oxbow actually had us racing from location to location to try and find them - those boxes could've been empty, and we still would've been frothing at the bit to get to them because it was just FUN.
Nothing like spying that red slip of silk and hollering "GEEFT BASKIT!" into the Discord group call.
If you are on the fence about this game, don't be. Buy it. Play it. Make it your own. Enjoy the passion that went into this game because it honestly brings about 90s and 00s vibes where devs made games they wanted to play. Medieval Dynasty is fun and brilliant and intuitive, and I will forever buy any and all DLC they release. Thank you for this game!