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Kingdom Rush Origins HD
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***Best Mobile Game 2015 DICE Nominee*** The most addicting tower defense game returns in an...
Kingdom Rush Origins
Games and Entertainment
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***Best Mobile Game 2015 DICE Nominee*** The most addicting tower defense game returns in an...
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Alanna: The First Adventure in Books
Apr 16, 2018
The Song of the Lioness quartet is Tamora Pierce's first set of books. I read her latest trilogy (the Beka Cooper trilogy) first, which didn't exactly prepare me for The Song of the Lioness. It's obvious, going from the latest trilogy to her first writing, how much her writing has matured since the 80s. My first thought upon completing Alanna: the First Adventure was "I'm very glad she's gotten better at writing!" The story itself is still interesting and worth reading, but the style is a little difficult to read when I KNOW how well she writes now. The characters are mostly one-dimensional; few of the side characters seem to have plots going or events happening to them when they're not with Alanna. Characters pop up, have a significant interaction with Alanna, and are gone again, with no indication they exist outside of their usefulness to the main character. This is in stark contrast to her latest work, where every character that has a significant role to play has a history of their own, and thoughts and feelings of their own. They're much more fleshed out in her recent books.
That complaint aside, the Alanna books are really the foundation that the rest of Tortall was built upon. It's interesting to see how Pierce has fleshed out some of the concepts she touched on in the Alanna saga, and it's fun to see where some of the things from the Beka Cooper trilogy originated. It also pays to keep in mind that though the Alanna books were written first, the Beka Cooper trilogy is based two hundred years earlier. We learn a lot more about the office of The Rogue in the Beka Cooper trilogy, something that isn't explained very well in the Alanna quartet, even though one of Alanna's main romantic interests is George Cooper (yes, a descendant of Beka!), the Rogue. Pierce also never explains the origins of Alanna's cat, Faithful, in the actual Alanna books. That explanation lies in the Beka Cooper books as well.
The Song of the Lioness quartet is the story of a girl who decides to rebel against tradition and follow her heart to become a knight. In her time, ladies simply do NOT become knights. They learn to organize households and marry well. Alanna, however, is lucky enough to have a twin brother who does not want to become a knight; instead Thom wants to be a mage. So when they're sent off to face their futures, they switch places, with Alanna becoming "Alan", the younger twin. (Thom stays Thom; the school that ladies are sent to is the same school mages start at.)
Alan/Alanna begins as a page, then moves to squire, and eventually a knight. Her secret is discovered, but due to her influential friends, most of whom knew she was a girl by then, she is able to keep her status. Her adventures take her from uncovering a plot against the royal family, to being adopted by a desert tribe, to recovering a magic jewel of prosperity, with many small adventures in between.
I love reading Pierce's heroines; both Alanna and Beka have problems reconciling their feminine natures with the work they've chosen. The scenes where Alanna's love interests see her in a dress for the first time, instead of her normal boy-garb and armor, is heart-warming in one case, and sad in another. In both womens' lives it's the man who can accept all of their aspects who ultimately wins their heart, which is a wonderful message.
Ultimately, the technical flaws in the writing of the Alanna saga faded as I became absorbed in the story. I'll be requesting more Tortall books from the library in the near future!
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
That complaint aside, the Alanna books are really the foundation that the rest of Tortall was built upon. It's interesting to see how Pierce has fleshed out some of the concepts she touched on in the Alanna saga, and it's fun to see where some of the things from the Beka Cooper trilogy originated. It also pays to keep in mind that though the Alanna books were written first, the Beka Cooper trilogy is based two hundred years earlier. We learn a lot more about the office of The Rogue in the Beka Cooper trilogy, something that isn't explained very well in the Alanna quartet, even though one of Alanna's main romantic interests is George Cooper (yes, a descendant of Beka!), the Rogue. Pierce also never explains the origins of Alanna's cat, Faithful, in the actual Alanna books. That explanation lies in the Beka Cooper books as well.
The Song of the Lioness quartet is the story of a girl who decides to rebel against tradition and follow her heart to become a knight. In her time, ladies simply do NOT become knights. They learn to organize households and marry well. Alanna, however, is lucky enough to have a twin brother who does not want to become a knight; instead Thom wants to be a mage. So when they're sent off to face their futures, they switch places, with Alanna becoming "Alan", the younger twin. (Thom stays Thom; the school that ladies are sent to is the same school mages start at.)
Alan/Alanna begins as a page, then moves to squire, and eventually a knight. Her secret is discovered, but due to her influential friends, most of whom knew she was a girl by then, she is able to keep her status. Her adventures take her from uncovering a plot against the royal family, to being adopted by a desert tribe, to recovering a magic jewel of prosperity, with many small adventures in between.
