Game Review: Dungeon Village 2 (Xbox Series X)

You can’t move for Kairosoft management sims these days, with the prolific developer and publisher having released quite a variety of games over the years on many different systems. You can manage stores, ice rinks, tropical resorts, cafes, gyms, and so much more, with each being fairly well received.

Yet, to date, I’ve only ever played one Kairosoft game (I think), and it just so happens to one I’ve played twice. Way back in 2014 on mobile and then again in 2023 when it was ported to the Xbox. This game is Dungeon Village, where you can create your own fantasy-based RPG style town and fill it with adventurers.

Summing it up, I said:

Dungeon Village deserves a lot of credit for making a simple game such an impressive time sink. It’s a highly enjoyable game, with more depth than anyone would first expect.

A summary that also perfectly describes Dungeon Village 2. In fact, aside from some minor upgrades and additions here and there, I could copy and paste the entire review as most of it still applies.

Dungeon Village 2 combines elements of town-building, time management, and RPGs, resulting in a premise that seems complex but is surprisingly simple. Your goal, aside from building up the town, is to recruit adventurers to fight monsters & explore the surrounding areas for treasure. Which, in turn, allows you to expand your town and make your adventurers more powerful through improved equipment and weapon options.

Interestingly, the player doesn’t actually control any of the adventurers in town. They do everything independently. What we do control is what they can do. From assigning jobs that they can earn experience in, to sending them out on quests equipped with the best weapons and armour, to generally mopping up the monster population. Even when not assigned a job, your adventurers will be kept very busy, as they automatically head out and about to deal with the monsters.

Your role is to attract more and more adventurers to your town by building it up and making it the most happening place in the land. From a single road and handful of shops, to streets filled with homes, inns, blacksmiths, training facilities, and so much more.

The more appealing your town is, the more adventurers will visit, and eventually, want to stay. The more adventurers you have on hand, the more that be assigned to quests, and the more money can be earned.

This is what makes the game so damn addictive, and balancing funds & what quests can be done is a key part of the game. Money is gained by your adventurer’s spending money in your town. Build an inn & they will pay to stay, build a weapon/armour shop & they will shop for items, build a cake shop…well, you get the idea. Make an adventurer happy enough & they will ask to stay in the town. Build them a house & they will pay you monthly taxes.

At the end of every month your bills are automatically debited from your funds so making sure you don’t go into the red is important. You see, sending adventurers on quests costs money but is necessary as large monster groups will affect your town’s popularity & exploring areas yields many great rewards. If 4 adventurers volunteer for a quest & it doesn’t look like they can complete it, you will need to ask more to attend at a cost depending on their abilities.

Balancing costs is where the game gets trickier, but it is a lot of fun, and once the money is rolling in, it’s actually easy to stay in the black. It’s also on part of what makes Dungeon Village 2 a surprisingly in-depth experience overall.

Reaching certain set targets such as monthly incomings & adventurers staying will see your town ‘levelling up’. This results in your town being awarded a new star level & increasing in size. With that, comes even more buildings and decorations that can be built.

As well as earning money, you’ll also earn ‘town points’ and these are used in a multiple of different ways. Ways such as hosting events that increase your town’s popularity, adventurer’s happiness & improving their individual stats. Town points are also used to change jobs & buy new buildings from the merchant. Like money, you’ll need to spend town points carefully, although you’ll rarely struggle to get more, especially once your town is really thriving.

One of the more interesting things is that that adventurers earn XP and can level up. Going as far as level 10, before maxing out. At this point, you have a choice. Keep them in the job they have perfected, with progression halted, or have them change job & start from level 1 in that role. The benefit of doing this is that they begin their new job with higher stats that they learned from the previous job. It’s far better to have a ton of adventurers proficient in several jobs then a ton proficient in just one. It’s all about getting a balanced and happy team, especially in the later years of the game.

Although you can certainly help matters by buying your adventurers better weapons, armour & equip-able items as well as gifting them after they have been earned through quests. The better equipment they have, the better time they will have on quests.

All of this is repeated in Dungeon Village 2, and while that might seem like a reason not to play it, everything has been expanded on in some way. There are more events, more jobs, more buildings, more monsters, more quests, traits, and importantly, more maps. Once you reached the highest rank on one, you can move to the next where you can bring some of your best adventurers with you for an immediate headstart.

What about the rest? Impress them enough and they’ll come a-knocking, turning your new town in the most happening place in the kingdom… again.

Honestly, I love it. Just like the first game, it’s so addictive. There’s so much going that you’ll lose hours upon hours to it.

Unfortunately, as much as I love it, it’s not a big enough step forward and that is worthy of criticism. There’s nothing really new here, which isn’t great when you consider the first game was reviewed on this website in 2014. Dungeon Village 2 isn’t that far removed from that game. If you played the original and didn’t think much of it, there’s nothing to bring you back here, that’s for sure.

Me? I’m addicted to this game. Which I think is why I’m avoiding playing other Kairosoft games. If I end up loving them too, it could be seriously costly considering how many are available.