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Kibakichi (2004)
7.0
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Movie
A werewolf samurai walks the countryside, finding himself in the middle of a village of monsters who...
The Hidden Blade (2004)
7.5
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Movie Watch
Japanese period samurai drama. Munezo Katagiri (Masatoshi Nagase) is a samurai in 19th-century Japan...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Samurai Spirit in Tabletop Games
Jun 12, 2019
One of the best parts of the board gaming experience is finding a fun group of people with whom to play! Sometimes, though, coordinating a game night is easier said than done. We all must occasionally forego the group experience and face the world as the Lonely Only. But fear not! The world of solo-play is a vast and exciting realm! What follows is a chronicle of my journey into the solo-playing world – notes on gameplay, mechanics, rules, difficulty, and overall experience with solo variations of commonly multiplayer games! I hope this will provide some insight as you continue to grow your collection, or explore your already owned games!
As a Samurai, you spend your life traveling across the land to help those in need. Most recently, you and a handful of other Samurai have been contracted by a small village to defend them against a clan of invading raiders. Only by working together, and by using your extensive training, will you succeed in keeping this village safe!
Samurai Spirit is a cooperative game of press-your-luck. Players take on the role of a Samurai, each with a unique power, and take turns drawing cards and fighting off the invaders or offering support to your fellow Samurai. Invaders can have recurring negative effects, so strategize wisely on how best to combat them and see how far you can push your luck each round. If you are able to survive through 3 rounds (waves) of invaders with at least one surviving farmstead and family, the Samurai are victorious and the village is saved! If any of the Samurai are killed, or the village has been completely destroyed by invaders, then the game is lost. As a solo game, Samurai Spirit plays essentially the same as in group play, with only 2 main differences – the solo player controls 2 Samurai instead of 1, and the support tokens from the unused Samurai are each available for use once during the game.
For such a neat theme, this game falls short for me. It seems simple enough, but there are areas of ambiguity in the rules that lead to some confusion. For starters, the text size is so small that I am not able to find any information at a quick glance! The text itself is not always clear either – like when, at the end of a round, the rules say to collect all cards used this round, does that include cards that have been discarded due to Samurai abilities? How about the cards of the Intruder stack that are presumably discarded after being revealed? The rulebook offers no clarification, and I honestly still don’t know the right answer.
The order/layout of the rules feels mismatched too – relevant information is not always grouped together, and I find myself flipping between several pages at a time trying to figure out one single thing. For example, in the ‘Fight’ action description, it says that if you reach your Kiai value exactly, you can activate your Kiai ability. You have to turn the page to a different section to see exactly what activating that ability means, and then you have to flip an additional 2 more pages to see what each individual Kiai ability is! Why not just put them all in one place? It would certainly be easier to understand if all relevant information was grouped together.
The prominent mechanic of Samurai Spirit is press-your-luck, and I would definitely say that this game is very luck-based. When setting up the game, the initial deck of cards is randomly selected and that can impact whether or not you are able to complete certain requirements each round – if there aren’t enough hat/farm/doll cards for each Samurai, you are guaranteed to incur a penalty at the end of every round. Actual gameplay is very luck-based too, and for me it feels like there are no good ways to strategize – your choices are all dependent on the luck of the draw. You can push your luck to draw more cards and use special abilities, but since you are suffering from recurring penalties each turn, it feels futile to keep going at a certain point.
For me, Samurai Spirit is repetitive and kind of boring – suffer penalty, draw card, and repeat until you eventually pass or the deck runs out. It’s like a too-complicated version of blackjack in which the deck is stacked against you. It’s such a bummer because the theme and artwork are neat, and the gameplay (in theory, at least) should be effective. But the actual execution is too reliant on luck to be successful.
I do quite a bit of solo gaming, but this game is never one that I willingly decide to play. I honestly only broke it out recently as a refresher for this review. Perhaps it is better at higher player counts, but since that is not where most of my gaming occurs, Samurai Spirit is a dud for me.
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/solo-chronicles-samurai-spirit/
As a Samurai, you spend your life traveling across the land to help those in need. Most recently, you and a handful of other Samurai have been contracted by a small village to defend them against a clan of invading raiders. Only by working together, and by using your extensive training, will you succeed in keeping this village safe!
Samurai Spirit is a cooperative game of press-your-luck. Players take on the role of a Samurai, each with a unique power, and take turns drawing cards and fighting off the invaders or offering support to your fellow Samurai. Invaders can have recurring negative effects, so strategize wisely on how best to combat them and see how far you can push your luck each round. If you are able to survive through 3 rounds (waves) of invaders with at least one surviving farmstead and family, the Samurai are victorious and the village is saved! If any of the Samurai are killed, or the village has been completely destroyed by invaders, then the game is lost. As a solo game, Samurai Spirit plays essentially the same as in group play, with only 2 main differences – the solo player controls 2 Samurai instead of 1, and the support tokens from the unused Samurai are each available for use once during the game.