I love reading Pierce's heroines; both Alanna and Beka have problems reconciling their feminine natures with the work they've chosen. The scenes where Alanna's love interests see her in a dress for the first time, instead of her normal boy-garb and armor, is heart-warming in one case, and sad in another. In both womens' lives it's the man who can accept all of their aspects who ultimately wins their heart, which is a wonderful message.
Ultimately, the technical flaws in the writing of the Alanna saga faded as I became absorbed in the story. I'll be requesting more Tortall books from the library in the near future!
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Scene Speak
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Scene Speak is versatile customizable app that provides a framework on the iPad to create...
Charmed & Dangerous
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Magic takes many forms. From malignant hexes to love charms gone amok, you’ll find a vast array of...
Urban Fantasy Paranormal MM Romance
Soul Raiders
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Tomorrow is the day: you will pledge yourself to the ancestral order of the Soul Raiders, in the...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Dungeon Academy in Tabletop Games
Dec 8, 2020
Roll-and-write style games have come a really long way over the past couple years. In the olden days we had Yahtzee, and that satisfied us. But then designers began dusting off that olde mechanic and breathing new life into it. While roll-and-write may never become my favorite mechanic, I am starting to appreciate the good ones more and more each time I play them. Dungeon Academy is one of these good games.
In Dungeon Academy players are taking the roles of students attempting their finals to become graduated warriors and mages in the land. They must pass their tests though, and that entails surviving through the dreaded Dungeon four times and surpassing all opponents to receive their degree.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup a solo game of Dungeon Academy, assemble the Dungeon component per the instructions. The player is dealt a character card with a special ability and markers to track Health and Mana throughout the game. Pile the Health and Mana tokens on the table, shuffle the Loot cards into a deck, and place the Teacher pawn nearby. Grab the pad of paper and pen and you are ready to begin.
Each attempt in the Dungeon will require the 16 Base Dice to be rolled and set inside the Dungeon. It is then flipped upside down when the timer begins and the mad dash to the Exit commences. As the player marks a line through every “room” (each die is considered a “room” in the Dungeon) they create a path to be checked at the end of the round. Once the player has made it through the Dungeon satisfactorily the Teacher will check the path.
The Teacher pawn is now used to track movement in the Dungeon. As the player tracks the path they drew on the paper, the Teacher is moved through the rooms. In each room (each die face) will be one of these possible encounters: a Mana potion to refill an empty Mana space on the character card, a Health potion, a small red Blob, a small blue Ghost, a large red Colossus, or a large blue Reaper. Each small foe encountered will be overtaken by spending one Health or Mana token from the character card. Each potion will restore spent Health or Mana. Each large foe encountered will require two Health or Mana to be spent. As the Teacher follows the path set by the player, Health and Mana will be spent and replenished on the character card, and foes defeated tracked on the sheet.
Once complete, the player will add up all the points from defeated foes (1VP per foe) and any VP from special character abilities or Loot cards. Additionally, the player will choose one of the four Quests at the bottom of the sheet to score each round for extra VP. They write these numbers on the sheet and prepare for the next level. After four total levels the game ends and the total is compared to a scale in the rulebook.
Multiplayer Dungeon Academy works the exact same way except once a player exits the Dungeon, they must grab the lowest-numbered Exit card as representation of the place finished in the Dungeon (so the first one out grabs the 1 card, etc.). The other difference from solo play is that players all compare total VP at the game end to determine the winner.
Components. This game has a large scorepad of 150 double-sided sheets, a bunch of cards for Hero characters, Loot, and Exits, as well as 18 total dice, about a trillion double-sided Health/Mana tokens and an impressive cardboard Dungeon. Everything is of wonderful Matagot quality… except for the Duneon. In my copy the Dungeon does not stay together very well. I may attempt some glue to keep the parts down that need to stay down, but it is still functional and a great design. The art style across the game is cute and fun, and I like the muted bright color scheme. That feels so weird to say/type, but the colors are vibrant hues, but muted so they stay out of the way. It’s strange and I love it.
Speaking of I love it, I love this game! It is quickly becoming one of my favorite roll-and-write games, and I can play it solo. In about 15 minutes. These are all positives, and I haven’t even really touched on the gameplay. Being able to get through a light solo game in 15 minutes while having a great time throughout is an achievement, and one I would like to applaud here. I wasn’t really sure going into this if I was going to enjoy it, but it has blown me away. Trying to evaluate the best path through the Dungeon while keeping track of how the Health and Mana is always in flux gives my brain a welcomed workout that is just a breath of fresh air for me. I love the art style and the theme, and the simple but easy to understand iconography on the dice is much appreciated.
