Memories and the Path Are All That Matter. A Review of the City-Building and Survival Simulator Super Fantasy Kingdom [Early Access]

In the new game from publisher Hooded Horse, the main goal isn't just to survive, but to achieve the maximum with the available resources. You need to build a kingdom, fight off enemies, and use the obtained materials to expand the territory. After an inevitable defeat, you'll have to start over, but the previous expansion will reward you with bonuses in the new run, which will help you survive a little longer.

Build and Develop

You could say that at the beginning, the player finds themselves in a "broken trough." They inherit the ruins of a kingdom, where the king walks around collecting taxes. You need to gather resources like stone, wood, and gold to start production and restore the kingdom to its former glory.

The development of the kingdom is similar to the classic strategy game Knights & Merchants. In the designated territory, you need to build houses for your subjects, who will become workers in sawmills, quarries, and mines. During the day, workers go to extract limited resources, which are later used for construction, improvements, and processing – wood is sawn into planks, and gold ore is smelted into gold bars. The difference between the games is that in Super Fantasy Kingdom, subjects don't starve to death, and you don't have to mine coal to produce ingots – thank you for such concessions!

There are buildings that do not depend on the worker limit – fishermen and gatherers appear out of thin air and replenish food supplies every day. Improving buildings also materializes workers, but these greedy individuals demand wages for their work – part of the taxes goes to them.

• Restoring the castle will increase the maximum resource stock, the amount of taxes collected, and diversify the methods of defense;

• Improving the wood warehouse summons a forester who plants new trees like in Knights & Merchants;

• A specialist from the quarry improves roads, which increases the speed of workers and allows improving houses and huts adjacent to the new road;

• Improving the shipyard will allow conducting an expedition that will reveal new lands and resources;

• If you restore the temple, the player will receive additional taxes and profit in the form of faith. Improving the temple gives free nuns who increase the productivity of the selected building.

Donkeys are responsible for transferring resources to and from the warehouse. At the early stages, it won't be possible to hire new donkeys right away, so you'll have to remove workers from production to help with carrying.

Alas, the game's nature has bad weather. If it's raining and lightning, some workers will refuse to fulfill their duty, which could affect plans if the temple didn't predict the weather. At night, the ungrateful workers go to rest – work is work, but rest is on schedule.

War and Expansion

Every day, the forces of darkness wage war on the kingdom. They are opposed by the chosen hero and hired warriors, who can be upgraded with resources and rewarded with artifacts. At the end of the day, the soldiers go to the tavern, where they eat the food collected by the workers, which increases their level and mood. The result depends on the quality of the food – the effect of berries is weak, while a juicy piece of meat gives significant bonuses.

The usefulness of soldiers varies. A conditional cyclops immediately shows himself – attacks over a large area and stuns everyone who "gets caught in the distribution." Against his background, a swordsman or crossbowman seems weak, but with level increases, they will also show themselves. Building fortifications will help prolong the life of your army.

The most valuable are those who hit directly at the enemy. Against their background, those attacking a random area are much less useful – they miss the target too often. Alas, it is difficult to draw a conclusion about a mercenary from the image and available data – you will have to conduct tests in combat conditions.

At a certain point, a boss will arrive who prefers to keep his distance. If you rely on melee fighters, you won't be able to hit the boss properly – it's better to have a couple of ranged guys in reserve. Victory over the boss is rewarded with shards, which are needed for permanent improvements such as additional resources and unlockable heroes.

The destruction of enemies is rewarded with glory, which is needed to create roads. New roads inside the kingdom allow building additional buildings, which benefits the economy. Creating roads outside the kingdom opens up new territory and points of interest:

• Altars are activated for shards and give resources at the beginning of the next run;

• A shy witch requires a lot of shards, but in return, she gives resources to choose from every new run;

• Outposts instantly provide the necessary resources – the type of resources depends on the level of the kingdom;

• Some points of interest are attacked by a monster. This is a mini-boss that can be summoned to fight for faith. If the mini-boss is defeated, the rescued will deliver resources to the kingdom every tribute. The catch is that you will have to defeat the reptile every new run;

• Dwellings allow hiring fighters;

• Places marked with a cross can randomly generate a reward.

At a certain point, the enemies will become too strong, and the total mass will end the run. For the received bonuses, you need to more effectively develop the kingdom in the next one in order to accumulate more glory and open new roads. The process must be repeated until, after many hours, you can achieve victory.

End of the life path

At a certain point, the game will give you the opportunity to play for the kingdom of the dead. The principle remains the same: you need to develop the kingdom, create roads and open improvements. But the dead use different resources – bones, slime, enchanted stones.

The main difference is the fragility of the workers. Every day you need to give skeletons tasks, which crumble after completing the work. Against this background, one of the improvements seems strange, which allows you to plunder graves for resources and pay for this with labor.

The fragility of workers is compensated by factories that passively produce resources. Also, the player will be able to hire additional porters at an early stage, which speeds up the development of the economy.

The living and the dead have different paths of kingdom development. However, they share the stars that are needed to activate some points of interest. You will need to play for both kingdoms to get the most out of exploring the territory.

Diagnosis

If someone said that after the demo of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, I would almost immediately get to play a great strategy with an oversaturation of game mechanics, I would be very surprised. But that's the way it is — Super Fantasy Kingdom is a great game with beautiful and bright pixel graphics.

Playing it makes you want to do new runs, because the reward for success is the discovery of new territories, secrets and bonuses — even though it's still early access!