Digimon Story Time Stranger
Digimon Story Time Stranger
Game
Game2021
Star Dynasties
Developer Pawley Games
Take the reins of a feudal dynasty in a divided galaxy following the destruction of earth. Star Dynasties is a turn based, procedurally generated narrative of human drama and personal politics, mixed with a light empire management layer. Your choices. Your legacy. From the Steam store page
191 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 4, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
65
Fresh
120 positive · 64 negative
95% range 58–72%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 120 | 64 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
7 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
365 of 505 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 191 · most liked firstI am going to be harsh on this game due to the fact it is a fully released game with paid dlc. 2/10 This game is a shiny lie, you have no agency at all. As it stands it is the crappiest version of a visual novel where you are railroaded from one event to the next without any agency at all. Don't waste your time and money. That being said it is a single patch away from being an 8/10 game. However, I genuinely have no faith in the developer as they seem hellbent on making a game that nobody…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Star Dynasties" Review – Game of Houses, RNG, and Broken Dreams – AND – A Spreadsheet Trapped in a Space Opera You are the heir to a minor house, clawing your way through the remains of a shattered galactic civilization. A noble in name, a bureaucrat in practice, and a spectator most of the time. If you ever dreamed of ruling a space empire by filling out HR forms and losing control of everything important to random events, then congrats—you’ve found your dream job. ✔️ The art style is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Calling Star Dynasties 'Crusader Kings in space' is perhaps not the most helpful. On the one hand it's a selling point, and on the other it's a criticism. Star Dynasties does share the central mechanic of feudal dynasty building, but I think it should be considered on its own, rather than debating whether it's a good or bad clone job. The sci-fi setting is pretty important since it grants freedom for creativity and imposes mechanical focus. Every game is procedurally generated with fresh…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm going to say no on the recommendation because honestly don't pay full price for this, if the Dev reads any of this feedback.. 1. You NEED to update your damned unity version and quit with the BS excuses, the amount of crashes and issues due to monitor resolutions etc is just wrong, the solution in 2022 should not be 'change your monitor resolution' to get something to work. Secondly the 'this is CK2 mixed with Stellaris mixed with Civ' comments.. no it's not, it's more like some of the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this game, I like space, and crusader king games. The game is just too shallow at $40. I played a few starts then went to do a full game and had to stop before finishing. I think I got less than 30 hours out of it. My problems with it are to start. The DLC for the game, was no dlc. It was things that should have been in a game like that anyway. Things like interaction with children and setting guardians. Which those interactions are few and repetitive, with…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am going to give this Reviewing thing a go. Let me know if it helps or if I rambled too much. I consider this one of my perfect "Sunday Afternoon" games. A game that is perfect for turning your brain off and not getting too heated before Monday shows its ugly head. This game is not a masterpiece, so why is great for a lazy Sunday Afternoon? PROS: Many random events. The game allows for many different scenarios and events to take place as attempt to help your Space Family survive the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has been around too long for basic mechanics to not make sense. For example: as a vassal, I am attacked by an external faction. I conquer a system from the attacker, adding territory to my and my overlord's realm. Then the attacker asks my overlord to punish me for illegally taking the system, thus my overlord fines me for adding to his own realm in a defensive war. WTF is that? Another example: Another fellow vassal attacks me and I take his system. Taking his system in a war he…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Duke Jurgen Ylvan inherited Ylvani Shogunate in his late 30s. An upstart realm was no different from similar realms but the Ylvan family was strong, honorable, and inspired loyalty. Within 20 years the domain doubled in size and became an empire. And while vassals were backbiting and feuding constantly, the empire was growing. The only issue the Shogunate faced was the question of succession- heiress Anastasia Ylvan was a disgrace: hunting commoners for sport, fornicating, and failing two…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A game of conflicting design from the very base level. Beginning with a long and detailed tutorial that actively refuses to explain much of the basic gameplay in favour of trying and failing to explain the ideas behind that gameplay. It's very clear that the devs have an idea here, but it was made expressly for them, and if you don't find yourself on their wavelength, you might as well not play. In addition, the game is far too reactive, rather than active. You have very limited tools to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →less than 10 hrs of gameplay and I've seen multiple repeated scenarios that feel either scripted or lacking in variety
