Dice Legacy

Lore & Background

Dice Legacy was developed by DESTINYbit, a studio based in Ravenna, Italy. It was released on September 9, 2021, for Windows and the Nintendo Switch. Downloadable content, Corrupted Fates, was released for both platforms in April 2022. A Definitive Edition, including the base game, three major updates and the Corrupted Fates expansion, was released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and S and PlayStation 5 on May 26, 2023.

In the game, players control a village established on newly discovered land. Villagers, each of whom has a caste, are represented by dice. Rolling the die determines what jobs the villager can be assigned to, limited to the choices provided by their caste. Dice can be rerolled in case players need a specific job, but rerolling too many times causes villagers to become injured. Some buildings unlocked through the tech tree and some jobs can heal these villagers, or players can create new villagers by breeding the dice. Dice can be enhanced to give stronger bonuses by buildings, and it is possible to combine dice to create more powerful villagers, though this can lower the village's happiness. During winter, players must keep the villagers warm, which limits their effectiveness in collecting resources. Eventually, the villagers encounter a hostile village, which raids them. Players must conquer it to stop the raids, and the gameplay shifts more toward real-time strategy. Upon winning the game, additional leaders and more challenging scenarios are unlocked.

Reader's Guide

Dice Legacy received mixed reviews on Metacritic. Tom Chick of PC Gamer called it 'a smart, peculiar city builder that ends in a gruelling uphill battle against a rival city'. Rock Paper Shotgun's reviewer, Sin Vega, said that she dislikes dice mechanics in games. Reflecting this bias, she said Dice Legacy is 'an exercise in furious, tooth-grinding frustration'. Commenting on the game's requirement to quickly improvise, Harvard Liu of Digitally Downloaded wrote, 'Not all people will find this gameplay fun, but for those who like a touch of harsh realism in their strategic gameplay, Dice Legacy provides a worthy challenge.' However, due to what he felt was a poor port, Liu recommended against the Switch version. Shaun Musgrave wrote in his review for TouchArcade, 'Cut past the novel dice motif and you have a solid yet familiar simulation game.' The game's significance lies in its hybrid genre approach, combining city-building, real-time strategy, roguelike, and survival elements, with the dice mechanic as a central innovation. Its legacy is marked by polarized critical reception, with some praising its unique challenge and others frustrated by its randomness and port quality issues.