I think that if you are looking for or lacking a similar type game in your collection you should do yourself a favor and check out Dungeon Academy. It is super quick, easy to grasp and play, requires little table space, and is simply a great time alone or with your gamer friends and family. I know I am going to be tracking lots of plays with this one. I am going to have to find a place on my shelves at eye-level because I don’t want it to be overshadowed down at foot-level.
If you already enjoy roll-and-write games and want something a little different with a great theme, or you don’t have any roll-and-writes and want to check one out for the first time, or you simply cannot get enough games featuring great art about wizards in school check this one out. I recommend it.
In Dungeon Academy players are taking the roles of students attempting their finals to become graduated warriors and mages in the land. They must pass their tests though, and that entails surviving through the dreaded Dungeon four times and surpassing all opponents to receive their degree.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup a solo game of Dungeon Academy, assemble the Dungeon component per the instructions. The player is dealt a character card with a special ability and markers to track Health and Mana throughout the game. Pile the Health and Mana tokens on the table, shuffle the Loot cards into a deck, and place the Teacher pawn nearby. Grab the pad of paper and pen and you are ready to begin.
Each attempt in the Dungeon will require the 16 Base Dice to be rolled and set inside the Dungeon. It is then flipped upside down when the timer begins and the mad dash to the Exit commences. As the player marks a line through every “room” (each die is considered a “room” in the Dungeon) they create a path to be checked at the end of the round. Once the player has made it through the Dungeon satisfactorily the Teacher will check the path.
The Teacher pawn is now used to track movement in the Dungeon. As the player tracks the path they drew on the paper, the Teacher is moved through the rooms. In each room (each die face) will be one of these possible encounters: a Mana potion to refill an empty Mana space on the character card, a Health potion, a small red Blob, a small blue Ghost, a large red Colossus, or a large blue Reaper. Each small foe encountered will be overtaken by spending one Health or Mana token from the character card. Each potion will restore spent Health or Mana. Each large foe encountered will require two Health or Mana to be spent. As the Teacher follows the path set by the player, Health and Mana will be spent and replenished on the character card, and foes defeated tracked on the sheet.
Once complete, the player will add up all the points from defeated foes (1VP per foe) and any VP from special character abilities or Loot cards. Additionally, the player will choose one of the four Quests at the bottom of the sheet to score each round for extra VP. They write these numbers on the sheet and prepare for the next level. After four total levels the game ends and the total is compared to a scale in the rulebook.
Multiplayer Dungeon Academy works the exact same way except once a player exits the Dungeon, they must grab the lowest-numbered Exit card as representation of the place finished in the Dungeon (so the first one out grabs the 1 card, etc.). The other difference from solo play is that players all compare total VP at the game end to determine the winner.
Components. This game has a large scorepad of 150 double-sided sheets, a bunch of cards for Hero characters, Loot, and Exits, as well as 18 total dice, about a trillion double-sided Health/Mana tokens and an impressive cardboard Dungeon. Everything is of wonderful Matagot quality… except for the Duneon. In my copy the Dungeon does not stay together very well. I may attempt some glue to keep the parts down that need to stay down, but it is still functional and a great design. The art style across the game is cute and fun, and I like the muted bright color scheme. That feels so weird to say/type, but the colors are vibrant hues, but muted so they stay out of the way. It’s strange and I love it.
Speaking of I love it, I love this game! It is quickly becoming one of my favorite roll-and-write games, and I can play it solo. In about 15 minutes. These are all positives, and I haven’t even really touched on the gameplay. Being able to get through a light solo game in 15 minutes while having a great time throughout is an achievement, and one I would like to applaud here. I wasn’t really sure going into this if I was going to enjoy it, but it has blown me away. Trying to evaluate the best path through the Dungeon while keeping track of how the Health and Mana is always in flux gives my brain a welcomed workout that is just a breath of fresh air for me. I love the art style and the theme, and the simple but easy to understand iconography on the dice is much appreciated.
I think that if you are looking for or lacking a similar type game in your collection you should do yourself a favor and check out Dungeon Academy. It is super quick, easy to grasp and play, requires little table space, and is simply a great time alone or with your gamer friends and family. I know I am going to be tracking lots of plays with this one. I am going to have to find a place on my shelves at eye-level because I don’t want it to be overshadowed down at foot-level.
