App Review: Oh! Edo Towns on iPhone

It is definitely no secret that I am a fan of sim/tycoon games, especially business sims. That’s why Japanese developers Kairosoft first got my attention with their iOS port of their hugely popular japanese game ‘Game Dev Story’ when it first hit the iTunes App Store. Since then, I have purchased all their games on my iPhone(s) and I have to say, they are very addictive. So this week as soon as I found a new title available called Oh! Edo Towns I immediately made the purchase and downloaded it to my iPhone 4S and knew that I had to write a review about it to spread the news.

It has now been 3 days I have been playing the game, trying to squeeze out every last minute of free time I have and dedicating it to this interesting game.

The game sets you as the ruler of a new province in Edo period Japan and your mission is simple. Grow the province from a fledgling 2 citizen population to a thriving metropolis.

If you have played any of Kairosoft’s other games the interface and the basic concepts of the game will be very familiar to you. Research, Build, create ‘combo’s’, expand your population, increase your popularity and income.

So far these basics of their games have worked out extremely well. Game Dev Story was hugely popular as soon as it hit the App Store and success has followed suit in their other games (GP Story, Mega Mall Story, Pocket Academy and Hot Springs Story).

However, I can’t help but feel like the game is a little too similar to the previous games and having played one or the other enough, you pretty much have already worked out the formula to be successful in all their games.

I would like to see some further advancement in the gameplay which can add a little more depth.

Also an aspect which could use improvement is the How to Play section which gives you some brief explanation of things but there is nothing more advanced and nothing to give you support in the latter stages of the game (I now have 6 Vassals in the game and I have no idea what they are useful for or what they do. I just leave them to roam around and hope they are benefitting me in some way).

That having been said, it is a very addictive game. The gameplay is not as simple as most iOS games therefore keeps you hooked for a much longer time and despite almost being an exact copy of the previous games with a new skin is not half as repetitive as some other games such as Infinity Blade.

I do wish Kairosoft stopped taking the easy way out and creating ‘new’ games that are basically the old games with a new face and started developing sequels that advance the older games to next level.

I really do have high hopes for Kairosoft’s future and in August they did state a sequel to Game Dev Story is under way which I am really looking forward to and really interested as to how they will make those new advancements to further improve the gameplay.

If you’d like any further information regarding the game feel free to leave us a comment and please subscribe to us as I will be posting more reviews of iOS apps, both for iPhone and iPad.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!