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Amazing game... a hidden gem! If you think you might like it... you will! However... (there's always a "but")... this game rewards a particular play style one might call "deep contemplation." What is "deep contemplation?" Well, after playing my fair share of different kinds of strategy games over the decades, I have found that there are certain games where a not-so-insignificant amount of the pleasure actually comes from allowing yourself to get lost in the narrative that you are essentially…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Take the worst mechanics from crusader kings, combine them with the most tedious elements of stellaris... there you have Star Dynasties
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It really fails to deliver it's promise. No, you cannot start your own Targaryen, Skywalker or Harkonen dynasties. You can have ugly kids. You can tell your neighbors their kids are ugly too. You can poorly run an uninteresting space station. You can have borders in space (sigh.) It is a fight between a few villages, the space factor is poorly executed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly Not really that fun I have hundreds of hours in both ck2/stellaris and this game does not have the charm of either There's a substantial lack of content, ui and overall everything else This game feels like it should be labled as in early alpha tbh Definitely 1-2 years before it is fully finished but as far as i can tell, no substantial updates since i've actually purchased the game Definitely not worth it
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As they say every person has their ideal game, at least plays closely to their preferred method of play. This would be mine. This is a long review. TL DR; Its fun, its slow, amazing game for a methodical slow player. Terrible for anyone who just wants to get things done quick. So start off with some simple things for the recommendation. Things that people might like and might not like. Things to Like: Space Opera, enough generic events to make the game feel "alive". Super character driven.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After playing Star Dynasties for 62 hours I can definitely recommend this hidden gem. Other players often describe it as Crusader Kings in space, but there are many differences. It's turn-based and it's much less complicated. In my opinion it's more like a political sim. The gameplay itself is quite simple: each turn you get a string of events and then you use your action points to appoint your house members to various tasks. The game became one of my all time favorites. It's even more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crusader Kings in space but with a ton of atmosphere and easier to digest with the turn-based system One thing I really liked over CK is how limited things start with the house size and action mechanic and star system visibility. Given that my house's size was limited, but also that house members start off in early game as the hard cap for actions, I was really able to get to know everyone in my immediate sphere. The fact that you could only annex/vassalize systems on your immediate border,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a laughably great game, especially for the $11 that I paid for it on sale. However, this is just my opinion, so please check my profile to get an idea of the kind of games I own. Also, there is a demo, which is highly recommended. I usually don't do tutorials - not because I am smart - but because I often lack the patience to trudge through them. But I played the tutorial in this demo three times with no issues. This should convince most people if the game is for them or not. It…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels very shallow. Lacks the charm of CK. The game play just feels very mechanical and lacking character. I feel like your goal is supposed to be to expand the strength of your family in the star empires. However the game forces you to start as Duke with a bunch of systems already under your control, and family members already existing all over the galaxy. All of the neighboring kingdoms were already filled with brothers and sisters in key roles. Seemed like the game was finished before…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is amazing. The tutorial was far better than most and the game play loop is nearly perfect. I've been looking for a game to get excited about and this is the first in a long time to just totally grip me. I've got 39 hours now, but I just bought it a few days ago. The stories that you generate by playing the game are memorable. Growing your house and your family is just fun. The backstabbing, the diplomacy, the war, all of it is fairly intuitive and just makes sense. I have…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is exactly what i want, dynastic politics in space. Unfortunately the game does not load past character creation. The last update was 2 years ago, so I doubt that this will ever be fixed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unless you want nothing but political intrigue and stupid politics, this game is not for you. Politics consumes the game with little time to do any world building or empire building.