If you already enjoy roll-and-write games and want something a little different with a great theme, or you don’t have any roll-and-writes and want to check one out for the first time, or you simply cannot get enough games featuring great art about wizards in school check this one out. I recommend it.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Genshin Impact in Video Games
Apr 6, 2021
Free to play (2 more)
Gorgeous world full of beauty
Good story and fun to play
"Gacha" game, to unlock new characters and weapons the game utilizes in game currency that you can buy with real world money (1 more)
Multi-player/Co-op mode needs work
Another Example of Free to Play Done Right, Loads of Fun!
https://youtu.be/BFdBTc-vscg
Genshin Impact is a 2020 action RPG game developed and published by miHoYo and produced by Hugh Tsai. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Android and IOS on September 4th 2020 and backwards compatible for Playstation 5 in November 2020. Genshin Impact is a "gacha game" featuring an open-world environment, action based battle system utilizing elemental magic and character switching. There have been no updates as of late as to when or if the game might release for Nintendo Switch or Xbox. The game has been considered a commercial success due to it's large fan base and grossing over $1 billion dollars within 6 month of it's release.
Taking place in the fantasy world of Teyvat, Genshin Impact, is home to seven different nations, each of which is tied to an element and ruled by a god associated with it. Such as the city-state nation of Mondstadt, whose element is Anemo, the air element and worships Barbatos, the Anemo Archon and the nation of Liyue whose element is Geo, the rock/earth element and worships Rex Lapis (Morax), the Geo Archon. The main story follows a set of twins not from this world, which you can choose to be either the male or female version of. They become the one referred to as the Traveler, which is the main character of the game. They have traveled across many worlds with their twin but have become separated from them by an unknown god in Teyvat. The Traveler travels across Teyvat in search of their lost sibling with their companion, a child-like "fairy" named Paimon and becomes involved in the affairs of the other nations, gods, and the world.
This is a really great game with it's beautiful anime inspired graphics and a bunch of fun. I've been playing since around December and have probably logged in over 80 hours and I still find this game a lot of fun. . It's an open world RPG so you can pretty much go wherever you want although certain locations are going to have enemies you encounter that might be too difficult for you to fight depending on the level of your characters. Notice how I said characters, not character. You're able to have a party of four characters at one time and be able to actively switch between characters in the middle of battle to be able to utilize different attacks and combinations of skills and elements. There are 7 different elements such as Anemo (air), Geo (earth, Pyro (fire), Cryo (ice), Hydro (water), Electro (lightning/electricity), and Dendro which hasn't been revealed yet but is speculated to be nature related since the name has Greek origins and a loose meaning of "tree". The characters all use weapons in fighting and have a couple of different types like archers who use bows, mages or magic users who don't use weapons but only use magical/elemental attacks, spear users, and two different kinds of sword users, a regular size ones and a claymore or bigger sword users. You can press the attack button a couple of times for your character to do their attack action or combo or hold down the button to do a charge attack. Each character also has two unique combat skills based on their element, an elemental skill and a elemental burst. One of them, the elemental skill has a cool down period but can be used again right after and the other, the elemental burst needs to gather energy you get from defeating enemies to charge up before you can use it. Your character has a lot of freedom and can perform a lot of different actions such as running, jumping, climbing, swimming and gliding and these actions are all limited by your stamina. You can even use your elemental abilities to do things like freeze water and walk on top of it and other environment altering actions. The game is really easy to learn but has a lot of different aspects to it that can be a little complicated. For one, characters can have their strength increased with items such as artifacts that have different perks and additional ones for combining similar ones together, they can also get different weapons that also have different perks which can increase in effect by being "refined". You are able to level up your character by using items you get from completing missions and challenges as well as defeating enemies and bosses. Bosses and challenges that reward highly valuable resources are scattered throughout the world and while some bosses can be challenged weekly some challenges can only be completed once. There are also different types of dungeons that can be challenged but the bosses and dungeons take a currency called "Resin" to attempt and you only have so much of it a day until it regenerates. As your characters progress and you complete more of the story and game your Adventure Rank increases unlocking new quests, challenges, and raises the World Level, which is a measure of how strong the enemies in the world are and the rarity of rewards you get from defeating them. There are some good things that make the game a little easier or help you along the way alot too. Like the many teleportation nodes scattered throughout Teyvat that once you find and unlock you can use whenever you want to fast travel to places you have already been and also the Statues of the Seven where you can heal and revive characters. Your characters can die if their health becomes too low and they will still be in your party/group but you won't be able to use them until you revive them and you can also revive and heal your characters by giving them different food items. You can find food all over the place from hunting animals, gathering fruit and vegetables or purchasing them from a store and there is even a little mini-game type thing where you can make dishes yourself around campfires. Ingredients can even be cooked into meals that regenerate health or boost statistics like attack or defense. Items are also dropped from defeated enemies and found in treasure chests that can be used in increasing a character's strength and ore that can be used to refine and enhance weapon strength or create weapons is usually found scattered around too. There's a multiplayer mode that's pretty much a co-op mode and is useful in teaming up to defeat certain bosses and helping out your friends or maybe showing them the ropes but it's definitely lacking and needs some polish. By completing quests you can unlock five additional characters by completing the story but more characters can only be unlocked by the game's "gacha" mechanic and in-game events. This is another part that gets very complicated in my opinion. There are several premium in-game currencies obtainable by playing the game and also by in-app purchases (real money) that can be used to obtain characters and weapons through the "gacha" system. Something most people would say is very similar to the concept of loot boxes or others would say closer to gambling. There is a pity system that guarantees the player will receive rare items after a set number of draws but I hear it can be pretty ridiculous and there are plenty of people who have spent hundreds of dollars or more to get characters or weapons that they really wanted. I just stick with whatever is free and I've had no complaints but they know what they are doing because as I mentioned above this free to play game has made over $1 billion dollars in 6 months since it was released. There are characters and weapons that are only available for a limited time and if you miss out on getting them while they're available you might not get another chance to ever get them again. So like I said this game is super fun and a really great game, I definitely give it an 8/10 and it gets my "Must Play Seal of Approval especially if your a fan of Zelda Breath of the Wild or anime or "gacha" games in general.
