Somehow I had not logged this on backloggd. Well, time to correct that mistake. King of Dragon Pass is easily one of the best strategy games I've ever played, and despite not being primarily a roleplaying game, also easily plows over most of that genre in terms of actual roleplaying. To finish the game you have to build an intuitive grasp of the Iron Age-inspired culture you are leading, and use that to respond to situations appropriately. It's a fantasy setting too, so sometimes that cultural knowledge is knowing that bringing out a lawyer to sue the ghost is the correct solution to a haunting.

In addition, events are a joy to read, and the art that comes with them is wonderful. If there's any criticism to levy against this game, I suppose it would be the randomness of heroquests, which can sometimes be frustrating when you are trying to finish the game. The strategy layer itself isn't that satisfying either most of the time either, but I see it as mostly a vessel for the narrative so I was never too bothered by it.

Definitely play! The best duck warriors outside of Suikoden 3 also included!

Edit: I see now that someone else mentioned the legal claim thing, well, it is a memorable event.

There is no game quite like KoDP, not even Six Ages. The spectacular achievement of this game is that there are 2 ways of being successful: memorising every "good" choice in every situation and treating it like a math problem (the objectively wrong way of playing the game), or by roleplaying as an Orlanthi, really understanding what their whole deal is and intuitively understanding what each situation calls for. You shouldn't exorcise a spirit, you should launch a legal claim against it. That sort of thing.

King of Dragon Pass is that rare pleasure, a game that feels fresh and almost totally unique 25 years later. From a high level, it sounds like a strategy game crossed with an RPG: using a simple menu-based interface, you must lead your clan to prosperity over the course of decades, managing your people’s wealth, happiness, and relationships with your gods and other clans. Several times a year, you’re faced with a narrative event that requires you to make a decision as clan leader. Along the way, you’re helped by a group of clan nobles who offer advice and guidance.

But where most other games treat culture as something intrinsically narrative, in KoDP, culture is gameplay. Set in the rich fantasy world of Glorantha, every single one of the game’s systems is governed by the laws, customs, traditions, history and religion of your people, the Orlanthi. It’s a complex harmony of gameplay and worldbuilding where learning the game means learning about Orlanthi culture and fully inhabiting your role as a clan chieftain. In so doing it carves out its own genre, cultural roleplaying. It’s practically a crime that this game was such a commercial failure on release and has exerted such little influence on video games as a whole.

Tryna be like this, just in our bag and genuinely growing together while being the villages biggest flex. Some fuck every other village type shit.

Truly rad game about building a viking-esque village in a different world from ours. What makes the game's kinda basic and simple mechanics thrive is how just deeply fucking based the world is and how colorful and diverse and, if you'll forgive me using the word, real it feels. Everything in the game oozes atmosphere and playing it feels more like you're reading from an old dusty mythology 101 book rather than playing out a history book like other games of its ilk. Could easily imagine playing another ten games that's just this exact kind of game in a different setting. I'm literally Elmal.

A beast of a "city builder" game. The diveristy and color of it's world is an achievement only surpased by its sequel. It has been ported to modern PCs, so you should go and check it out while you can.
Based on arguably one of the most deep tabletop settings, KoDP aims to make you a king of a soon-to-be-colonized region. Starting from a lowly trive of Orlanthi (think of viking settlers), you rise to the throne by mixing all types of interactions with your neighbors, from submition via conquest to demonstrating your divine origins by completing trials that make echo of ages past.
Overall, an achievement in roleplay games, completely recommended

King of Dragon Pass é uma das experiências mais únicas da meio ludoeletrônico: uma mistura de estratégia, simulação, RPG e visual novel ambientada num mundo de fantasia da idade do bronze não-tolkienesco. Só por isso já tem méritos.

Dragon Pass é também um jogo difícil pra caramba. Como líder de um clã de humanos descendentes do deus Orlanth no titular Dragon Pass, você tem que lidar com problemas internos, externos e sobrenaturais. Abordar o jogo como um game de estratégia tradicional e tentar conquistar seus vizinhos só te trará uma rápida derrota. Ser bem-sucedida significa entender a cultura da sociedade orlanthi e agir de acordo com ela em suas decisões. Você tem que se aprofundar bastante na lore desse mundo para que algumas coisas façam sentido e você não cometa erros bobos.

E então tem o RNGesus. Mesmo que você faça tudo "certo", uma série de eventos aleatórios pode atrapalhar ou até erradicar seu progresso. Antepassados nervosos, desastres climáticos, rituais que não dão certo, doença... Não é fácil ser um membro de uma sociedade na idade do bronze.

Tudo isso pode parecer frustrante, e às vezes é mesmo, mas KoDP é bem compensador para os que persistem. Unificar os clãs e tribos da região e enfim virar o rei (ou rainha!) do Dragon Pass é uma jornada realmente épica.

Um adendo: é surpreendente como um jogo de 1999 conseguiu ser traduzido tão bem para smartphones/aparelhos mobile. Eu já tinha jogado esse game antes no PC, mas acho que a versão para Android/iOS é realmente a forma definitiva de se jogar. Tem quase toda a complexidade e profundidade do original (só simplificaram a alocação de artesãos e patrulhas) sem nenhum dos bugs e com uma interface muito mais fácil de usar.