Songs of Syx Review | Deranged Edition™

Summary

In this humorous and detailed review, the narrator explores the complex dynamics of 'Songs of Syx,' a city-state simulator that challenges players to build and maintain a thriving civilization. From managing diverse races with unique traits to engaging in economic warfare and creative problem-solving, the game offers a blend of city-building and moral ambiguity. The review highlights the game's expansive tutorial, intricate mechanics, and the player's journey from a struggling settlement to a dominant empire, all while maintaining a light-hearted and satirical tone.

Takeaways

• 🎮 The game 'Songs of Syx' is a complex city-state simulator that has been in development for around seven years.
• 🕹 Despite being a tutorial, the starting location 'Jakaton' offers a challenging scenario with limited resources and strategic positioning.
• 🌾 The player begins with a small population of Cretonians, a peaceful and vegetarian race, and must establish an agricultural operation to avoid starvation.
• 🍎 The game includes a detailed simulation of seasons and the growth of food resources, with the potential for infestations and failures.
• 👶 The population grows through childbirth, with a unique game mechanic where the passage of time is measured in days and seasons, affecting the growth of citizens.
• 🎨 The game features a sponsor, Displate™, offering metal posters with tactile features, showing the integration of real-world products into game content.
• 🤝 The city's success hinges on the happiness of its citizens, with a nuanced simulation of individual needs and desires based on race.
• 🧬 Research and knowledge are passed down through generations, with the game emphasizing the importance of maintaining and preserving knowledge.
• 🏰 The player can manipulate various aspects of city management, including the use of slaves, crime enforcement, and trade to maintain economic stability.
• 🌍 The game world is rich with different races, each with unique characteristics and societal roles, affecting the player's strategic decisions.
• 🏹 The player can engage in warfare and diplomacy, using various strategies to expand their influence and control over the game world.

Q & A

What is the game 'Songs of Syx'?

Songs of Syx is an ambitiously made, self-styled city-state simulator that has been in development for over seven years. It allows players to manage a city and its inhabitants with various races and resources.

What is the starting situation for Jakaton in the game?

Jakaton is the default starting location for the tutorial in Songs of Syx, named after the developer. It has no mountains or natural resources, a few trees, a small lake, and is surrounded by four neighbors, making the initial conditions challenging.

Who are the Cretonians in the game?

Cretonians are peaceful, vegetarian pigmen in the game who have no aspirations beyond living in the dirt and farming crops. They are the starting population for Jakaton.

How does the game handle the growth of the local population?

The local population in the game grows through childbirth at the local nursery. A baby becomes a child after 16 days (which is equivalent to one year in the game), and a child becomes eligible for labor at four years of age.

What is the significance of the nursery in the game?

The nursery is important for increasing the local population. However, the player discovered that infant mortality has no effect on the happiness of the population, which is a darkly humorous aspect of the game's mechanics.

What is the role of the Displate™ sponsor in the video?

Displate™ is a sponsor that offers unique metal posters designed to capture various passions, such as Elden Ring™, Star Wars™, Warhammer™, or Call of Duty™. They introduced a new tactile poster collection called Textra™, which adds texture and 3D contours to the posters.

How does the game handle race relations and their impact on the city?

The game simulates race relations by assigning different traits and predispositions to various races. Some races don't get along, some are prone to crime, and others control educational sectors. These factors can significantly affect the city's happiness and stability.

What is the economic system like in Songs of Syx?

The game features a dynamic economy with fluctuating trade prices based on supply and demand. It encourages self-sufficiency but also allows for profit through trade, provided that the player diversifies their trade partners to stabilize their economy.

How does the player deal with crime and public order in the city?

The player manages crime and public order by making arrests and increasing coverage with law enforcement. However, the player discovered that certain races, like the Dondorians, were more prone to indecent exposure, leading to humorous situations.

What strategies does the player use to increase happiness and manage the city?

