An oldie I was a little surprised not to see on here yet. Instead of a straight prestige mechanic, this game has you "completing" challenges to build up points to get the next tier. For example, if you complete enough hamlets, you get a village, enough villages makes a town, etc. The challenges help unlock currency for permanent upgrades. I think this is hurt by a slow start on the first few hamlets, but once you get the swing of things it picks up a lot. Definitely not a forgotten classic or anything, and it lacks some more modern QOL features, but solid enough.