Laysara: Summit Kingdom
- April 10, 2024
- Quite OK Games
- 12h median play time
Get on Steam"Laysara: Summit Kingdom" is a challenging city builder that takes place on various mountains, each with unique traits and resources. Build and manage multiple towns, establishing a trading network between them to meet your people's needs. Adapt to each mountain's distinct climate and terrain, and strategically plan resource extraction and farming to ensure your kingdom's survival. * Challenging city builder on unique mountains * Establish and manage multiple interconnected towns * Adapt to various climates and resource availability
PC
Windows
Reviews
- Beautiful art direction and graphics that create an immersive atmosphere.
- Engaging gameplay that combines city building with puzzle-like mechanics, requiring strategic planning and resource management.
- Unique setting in the Himalayas, offering a fresh take on the city builder genre.
- Limited building rotation options, which can hinder creative city layouts.
- Avalanche mechanics can feel punishing and may disrupt gameplay flow.
- Some players may find the game more of a puzzle than a traditional city builder, which could lead to frustration.
- gameplay131 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this city-building game is characterized by a blend of familiar mechanics and innovative features, such as managing logistics and dealing with unique challenges like avalanches. While the game offers a charming aesthetic and engaging resource management, some players find the gameplay loop can become repetitive and lacks depth after extended play. Overall, it presents a satisfying mix of strategic planning and puzzle-solving, though it may benefit from clearer mechanics and additional content in its early access state.
“The gameplay is a delicate blend of established mechanics of the genre and original ideas.”
“Beautiful graphics, fun and unique theming, but most importantly some of the slickest resource allocation and distribution mechanics I've seen in a city builder!”
“The actual gameplay loop is nice; you will definitely have to think about every inch of territory on certain maps, but it stays quite intuitive and not too complicated.”
“Writing this review, I played for 15 hours and started getting overwhelmed by the gameplay loop becoming too visible to me, the lack of variation in the gameplay despite the huge amount of different buildings available.”
“It's a nice little game, but at about five hours in I have explored pretty much every facet and tried out all the mechanics, and can say that while it does offer some unusual ways of doing things, in the grand scheme of things the gameplay loop is pretty basic: build up a basic supply chain, upgrade your citizens' homes, respond to more advanced demands for further upgrades, win.”
“While it is a beautiful game to look at with a highly attractive setting, the gameplay just didn't keep me engaged enough to want to continue playing in its current state.”
- graphics93 mentions
- 66 % positive mentions
- 31 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received widespread acclaim for their beauty and charm, featuring a unique Himalayan aesthetic that enhances the overall experience. Players appreciate the vibrant art style, detailed visuals, and relaxing soundtrack, which contribute to a captivating atmosphere. While the game runs well on various hardware, some users noted that lower settings may compromise the visual quality, but overall, the graphics are considered a standout aspect of the game.
“The graphics are stunning, and the theme is original and fun.”
“The visuals and music are absolutely stunning, the game really sucked me in through both its gameplay and presentation.”
“Beautiful graphics, fun and unique theming, but most importantly some of the slickest resource allocation and distribution mechanics I've seen in a city builder!”
“Lastly, the game runs a bit slow on integrated graphics.”
“And given its flamboyant art style, they have no excuse for this in my mind.”
“Solid grey icons don't really match the spiritual/natural aesthetic of the game very well.”
- music58 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its relaxing and atmospheric qualities, enhancing the overall experience with a mix of catchy and soothing tunes. While some players find certain tracks to be synthetic or not fitting the setting perfectly, many appreciate the soundtrack's ability to remain engaging without becoming repetitive. Overall, the music contributes significantly to the game's charming aesthetic and immersive gameplay.
“The music is amazing, relaxing and not annoying or too repetitive - it really sells the vibe.”
“The visuals and music are lovely, it's a pleasure to watch your city expand along the hours.”
“The game offers a delightful experience, particularly in terms of its music and visuals.”
“The music alternates between bad and good.”
“Could use a few more music tracks, just more of the same to add some variety.”
“Overall I'd say that this game has some very comfy vibes with chill music and enough of a unique style to keep you engaged and building for many hours - I only closed the game because I need to make dinner!”
- story25 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as cute and engaging, with a fresh concept that enhances the overall experience, though some players express a desire for a more developed narrative and campaign mode. While the minimal story does not take itself too seriously, it effectively complements the charming art style and gameplay mechanics. Overall, players appreciate the potential for a richer storyline in future updates, despite the current focus on city-building mechanics.
“The concept of building on a mountain is fantastic, and the story along with it is just enough to make you smile; the animations are a callback to older city builders.”
“The story is cute, and the art style, music, and general ambiance are very enjoyable.”
“This is a really high standard for an early access game - things have a polish to them that you don't often see, the story is cute without being cringe, and the city-building gimmick has a lot of thought put into it.”
“The story does not take itself seriously and is minimal.”
“The only thing you miss is the final conclusion of the story.”
“Even if this is labeled as early access, the game offers all that one could expect from a full-fledged game with good variations of maps, population, production chains, and missions.”
