Hundred-Year Kingdom (Civilization Development Simulation): Introduction, Impressions, and Strategy Notes

"Hundred-Year Kingdom" is a free simulation game where you build a civilization.
It can be completed in about 20 minutes per playthrough, but it's a simple yet profound and addictive game.
I got so engrossed in it that I wanted to share it with you.

The paid version is practically a completely different game, as it includes significant improvements to graphics and music, as well as a larger world and replayability.

Game Overview (Free Version)

The story itself isn't particularly complex.
Players take on the role of a "creator" and, together with their partner, the "oracle priestess," build civilizations in various worlds.
This is a game where the goal is to build the most advanced civilization possible within a 100-year time limit.

Building a civilization doesn't involve any complicated operations at all.
The game is simple, basically consisting of three choices: "architecture," "research," and "development."
It starts with a trial-and-error first playthrough, but after playing through it a few times and getting the hang of it, it transforms into a puzzle-like experience.

There are multiple Oracle Priestesses who can act as your partners, so you can choose your favorite partner.
Each character possesses unique abilities, and they grow stronger as they accumulate experience points with each playthrough.
You can choose based on ability, or you can choose based on appearance.

Game System (Free Version)

I will briefly introduce the game's content.
As mentioned earlier, the goal of the game is to build an advanced civilization.
Specifically, the evaluation is determined by factors such as "food," "production," "civilization," and "number of wonders."
The goal is to increase these four aspects as much as possible and achieve an overall S rank.
If you achieve a certain level of success in the initial three stages, a hidden stage with a higher difficulty level will appear.

Now, regarding the three things "food," "production," and "civilization," these are all things that can be obtained as income each year.
You need to use these points to advance "architecture," "research," and "development" to increase your annual income.
I will now explain each item.

architecture

The "Build" command allows you to construct facilities on land you own.
Since income is low in the early stages, if you have any empty plots of land, you'll want to build something on them as soon as possible.
The types of facilities that can be built are determined by the properties of the land, so think about what you want to achieve before you start building.
Basically, it's safest to build structures that increase whichever of the two—food or production—is lacking.

the study

This will allow you to increase various sources of income while also enabling you to build new types of facilities.
Since the increased income has remained high ever since, the key to a high evaluation is how quickly you can advance your research.
However, spending too much time on research can deplete your resources for architecture, so simply prioritizing it isn't always the best approach.
You'll naturally develop a sense of this as you play more and decide what kind of building you want to aim for.

development

"Development" is a command used to acquire new land.
During the first and third phases of development (with some exceptions?), you will acquire land with attributes appropriate to the location.
The points required for development become more expensive the further back the land is.
If you have enough time, you could even cultivate land you've already developed for the third time.
When time is of the essence, it's crucial to continuously develop new land.

Strategy Notes (Free Game Version)

This is a walkthrough for the hidden stage.
In my case, I was able to clear it with Amaterasu at Lv7 (I obtained 11 relics).
A key tip for the early stages is to focus on getting food and production on track, rather than worrying about civilization at first.
Even if you acquire an abandoned house early in the game, don't build a village yet; demolish it and turn it into a grassland.
Either way, you'll have plenty of opportunities to acquire settlement-related items later on.
The general order of construction was as follows:

・Two orchards
Factory ⇒ Taj Mahal
- Tatara ironworks ⇒ Shirasagi Castle
One of the orchards ⇒ Chichen Itza
• Library of Alexandria
Colosseum
・Two castles
Alchemy workshop ⇒ Neuschwanstein
Petra & Pyramids
- Either Pharos or Schönbrunn
Two castles ⇒ Alhambra & Versailles

As a fundamental principle, it's important to minimize the time spent on development.
To achieve this, it's easiest to dismantle and reuse one half of a building constructed to meet the requirements for heritage architecture.
If you try to acquire new land through development, you'll need to develop it a third time, and if you're unlucky, you might even need to demolish it again.

Another tip I kept in mind was to build Neuschwanstein early and save the two castles until the very end, which allowed me to earn civilization points until the end.
Since we neglected our civilization in the early stages, let's make up for it all now.
In the last two years, we will transform it into the Alhambra and Versailles.

Impressions (Free Game Version)

I started playing this game on a whim, but I never expected to get so engrossed in it.
At first, I proceeded without really understanding what I was doing, but once I grasped the system, it became a puzzle-like and enjoyable experience, similar to solving chess problems.

When you're still getting used to the game, there are times when you have no choice but to wait for time to pass by developing land at zero cost, accumulating points, because there's nothing else you can do in that year.
However, as I gained experience, I realized that the important thing was to build efficiently without wasting time by stumbling or taking unnecessary steps.
I enjoyed thinking about the most efficient order of construction, going back and forth between different approaches.
The interesting aspect of this strategy is the pattern it creates: starting with the facilities you want to build as early as possible, then working backward to determine the necessary points and setting those as your goals.
The construction boom towards the end of a project was always thrilling.
There are various shrine maidens, but I feel that Amaterasu, who is powerful at Shirasagi Castle, is the easiest to use.

Below are some specifications that I found confusing, although this might only apply to me.
The first mistake was mistaking the "orchard" that you acquire when you develop the land for land that you can build on.
I realized after playing for a while that this was just like a little extra income.
Secondly, when choosing land to cultivate, it was difficult not knowing how many times that land had been cultivated before.
It might be something I should just remember, but sometimes I would make the mistake of developing areas that I had already explored, and end up doing unnecessary development.

That concludes our introduction to "Hundred Years' Kingdom," a simple, compact, yet highly engaging simulation game.
If you're interested, please feel free to give it a try.

Strategy Notes (Paid versions for Steam and Switch)

I've also started playing the indie version of Hundred Years' Kingdom.
Since I'm still playing, I only have a few strategy notes so far.

List of shrine maiden's special abilities
Arianrhod → Food & Production + (Priestess Level x 5)
Amaterasu → Production + (Shrine Maiden Level x 10)
Gaia → Grassland + (Priestess level / 2)
Freya → Food + (Priestess level x 10)
Inanna → Civilization + (Priestess level)

Upgrading facilities is extremely important.

It's a little hard to tell during gameplay, but if you see a consumption indicator like the one circled in blue in the image above, it means you can upgrade the same facility.
The food and production required for upgrades will keep increasing, but the profits you earn will double each time.
For example, the "farm" generates +5 in food, but as you upgrade it, this increases to +10, +20, +40, and +80.
In the early stages of a game, when profits are low, upgrading your existing land is often a quicker way to generate revenue than clearing new, undeveloped land.
If you don't want to change the type of building in order to aim for legacy bonuses, then increase your earnings through upgrades.

- The significant effect of Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza, which can be built in the order of grassland → farm → pasture → orchard, can generate a food income of 50 times the number of farms.
How early you can build this will greatly affect your score.
It's quite powerful, so there are rumors that it will be adjusted in the future.
Let's keep an eye out for future update information.

• Recommended strategies for obtaining inheritance bonuses
Versailles Palace and Saint-Émilion, which can be built in the order of grassland → farm → large-scale farm → vineyard, increase production and food revenue by 30 times the number of vineyards, respectively.
Since the buildings eligible for bonuses are the same, it can be said to be easy to use.
Additionally, the progression from grassland → mine → quarry → coal mine → pyramid, and from quarry → ironworks → Taj Mahal, each increase food and production revenue by 40 times the quarry's value.
This one is also easy to use because both of the bonus targets are quarries.

While there are differences in how easy they are to create in the early stages, both are relatively easy combos to aim for because they share the same bonus target.