The Wandering Village is a city-building simulation game on the back of a giant, wandering creature. Build your settlement and form a symbiotic relationship with the colossus. Will you survive together in this hostile, yet beautiful post-apocalyptic world, contaminated by poisonous plants?
The game presents players with a unique twist on city-building by requiring them to establish a settlement on the back of a giant, wandering creature called Onbu. This introduces an engaging dynamic where players must constantly adapt their city to the changing environments as Onbu travels through different biomes, rather than building up a static location.
Effectively managing Onbu's needs is a crucial aspect of the gameplay. Players must feed the creature, monitor its health, and even make decisions about whether to harvest resources directly from Onbu's body. Keeping Onbu happy and healthy is essential, as the creature's willingness to follow the player's commands depends on its trust in the settlement. This adds an additional layer of strategy and challenge compared to traditional city-builders.
As Onbu wanders through various biomes, players must adapt their settlement accordingly. This may involve changing crop types, adjusting water sources, or deploying specialized buildings to deal with threats like poisonous spores. The need to constantly re-evaluate and reconfigure the settlement based on the current environment keeps the gameplay dynamic and engaging.
Managing the limited resources available on Onbu's back is a core part of the experience. Players must carefully plan production chains, optimize space usage, and prioritize the most critical needs of the settlement. This resource management challenge is further complicated by the need to account for Onbu's own resource requirements, adding an additional layer of complexity.
The game encourages players to send out foraging parties to explore the surrounding environments and gather rare resources or ancient artifacts. This element of exploration and discovery adds value, as players can uncover valuable upgrades or technologies to aid their settlement.
While the initial learning curve may be relatively gentle, the game becomes increasingly challenging as players progress, with hazards and threats becoming more severe. This sense of escalating difficulty, combined with the procedurally generated biomes and randomized events, contributes to the game's replayability, as each run presents new challenges and strategies to overcome.