Thriving City: Song

About

Thriving City: Song is a single player casual strategy game with a historical theme. It was developed by White Star Studio and was released on May 29, 2024. It received very positive reviews from players.

Thriving City: Song is a city-building simulation game set in ancient China's Song dynasty, allowing players to experience the empire's history and growth in Story Mode. As the mayor, you must ensure your people's prosperity by managing resources, addressing crises, and interacting with a historically accurate world. Your decisions will significantly impact city development and the course of history.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

91%

Audience ScoreBased on 112 reviews

music15 positive mentions

grinding2 negative mentions

The game features charming artwork and a unique art style that immerses players in the historical setting of the Song Dynasty.
Gameplay mechanics encourage strategic planning and thoughtful management, making it a rewarding experience for fans of city-building games.
The inclusion of narrative events tied to real historical moments adds depth and purpose to the gameplay, enhancing the overall experience.

The game suffers from sluggish population growth and inefficient AI behavior, which can disrupt gameplay and lead to logistical challenges.
Localization issues, including inconsistent translations and UI problems, can break immersion and make it difficult for players to understand certain mechanics.
Some mechanics feel underdeveloped or clunky, such as the education system and the inability to easily manage worker assignments, leading to frustration.

music
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
50%
8%
The music in "Thriving City: Song" is widely praised for its immersive quality and thematic relevance, enhancing the game's historical setting with a relaxing and enjoyable soundtrack. While many players appreciate the beautiful art and sound design, some note that the music could benefit from more variation to prevent repetitiveness. Overall, the soundtrack contributes significantly to the game's charm and atmosphere, making it a delightful experience for players.
- “The music is also great, makes the game so much more immersive.”
- “The soundtrack should also be commended, as it is quite pleasing to the ears.”
- “Amazing music that fits perfectly with the theme, offering a bunch of variations.”
- “Only hope they add more music since that one is a bit repetitive.”
- “The art style and music make it a very relaxing game, but it still has its challenges.”
- “The soundtrack is appropriate, neither annoying nor overblown.”
graphics
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48%
41%
11%
The game's graphics are widely praised for their charming and unique art style, drawing inspiration from traditional Chinese aesthetics, which adds cultural authenticity and elegance. Players appreciate the cute and beautiful visuals, which enhance the immersive experience, making it a relaxing yet engaging city-building game. While some mention the graphics as basic, the overall consensus highlights their captivating nature and the effective combination of historical and modern design elements.
- “The game has some charming artwork, and it's fun to craft the sort of place you'd imagine visiting as a tourist, one thousand years later.”
- “It draws on traditional Chinese art for its aesthetic, giving it a distinct and elegant feel.”
- “The artwork is incredibly cute and beautiful; sometimes when I'm not building something, I just watch the little guys doing things.”
- “Graphics are pretty basic, but I'm more interested in the gameplay.”
- “While the game is not 3D, I am not upset by this; actually, the hand-drawn approach to graphics gives much more character to it.”
- “Historically speaking, besides the graphics, the game provides you other means to immerse yourself into the period.”
story
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
70%
11%
The game's story mode effectively intertwines narrative events from the Song Dynasty with gameplay, providing a meaningful context for player decisions beyond mere survival. While the story is engaging and serves as a tutorial, some players noted issues with localization and translation that occasionally led to confusion. Overall, the narrative is praised for its depth and historical relevance, though some players expressed a desire for more content and clearer instructions.
- “The inclusion of narrative events tied to real historical moments from the Song Dynasty adds further depth, and the game’s story mode does a good job of giving purpose to your decisions beyond raw survival.”
- “In story mode, you follow narratives representing the historical events of that time.”
- “This game art style is so captivating and it looks like one of those ancient Chinese paintings, and the game has a good storyline. I am interested in more future updates and content.”
- “The English translation can be a little bit sketchy at times, meaning especially in the story mode I was left confused as to what to do.”
- “I reached the final story and was very pissed off when the massive battle never came because I had built a nice big army.”
- “The story is a little bit short and I hope to see more episodes on this side.”
gameplay
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
47%
18%
The gameplay of the city-builder is engaging and offers a solid foundation with unique mechanics and a captivating art style, reminiscent of classic titles like the Caesar series. However, players have noted issues with certain systems, such as the education and government mechanics, as well as some broken features that hinder the experience. Overall, while the game shows promise and has enjoyable elements, it requires further refinement and polish to enhance clarity and depth.
- “Not the easiest city-builder I've played, but I enjoyed it thoroughly compared to old classics like the Caesar series, which had some tricky mechanics.”
- “While certain systems need polish and some mechanics lack depth or refinement, the foundation is solid and shows a great deal of promise.”
- “Progression feels right, research feels right, the campaign is great and gets you to grips with the mechanics while taking you through the song era.”
- “There are also concerns with how the education system and government mechanics are implemented.”
- “On the gameplay itself, I only played the story mode, which is a controlled environment that has locked features in each of the stages.”
- “Most of the translations are good or good enough, but it needs a bit more polish on some of the tooltips, that at times can make the game mechanics unclear.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players note that grinding in farming and construction can be affected by gameplay shifts, but the option to engage in infinity mode offers a more relaxed experience for those looking to avoid the grind.
- “Farming and construction, in particular, are vulnerable to these shifts.”
- “You can also just play infinity mode for a more relaxing city farming experience.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
While some users feel that localization issues currently hinder replayability, many believe the game offers significant replay value, suggesting that improvements in language support could enhance this aspect further.
- “I definitely think this game has a lot of replayability.”
- “But the localization hinders replayability, and hopefully (since the game was fully released over a month ago, as of this review) that can be improved, with more languages added later on.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The stability of the game has been criticized for being overly buggy, with many users indicating that these issues significantly detract from their overall experience.
- “Too buggy.”
- “I would give a positive review if it wasn't so buggy.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
150%
The game's optimization has been criticized for bugs and performance issues, particularly with incomplete translations affecting gameplay comprehension. Despite these challenges, players express enjoyment and a willingness to adapt as updates are made.
- “Even with some of the translations not completed (in story city 3, I have no idea what the imperial report says as it is not translated), I don't care because I'm having fun! I'm a little lost in regards to some of the economy options, but I am learning as I go along while they continue to add English optimizations and translations.”
- “The game is plagued by bugs and performance issues that severely impact the overall experience.”
- “Even with some of the translations not completed (in Story City 3, I have no idea what the imperial report says as it is not translated), I am a little lost regarding some of the economy options. I'm learning as I go along while they continue to add English optimizations and translations.”
- “The optimization of the game feels incomplete, leading to frustrating gameplay and a lack of clarity in various systems.”