Info about City Tales - Medieval Era: Official game description: Become the leader your people need, shaping their districts and providing them with the means to thrive and expand your grand kingdom. But don’t fret my Liege; you are not alone. Companions with invaluable skills will aid you in this endeavour as their fates become intertwined with your City Tales. * **Multiple maps to choose from**: Start your new realm in one of the two beautiful locations available. * **Organic cities**: Forsake rigid grids and shape large cities that evolve naturally with a unique district zoning tool. * **A relaxing pace with challenges:** Enjoy rewarding play in a beautiful medieval world, where challenges emerge from the evolution of your city and it's economy. * **A leader of the people:** With your companions, who's skills develop with your guidance, create a city to the peoples needs and desires. **For all walks of life** ------------------------- Each district has its own needs and desires, depending on the people who live there. Some citizens will love a tavern, whilst others prefer the peace of a church. But each area will evolve based on your choices. **A Swift and Impactful Economy** --------------------------------- Guide the pulse of a bustling economy. Balance resources with swift, wise decisions and lay the groundwork for your city to rise like a beacon of medieval progress. **Beautify your glorious city your own way** -------------------------------------------- With a variety of decorations, truly make this city your own by customizing your buildings and streets. Show off your prosperity! **Advisors by your side** ------------------------- With 9 companions, bring strength and knowledge to your city’s economy and story alike. By placing them in charge of vital points of production, they train them to become autonomous and add bonuses. Help them in their own missions to bring even more depth to your city and it's people. **A canvas full of tales** -------------------------- City Tales is graced with a gentle atmosphere and a hand-painted vibrancy, breathing warmth and wonder into every stone and timber. Discover how you'd like to flow with this land to paint your own story. Release date: Jan 29, 2026 Categories: City Building, Resource Management, Character Progression, Customization, Relaxing and Cozy Gameplay, Story-driven Gameplay, Economic Simulation, Strategy Feature scans: - Steam Deck: score 20; verdict: Good Performance, Mixed Gameplay Feedback; summary: The game runs well on the Steam Deck and Linux, indicating good performance and compatibility. However, some users find the gameplay too easy and lacking in excitement due to the absence of difficulty settings. The controls are generally straightforward, but the district mechanics add a layer of complexity that requires strategic thinking. - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Beautiful visuals and art style (weight 0.96): The game features vibrant and charming visuals with a beautiful art style that is visually appealing. The graphics are colorful and detailed, contributing to an immersive atmosphere. - Relaxing and enjoyable gameplay (weight 0.95): The game offers a relaxing and non-stressful city-building experience with a calm pace and visually pleasing aesthetics. Players appreciate the lack of pressure and the enjoyable progression system. - Unique city-building mechanics (weight 0.23): The game introduces unique city-building mechanics, such as the district system and organic street formation. These mechanics add depth and strategic elements to the gameplay. - Engaging companion system (weight 0.2): The companion system offers engaging character interactions and storylines, adding an RPG element to the city-building genre. Companions help with micro-managing and provide unique stories. - High-quality localization (weight 0.12): The game features high-quality localization in multiple languages, including German, Ukrainian, and French. This makes the game accessible to a wider audience. - Clear and intuitive production chains (weight 0.11): The game features clear and transparent economic chains with gradual unlocking of new production chains and building upgrades. This makes resource management friendly and easy to understand. - Automation of buildings (weight 0.08): The game includes automation of production buildings and residents automatically going to work. This feature simplifies resource management and adds convenience to the gameplay. - No penalizing mechanics (weight 0.08): The game lacks penalizing mechanics and disaster scenarios, making it a relaxing and stress-free builder. Players can learn the game without stress and enjoy tactical placements. - Well-balanced progression (weight 0.05): The game offers a well-balanced progression system with enjoyable and natural scenario progression. The pace of progression feels good and is well-thought-out. - Minor bugs and optimizations (weight 0.03): The game is reported to be mostly bug-free with decent optimization for an early access title. Players have noted full playability despite the early version. Common complaints: - Performance and technical issues (weight 0.52): The game suffers from significant performance problems, including stuttering, crashes, and severe lag, especially as the city population grows. These issues make the game difficult to enjoy and sometimes borderline unplayable. - Lack of depth and variety (weight 0.5): The game lacks depth in mechanics and variety in gameplay. Many players find the game repetitive and too easy, with limited challenges and strategic elements. The lack of variety in housing, military elements, and other features contributes to this issue. - Repetitive and linear gameplay (weight 0.46): The gameplay is often described as repetitive