Dating and relationship mechanics have become almost expected in visual novels and modern RPGs, but my interest is highest when other genres dabble in them, like Heartbeat Literary Club’s eerie blend of horror and anime outcasts, or Hades’ mix of roguelike combat and romance. So when I saw Legacy of Lake’s cozy setting and inclusive character roster focus on playing matchmaker and using that love to run the village, I was hoping for a more intimate experience in a genre that’s often rather separate from pawn citizens.
The first few hours absolutely delivered on that promise as I followed Adeline and Marion’s tumultuous marriage. Adelina was my first villager and I immediately made her a lumberjack so I could get wood to start expanding my current little village. Pretty standard admin stuff, but then I was introduced to the couple mechanic, where you get the help of local mystic Tyndra, and her soulmate pairing abilities.
As her name suggests, Tundra is basically a medieval version of Tinder for single women. Adeline and Marion dated, married, madly in love, and soon had a baby. Marion then begins flirting with every villager she encounters. Between building the farm and the sewing workshop, I kept my eyes on the diary, eager to see who Marion would cast her charms on next. During this time, Adeline and Marion’s child, Christina, suddenly dislikes neighbor Victor Lynn for some reason. This became a problem when Christina grew up and joined Adelina and Victor Lin at the lumberjack hut, adding to the “bad” work atmosphere due to their animosity, which affected the production of Lake Castle’s precious wood.
fun! Legacy of Fort Lake combines the calculating game of managing resources with the personal touch of building relationships, and I watched it all play out while building my village into something more substantial. For the first few hours, I really felt like this was my personal village, where I could finally swap stories with other players to see what their citizens were up to. Who cheated whom? Why? What is your date like? Who do you make king and queen?
Then, shortly after Adeline and Marion divorced, another unstable marriage popped up in my diary…another kid who didn’t like the neighbors…and then another cheating couple. With little change in the way it all happens, life for the reading villagers quickly becomes tedious. It wouldn’t be much of an issue if their lives had significant impact elsewhere, but they don’t – people are just another resource.
If a couple breaks up, you no longer generate love from them, a needed resource to keep finding the right couple on Tindra’s, or spend on failed marriages giving them the gift of hope to keep them going longer. However, if a couple gets divorced, all you have to do is get married again. Sure, you need those hearts to find a suitable mate, or villagers with the right skills to produce more resources, but in a way, that makes it pointless: I need good couples to generate hearts so I can get good couples. No relationship or story reason, I’m farming my villagers and they’re farming the land. Even the royal couple just sat there and made material for me, there was no particular story or relationship to experience. The only motivation Lakeburg Legacies gives you for doing whatever you like is to earn prestige, which awards points at the end of the game so you can unlock artwork. After your final year, there isn’t even a “this is how you did” menu – your game is wiped, you get points, and that’s it.
That’s a good thing, even with its forgettable hooks and full save wipes, Legacy of Rick’s core gameplay is still enjoyable enough. There are a lot of platters to spin when you’re trying to balance the ingredients needed for a village to survive and keep its inhabitants happy. While you’ll need to balance 18 individual resources at the end of the game, this is actually fairly easy to do, since they’re introduced over time, and all you have to do to increase production is hire more workers or improve buildings.
My personal struggle is to make the villagers happy. Two-thirds of the way through the game, I somehow managed to recruit the most miserable character alive, and was a little confused as to what went wrong. The stats in the happiness bar didn’t seem to match up with how sad they were, but then I finally got around to opening a painter’s studio and lowering taxes a bit, and suddenly Fort Lake was nirvana.
There are other welcome details to make the experience feel different enough. Like lumberjacks and “fun house” employees who share the same skills, villager portraits age with them, charming drawing styles, cheerful flute and string melodies, and no restrictions on who your citizens can marry or fall in love with. Same-sex relationships are tolerated, encouraged, and institutionally no different than heterosexual couples. Every couple produces a child who grows up to hate their neighbors equally. Given the town’s penchant for adultery, I don’t know if I’d call Legacy of Fort Lake a healthy experience, but the touches do create a fun, chill vibe that helps distract from the lack of variety in social interactions and gameplay innovation.
Strip away the wasteful appeal of tracking the love lives of your citizens, and we’re left with a robust village management sim set in a medieval setting with a good atmosphere. I enjoyed my 12 hours in Fort Lake, but with only the promise of more unlockable pictures, save wipes, and more of the same villagers, I didn’t have much motivation to start over. Long time Fort Lake, I will never forget your love of painting and low taxes.