one of those games i come back to complete every few years just because it's so simple and fun. a lot of people won't be impressed by that simplicity, but sometimes it is everything you need for the 10-15 hours it lasts. a quintessential comfort game, i place it somewhere among chrono trigger and the first suikoden for that reason.

graphics, music, combat, story? eh, they have a certain charm but aren't great. the simplicity of them is still incredibly satisfying to me however.

the actual meat of the game is basically in just defeating enemies that come from a spawn point then stepping over said spawn point which then places an npc/item/building in which ever town you are currently rebuilding. this steady progression is very satisfying imo. there's something about SEEING your progress represented in a very obvious way. the only other game i feel kind of got near this design choice was dark cloud, but i enjoy that game, outside of town-building, a whole lot less.

it's still an rpg too. you do gain levels by fighting and can easily become over-leveled if you grind a bit. for example, during the very last level, it is incredibly easy to get to level 99 just because the spinning block enemies give soooo much (too much) experience. but i do believe you also need the final weapon to even harm them and it may never even be clear that YOU CAN harm them unless you randomly try attacking them after getting it?

so yeah i wouldn't call it challenging as the game gives you everything you need and more if you just embrace it... besides the occasional boss or so.

there's also this one random design choice of "invisible chests" which i liked and put in nearly all of my own projects now. i didnt even know till later that you get an item at some point that makes all the invisible chests... visible. but being oblivious to said fact, it had me randomly running around looking for them as you could still collect them whether they were visible or not. a pretty cryptic feeling akin to burning random bushes in loz1.