As I finish the finishing touches on the fourth building of what is to become a small village, I realize that I need to go hunting to secure food for the few inhabitants of this village. It is my job to take care of them, so not only do I need to build shelters and services, but I also need to hunt bison and deer for meat. I went out with a lot of confidence, but a wild boar bit me on the ankle and killed me. [At this moment, I began to respect the worldview of Medieval Dynasty. Because although it looks meek and often feels like an RPG, it is a survival game at its core. Because although it looks meek and often feels like an RPG, it holds the core of the survival game. Getting better means learning to balance the gentler and tougher aspects of the game.

Where these two meet, things get a little strange. Theoretically, you encourage people to go out into the world and try out the skills they want to master. In practice, you end up with a lot of wooden spoons.

Remember the similar system in "Skyrim"? Imagine, instead of making a magic sword, you want to make a shovel, and instead of forging a dagger, you carve a spoon out of a stick. On the other hand, once I had the shovel, I was genuinely excited. After cutting the tree, I could dig up the stump. Besides, at least selling blades helped fund my career.

In order to build new things or increase passive buffs, you have to spend money to unlock new blueprints. I'm not sure who I pay that money to, as it can be done through the menu, but that's how it works. You can also spend money at the merchants in each village to buy food, new equipment, and other things you don't want to craft or don't have the ability to craft yet. Mechanically, it's a pretty standard survival game, but the added RPG-like progression makes it more compelling.

But the main thing that sets it apart from many other survival games is not just survival, but how well you can manage your small community. It's called Medieval Dynasty for a reason. You must start your own small town and develop it from a single house to sleep in to a rural metropolis bustling with people with different jobs, keeping them fed, watered, and warm. Every person you recruit has their own skills, age, and preferences, and learning about them and matching them with the right job will result in a happier, much more productive village.

Assigning jobs also means they will help you gather resources, etc., but you are in charge. At the very least, this is what it would look like if, in addition to assigning jobs and drawing on a whiteboard, you also had to give your employees materials to cook dinner and firewood for the cozy house they built with their own two hands and a hammer.

As time progresses, new threats emerge. Combat is not the main focus of Medieval Dynasty, but there is combat. Different weapons have different attack ranges and uses. For example, knives can be used to slice up opponents for as long as you have stamina, and spears can be used to pierce enemies, but range is much more useful. When they go hunting, they usually end up fighting wild animals, but occasionally they are attacked by small groups of roaming bandits. They are not a major threat, but the villagers are not much of a fighter, so you need to get to them before they do too much damage.

Medieval Dynasty has a fairly comprehensive difficulty slider that allows you to completely ignore temperatures or drastically reduce or increase the amount of food people need to survive. If you want to live in a world where people are always nice, you can stop bandit raids, or make the seasons as long or short as you like. It's a remarkably friendly approach. The basic system remains the same, such as the time it takes to build a building, but various things can be removed or changed, so the game can be played as a brutally difficult race against time or as a casual chill-out session like Animal Crossing Animal Crossing.

Even when set up a bit brutally, Medieval Dynasty feels more designed as a second life than a fantasy. There is a story, and it is not bad, but it is designed to experience the mechanics of Medieval Dynasty rather than present a world-changing story. In other words, instead of slaying dragons and visiting other worlds, you are trying to keep everyone happy and safe. It's really relaxing.

Less relaxing, however, is the fact that the game doesn't always teach you things well. Without referring to the "Knowledge" tab in the game, I often don't know what I need to do. Sometimes the information is in odd places when you are trying to make a new tool. But with a little time, these can become fairly minor inconveniences.

Medieval Dynasty is not necessarily the most exciting game, but it is pleasant. If you play for an hour or so a night, you can feel your progress as new buildings are erected and new village members are added. Or, if you jump in thinking it will be a quick game, you may lose track of time for four hours and later emerge from the trance with a warm fuzzy feeling in your stomach.