Genshin Impact is a 2020 action RPG game developed and published by miHoYo and produced by Hugh Tsai. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Android and IOS on September 4th 2020 and backwards compatible for Playstation 5 in November 2020. Genshin Impact is a "gacha game" featuring an open-world environment, action based battle system utilizing elemental magic and character switching. There have been no updates as of late as to when or if the game might release for Nintendo Switch or Xbox. The game has been considered a commercial success due to it's large fan base and grossing over $1 billion dollars within 6 month of it's release.
Taking place in the fantasy world of Teyvat, Genshin Impact, is home to seven different nations, each of which is tied to an element and ruled by a god associated with it. Such as the city-state nation of Mondstadt, whose element is Anemo, the air element and worships Barbatos, the Anemo Archon and the nation of Liyue whose element is Geo, the rock/earth element and worships Rex Lapis (Morax), the Geo Archon. The main story follows a set of twins not from this world, which you can choose to be either the male or female version of. They become the one referred to as the Traveler, which is the main character of the game. They have traveled across many worlds with their twin but have become separated from them by an unknown god in Teyvat. The Traveler travels across Teyvat in search of their lost sibling with their companion, a child-like "fairy" named Paimon and becomes involved in the affairs of the other nations, gods, and the world.
This is a really great game with it's beautiful anime inspired graphics and a bunch of fun. I've been playing since around December and have probably logged in over 80 hours and I still find this game a lot of fun. . It's an open world RPG so you can pretty much go wherever you want although certain locations are going to have enemies you encounter that might be too difficult for you to fight depending on the level of your characters. Notice how I said characters, not character. You're able to have a party of four characters at one time and be able to actively switch between characters in the middle of battle to be able to utilize different attacks and combinations of skills and elements. There are 7 different elements such as Anemo (air), Geo (earth, Pyro (fire), Cryo (ice), Hydro (water), Electro (lightning/electricity), and Dendro which hasn't been revealed yet but is speculated to be nature related since the name has Greek origins and a loose meaning of "tree". The characters all use weapons in fighting and have a couple of different types like archers who use bows, mages or magic users who don't use weapons but only use magical/elemental attacks, spear users, and two different kinds of sword users, a regular size ones and a claymore or bigger sword users. You can press the attack button a couple of times for your character to do their attack action or combo or hold down the button to do a charge attack. Each character also has two unique combat skills based on their element, an elemental skill and a elemental burst. One of them, the elemental skill has a cool down period but can be used again right after and the other, the elemental burst needs to gather energy you get from defeating enemies to charge up before you can use it. Your character has a lot of freedom and can perform a lot of different actions such as running, jumping, climbing, swimming and gliding and these actions are all limited by your stamina. You can even use your elemental abilities to do things like freeze water and walk on top of it and other environment altering actions. The game is really easy to learn but has a lot of different aspects to it that can be a little complicated. For one, characters can have their strength increased with items such as artifacts that have different perks and additional ones for combining similar ones together, they can also get different weapons that also have different perks which can increase in effect by being "refined". You are able to level up your character by using items you get from completing missions and challenges as well as defeating enemies and bosses. Bosses and challenges that reward highly valuable resources are scattered throughout the world and while some bosses can be challenged weekly some challenges can only be completed once. There are also different types of dungeons that can be challenged but the bosses and dungeons take a currency called "Resin" to attempt and you only have so much of it a day until it regenerates. As your characters progress and you complete more of the story and game your Adventure Rank increases unlocking new quests, challenges, and raises the World Level, which is a measure of how strong the enemies in the world are and the rarity of rewards you get from defeating them. There are some good things that make the game a little easier or help you along the way alot too. Like the many teleportation nodes scattered throughout Teyvat that once you find and unlock you can use whenever you want to fast travel to places you have already been and also the Statues of the Seven where you can heal and revive characters. Your characters can die if their health becomes too low and they will still be in your party/group but you won't be able to use them until you revive them and you can also revive and heal your characters by giving them different food items. You can find food all over the place from hunting animals, gathering fruit and vegetables or purchasing them from a store and there is even a little mini-game type thing where you can make dishes yourself around campfires. Ingredients can even be cooked into meals