For such a neat theme, this game falls short for me. It seems simple enough, but there are areas of ambiguity in the rules that lead to some confusion. For starters, the text size is so small that I am not able to find any information at a quick glance! The text itself is not always clear either – like when, at the end of a round, the rules say to collect all cards used this round, does that include cards that have been discarded due to Samurai abilities? How about the cards of the Intruder stack that are presumably discarded after being revealed? The rulebook offers no clarification, and I honestly still don’t know the right answer.
The order/layout of the rules feels mismatched too – relevant information is not always grouped together, and I find myself flipping between several pages at a time trying to figure out one single thing. For example, in the ‘Fight’ action description, it says that if you reach your Kiai value exactly, you can activate your Kiai ability. You have to turn the page to a different section to see exactly what activating that ability means, and then you have to flip an additional 2 more pages to see what each individual Kiai ability is! Why not just put them all in one place? It would certainly be easier to understand if all relevant information was grouped together.
The prominent mechanic of Samurai Spirit is press-your-luck, and I would definitely say that this game is very luck-based. When setting up the game, the initial deck of cards is randomly selected and that can impact whether or not you are able to complete certain requirements each round – if there aren’t enough hat/farm/doll cards for each Samurai, you are guaranteed to incur a penalty at the end of every round. Actual gameplay is very luck-based too, and for me it feels like there are no good ways to strategize – your choices are all dependent on the luck of the draw. You can push your luck to draw more cards and use special abilities, but since you are suffering from recurring penalties each turn, it feels futile to keep going at a certain point.
For me, Samurai Spirit is repetitive and kind of boring – suffer penalty, draw card, and repeat until you eventually pass or the deck runs out. It’s like a too-complicated version of blackjack in which the deck is stacked against you. It’s such a bummer because the theme and artwork are neat, and the gameplay (in theory, at least) should be effective. But the actual execution is too reliant on luck to be successful.
I do quite a bit of solo gaming, but this game is never one that I willingly decide to play. I honestly only broke it out recently as a refresher for this review. Perhaps it is better at higher player counts, but since that is not where most of my gaming occurs, Samurai Spirit is a dud for me.
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/solo-chronicles-samurai-spirit/
Blood Beat (1983)
5.5
Rate It
Movie
A woman who lives in deer-hunting country in rural Wisconsin is possessed by the spirit of a...
Niten. NR (75 KP) rated The Hidden Blade (2004) in Movies
Jul 27, 2017
Masatoshi Nagase (3 more)
Takako Matsu
Cinematography
The Hidden blade/Demons Claw technique.
Subtle but brilliant
A brilliant samurai drama/romance that has some quality katana (sword) action.
We follow the path of Munezo, a samurai of a rural clan set in the early 1860's. Whilst Japan is changing with the times, Munezo show us how crucial his qualities of loyalty, respect, courage and self control and really are. Although not all of the Samurai are as moral as himself, Munezo has the fortitude to carry out his duties by his own standards. The relationship between Munezo and his once house keeper Kei is a beautiful and subtle thing, showing the world of film that kissing and sex scenes are unnecessary. The action scenes are intense and emotionally complex. And then there's the Demons Claw but, I'll let you find out about that yourself..... Enjoy.
We follow the path of Munezo, a samurai of a rural clan set in the early 1860's. Whilst Japan is changing with the times, Munezo show us how crucial his qualities of loyalty, respect, courage and self control and really are. Although not all of the Samurai are as moral as himself, Munezo has the fortitude to carry out his duties by his own standards. The relationship between Munezo and his once house keeper Kei is a beautiful and subtle thing, showing the world of film that kissing and sex scenes are unnecessary. The action scenes are intense and emotionally complex. And then there's the Demons Claw but, I'll let you find out about that yourself..... Enjoy.
Olympia Dukakis recommended Seven Samurai (1954) in Movies (curated)
Rashad Ernesto recommended Seven Samurai (1954) in Movies (curated)
Andrew Koltuniuk (753 KP) rated The Last Samurai (2003) in Movies
Jan 17, 2021
Alan Arkin recommended Seven Samurai (1954) in Movies (curated)
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021) in Movies
Sep 21, 2021
Nicolas Cage (2 more)
Its violent and colorful imagery
Beautiful cinematography
The film mostly makes no sense. (2 more)
It's bizarre without any other defining qualities
Tons of cool concepts that lead to nothing
An Oddball Samurai Infused Jambalaya
The problem with Prisoners of the Ghostland is that Nicolas Cage himself tried to promote it as the craziest film he’s ever made, but the film never lives up to the insane concept of having a bomb strapped to your nutsack. The film forcefully shoves Mad Max influences into a Japanese theme with nuclear deformed samurai ghosts, bouncing gumballs, animal masks, pinwheels, and bubbles, and Nicolas Cage threatening to karate chop everyone into oblivion. All of this absurdity sounds like it should be way more memorable than it actually ends up being. Prisoners of the Ghostland is a massive letdown that implodes under its own lackluster outrageousness.
Full review: https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Prisoners-of-the-Ghostland-2021-Review-An-Oddball-Samurai-Infused-Jambalaya
Full review: https://hubpages.com/entertainment/Prisoners-of-the-Ghostland-2021-Review-An-Oddball-Samurai-Infused-Jambalaya