Outlanders (Japan)

Outlanders is a complex city-building and resource management simulation game for the NES system, exclusively released in Japan. Players are tasked with establishing and developing a village from its simplest beginnings. The main objective is to maintain and expand your settlement, ensuring the population grows and there are sufficient resources for survival.

The gameplay of Outlanders revolves around managing three basic resource types: wood, stone, and food. Wood and stone are used for constructing buildings, while food is a vital element for sustaining the population. You start with a small number of villagers and an empty plot of land. The first task is to assign specific jobs to your villagers, such as chopping trees for wood, mining stone, or hunting/farming to gather food.

Construction is central to the game. You can build houses to increase population capacity, farms to produce food, mines to extract stone, and workshops to process raw resources into more complex materials or tools. Each building has its own role and requires specific resources to construct. For example, to build a house, you need wood; to build a mine, you need stone.

Another crucial element is population management. Your villagers will reproduce if there is enough housing and food. Conversely, if resources are scarce, they may leave or starve to death. You need to balance increasing the population with your village's ability to supply resources. Proper labor allocation is key to success. You must decide how many villagers will be hunters, farmers, miners, or builders.

The game also features technological progression. As your village develops, you can unlock new buildings and improve efficiency. For instance, from simple hunting, you can transition to larger-scale agriculture, or from manual stone extraction to building more efficient mines. This helps you produce resources faster and support a larger population.

Challenges in Outlanders come from managing resources efficiently, dealing with random events like natural disasters or diseases, and strategically expanding your territory. You need to plan long-term to ensure the stability and sustainable development of your village. Outlanders stands out for its depth and complexity of management mechanics, offering a unique simulation experience on the NES system.