that regenerate health or boost statistics like attack or defense. Items are also dropped from defeated enemies and found in treasure chests that can be used in increasing a character's strength and ore that can be used to refine and enhance weapon strength or create weapons is usually found scattered around too. There's a multiplayer mode that's pretty much a co-op mode and is useful in teaming up to defeat certain bosses and helping out your friends or maybe showing them the ropes but it's definitely lacking and needs some polish. By completing quests you can unlock five additional characters by completing the story but more characters can only be unlocked by the game's "gacha" mechanic and in-game events. This is another part that gets very complicated in my opinion. There are several premium in-game currencies obtainable by playing the game and also by in-app purchases (real money) that can be used to obtain characters and weapons through the "gacha" system. Something most people would say is very similar to the concept of loot boxes or others would say closer to gambling. There is a pity system that guarantees the player will receive rare items after a set number of draws but I hear it can be pretty ridiculous and there are plenty of people who have spent hundreds of dollars or more to get characters or weapons that they really wanted. I just stick with whatever is free and I've had no complaints but they know what they are doing because as I mentioned above this free to play game has made over $1 billion dollars in 6 months since it was released. There are characters and weapons that are only available for a limited time and if you miss out on getting them while they're available you might not get another chance to ever get them again. So like I said this game is super fun and a really great game, I definitely give it an 8/10 and it gets my "Must Play Seal of Approval especially if your a fan of Zelda Breath of the Wild or anime or "gacha" games in general.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Magical Friends and How to Summon Them in Tabletop Games
Sep 29, 2021
If there is one game theme that will never get old for me, it’s fantasy. Something about a world of magic and magical creatures is fascinating to me, and I will never turn down the chance to play any sort of fantasy-themed game. So when I came across Magical Friends and How to Summon Them, I was immediately hooked. Does the gameplay live up to my expectations of what a great fantasy game should be, or does it miss the magical mark?
Disclaimer: We were provided with a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this preview. The components pictured are not finalized, and could change after a successful Kickstarter campaign. I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. For more information, head to the Magical Friends website. -L
Magical Friends and How to Summon Them (referred to as just Magical Friends from hereon out) is a strategic game of card drafting and variable turn order in which players take on the roles of mages attempting to summon the most magical creatures to the local tavern in order to win the Midsummer festival competition. Played over 8 rounds, players will take turns summoning creatures, moving them towards the tavern, using special creature abilities, and occasionally fighting off your opponents’ creatures. The player who gets the most creatures to the tavern by the end of the 8th round is the winner! To setup for the game, lay out the main board and summoning board in the center of the table. Take the 4 double-sided map tiles, randomly choose a side, and place them in their corresponding places on the main board. Shuffle the Summoning cards and reveal a number of cards, determined by player count, to create a market row and preview row. Each player receives a player mat, heart tokens, and Artifact Cards in their chosen color. Place the round marker on Round 1 of the main board, select a player to get the starting player token, and the game is ready to begin!
To start a round, first you will need to determine turn order. Each player has an identical deck of 11 Artifact Cards, numbered 1-11. The player who offers the most powerful (highest number) Artifact gets to act first in the round. The player with the starting player token chooses their card first, and places it face-up on their player mat. The next player, in clockwise order, will do the same. Here’s the catch though – once a number has been played, it cannot be played by anyone else for this round! So say I put choose my value 8 card – no other player may choose that card for this round. Once all players have chosen their Artifacts, determine the turn order for the round. The player with the highest valued Artifact goes first, then the next highest, and so on.
Once the turn order has been determined, it is time for players to take their turns! On your turn, the first thing you will do is to select a Summoning card from the Summoning board and take it into their tableau. The selected card tells you which friend (creature) you have summoned, and tells you how many moves/what types of movement you may take this round. After choosing your Summoning card, you will take any/all of the following actions: Summon a friend (bring its standee into play), use basic movement (as determined by your new friend), use bonus movement (from other cards), or use the abilities of any friends in your tableau. You may perform as many of these actions as you want and are able to perform. It is important to note that each friend may only use one basic movement and one bonus movement per round. So you can’t just move a single friend with every movement available in one turn.