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i thought this game would have given me CK2 in space but it 's really lack luster in comparison. which is not really fair to compare but it's my opinion. the early access phase was a joke. the game was in EA and all of a sudden version 1.0 came out. so then i see this DLC that's supposed to give the game some depth. then i see it's not a free DLC. I actually don't mind paying for DLC but don't rush a game out of development. Then try to grab for more money on mechanics that should have been…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crusader Kings in space. The comparison is worth mention. I heard some people say it's just a simpler CK2, but there are some differences worth noting. First of all, it's a turn based game. This makes action limited, but usually meaningful (especially when it comes to war). Also, diplomacy is weirdly more present than in Crusader Kings, with the ability to negotiate your involvement in someone else's war or annex others after making an offer they can't resist. That aspect alone was…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has all the building blocks of a great story generator. It allows you to have a household of distinct characters, develop relationships over decades, and experience memorable emergent events. During my first ruler's lifetime I had several genuinely surprising and emotional stories unfold, and for a while I was completely engrossed. Unfortunately, the game runs out of content much sooner than it runs out of playtime. Within a single ruler's lifetime I had already seen most of the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Simple, yet hard, extremely hard. And insanely fun, but of course, not for everyone. I have already had a few playthroughs, about five. No 'win' yet, meaning conquering half of the systems on the entire map, but insane fun. The game is a flood of endless politics and backstabbing, filled with intrigue and lots of betrayal. The AI is simple, as it mostly reacts based on how much characters like your House and your characters, but the massive web of Houses and characters make it extremely more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed this game quite a bit during my time, and I wanted to come back to it eventually. Only to find I was unable to make it past the title screen despite efforts. In the state it is in now, abandoned and left to rot I can't recommend buying it. If you can look past this however it was a good game when I could play it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Star Dynasties is a space empire-building strategy game. I really like it. Let's make one thing clear: when people hear about space empire-building games they envision some sort of spiritual successor to Master of Orion or Civilization, what you call a 4X game. This one isn't that at all and you'd better not come here with preconceived notions of what such a game should contain. It's also not a huge sprawling game with 10 DLCs trying to be infinitely replayable. It is a focused, polished,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a very finicky and not terribly interesting game. While I like the idea of blending stellaris and crusader kings, this game just doesn't really do either aspect in a very satisfying way.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ultimately it's all about coin and mercenaries... no real strategy. An easy fix for the dev offered a long time ago, ignored... So sad, as it ruins the strategy of the game. Modding doesn't expose any of the interesting assets to change the game... just events. And not any of the games hardcoded ones, which is UGH!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm going to keep reluctantly trying to finish my first game on this but its just missing so many simple QOLs. I HATE how marriage chances are obviously a fixed value but hidden behind a "maybe", then when you spend action points to try and make it happen it goes "no they were never going to accept that marriage because of this interstellar algebra we've clearly outlined, why would you ever thing otherwise dummy". The gameplay loop is pretty stale. You get locked into having to do the same…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Developer gets A+ for design choices, really well done. Delightful game. Familiar enough to CK2 fans. Some important differences? There are more and more interesting restrictions--design choices. These both focus gameplay and are cause for interesting decisions. For example: - Surely you've had a house in CK2 or CK3 that was hogwild huge and individuals felt like meat slabs and statistics. In this game, you're limited to a certain number of house members. This is justified by the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game had a lot of potential, but I cannot recommend it. Try Stellar Monarch 2 instead. Positives: The game does a good job of setting up a post-collapse galactic civilization, particularly the way that each planet has a fixed number of ancient installations that you can repair, and this is the only way to build up infrastructure - by restoring ancient structures rather than building new ones. The combat mechanics are also innovative: you choose tactics from a list depending on the skill…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I find the game very fun to play. I know many find the game repetitious after awhile, but for me I find the game ...relaxing. I enjoy the aspect of a family tree where you can look back and see how your family progressed through the ages. One thing that has become a problem for me is that I have played my dynasty so long that the game takes very long to complete a turn while it goes through the computations of the rest of the galaxy. I would definitely enjoy some DLC.