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 graphics and charming art style that enhances the overall experience.
- Engaging gameplay that combines city building with puzzle elements, requiring strategic planning and resource management.
- Polished early access release with minimal bugs, providing a smooth gaming experience.
- Limited building rotation options, which can hinder creative city layouts and planning.
- Gameplay can feel repetitive and linear, with a focus on optimizing layouts rather than organic city growth.
- Avalanche mechanics can be punishing, leading to sudden game overs if not managed properly.
- gameplay116 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Laysara: Summit Kingdom" offers a blend of familiar city-building mechanics with unique challenges, such as building on a mountain and managing avalanches. While the game features beautiful graphics and a charming atmosphere, some players find the gameplay loop repetitive and the mechanics somewhat shallow, particularly after extended play. Overall, it presents an engaging mix of resource management and puzzle-solving, though it may benefit from further development and clearer tutorials to enhance player experience.
“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!”
“Enjoyable gameplay loop, gorgeous graphics, enjoyably well themed, and even the advisor characters are fun and full of personality.”
“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.”
- graphics85 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received widespread acclaim for their stunning beauty and unique art style, which effectively captures a vibrant and culturally rich aesthetic. Players appreciate the relaxing visuals and smooth map design, although some have noted performance issues on integrated graphics. Overall, the combination of gorgeous graphics, immersive music, and thoughtful design contributes to a delightful gaming experience.
“It's absolutely gorgeous, and full of so much rich, vibrant, and warm culture & aesthetics.”
“The visuals and music are absolutely stunning, the game really sucked me in through both its gameplay and presentation.”
“The design and aesthetics of the game are beautiful, and the concept of building on a mountain summit is very enticing.”
“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.”
- music55 mentions
- 56 % 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 charming and immersive soundtrack. While some players find certain tracks to be synthetic or not fitting the setting perfectly, many appreciate the variety and the way the music complements the visuals and gameplay. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong point, contributing to the game's enjoyable ambiance and engagement.
“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.”
“In city building games I usually turn off the music and listen to my own stuff, but I left it on here.”
- story23 mentions
- 22 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The game's story is generally well-received, with players appreciating its cute and engaging narrative that complements the charming art style and ambiance. While some users express a desire for a more substantial and overarching campaign, they acknowledge the enjoyable scenarios and character interactions that provide a sense of purpose. Overall, the story is seen as a promising aspect, with hopes for further development in future updates.
“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.”
- optimization14 mentions
- 36 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for its smooth performance and beautiful art style, with players appreciating the balance between creative city-building and supply chain optimization. While the grid system can be restrictive, it offers unique challenges and opportunities for strategic placement. Many users report no performance issues, even on older systems, suggesting that the game is well-optimized for a variety of hardware.
“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.”
“Workforce optimization is key and your distribution network has a massive impact on your workforce.”
“This game gets the balance between optimization and creativity just right, in my opinion, 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.”
“That, mixed with different mountain elevations affecting the output of certain buildings, allows for a surprising amount of flexibility and optimization opportunities.”
- atmosphere11 mentions
- 82 % positive mentions
- -9 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its charm, immersive visuals, and enjoyable music, creating a unique and thematic experience. Players appreciate the beautiful atmospheric changes and the chill yet challenging environment, which enhances replayability through varied game mechanics. Overall, it is considered a polished and underrated indie gem that effectively combines aesthetics with engaging gameplay.
“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 game is praised for its lighthearted and quirky humor, with players enjoying the funny interactions between characters and nostalgic nods to classic city-building advisors. The writing is described as genuinely funny, complemented by charming animations and unique character designs, making the overall experience delightful and engaging.
“I love this game; it's quirky and funny.”
“The writing is quite funny.”
“I didn't expect a game like this to have genuinely funny interactions between the three characters that represent the different social groups present in the game, yet here we are.”
- grinding5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 80 % negative mentions
Players find grinding in the game to be somewhat tedious, particularly due to the manual adjustments required for city layout, but it is not considered game-breaking. The game allows for efficient resource accumulation without long waiting times, which helps mitigate some of the grind. Overall, while grinding can be laborious, it is manageable and does not detract significantly from the gameplay experience.
“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.”
“A bit tedious, but nothing game-breaking.”
- replayability5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- -20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the varied economies and multiple starting points on each map that enhance replay value, others feel that the lack of building rotation and the puzzle-like nature of gameplay limit long-term engagement. The potential for atmospheric changes and the need for a custom map editor or random map generators are also highlighted as important factors for increasing replayability.
“Each game/map has different economy and needs, which really enhances the replayability, especially with multiple start points on each map.”
“I think a custom map editor and/or random map generators are critical for the replayability of these games.”
“There is quite a lot of replay value based on resource availability, space limitations for each mountain slope, and services required to upgrade residences, which change based on the 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 for the replayability of these games as well.”
- stability3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -67 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game demonstrates a commendable level of stability 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 in terms of overall functionality.
“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 experience.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % 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, making the game both engaging and heartwarming.