Once you are finished performing actions, you will end your turn. Refresh the Summoning board by shifting cards down and refilling any empty creature slots. Play then moves to the player with the next highest valued Artifact card. When all players have taken their turn, the round ends. Move the Round marker up one spot, and pass the starting player token to the next clockwise player. A new round will then start with the turn order determination, beginning with the new starting player. After 8 rounds of play, the winner is crowned. Players score points for the number of their friends who reached the tavern, and the player with the highest score wins!
I’ll come right out and say that I really have enjoyed Magical Friends. There are lots of elements that I like and that work well together to create a fun, strategic, and engaging game. First, turn order determination. I love that the turn order isn’t set for the entire game, because that could really be a detriment to whomever would be last every round. Being able to ‘bid’ for turn order, in a sense, allows players to be proactive (or conversely, reactive) with their strategy. And after you’ve used an Artifact card in a round, it is discarded and cannot be used for the rest of the game. So you need to decide when it’s worth it to play your high value cards to hopefully act first, or if you’re willing to risk playing a mid-value card that might be out-bid by an opponent.
The other awesome strategic element are the friends in the game. Each friend is a different creature with different movement options and special abilities during gameplay. An important thing to note is that although every friend has a printed movement value on its card, you may only ever use that value on the round in which you summon that friend. So a Griffin, for example, lets you move 3 friends 2 spaces, which you may do when you first summon the Griffin. But in future rounds, the Griffin will only move based on the movements provided by the most newly acquired friend. Maybe you don’t necessarily want to summon a Mermaid, but the movement she offers is exactly what you need to get some friends to the tavern for scoring. It’s all a neat mix of strategy that you are changing with every turn. Along with the movements, each friend has a special ability that can be used on your turns. Some abilities allow you to move extra spaces, move opponents, or even slay creatures. When you slay a creature, you collect its heart token for endgame scoring, and the player who controlled that creature gets a Pity Power card (which provide bonus movement). You need to decide when to move which friends, and in what order to trigger your abilities. You must always be paying attention to the board layout and your opponents’ turns as they will help you determine your strategy for future turns.
Components. As I mentioned earlier, this is a prototype version of the game, but with that said, the components are pretty nice! The cards are sturdy, the text is clear, and the artwork is fun to look at. The main game board and summoning boards are colorful, and the creature standees are nicely sized for the board. I do have to say that I really like the heart tokens used to identify to whom each creature belongs on the board. The hearts slide over top of the standee and create a base of sorts to color-code every creature on the board. Just a neat little use of components that make the gameplay smooth. And how about the insert? It’s awesome! The standees are all stored, assembled, in a slotted inlay that allows for quick selection of creatures. I hope that’s something that makes it to final production because it really helps streamline the gameplay. Some of the wording in the rulebook could use some clarification, but I know that it is still a work in progress and continues to undergo edits. The only negative I would have to say is that 2 of the player colors are black and gray – and they are sometimes difficult to differentiate between. But changing one color should be an easy fix!
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by Magical Friends. At first glance, I thought it would be a pretty simple ‘roll-and-move’ type game, but it proved to be much more strategic and engaging than I initially thought. The variable turn order, the movement rules/restrictions, and the unique friend abilities all work together to create a cohesive, thematic, and strategic game. I very much am looking forward to following the progress of Magical Friends and How to Summon Them on Kickstarter, and I encourage you to check it out as well!
Disclaimer: We were provided with a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this preview. The components pictured are not finalized, and could change after a successful Kickstarter campaign. I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. For more information, head to the Magical Friends website. -L
Magical Friends and How to Summon Them (referred to as just Magical Friends from hereon out) is a strategic game of card drafting and variable turn order in which players take on the roles of mages attempting to summon the most magical creatures to the local tavern in order to win the Midsummer festival competition. Played over 8 rounds, players will take turns summoning creatures, moving them towards the tavern, using special creature abilities, and occasionally fighting off your opponents’ creatures. The player who gets the most creatures to the tavern by the end of the 8th round is the winner! To setup for the game, lay out the main board and summoning board in the center of the table. Take the 4 double-sided map tiles, randomly choose a side, and place them in their corresponding places on the main board. Shuffle the Summoning cards and reveal a number of cards, determined by player count, to create a market row and preview row. Each player receives a player mat, heart tokens, and Artifact Cards in their chosen color. Place the round marker on Round 1 of the main board, select a player to get the starting player token, and the game is ready to begin!