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've heard about this hidden gem somewhere on Reedit while I was looking for a game with more focus on people than armies. I don't know why but this game is so immersive despite of minimalistic graphics, probably it's a personal taste but I feel more connected to the game world and personalities than in the Crusider Kings series. Also the sci-fi setting let's you to deep dive into the world of your dynasty in space. Do you remember "the Dune" book and how difficult political situation had the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely love this game. Make the feudal family of your dreams to rule over the stars, and watch them fall apart with bickering, cheating, lying, assassination, incestuous encounters, and betrayals. It's Game of Thrones in space, and I'm here for it 100%.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So people are saying this game is Crusader Kings in space? Well, that's exactly what it is! If you enjoy the CK series then you will definitely find some enjoyment in this game. The overall mechanics and interface feel exactly like CK2 so if you've played that game you will find yourself slipping easily into this game. Similar to Crusader Kings, you control a family House and your main aim is to expand and strengthen your House. I think the biggest difference in game play; is that this game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved Star Dynasties, but it's definitely a little bare-bones in its current state, even with the Bloodlines DLC. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the game will fulfil its potential, as that would require at least one or two gameplay expansions, which the team seems unable to deliver due to financial constraints (source: forum post from one of the devs). Considering the foundation is very strong, it's a great shame. Regardless, if you want a change of pace and scenery from Crusader Kings and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game could be good, but its missing the real "dynasty" feeling that supposedly sets it apart. Wait, there is a new update, "Bloodlines", oh but rather than include it in the game, its added as a greedy DLC... . I don't normally join the rants on "that DLC should be part of the main game"... but in this case, its definitely the case, as it doesn't "add" to the game, its part of the original promise of what this game is supposed to be about..." ((MORE REVIEWS)) TO SEE OTHER INSIGHTFUL REVIEWS,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a huge fan. Paradox does this much better. And those games have their own share of problems. - HUGE RNG: You can start up the game with your holdings cut in half (i.e. not connected and thus can't help each other during wars) and all your vassals being generated with incompatible traits so they all hate your guts and you're just boned. - No control over anything. You cannot win a war through good use of armies, etc. - Bad outcomes have waaay too high of a chance to occur. Something which…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was having fun till some dude declared war on me. I hired mercenaries but then he called off the attack then instantly called it again. I lost all my mercenaries and couldn't afford more :( so i lost the entire game after two hours
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The first thing you should know is that this game is NOT a 4x game. This is not the reason for my evaluation, but you should be warned ; this is not about empire building or whatever ; you're not going to move ships around, and you're hardly going to develop any planet or colonies or inventing new technologies : it's more about keeping relationships with your neighbours, and preventing whatever you may have accumulated as your "empire" from crumbling away. Even more, one feature of the game is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This games main focus is politics and everything else is a minor thought. Expand territory is best done though making deals and arranged marriages only. The Actual military fleets battles is a bit of a joke. Better then Crusader Kings on the game mechanics and layout. Would not buy for over $20 though. Had some moments that were fun. 3/10 - Decent for what it is. Would recommend if you want a Political style game only.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's nowhere near as complex as the Crusader Kings games and I like it a lot more for that. I especially appreciate how it takes a more hands-off approach to combat and chooses to focus more on the politics. I will say that in terms of content it could use more events and perhaps more options to interact with other houses. The way I see it is this is a nice game to mindlessly tune out to, something you can fire up and just play and see how powerful you can become. Its a nice unwinding game. So…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The idea is good but the game is boring. The player has too few options when dealing with other nobels, a king should get legit justification to imprison dukes and barons who raid or invade their fellow dukes and barons under the same king. And allegience is so weak, on some occasion neighbour kingdom's dukes come and ask to become part of your kingdom (I assume for better security) but when someone rebels and there is this one baron completely surrounded by your vassals, they sometimes can…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crusader Kings in space
