Fantasy Town Regional Manager Reviews

Delightfully funny and challenging, this cute little game is great for role playing fans looking for something a bit more chill. It's packed with fantasy lore treats, and it asks players to make tough resource decisions: do I send adventurers on a quest and leave my town exposed, do I spend my money on a bakery, or do I save it for the travelling salesman. There is a lot to discover and unlock over successive games, and the daily newspaper is often hilarious. I really like it!

Picked this up in summer sale and surprised it isn't more popular. It's quite fun for what it is. This is not a traditional town builder with semi-permanance. It's a roguelite deck builder, where the town you build replaces the dungeon you would usually explore. It's fun but I noticed only 6.9% of players got the achievement for more than 10 playthroughs. There is probably a bit of dissonance between the game's target playerbase and who the game initially appeals to. Since I already enjoy several varieties of this genre (such as town building, roguelite crawlers, card/deck builders and resource planning games) I knew I would enjoy this. Even so I can understand the fall off in interest over time. I can mange one playthrough at a time now, because it's hard to start over again when the progression gained from one failed attempt doesn't necessarily translate into anything tangible for the next. It's too much of a slow burn. Sometimes you can see the inevitable downfall of your town several turns ahead without any opportunity to delay or change course, so you keep playing each turn, hoping the next will have the right card or choice offered. It doesn't. You fail. You can start again, but none of the variables have changed so why put yourself through the exact experience again. It's quite easy to track your needs and requirements, especially if you've ever played any of the Reigns games. I don't like that the upgrade trees are tied to combo bonuses (certain buildings need to built near, or away, from each other; too much thinking/remembering needed). Maybe my issue with progression is I've been selecting more passive upgrades but even when I do pick a combo, like markets and bakeries, I can play whole rounds without triggering the bakery to appear at all. I hope to keep playing casually and see if this opinion changes over time. In the meantime, I recommend this game as long as none of the above has put you off too much. If you don't like roguelites, don't play. If you don't like limited planning decisions and a high degree of RNG, don't play. Overall, it's been a fun, casual diversion, easy to play in bits and bobs when I don't have enough spoons to overthink other games. One or two rounds can feel quite cozy.