To start a round, first you will need to determine turn order. Each player has an identical deck of 11 Artifact Cards, numbered 1-11. The player who offers the most powerful (highest number) Artifact gets to act first in the round. The player with the starting player token chooses their card first, and places it face-up on their player mat. The next player, in clockwise order, will do the same. Here’s the catch though – once a number has been played, it cannot be played by anyone else for this round! So say I put choose my value 8 card – no other player may choose that card for this round. Once all players have chosen their Artifacts, determine the turn order for the round. The player with the highest valued Artifact goes first, then the next highest, and so on.
Once the turn order has been determined, it is time for players to take their turns! On your turn, the first thing you will do is to select a Summoning card from the Summoning board and take it into their tableau. The selected card tells you which friend (creature) you have summoned, and tells you how many moves/what types of movement you may take this round. After choosing your Summoning card, you will take any/all of the following actions: Summon a friend (bring its standee into play), use basic movement (as determined by your new friend), use bonus movement (from other cards), or use the abilities of any friends in your tableau. You may perform as many of these actions as you want and are able to perform. It is important to note that each friend may only use one basic movement and one bonus movement per round. So you can’t just move a single friend with every movement available in one turn.
Once you are finished performing actions, you will end your turn. Refresh the Summoning board by shifting cards down and refilling any empty creature slots. Play then moves to the player with the next highest valued Artifact card. When all players have taken their turn, the round ends. Move the Round marker up one spot, and pass the starting player token to the next clockwise player. A new round will then start with the turn order determination, beginning with the new starting player. After 8 rounds of play, the winner is crowned. Players score points for the number of their friends who reached the tavern, and the player with the highest score wins!
I’ll come right out and say that I really have enjoyed Magical Friends. There are lots of elements that I like and that work well together to create a fun, strategic, and engaging game. First, turn order determination. I love that the turn order isn’t set for the entire game, because that could really be a detriment to whomever would be last every round. Being able to ‘bid’ for turn order, in a sense, allows players to be proactive (or conversely, reactive) with their strategy. And after you’ve used an Artifact card in a round, it is discarded and cannot be used for the rest of the game. So you need to decide when it’s worth it to play your high value cards to hopefully act first, or if you’re willing to risk playing a mid-value card that might be out-bid by an opponent.
The other awesome strategic element are the friends in the game. Each friend is a different creature with different movement options and special abilities during gameplay. An important thing to note is that although every friend has a printed movement value on its card, you may only ever use that value on the round in which you summon that friend. So a Griffin, for example, lets you move 3 friends 2 spaces, which you may do when you first summon the Griffin. But in future rounds, the Griffin will only move based on the movements provided by the most newly acquired friend. Maybe you don’t necessarily want to summon a Mermaid, but the movement she offers is exactly what you need to get some friends to the tavern for scoring. It’s all a neat mix of strategy that you are changing with every turn. Along with the movements, each friend has a special ability that can be used on your turns. Some abilities allow you to move extra spaces, move opponents, or even slay creatures. When you slay a creature, you collect its heart token for endgame scoring, and the player who controlled that creature gets a Pity Power card (which provide bonus movement). You need to decide when to move which friends, and in what order to trigger your abilities. You must always be paying attention to the board layout and your opponents’ turns as they will help you determine your strategy for future turns.
Components. As I mentioned earlier, this is a prototype version of the game, but with that said, the components are pretty nice! The cards are sturdy, the text is clear, and the artwork is fun to look at. The main game board and summoning boards are colorful, and the creature standees are nicely sized for the board. I do have to say that I really like the heart tokens used to identify to whom each creature belongs on the board. The hearts slide over top of the standee and create a base of sorts to color-code every creature on the board. Just a neat little use of components that make the gameplay smooth. And how about the insert? It’s awesome! The standees are all stored, assembled, in a slotted inlay that allows for quick selection of creatures. I hope that’s something that makes it to final production because it really helps streamline the gameplay. Some of the wording in the rulebook could use some clarification, but I know that it is still a work in progress and continues to undergo edits. The only negative I would have to say is that 2 of the player colors are black and gray – and they are sometimes difficult to differentiate between. But changing one color should be an easy fix!
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by Magical Friends. At first glance, I thought it would be a pretty simple ‘roll-and-move’ type game, but it proved to be much more strategic and engaging than I initially thought. The variable turn order, the movement rules/restrictions, and the unique friend abilities all work together to create a cohesive, thematic, and strategic game. I very much am looking forward to following the progress of Magical Friends and How to Summon Them on Kickstarter, and I encourage you to check it out as well!
