Greetings from Kaigan-mura!¹

海辺の小さな村から、ご挨拶申し上げます。²

No, The Chant has not been kidnapped by the Japanese but I couldn't resist putting the caption for the screen shot above in Japanese. I mean the game I've been playing (far too much to be somewhat honest) is set in 14th/15th Century Japan. As I mentioned yesterday, the game is Sengoku Dynasty. (Chase the link to read about it.) It is addictive, fun, and hard to stop playing once you've got the hang of it.

Sort of.

I stumbled across this game while wandering through the Steam store, the preview looked interesting. Especially as I am interested in that period of Japanese history. The name of the game translates to Warring States Dynasty (戦国王朝 Sengoku ōchō). The Sengoku period in Japanese history covers that time when warring lords (大名 daimyo) were fighting to impose control over all of Japan. It ended when the Tokugawa shogunate was established, some date it ending from three years earlier after the Battle of Sekigahara.

Anyhoo, the game doesn't really simulate any of that, the premise is that you (your character in the game who you can name) is shipwrecked along with another person (a female) on an uncharted coast. All you can do in the beginning is craft stone tools, cut down trees and break up rocks to build simple shelters. (You start by building a fire and a lean-to for the aforementioned lady.) You also have to gather food.

Well, as you progress from the Stone Age, to the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and such, you gather other refugees from around the area. Learn new things, build a village, then a bigger village, etc., etc. You also can have raiders come in to steal your stuff. While you can turn that off, they are a pain the ass in the early stages of your village's development, it can be "fun" to fight those bastards off. If you don't they'll steal half of your stuff.

So yes, I've been playing it a lot lately. If you don't keep your villagers happy (housed, clothed, warm, and fed) then they leave. It takes a while to get the hang of providing the right resources and jobs (so they can make themselves happy) and at first I was bummed to have my villagers just up and leave, two or three at a time if you've got a village of thirty to forty souls.

After a while I just said, "Screw it, you want to leave, then leave." I was having fun going on quests, hunting, seeking out and destroying bad guys (which is fairly straightforward once you develop the capability of producing quality steel weapons), I provided the shelters, the tools, the fields, even the damned seed. Yup, I'm a typical 15th Century warlord.

After a bit of tinkering with the game, I discovered that all my villagers were knocking off work before noon! Seems I had to set their production levels to keep them busy producing the stuff they weren't getting because they weren't working but half a day.

So they don't leave as much as they used to ...

Anyhoo, that's what I'm up to. Being retired is way more fun than I expected!

So have a nice day, I have to go hunt down some pirates and wipe them out.

Oh, and it seems the villagers want a brewery now! I tell you, they're never happy!

Sayōnara!

¹ It's the name of my favorite village in the game, Kaigan-mura (海岸村) is Japanese for Coastal Village. I built it on a beach, the main residence is "The Beach House," a small mansion owned by my character, Mifune Toshirō (三船 敏郎). Yes, one of my favorite actors of all time. You know him as Toshiro Mifune.

² Greetings from a small village by the sea.