If the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Rise of the Ronin’s arrival on PC have you clamoring for a less combat-driven approach to feudal Japan, open-world RPG Sengoku Dynasty is eager to catch your eye. A combination of survival game, city-builder, and management sim with support for up to four-player co-op, it lets you live out your period fantasy, and the new ‘Mono No Aware’ update brings additional family features and more intense weather and environmental hazards.
The Dynasty series is a unique beast, bringing together a wealth of different genres into something that sits halfway between an open-world survival game and a lifestyle RPG. Until now, however, those former elements have been fairly surface level, and you typically feel pretty safe past the opening hours in Sengoku Dynasty, but that’s all changing. ‘Mono No Aware’ is a Japanese idiom that roughly translates to ‘the pathos of things’ and relates to wistfully musing over the passing of time and the ever-changing impermanence of life, and that ties into several aspects of the new update.
On the survival side, there are new statuses and effects that can impact your health or even kill you in extreme cases, and you’ll need to adapt to your environment and the weather to counteract any potential negatives. That means you’ll want to routinely crowd around campfires during the winter to ensure you don’t freeze to death. If rainstorms break out, seeking shelter will keep you from getting soaked to the bone.
Your dynasty is now a more involved feature – rather than staying as children forever, your family will grow up over time and you’ll have the option to pass on the torch to your offspring. Doing so will let you take control of them in your place, inheriting your inventory and dynasty level but with an empty perk tree aside from some initial experience to grab early unlocks. You will, however, gain a “powerful, inheritable background perk” that boosts your skills and earned experience in a given skill, and if your lineage runs long enough you could even collect them all.
Also introduced with the new update are personal quests. These are simple tasks that will be spread out across your villagers, and are tied to the season. You’ll only have a limited time to complete these – the list of available missions refreshes when the weather changes. The patch also includes bug fixes, additional quality-of-life tweaks, and performance improvements, which has now earned Sengoku Dynasty a ‘Playable’ status on Steam Deck. If you’re tempted to give it a try, a Steam sale discount makes now an ideal time.
The Sengoku Dynasty update ‘Mono No Aware’ is out now. You can buy the game at a 30% discount on Steam through Thursday April 3, meaning you’ll pay just $20.99 / £17.49. Head here to grab your copy while the sale lasts.
Alternatively, there are even more of the best open-world games on PC to choose from, alongside the best city-building games if that’s the aspect that tickles your fancy most of all.
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