New medieval city builder Noble Legacy is like a more relaxing Manor Lords

If you've ever fancied yourself a medieval ruler, there are plenty of options. Manor Lords proved the appetite for period city building with its huge early-access launch in 2024, and Medieval Dynasty is similarly well liked. Newcomer Noble Legacy, which has just confirmed its own launch for July, aims to offer a more inviting and laid-back option, minimizing combat and battle elements in favor of a focus on building, customization, and town management. I took an exclusive look at the opening hours, and quickly found myself wrapped in its blend of Valheim-adjacent building and worker organization.

There's no starting from the bottom in Noble Legacy; events begin as you return from your studies in the Holy Land to take charge of the realm owned by your father. Unfortunately, it's currently home to some rather disorganized sorts, although they're seemingly quite eager to have someone telling them what to do. Joining you is family member Edward, who acts as your guide and is perhaps slightly too enthused about putting the peasants to work. I opt to take a gentler hand and offer to pitch in with getting some basic amenities up and running.

With the action taking place from a third-person, over-the-shoulder angle, you're very much in the thick of things. That means chopping trees, sawing logs into planks, and hammering buildings together. While there are some early prefab options such as basic housing, the construction of this city-building game is fairly freeform. You place down foundations, walls, and individual objects, and the function of each structure is defined by meeting certain criteria.

A Storehouse, for example, requires a Market Lodger desk and Market Storage crates to be present, along with sufficient structural integrity. Fulfill these conditions, which you can quickly check in a codex, and it will be auto-assigned. Optionally, adding more decorative elements might increase the rate of productivity. You can then plop down a nearby Market Stall and assign one (or more) of your villagers to work there and sell goods, determining whether you want to offload all the fish you catch and berries you gather, or keep a certain number of each in reserve.

The townsfolk can similarly be assigned to most other roles, from chopping and processing wood to running services in the temple you've just restored. Potential inhabitants appear in a recruitment menu, and each of them needs space to live along with a specific set of demands and upkeep requirements that must be met to keep them satisfied. Fail to meet their needs, and they'll stop working until you've rectified the situation.

You'll also frequently see requests pop up, and these present you with a range of choices as to how to deal with a given problem. When a drunken monk stumbles into town, someone will need to tidy the mess he's left and find out where he eventually fell asleep. The simplest option is to handle this yourself, but you could spend gold to hire someone to sort it out, or simply "Leave it to God," rolling the dice on whether things will sort themselves out naturally or you'll find yourself with a citizenry unhappy at your inaction.

This, of course, is just the beginning. If you want to place down every single door, window, and object, you can, but as the prefab tools expand you'll be able to roll out entire villages in next to no time. There's definitely still an early feel to some parts, but I like how quickly you can hop between tasks, and the more player-driven building customization. Between that and the hiring and management of your populace, Noble Legacy at times reminds me of the Two Point games, albeit with your created character right at the center of things. I'll also give praise to the comprehensive help menu, which provided answers to all of those little nagging questions that pop up as you learn a new game.

Noble Legacy will be released into early access on Steam Tuesday July 15. A demo is available now. Download it for free here to get an initial taste of what's on offer. Developer Studio 369 notes that there are some temporary, AI-generated voices in the game currently, but says that these will be completely replaced by human voiceover by the game's full release.

For more of the best medieval games, take a look through our recommendations, or perhaps try one of the best management games on PC in 2025 instead.

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