and too linear. Players find that once they understand the mechanics, there is not much else to do, leading to a lack of replay value. - Underdeveloped story and characters (weight 0.44): The game's story and character development are underdeveloped. Many character stories and quest descriptions are vague or incomplete, detracting from the overall experience. - Resource and production management (weight 0.44): Resource gathering and production management are scattered and poorly explained. Players struggle to find resources and understand consumption, leading to frustration and confusion. - High price for limited content (weight 0.43): Many players feel that the game is overpriced for the amount of content it currently offers. The lack of depth and variety, combined with the high price point, makes it less appealing. - Limited map variety and generation (weight 0.39): The game lacks map variety and a map generator, leading to repetitive environments. Players express a desire for more diverse and randomly generated maps. - Building and editing limitations (weight 0.16): Players face numerous limitations and frustrations when it comes to building and editing structures. Issues include the inability to remove or modify certain buildings, difficulties with district editing, and problems with building destruction and replacement. - Lack of sandbox mode (weight 0.06): The game lacks a sandbox mode with all features unlocked, limiting the creative freedom and replayability for players who enjoy building and experimenting without restrictions. - Frustrating tutorial experience (weight 0.03): The tutorial is described as intrusive, unskippable, and frustrating. Some players could not even finish the tutorial, which detracts from the overall experience. - Slow game pace (weight 0.02): The game's pace is described as slow, even at increased speeds. This slow pace can make the game feel tedious and drawn out. Gameplay feedback: - Complex resource and production chains (weight 0.78): The game features a deep and complex system of resource management and production chains. Players need to manage various resources and ensure that production chains are efficiently set up to progress in the game. - District-based city building (weight 0.78): The game introduces a unique district-based city building mechanic. Players can create and manage districts, each with its own set of buildings and resources, adding a layer of strategic planning and organization. - Companion system with RPG elements (weight 0.62): The game includes a companion system where characters can be trained and moved between buildings to improve production. This adds RPG elements to the city-building genre, allowing for character progression and management. - Relaxing and casual gameplay (weight 0.57): The game offers a relaxing and casual gameplay experience, making it accessible to a wide range of players. The pace is slow, and there are no urgent or stressful mechanics like fires or wars. - Story-driven quests and missions (weight 0.56): The game features an extensive story with quests and missions that drive the gameplay. These quests are integrated with the city-building mechanics, providing a narrative context for the player's actions. - Innovative building mechanics (weight 0.56): The game introduces innovative building mechanics, such as the ability to draw housing districts on the map and the automation of buildings over time. These mechanics add depth and complexity to the city-building experience. - Character interactions and dialogues (weight 0.51): The game includes character interactions and dialogues that add depth to the gameplay. Players can engage with companions and other characters, each with their own storylines and preferences. - No complex calculations needed (weight 0.27): The game is designed to be easy to understand and play, with no need for complex calculations. This makes it accessible to a wide range of players, including those who may not be familiar with the city-building genre. - Various difficulty settings (weight 0.02): The game offers various difficulty settings, allowing players to choose the level of challenge they prefer. This makes the game accessible to both casual and more experienced players. Performance notes: - Graphical and display issues (weight 0.04): There are several graphical issues reported, including image distortion on large screens and problems with HDMI connections shutting down. Lowering graphic quality can sometimes resolve performance issues. - Positive performance on specific platforms (weight 0.03): The game runs well on certain platforms such as Arch-based Linux and Steam Deck, with reports of smooth and bug-free performance. - Camera and control issues (weight 0.03): Some players have reported issues with camera jumps and control configurations, although these are less frequently mentioned. - Vsync-related performance drops (weight 0.01): Disabling Vsync can lead to significant FPS drops, affecting the game's performance. Recommendations: - Mixed recommendations for purchase (weight 0.25): Players have varying opinions on whether the game is worth purchasing at its current state. Some highly recommend it for its unique concept and relaxing gameplay, while others advise waiting for more updates or improvements. - Suitable for relaxed gameplay (weight 0.22): The game is often recommended for players seeking a gentle, relaxed, and strategically deep experience. It is particularly suited for those who enjoy slow-paced games and cooperative play. - Potential seen in future updates (weight 0.2): Many players acknowledge the game's potential and are looking forward to future updates and developments. They believe that the game could become more exciting and improved with additional patches and