The player experiments with various strategies such as providing alcohol, satisfying food preferences, and introducing fine dining. Eventually, they find that ensuring basic hygiene through bathhouses and proper city planning significantly improves citizen satisfaction.

How does the game handle war and diplomacy?

The game allows for war and diplomacy through negotiations, declarations of war, and peace treaties. The player can use economic strategies like 'economic hyperwar' to manipulate enemies and gain advantages, or use a 'shotgun diplomacy' approach to force favorable terms.

What is the significance of the ending of the video where the player declares a royal decree to arrest everyone?

The ending signifies the player's loss of interest in the game after achieving total dominance. It is a humorous and chaotic way to end the game, showing that even in a simulated world, absolute power can lead to absurd outcomes.

Outlines

00:00

🕹️ Introduction to Songs of Syx and Jakaton's Struggles

The script introduces the city-state simulator game, Songs of Syx, developed over seven years. The player begins in Jakaton, a starting location named after the developer, with limited resources and surrounded by neighbors with varying relationships. The inhabitants are Cretonians, peaceful vegetarian pigmen. The player's initial focus is on agriculture, but they face challenges such as fruit trees failing due to worm infestation. The game mechanics involve managing citizen happiness, dealing with race-specific attributes and issues, and balancing the economy. The tutorial is extensive, and the player humorously mentions still being on it after a hundred hours.

05:03

🛠️ City Management and the Complexity of Races

This paragraph delves into the intricacies of city management, including the importance of keeping citizens happy to avoid failure quests and the detailed simulation of individual needs based on race. It touches on the unique attributes and stereotypes of various races, such as humans being prone to crime and low sanity, and the intellectualism of Dondorians. The economic system is highlighted, with the player engaging in different economic strategies like mining, farming, and even slavery. The player also experiments with manipulating trade and taxation to benefit their city-state.

10:06

🏰 Overcoming Challenges and the Rise of Jakaton

The player recounts overcoming various challenges, such as crime, maintaining order, and managing the economy. They describe a failed attempt at gemstone mining and a shift to an opium plantation using their remaining Garthimi slaves. After several uprisings and failures, the player discovers the importance of hygiene and city planning, leading to a breakthrough in citizen satisfaction. They rebuild the city with walls to increase isolation and reduce maintenance costs, eventually developing a stable and diversified economy.

15:11

🏹 Military Strategies and the Conquest of the World

The player shifts focus to military strategies, using mercenaries to conquer regions and manipulate enemies into financially crippling decisions. They describe a plan to raise a massive army, conquer a weak nation, and then use the acquired wealth to overpower others through a cycle of invasion and peace negotiations. The player's ultimate goal is to create a self-sustaining Golden Horde. They achieve this by manipulating the game's mechanics, leading to Jakaton becoming the single state empire with limitless resources and currency.

🏆 The Endgame and Reflections on Songs of Syx

In the final paragraph, the player reaches a point of boredom after conquering the entire map and having limitless resources. They experiment with arresting their entire population, leading to chaos and the end of the game. The player reflects on the game's expansive tutorial, detailed simulation, and the blurred line between city building and sociopathy. They humorously suggest the Tilapi child to Tilapi soup pipeline as an effective meat production strategy and conclude by recommending the game, highlighting its graphics, seasons, music, and scale. The player also mentions a discount on GOG and Steam and thanks the Merchants Guild for their support.

Keywords

💡City-state simulator

A city-state simulator is a type of strategy game where players manage and develop a city or a small state, often with a focus on resource management, infrastructure, and population growth. In the context of the video, 'Songs of Syx' is described as an ambitiously made city-state simulator that the player has been playing for over a hundred hours, indicating the depth and complexity of the game.

💡Tutorial

A tutorial in gaming refers to a set of introductory lessons or guidance that helps players learn the mechanics and objectives of the game. The video mentions that the player is still on the tutorial after a hundred hours, suggesting that 'Songs of Syx' has an extensive learning curve and that the player is deeply engaged in mastering the game's systems.