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Despite how simple Star Dynasties is, it's one of the best strategy games I've ever played. People often compare it to Crusader Kings and there is some of that in this game, such as the political system. But, there's also a kind of random story generator which mostly generates events across the turns of other empires. It's not AI-generated or anything like that. I like to create a basic family of my own and start out as an upstart ruler. Which is a ruler who illegitimately gained control of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crusader Kings + Dune = LOVE. And I could have ended with that, but I have to say it saddens me this game was not further developed, since Glen Pawley (the solo developer) had more plans for it, like guilds, piracy (there is a mod for this, I haven´t tested yet) and even different cultures! Saying that, is still a great, charming and smart game. THe only fault is that we would love to have more of that.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It feels like it should've been in early access for another year. Not quite finished. It is almost a year since the last patch while there still are bugs in it. Could've been a good game if not abandoned.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is a slog. I've played lot of planet, world, and galactic management sim type games, but this one has the biggest feel that you are just clicking "end turn" to win since MOO 3. I guess the most exciting thing about it is that your distant relatives are always trying to get you to shag them on the DL (I fell in love with my daughter once blech). Drab and unimaginative, with limited ways to victory.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well, this is a difficult one to rate. People draw comparison with Crusader Kings, and it's correct to an extent, but I would say the game is even more similar to King of Dragon Pass, because events and narrative sub-plots are the best Star Dynasties has to offer. The basic gameplay mechanics are, indeed, a turn-based, simplified version of Crusader Kings in space: very abstract combat, character management, trying to acquire claims through subterfuge and marriage... but it doesn't really have…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →UI feels old (graphically), but the level of absurd detail is not any crazier than CK3. Feels a lot like a Battletech/Dune simulator, dark ages in space with piles of political infighting. But It's basically a never-ending popup management. Felt more like a shuffle-things-around-constantly card game than anything. Sadly, the DLC let me play with a house design, but then it never actually loaded a game (even after letting it churn for 45 minutes). Conclusion on Star Dynasties: Was it…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Like the game, hate the fleet combat. They went with a dice roll system, which is fine (Crusader Kings uses dice rolls in combat as well), however, once you decide to declare war on another faction for some territory... it begins falling apart. An example: You assigned your admiral with over 100 combat skill to lead your hundred warships to attack a system defended by half that fleet strength? And their fleet admiral has a skill of only 25?! Easy win- oh... You rolled a 10, they rolled a 40.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's like playing the Succession Wars in Battletech, or if we want to get more technical, the Age of War- Various Noble Houses vying for supremacy after a cataclysm ruined our cradle. Backstabbing, betrayal, alliances, and all believing they're the rightful inheritors. I will not be surprised if the modding community don't create a conversion mod that let's you play out the Succession Wars. Heck, My house is directly named from one of them (Free Worlds League) and It's CONSTANTLY building up…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is much I wanted to love about Star Dynasties. But it's too limited in possible actions and what you should be able to do. For exemple, I can't adopt a child as mine ?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First game. The archon declared war to the east, Im the only one bordering them, I must be the only one to bare the brunt. The archon, helping in the war decides to rise my taxes. Besides my scraping by I am benevolent to my neighbors and they succeed to me. Before I know it I have half a sector, larger than the archon's territory and prospering. They dont like that, they want to depose me. So I start a rebellion. The other factions are with me. Long live the Smith's reign. Long live the new…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't have very much time in on this game yet but I like it. My oldest son has tried to kill me 3 times I'm done with him I should have killed him but i didn't. I'm going to leave everything to my younger brother just to piss off my son.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Turnbased Crusader Kings in Space.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I honestly gave a chance to this game. And it works, it feels quite polished, but at the same time it feels so bland... The theme is just slapped on top of Crusader Kings clone. So it is a thumbs up if you want a generic light medieval strategy game with elements of RPG that just happens to be in space instead of England. But if you are looking for some flavor of Dune or Fading Suns or other epic feudal space opera - you came to a wrong place. The character portraits are generic, there's no…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →+ Very cool feudal politics with the appropriate ambience style. + No "ridge" issue not an overwhelming misromanagement issue: the game stays challenging despite the growth of your empire, due to good balance of limiting factors. - Still have obvious bugs. (Such as: you can face a message that 6y old girl was found guilty in murdering a character lived on the opposite end of the galaxy when she was 3y). - The set of events needs to be enriched, now you can get strictly the same "random"…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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