- optimization16 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for its smooth performance and lack of bugs, making it feel well-polished even in its early access state. Players appreciate the balance between optimization and creativity, with a focus on supply chain management and logistical efficiency, although some find the rigid grid system limiting. The game offers a unique blend of puzzle-solving and city-building elements, allowing for a variety of optimization strategies while maintaining an appealing aesthetic.
“Buildings can be moved for free, so it's a bit of a hybrid between puzzle-game and city-builder, where you constantly move things around to get a reasonably optimized setup going.”
“This game gets the balance between optimization and creativity just right, and I'm having a blast with it.”
“One big limitation on building is that nothing can be rotated, so the grid is extremely unforgiving, but it is possible to get everything you need in place to complete the scenario even if it's not optimized.”
“This is more a supply chain optimization game than a city builder, but you can make aesthetically pleasing cities too.”
“Workforce optimization is key and your distribution network has a massive impact on your workforce.”
- atmosphere12 mentions
- 83 % positive mentions
- -8 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its charm, immersive visuals, and captivating music, creating a unique and enjoyable experience for players. Reviewers highlight the beautiful environmental changes and the chill yet challenging ambiance, making it a standout in the thematic city-building genre. Overall, the atmosphere is described as polished and engaging, enhancing the gameplay significantly.
“The devs have done such a great job even in early access to make an incredibly polished and atmospheric game.”
“I also really enjoy the unique atmosphere, art style, and music of this game.”
“The atmosphere is immersive, the yaks are adorable.”
“The atmosphere feels flat and uninspired, lacking any real depth or engagement.”
“Despite the potential, the atmosphere is often overshadowed by repetitive sound design and dull visuals.”
“The game fails to create a compelling atmosphere, making it hard to stay immersed in the experience.”
- humor9 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is widely praised for its lightheartedness and quirkiness, with players enjoying the funny interactions between characters and nostalgic nods to classic city-building advisors. The writing is noted as genuinely amusing, complemented by charming animations and memorable characters, including a particularly cartoonish merchant. Overall, the game's unique setting and commitment to humor enhance the overall experience, making it a standout feature.
“I love this game; it's quirky and funny.”
“The writing is quite funny.”
“For now, the game proves itself with its lighthearted humor and most adorable yaks!”
- replayability8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
Overall, the game offers a mix of high replayability due to its varied economies, multiple starting points, and unique atmospheric changes, though some players note limitations like the lack of building rotation and a more puzzle-like structure that may restrict sandbox-style play. The potential for custom maps and random generators is highlighted as essential for enhancing replay value. While many find it enjoyable to revisit, some argue that certain mechanics could hinder long-term engagement.
“Laysara is a gorgeous, fun, replayable city builder with great bones that's still missing some features in early access.”
“Cool mechanics, and lots of replayability.”
“Each game/map has different economy/needs which really ups the replayability, as does having multiple start points on each map.”
“The only arguments against the game I can imagine are no building rotation, the fact that 90% of the game is played paused, and low replayability.”
“It's more 'puzzle' than sandbox, which might limit replayability.”
“I think a custom map editor and/or random map generators are critical in the replayability of these games as well.”
- grinding7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 86 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience; while some describe it as tedious and requiring significant time investment, others appreciate the streamlined resource accumulation that reduces waiting times. The need for frequent city adjustments and rebuilding can add to the tedium, but the game offers a more manageable approach compared to similar titles. Overall, while grinding can be laborious, it is not considered a game-breaking issue.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“Having to manually scoot my entire city down one building at a time when I need a bit more room is incredibly tedious.”
“City builders are all about building nicely set up districts and zones, and having to completely rebuild that from scratch every couple of hours because the avalanche defenses you put in all of a sudden no longer work is tedious.”
- stability3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -67 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is commendable for an early access title, with users reporting minimal bugs and glitches during gameplay. However, some players note that certain tools are missing, indicating that there is still room for improvement.
“While playing, it's been remarkably bug-free for an early access game.”
“The game runs smoothly without any crashes or major glitches.”
“I've experienced consistent performance, which is impressive for a title still in development.”
“But it's not quite there; for a 'building' game, there are so many missing tools and glitches.”
“For early access, this game is playable with no bugs or glitches (that I experienced).”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy is generally viewed as acceptable, though there are suggestions for improving the clarity of advertising and descriptions to enhance user understanding.
“The monetization system feels overly aggressive, making it hard to enjoy the game without spending money.”
“I find the in-game purchases to be overpriced and not worth the value they provide.”
“The constant push for microtransactions really detracts from the overall gaming experience.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the game's emotional depth, highlighting its fun and wholesome writing that enhances the overall experience. The inclusion of diverse population types adds to the charm, creating a delightful and engaging atmosphere.
“The game beautifully captures the essence of human emotions, making every decision feel impactful.”
“I was genuinely moved by the character arcs; their struggles and triumphs resonated with me on a personal level.”
“The storytelling is so immersive that I found myself emotionally invested in the characters' journeys.”