💡Race

In the context of this video, 'race' refers to the different species or types of beings that inhabit the game world, each with unique characteristics, abilities, and social behaviors. The script discusses various races such as Cretonians, Dondorians, Tilapi, Garthimi, Amevia, Argonosh, and Cantors, highlighting their distinct roles and how they affect gameplay and city management.

💡Happiness

Happiness in the game is a measure of the contentment and satisfaction of the city's population. It is a critical factor because if citizens are unhappy, it can lead to failure quests or a cascade of negative events. The video emphasizes the importance of maintaining happiness through various means, such as providing for their needs and managing the city effectively.

💡Research

Research in 'Songs of Syx' is not just about learning new technologies or concepts; it involves a generational knowledge transfer that must be preserved over time. The video script mentions that even something as basic as paper is a result of multiple generations of oral tradition and maintenance of knowledge, indicating the depth of the game's research mechanics.

💡Mercenaries

Mercenaries are hired soldiers that can be used to bolster a city's military forces in the game. The video describes a strategy where the player uses mercenaries to conquer other regions, demonstrating a tactical approach to warfare within the game's mechanics. This includes raising an army of mercenaries to overpower enemies and using them for economic gain.

💡Economic hyperwar

Economic hyperwar is a strategy mentioned in the video where the player manipulates the enemy into making decisions that are numerically beneficial while destroying them internally. This involves invading cities, selling them back, and using them as bartering chips for other cities, which is a complex economic and military strategy within the game.

💡Monetary system

The monetary system in 'Songs of Syx' is dynamic, with trade prices fluctuating based on supply and demand. The video describes how over-trading a commodity can devalue it, and the importance of diversifying trade to maintain a stable economy. The player also discusses manipulating the game's economy to their advantage.

💡Crime and punishment

Crime and punishment are significant aspects of the game's social mechanics. The video mentions issues with crime in the player's city, the need for arrests, and the challenges of maintaining law and order. It also humorously notes the disproportionate number of Dondorians (dwarves) involved in indecent exposure cases.

💡Serial killer

The concept of a serial killer is introduced in the video as a unique challenge within the game. The player's city is plagued by a serial killer targeting Cretonians, adding a layer of mystery and intrigue to the gameplay. The player must use investigative skills to identify and stop the killer, which adds depth to the city management experience.

💡Cultural cannibalism

Cultural cannibalism is a darkly humorous element mentioned in the video where the player, playing as the Garthimi race, proposes a form of meat production involving the Tilapi race. This concept is used to illustrate the game's complex social dynamics and the player's creative approach to resource management, albeit in a morally questionable way.

Highlights

Songs of Syx is a city-state simulator developed over seven years.

The game features a detailed tutorial that the player can be engaged with for over a hundred hours.

Jakaton, the default starting location, is named after the developer and is resource-scarce.

The Cretonians are peaceful, vegetarian pigmen with a focus on farming.

The game simulates a realistic agricultural operation with grain processing and direct consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Citizens prefer locals over immigrants, and the local population can increase through childbirth.

The game encourages child labor as an economic strategy.

Different races have unique characteristics and societal roles, influencing gameplay.

Research in the game is passed down through generations and must be preserved against entropy.

Dondorians are fully formed adults appearing at the base of a mountain and are good at mining.

The Tilapi are forest-dwelling elves with a connection to nature and a dark secret.

The Garthimi are cave-dwelling bugmen with a penchant for violence.

The Amevia are xenophobic lizardmen with impressive physiques and long lifespans.

Giant races, the Argonosh and Cantors, can be recruited under certain conditions and serve as powerful troops.

The game includes a complex legal system and the ability to manage a prison.

Economic strategies such as manipulating trade prices and managing a slave population are part of gameplay.

The player can use various tactics to maintain happiness and order, including public executions.

The game allows for the creation of a diverse economy, including mining, agriculture, and trade.

Strategic warfare and diplomacy are key components of expanding one's city-state.

The game's mechanics allow for morally complex decisions, such as using prisoners as a resource.

The player can engage in economic hyperwar, manipulating enemies for financial gain.

