Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in feudal-era Japan? To build a dynasty from scratch, lead your people, and tend to the land? Sengoku Dynasty aims to itch that scratch, at least, eventually. First announced in December 2021, Sengoku Dynasty is the first major title from newly formed game developer, Superkami.

Superkami comprises a team of talented veterans with over ten years of experience in the gaming industry. As of this writing, not much else is known about the team. Sengoku Dynasty is published by Toplitz Productions, who are perhaps best known for publishing Medieval Dynasty, which has garnered much success with updates still rolling out almost two years after release.

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Sengoku Dynasty is set in the Sengoku era of Japan, where a civil war has ravaged Japan and once denizens turned refugees, struggle with many hardships. Famine was all too common, and people grew ever more wary of their fellow man. Sengoku Dynasty spares no time, thrusting you into this harsh world as you crash-land on a beach with nothing but your wits, bare hands and raggedy clothing.

A brief synopsis is given before the campaign begins but is rather bare bones. As a nameless refugee, you set out to begin rebuilding your life from scratch and eventually make a name for yourself. Immediately noticeable was the performance. This game was played on a more than capable gaming rig, so there are clear optimization issues at play here.

It did not matter whether I played the game at the lowest settings or highest; performance was largely inconsistent. Frames would drop quite often in my playthrough, taking me out of the experience. Load times are often horrendous, sometimes taking up to two minutes to load into the game. The character's movement animations are clunky and can easily be fixed in a future patch.

As you begin your journey in Sengoku Dynasty, you will run into other refugees, and they are devoid of life and character. The lack of expression and voice-over for the NPCs is deafening. An inclusion of expressive characters can go a long way in making Sengoku Dynasty an overall more engaging experience. Voice-overs would be an added bonus.

Naturally, you are given tutorials and tips as you progress. While tutorials are always nice to have, the tutorials that do appear only pop up upon a relevant action once. You may forget a detail about the mechanic or option in question and will have no frame of reference unless you reset the tutorials and wait until all the old ones cycle first.

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This is problematic as there are plenty of details in Sengoku Dynasty with various elements, gameplay mechanics, and much more to remember. Most modern games feature an extensive backlog of game tips, tutorials, and even a glossary, so to see its absence in such a massive title is disappointing to say the least.

The dynasty tab is a mess at the moment. Assigning villagers to homes or providing them with jobs is harder than it has to be. Most of the time, it is unclear why at times, you can assign homes only for nothing to happen. I would have to try multiple times before it would finally work. The map does not allow you to zoom in for a closer inspection of the area, making it harder for a survey of the land.

Tools break often, which isn’t an issue for a game like this. What is an issue is how you constantly have to equip tools when they break, instead of just choosing said tool from a wheel automatically as long as you have enough crafted. This would be especially helpful for items like a yari (spear) which you will use many of as you go hunting.

As you make your way through the land, you will begin to craft the necessary tools and materials for survival. It's not so bad early on, but sooner than later, you will gain access to a wider array of materials, buildings, and other tools to build as you find more resources such as stone, iron, etc. Unfortunately, you will have to dig through multiple parts of the crafting wheel to look for a relevant build.

Sengoku Dynasty does not make it readily apparent in which part of the wheel you will use to build what you are looking for. For instance, a quest will ask you to build a specific workstation for the first time, but they won’t show you where in the wheel it is the first time around. You would think that is to be expected the first time building a newly unlocked blueprint, but sadly it is not the case here, at least not yet.

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Crafting itself is a cumbersome process. Certain materials are stackable in your inventory and others are not, such as logs, which are often used in building houses and other buildings. Even when I put other items in storage to free up room, it was not enough at times.

I was constantly running to trees in the surrounding area to cut down for logs, return to the construction site, and I would repeat this process ad nauseam. In your HUD, you will notice a drumstick, a heart, and a lightning bolt signifying hunger, health, and stamina meter respectively. When your hunger is fully satiated and your health is up, you will be able to perform tasks a bit longer without expending as much stamina.

Even when crafting certain objects at maxed out stats, building things took way too long. Building while standing up is slower than when trying to build while crouched. It is too early to tell if this was intentionally put in by Superkami or if it was an exploit.

Sometimes the game will just lock up for a moment with no indication of why and will randomly release at some point, resuming your control. The pause menu does not actually pause the game fully, as the world around you is still active. Characters are still moving around and the day/night cycle is still changing in real-time. This needs to be addressed in a future quality of life update, as that is a major inconvenience.

A main component of your village are the Bell towers. Bell towers are what allow you to place your village, change the seasons early, and fast travel between other villages, as long as there is a bell tower. The tutorial mentions fast travel, but that does not seem to be working at the moment.

Some villages are far and few between and are necessary for finding new quests and obtaining materials not located nearby. It is a hassle having to hoof it from point A to B just to go back and forth with completing quests and delivering materials. You are forced to constantly bring up the map to ensure you are headed in the right direction.

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Sengoku Dynasty undoubtedly has a lot of wrong with it at the moment. That is not to say there is no fun to be had. Underneath its medley of issues is a fun game. It is rewarding to go from your primitive looking village to an actual living space to call home.

Rags to riches, as they say. Sengoku Dynasty is all about becoming an effective leader, building relations with neighboring villages, and ensuring your people all prosper as they seek refuge from the war torn Japan. Upgrading your tools for more effective equipment makes life easier, as you can build better equipment to better handle certain tasks.

Sengoku Dynasty was built with Unreal Engine 5 and at times, you can catch a glimpse of how stunning the environments can be when the game wants to cooperate. The water is genuinely amongst some of the best I’ve ever seen, period. Taking strolls through the forest is also quite pleasing to the eye, especially in the Autumn. A personal standout is how the moon reflects off the water at night.

Sengoku Dynasty is the first major project for the team at Superkami, so the many faults are to be expected. The team has a laid out a roadmap for future updates, including bug fixes and quality of life improvements, which the game certainly needs. As long as Superkami is transparent with the fan base, I can only see good things for Sengoku Dynasty going forward.

Sengoku Dynasty is currently in early access, so hopefully, many of the faults addressed in this review are rectified at some point. Only time will tell for now, but the team seems to be very active on the game’s Steam page, looking for player input on several aspects of the game.

Sengoku Dynasty has not hit close to its full potential but can become as big as its brethren, the Medieval Dynasty, with enough love and care from the team at Superkami. Until improvements are incorporated, it is not recommended to spend the asking price of $29.99 with the glaring issues present in Sengoku Dynasty. Your money is better spent elsewhere in the meantime while the team works hard on a full release.

Sengoku Dynasty

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