When comparing Townsmen vs Merchant, the Slant community recommends Merchant for most people. In the question“What are the best Android games with economics-based gameplay?” Merchant is ranked 3rd while Townsmen is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Merchant is:
The game has a nice retro pixel art style. From the menus to the dungeons or shop there is a very familiar aesthetic to the overall design that would have fit in quite well on consoles in the 80's.
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Pros
Pro Well-polished with great attention to detail
From the detail to the inhabitants to the great design of the town it is obvious a lot of attention was payed to the smaller things.
Pro It has that realistic feel
It feels realistic and you can roleplay to your heart's desire.
Pro Intuitive and accessible
Straightforward controls, well-organized information and a thorough tutorial make Townsmen easy to pick up and play.
Pro Pixel art
The game has a nice retro pixel art style. From the menus to the dungeons or shop there is a very familiar aesthetic to the overall design that would have fit in quite well on consoles in the 80's.
Pro Fun resource management mechanic
The player can sell their loot (gathered from a dungeon) for in game money, to then be spent on needed equipment or can equip their loot to try harder dungeons to get better loot to sell for new equipment. Each action is a gamble and may or may not pay off for the player.
Pro In active development
Merchant is still in a very active development phase, which means there will be plenty of bug fixes and new features and tweaks to the gameplay added.
Pro Dedicated subreddit
Merchant has a dedicated subreddit page where users can discuss the game, strategies and bugs.
Pro Completely free and zero permissions
Merchant is a completely free game that also has zero permissions.
Cons
Con Intrusive ads and offers
Even in the premium version, you'll receive pop-ups offering a few points of Prestige (premium currency) in exchange for watching a video advertisement.
Con Supply chain construction can become tedious in scenarios
Townsmen's complex resource management is not too burdensome while casually building a sandbox city. Once you've done it once or twice, it's frustrating to wait through dozens of build timers just to get access to the raw materials needed for a scenario's first goal.
Con Current version has both ads and in-app purchases
Con Wait times
There are wait times in the game for both crafting and adventuring. This makes it impossible to sit and play for any length of time and makes the user have to come back to the game often in order to make any significant progress.
Con Lag/delay of action
When pressing buttons in the menus there is a noticeable delay until the requested action actually takes place.