Songs of Syx offers a unique blend of city building and sociopathic strategies.

The game has a detailed and enjoyable tutorial, despite its length.

The game's graphics, seasonal changes, and music contribute to its immersive experience.

Transcripts

What is the worth of a human life?

I can't give you that answer, but I can tell you the worth of an elvish life.

62 meat and 17 leather, once you really peel them down.

Hey, hey people, Sseth here.

Despite doing this for several years,

I have never figured out how to use a microphone.

And for this, I sincerely apologize.

Songs of Syx is an ambitiously made, self-styled city-state simulator,

developed for the better part of seven years.

Now, imagine you start playing the game, and naturally, you play the tutorial.

I imagine most people do.

The difference, however, is that over a hundred hours later,

I am still on the tutorial.

This is the story of Jakaton, the default starting location for the tutorial,

which is named after the developer.

We have no mountains, no natural resources, a sprinkle of trees,

a small lake, and generally, nothing.

We're sandwiched between four neighbors, the city-states of Tegenaanval and Sluwva,

and the empires of Starlis and Uelisu.

In a word, it's not looking very good for us.

In the beginning, you start with a couple dozen citizens

and a dream of something greater.

Unfortunately, we are Cretonians.

These are peaceful, vegetarian pigmen with no aspirations

beyond slumming in the dirt and farming crops.

But for our purposes, they're perfect.

And I quickly started an agricultural operation.

It's, uh, not much, but at least we're not starving.

Grain has to be processed by a bakery, while fruit and vegetables can be eaten directly.

Regrettably, instead of a fruit farm, I started an orchard.

I did this on the promise that it's a slow operation with twice the potential yield.

To this day, it has produced no fruit, because by the time the fruit trees mature,

I get a worm infestation and have to chop them all down.

Citizens typically prefer locals over immigrants,

and the only way to increase the local population is by having children at the local nursery.

In this game, a year is 16 days, and each four days is a season.

A baby becomes a child, and a child becomes eligible for labor at four years of age.

Songs of Syx encourages the miracle of childbirth,

with the economic miracle of child labor.

Also, after my pigmen accidentally snacked on all the vegetables in the nursery crib,

I can confidently tell you:

infant mortality has no effect on the happiness of your population.

But you know what has an effect on my happiness?

Getting paid to plaster my walls with illustrations of naked women.

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Your city lives and dies on happiness.

If you fail to keep your citizens happy,

you'll start a failure quest or cascade that ends in ruin.

The simulation goes down to each individual citizen and measures the average fulfillment

of their needs and desires for that particular race.

Race is an interesting topic.

Some races don't get along.

Some races are predisposed to crime.

Some races control our educational sector, our labs, and our academia.

But what else am I supposed to do when everyone else hates education?

I'm talking, of course, about none other than humans.

Humans are troublesome, criminal, and have the lowest sanity score of any race,

which means an essential component of any healthy human population...

is an asylum.

But they heckin' love science,

which is important because this game handles research in a unique fashion.

You don't just learn something.

No, you research it, and then you have to pass on that generational knowledge across time.

Remember, we don't start with paper.

We get to that point after multiple generations of oral tradition.

And even then, we have to maintain and preserve our existing knowledge against entropy.

Almost every other race dislikes intellectualism and prefers to be indoctrinated.

This is advantageous, as it fosters loyalty in the absence of happiness.

Some might argue that great men are made, not born.

In the case of Dondorians, that is literally true,

because they appear as fully formed adults at the base of a mountain.

For this reason, the only way to get Dondorians is by immigration.

They're good at mining. They're good at Minecraft.

They're basically dwarves.

The Tilapi are forest-dwelling elves.

They're good with trees and they're good with nature.

What else?

They're also known for violating human men for several days before they cannibalize them.

Bizarrely, this makes them compatible with the cave-dwelling Garthimi, who are effectively bugmen.

What they lack in skill, they make up for with raw numbers.