features. - Suggestions for gameplay improvements (weight 0.18): Players have suggested adding a sandbox mode with all features unlocked for creative freedom and implementing a more flexible system for unlocking objectives and buildings to increase gameplay value and scope. - Support for developers (weight 0.02): Some players recommend the game to support small developers and appreciate the efforts of the creators. - Positive feedback on game foundation (weight 0.02): There is positive feedback regarding the foundation of the game, indicating that it is well-advanced and has seen improvements. Other player notes: - Game in early access (weight 0.04): The game is currently in an early access phase, which means it is still under development and not yet fully released. - More buildings and decorations needed (weight 0.01): Players are requesting additional buildings and decorations to enhance the game's environment and customization options. Emotions: - Frustration (weight 0.15): Players are frustrated primarily due to game bugs, poor optimization, and performance issues, especially when city populations exceed 3000. Additionally, vague quest descriptions, redundant tasks, and unclear progression mechanics contribute to the frustration. The lack of alignment tools, building influence range, and inability to cancel single buildings without leaving gaps are also significant pain points. - Enjoyment (weight 0.11): Players enjoy the relaxing and non-stressful gameplay, which is both cozy and charming. The deep and complex gameplay mechanics, along with the unique building mechanics and colorful visuals, provide a fresh and engaging experience. The district-based building system and pleasant city management aspects are particularly appreciated. - Joy (weight 0.09): Players find joy in the fun gameplay, unique mechanics, and beautiful art style. The colorful and humorous localization, along with the relaxing and engaging atmosphere, contributes to a pleasant experience. The game's music, responsive developers, and cozy building experience are also sources of joy. - Excitement (weight 0.07): Players are excited about the game's unique mechanics and the potential for future updates. The enjoyable Early Access experience, fresh ideas, and complex production chains add to the excitement. The organic city building and the prospect of expanded dialogue and stories in future developments are also thrilling aspects. - Disappointment (weight 0.06): Players express disappointment due to technical issues, lack of variety, and poor graphics. The underdeveloped plot and limited game scope, along with performance issues and balance problems, contribute to the dissatisfaction. Some players feel the game is not worth the money and does not meet the expectations of a city-builder. - Excited (weight 0.05): Players are excited about the unique gameplay mechanics and the depth of the game. The anticipation of future updates, new content, and additional tasks for the plot are sources of excitement. The game's potential for expanded dialogue and stories, along with the unique mechanics and stable performance, add to the enthusiasm. - Satisfaction (weight 0.05): Players are satisfied with the clear and transparent economic chains, well-optimized performance, and satisfying progression from village to medieval city. The natural outlines of villages, well-made interface, and automated planning contribute to a positive experience. The game's organic shapes and easy resource management are also appreciated. - Frustrated (weight 0.03): Players are frustrated with performance problems, extremely slow reactions, and the annoying search for specific buildings. The intrusive and unskippable tutorial, along with the lack of content and extremely poor performance, contribute to the frustration. These issues make the game unplayable for some users. - Appreciation (weight 0.03): Players appreciate the easy resource management, quality translations, and detailed character illustrations. The dynamic and visually interesting city placement, along with the developers' creativity and potential, are also highly valued. These aspects contribute to a positive and appreciative sentiment towards the game. - Boredom (weight 0.02): Players experience boredom due to the lack of depth and variety in mechanics, which can become repetitive. The game's linearity and objective-based progression, along with the lack of challenging content, contribute to the boredom. Some players find the game boring after a few hours of gameplay. - Confusion (weight 0.02): Players are confused by unclear mechanics for building requirements, which can be frustrating. The similarity in appearance of public buildings and unclear icons contribute to the confusion. These aspects make it difficult for players to distinguish between different buildings and understand the game mechanics. - Interest (weight 0.02): Players are interested in the unique district building concept and the acolyte system, which adds depth to the gameplay. The original and unique city-building mechanics are intriguing aspects that capture the players' interest. These features provide a fresh and engaging experience. - Disappointed (weight 0.02): Players are disappointed due to severe lag issues, lack of building options, and lack of challenge and replay value. These aspects make the game less enjoyable and not worth the investment for some players. The disappointment is further exacerbated by the consideration of getting a refund. - Enthusiasm (weight 0.02): Players are enthusiastic about the game's originality, simplicity, and unique gameplay mechanics. The charming and creative gameplay aspects, along with the refreshing mechanics, contribute to the enthusiasm. These features provide an engaging and enjoyable experience.}