Medieval town-building sim Noble Legacy just made its world more dangerous, but it's handing you the tools to match

If the terrifying rush of technological advancement has you craving a return to the days of yore, the best medieval games are a great escape. From character-focused adventures like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, through the all-encompassing spectrum of Medieval Dynasty, to the infrastructure-led Manor Lords, there's plenty of choice. But I've also got my eye on Noble Legacy, which is still in its early access journey but is making strong strides in the right direction with each patch. The December update has just arrived, and it's packing in so much that developer Studio 369 recommends starting fresh to experience it all.

Back when it first launched, I described Noble Legacy as a more relaxing, on-the-ground counterpart to Manor Lords. You're very much getting in among your community, helping to build out structures piece by piece with a system akin to those in Valheim or Fortnite, and assigning everyone roles to ensure the town is running smoothly. Since then, Studio 369 has been making plenty of improvements, with the addition of a co-op alpha and some initial combat upgrades, but things are about to get a lot more dangerous.

The Noble Legacy December update spreads ruins, mineshafts, camps, and similar points of interest across the world that can be inhabited by brigands and outlaws. These give you more reason to step outside the boundaries of your settlement in the early game, and while approaching them can be risky, it might also prove rather rewarding. The team calls this a "foundation system" that will be expanded on over time with quests, narrative encounters, and more loot to discover.

That's far from all that you'll find as you traverse the lands, however - you'll now run into fully populated villages, each ruled by a Baron. "The world is becoming more alive, and more reactive," Studio 369 explains, noting that you can expect "future diplomacy, rivalries and alliances, and political decision-making" as part of ongoing updates. Of course, you deserve a place to show off your status as well, so there's a new personal house in the form of the Lord's Manor, complete with your very own throne.

The crafting and inventory systems have been redesigned "to improve clarity, flow, and long-term scalability." As a player, you're now able to craft weapons, armor, and tools, and can set up the Weaver and Tailor in town to process raw materials into cloth, garments, and eventually full clothing sets that your people can use. Again, all of this is forward-looking, with long-term plans in place for "progression tiers, specialization, and role-based equipment for villagers and guards."

Alongside some more combat polish, two-handed weapons have been introduced, granting you a weightier combat option that trades off some control in favor of further reach, increased impact, and greater overall power. Cooking now shows more useful tooltips, and the food outputs have been rebalanced. Building gets improvements such as smarter ground snapping and additional decorative options, as well as a redesigned build menu complete with clearer requirements to unlock prefabs.

Rounding things out is a new opening experience designed to help you find a good starting location and begin laying out your capital. In fact, Studio 369 "highly recommends" you start a fresh save, due to the changes to crafting and inventory management. Finally, there's some extra visual polish, audio improvements, smarter villager AI and behavior, and optimizations to reduce memory usage.

The Noble Legacy December update is live now, and the game is 25% off in the Steam Winter Sale through Monday January 5, 2026. Expect to pay $18.74 / £15.74. Find it here if you're eager to discover what it has to offer - or just add it to your wishlist if you want to wait until it's closer to full completion.