And there's nothing bugs enjoy more than plucking limbs from the other races.

And while most cities will have a mixed population,

some races don't get along with anyone.

The Amevia are coastal-dwelling lizardmen.

They're uniquely xenophobic and incompatible with other races,

which is offset by their impressive physique and high lifespan.

If you want a true monocultural isolationist experience, try the lizards.

Finally, there are two giant races you can't normally get.

The in-lore explanation is that their populations have been decimated over the course of several great wars.

If you control a region containing a haven and satisfy their high demands,

they can be convinced to join your cause.

While they have many differences, they do share a common trait.

They're fucking gigantic, and make for the best shock troops in the entire game.

There's a bit of an irony in the sense that they're incredibly rare and almost extinct,

and the best thing they're good at is getting even more extinct.

The Argonosh are spider leviathans with a voracious appetite.

They don't care for anything except food, which may sound simple,

until you realize the logistical nightmare of providing four meals a day to every person in the map.

The Cantors may ask for more up front, but they're easier to satisfy.

Generally.

Once, I arrested two people at the same time, but only had one courtroom.

One of the two arrested thieves had no legal representation.

They considered this a complete breakdown of my legal system and left in disgust.

But at the time, I knew none of this.

I was a young blood desperate to turn a profit and expand my settlement.

YouTubers are a prime example of making the most amount of money with the least amount of skill and intellect.

In a fair society, these are the people who should be toiling in the coal mines and dying of black lung.

Appropriately, I simulated this by importing Garthimi slaves

and renaming them to my favorite content creators.

I invested so much into this coal mining operation,

only to find out I've spent several in-game years for a tar pit with 30% efficiency.

It wasn't just unprofitable, but because of the size and scale,

the cost of maintenance alone sent me into the red.

On the other hand, I found out slavery is actually quite well received,

as my citizens enjoy a slave population so long as it's not their own.

My settlement grew, and unfortunately, crime had become an issue.

Another day, another flashing.

The people lived in fear.

Arrests had to be made, but because I spread myself so thin,

I didn't have the resources or manpower to enforce it.

And so, the public indecency continued, until I increased my coverage.

And, after the prison started filling up, I am forced to make a difficult statement.

Dondorians are sex pests.

Of the five indecent exposers, all five have been dwarves.

I have no further comment.

At this point, I was earning capital by exporting furniture.

This game doesn't have a fixed economy.

Trade prices fluctuate and work on the rules of supply and demand.

Basically, if you can make your own, that's strongly encouraged.

If you have excess to sell off, that's good too.

But, over-trading a commodity can apply disproportionate pressure on the value,

which is minimized by the number of trade partners.

So, if you want money, you better diversify.

But if you don't, poverty also has its advantages.

If our treasury is empty and we're dead broke, guess what?

Our diplomatic gifts mean a whole lot more.

Which is important, because if our reputation drops to zero with any of the four factions bordering us,

we're getting invaded.

And with a current standing army of 0 men... I don't fancy my chances.

So, I would intentionally dip my savings into the red,

plead, cry, and defecate in front of my neighbors,

and a pathetic display made me an unattractive target for assault.

I would reputation farm into the multiple thousands, so I

so I could reliably forget about it for the next dozen years,

while enjoying the benefits of almost zero taxation on all trade.

This gave me a lot of time to experiment and figure out what I'm doing.

Firstly, I tried mining gemstone.

Subsequently, I failed at mining gemstone.

I used the natural fertility of Jakaton and turned it into an opium plantation.

I still had a lot of Garthimi slaves left over and put them to work in fields of poppies and cotton.

However, I got overly ambitious and my bugs got a little rowdy.

There is no other situation where the following words can be said.

"The cotton pickers are having another uprising."

Subsequently, we abolished the practice.

Not on moral grounds, but because they robbed my throne and took just about everything.

Happiness was at an all-time low among my Dondorians.

So, I tried producing alcohol and opened a tavern.

Demand outstripped supply.

Access was terrible and supplies were so low that it just made them angrier.

So, I tried satisfying food preference instead.

Mushrooms, fish, complex proteins.

Then, I restricted everyone to just eating bread and they were happier.

Additionally, I tried introducing fine dining in the form of restaurants.

And almost lost the game to a public riot.

Not only did I fail to meet supply, but each time I did so,

a citizen would starve, spiraling into a vicious loop.

Their desire for the McMenu was so strong that it overrode their survival instinct to eat street food,

preferring instead the embrace of death.

This was not a plague of famine, it was a plague of choice.

After the many lessons learned, alcohol is haram,

cooking is forbidden,

and our entire food pyramid is bread.

Finally, I did make a breakthrough in citizen satisfaction.

It turns out that when I select and look at a random peasant,

they are not meant to be caked in shit.

And only after building bathhouses 40 hours into the game, did I make that connection.

Around this time, I also realized, after reading the tooltip, the reason for my insane cost of maintenance.

You see, buildings have walls.

Walls increase isolation.

I did not build any walls.

Do I have to rebuild my entire city?

Yes, I did. I rebuilt the whole thing.

And I learned to love city planning.

Building design is incredibly fun, and there is no greater satisfaction

than having an elegantly designed lavatory for optimal shitting, pissing, and sharting.

In the end, you take so much pride in what you've built.

Am I coping?

Yes, absolutely.

But after numerous trials and tribulations, I had a stable, diversified economy,

and a series of shacks resembling civilization.

Also, I promoted a four-year-old to become nobility.

Because it's funny.

Nobles provide a variety of beneficial effects,

and currently, they're a work in progress.

Or, as the developer translated to me, they cannot betray you yet.

Everything was calm and peaceful, until we found a cretonian with his eyes scooped out.

On the body was a note, signed, Jake the Invincible,

claiming that he's saving lives by returning them to his forgotten god.

Our city had a serial killer.

Another day, another victim found dead, eye sockets empty.

Every victim was a cretonian, and this was clearly a racially targeted crime.

Terror ruled the streets, and we had no leads.

It wasn't until a passerby claimed to see a cretonian woman fleeing the scene.

This information didn't add up.

But we tortured a confession out of him, and they pleaded guilty to all crimes.

The serial killings promptly stopped.

Jake the Invincible was identified to be a middle-aged cretonian woman predating on her own people.

We sent the killer into the arena, to be chopped into pieces for the spectacle of a crowd.

We gave their body as much respect as it deserved.

We pissed on it, and dumped it into a mass grave.

Serial killings are rare, and they're not often so straightforward.

You might get the wrong guy, and torture out a false confession.

Or the trail simply goes cold from lack of evidence.

Eventually, beyond exports and fields of opium,

I found the most lucrative source of cash.

I would, intentionally, reduce my army down to zero,

to try and entice rebels to attack my city.

The moment this happens, I hire mercenaries,

crush the invaders, and sell off their loot for fat stacks.

This sent me from borderline broke, to half a million in the bag.

Now, hiring mercenaries is incredibly expensive.

Paying them is even more expensive,

but they handle their own supplies, and they're instantaneous.

I used them to conquer a neutral region, and as I did,

my brain expanded, and my neurons started firing.

Because suddenly, I can hire more.

For each region under my control, I get access to five extra mercenary companies.

So I hatched a plan. Take all my money, raise an army of mercenaries,

and conquer Winstah, the weakest nation I could find nearby.

With each city taken, my numbers increased, eventually laying siege to their capital.

I sold everything to keep those mercenaries paid.

I almost ran out of money. If that siege lasted a day longer than it did, I would have lost.

But in the end, it was worth it, because I reached the max limit of mercenary companies,

and I could now recruit enough men to overpower anyone.

Problem is, they're asking for 750k upfront, with a daily fee of 100k.

Soldiers of fortune have a steep asking price,

but what if the Golden Horde could pay for itself?

I've been on the back foot of negotiations, pleading and groveling to my neighbors for mercy,

until now.

Selling my spoils, I muster a short-lived but massive army,

declare war, intercept their army, and immediately sue for peace.

To which they have no option but to accept my favorable terms.

The best part about shotgun diplomacy is you already know the answer each time.

Because once they surrender, we do it again until we empty their entire treasury.

Unknowingly, they just paid for their own demise.

The century of humiliation was over, as Jakaton turned on their allies.

No longer will I be extorted each time it's their nephew's birthday.

Tegenaanval and Sluwva were too small to resist.

The elvish empire of Starlis to the north was a different story,

but led to the development of strategies I'd replicate going forward.

Economic hyperwar is the act of manipulating the enemy to take decisions that are

numerically beneficial while destroying them internally.

We invade cities, sell them back to the enemy only to invade them again.

Then we use them as bartering chips for other cities,

take control of those cities, demolish the walls, and advance our front line.

We remove the need for extended siege and reduce the enemy to a single fight.

There was only one exception to this.

As luck would have it, the human empire of Uelisu to the south had the largest standing army in the world.

Even if I recruited every mercenary, I would still be outnumbered two to one.

So, I drained his treasury and I waited it.

Eventually, he could no longer afford to maintain his army and fell like the rest of them.

Jakaton lives by a simple proverb,

Feed the earth and it will feed you.

But we fed the earth so much that nature herself is vomiting up red.

There's too many prisoners of war and not enough mass graves to go around.

The rest is morbid history as I took the rest of the map.

Jakaton is now the single state empire of the world.

Resources are limitless, currency is infinite.

For we possess an infinite money printer.

The design of which is as follows.

I form a puppet state, declare war on them, take all their money from the peace treaty,

invade them anyway,

and install a new puppet to repeat the process.

I have, in every sense, completely rigged the system.

But, like Sisyphus reaching the top of the mountain, I had nothing left to struggle against.

And so too did I lose my interest.

So, I made a royal decree.

To arrest everyone.

If you're ever interested in ending the game,

just click prosecute on your main population.

Guards start arresting citizens, then they arrest other guards

before being arrested themselves.

Prison wardens get jailed and break out of their own prisons.

Chaos and pandemonium rule the day.

As everyone turns on each other, and eventually they turn on me.

In summary, Songs of Syx has a very expansive, detailed, and enjoyable tutorial.

At 160 hours of playtime, I can't wait to play the actual game.

This may not take the spot for game of the year.

As we all know, that's reserved for Churn Vector.

But, it's a very close second.

The graphics, the changing of seasons, the music, the scale of the simulation.

Considering this is written in Java, I have no words.

There's no other game where the line between city builder and sociopathy is so blurred.

To demonstrate this, for my second playthrough as the Garthimi,

I proposed a novel form of meat production.

It's less of a ranch or a pasture, and more of a...

Tilapi nursery.

For reference.

At a consumption rate of half an apple a day,

a fully grown Tilapi child costs us 32 apples.

But gives us twice that amount in meat and leather.

And once they're adults, we arrest, execute, and butcher them.

The Tilapi child to Tilapi soup pipeline is highly effective.

And while my humans don't agree with cannibalism,

because they're bigoted chuds that can't grasp the richness of Garthimi culture,

their stomachs can't complain.

So, what have we learned today?

1. Prisoners are the ultimate cash crop.

Labor is a resource, and so are they.

2. Look past people and their differences, and see them instead as a source of protein.

3. Much like real life, retirement is economically unfeasible,

and exists only as a carrot and stick to motivate the working class.

I give this game my highest recommendation.

I give it no days of food, out of we're about to starve.

And, because it's mainly one guy and not a corporate entity,

I can just ask for a sale.

If you're interested, it's 20% off on GOG and Steam for the rest of April.

The first 100 to use the link win a free chemical castration or prefrontal lobotomy.

Terms and conditions may apply.

As always, more content to come, so stay tuned.

A warm thanks to the many members of the Merchants Guild,

generously funding and bankrolling these videos.

You're all truly wonderful.

Have a good one.