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IT… didn’t really float my boat.
IT is based on the Stephen King novel, and tells the disturbing recurring events that happen within the town of Derry in Maine. Kids keep disappearing and sightings of a spooky clown, other visitations and red balloons occur. A group of bullied high school kids – one directly impacted by the disappearances – work to get to the bottom of the supernatural goings on. (Fortunately they don’t have a dog called Scooby).
I had in mind that with the disturbing and dangerous “clowning around” that happened in the summer of 2016 that this film had been shot a while ago and the release delayed until now for fear of adding ‘clown-flavoured fuel’ to the fire. But it appears that filming only completed in September of last year, so that appears not to be the case.
The film starts memorably and brutally with the “drain scene” from the trailer. And very effective it is too. “Great!” you think… this is a spookfest that has legs! Unfortunately, for me at least, it all went downhill from there. The film really doesn’t seem to know WHAT it’s trying to be. There are elements of “Stand By Me”; elements of “Alien”; elements of “The Conjuring”, all thrown into a cinematic blender and pulsed well.
The most endearing aspects of the movie are the interactions of the small-town kids, with this aspect of the film bearing the closest comparison with J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8”. This is carried by the great performances of the young actors involved, with Jaeden Lieberher (so memorable in “Midnight Special”) as Bill; Jeremy Ray Taylor (“Ant Man”) as Ben (‘the chubby one’); and Finn Wolfhard, in his big-screen premiere and sporting an absurd set of glasses, as the wise-cracking Ritchie.
Standout for my though was the then 14-year old Sophia Lillis as Beverly (the nearest equivalent to the Elle Fanning role in “Super 8”). This young lady has SUCH screen presence, reminiscent of Emma Watson in the Harry Potter films. I think she is a name to watch!
While commenting on the acting I do need to acknowledge Bill Skarsgård (“Atomic Blonde” and son of Stellan Skarsgård) who is creepily effective as Pennywise the clown.
Having a film that just centred on the pubescent interplay between the youngsters and their battles against the near-psychopathic school bully Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton, “Captain Fantastic”) would have kept me well-entertained for two hours. However, in the same way that the hugely over-inflated Sci-Fi ending of “Super 8” rather detracted from that film, so the clown-related story popping up all the time just irritated me to distraction. (“WILL YOU JUST FECK OFF AND LEAVE US TO FIND OUT WHO BEVERLY GETS OFF WITH???!!”)
While the film has a number of good jump-scares, a lot of them – especially those with excessive use of CGI – just don’t really work. There are normally no “outcomes” from the scares. It’s all a bit like a ghost train where the carriage rounds a corner, something jumps out, and then the carriage moves on round the corner again! What makes a great horror film is where the “science” of the horror is well thought through. “Alien” was an exceptional example of that, where the science wasn’t just “physics” but also “biology”. Here (and I’m not sure whether this is true to the book… this is one of Stephen King’s I haven’t read) there seems to be no rules involved at all. Things happen fairly randomly: shape-shifting and effects on physical objects happen with no rational explanation; the kids can see things adults can’t see. (Why?). In fact the “adults” – the usual mix of Stephen King dysfunctional small-town crazies – seem to have no significant part in the story at all. It’s all like some lame teenage fantasy where actions (a number of individuals in the story meet their demise) seem to carry no legal consequences whatsoever. I half expected Bill to wake up – Dallas style – at the end and realise it had all been an “awful dream”!
In particular, the denouement is highly dissatisfying. An opportunity for a (very black) twist in the plot is discarded. Pennywise the clown’s departure is both lame and unconvincing. And there are numerous loose ends that are never properly tied down (what was that “floaters descending” dialogue about?…. it was just never followed through!).
It’s not all bad though. The location shoots in Bangor, Maine and the Ontario countryside are all beautifully rendered by cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung (“Stoker”) and where the film clicks with the young cast it clicks well and enjoyably. I just wish that the overall film wasn’t just such a jumbled-up mess. Blame for that must lie with the screenwriting team and director Andy Muschietti (“Mama”). I’m going to give it a kicking in my rating, since with all the marketing build-up it was certainly a disappointment. I see though that at the time of writing that this film sports an unfathomably high imdb rating of 8.0/10 so I’ll acknowledge that somebody must have seen something more in this than I did!!
I had in mind that with the disturbing and dangerous “clowning around” that happened in the summer of 2016 that this film had been shot a while ago and the release delayed until now for fear of adding ‘clown-flavoured fuel’ to the fire. But it appears that filming only completed in September of last year, so that appears not to be the case.
The film starts memorably and brutally with the “drain scene” from the trailer. And very effective it is too. “Great!” you think… this is a spookfest that has legs! Unfortunately, for me at least, it all went downhill from there. The film really doesn’t seem to know WHAT it’s trying to be. There are elements of “Stand By Me”; elements of “Alien”; elements of “The Conjuring”, all thrown into a cinematic blender and pulsed well.
The most endearing aspects of the movie are the interactions of the small-town kids, with this aspect of the film bearing the closest comparison with J.J. Abrams’ “Super 8”. This is carried by the great performances of the young actors involved, with Jaeden Lieberher (so memorable in “Midnight Special”) as Bill; Jeremy Ray Taylor (“Ant Man”) as Ben (‘the chubby one’); and Finn Wolfhard, in his big-screen premiere and sporting an absurd set of glasses, as the wise-cracking Ritchie.
Standout for my though was the then 14-year old Sophia Lillis as Beverly (the nearest equivalent to the Elle Fanning role in “Super 8”). This young lady has SUCH screen presence, reminiscent of Emma Watson in the Harry Potter films. I think she is a name to watch!
While commenting on the acting I do need to acknowledge Bill Skarsgård (“Atomic Blonde” and son of Stellan Skarsgård) who is creepily effective as Pennywise the clown.
Having a film that just centred on the pubescent interplay between the youngsters and their battles against the near-psychopathic school bully Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton, “Captain Fantastic”) would have kept me well-entertained for two hours. However, in the same way that the hugely over-inflated Sci-Fi ending of “Super 8” rather detracted from that film, so the clown-related story popping up all the time just irritated me to distraction. (“WILL YOU JUST FECK OFF AND LEAVE US TO FIND OUT WHO BEVERLY GETS OFF WITH???!!”)
While the film has a number of good jump-scares, a lot of them – especially those with excessive use of CGI – just don’t really work. There are normally no “outcomes” from the scares. It’s all a bit like a ghost train where the carriage rounds a corner, something jumps out, and then the carriage moves on round the corner again! What makes a great horror film is where the “science” of the horror is well thought through. “Alien” was an exceptional example of that, where the science wasn’t just “physics” but also “biology”. Here (and I’m not sure whether this is true to the book… this is one of Stephen King’s I haven’t read) there seems to be no rules involved at all. Things happen fairly randomly: shape-shifting and effects on physical objects happen with no rational explanation; the kids can see things adults can’t see. (Why?). In fact the “adults” – the usual mix of Stephen King dysfunctional small-town crazies – seem to have no significant part in the story at all. It’s all like some lame teenage fantasy where actions (a number of individuals in the story meet their demise) seem to carry no legal consequences whatsoever. I half expected Bill to wake up – Dallas style – at the end and realise it had all been an “awful dream”!
In particular, the denouement is highly dissatisfying. An opportunity for a (very black) twist in the plot is discarded. Pennywise the clown’s departure is both lame and unconvincing. And there are numerous loose ends that are never properly tied down (what was that “floaters descending” dialogue about?…. it was just never followed through!).
It’s not all bad though. The location shoots in Bangor, Maine and the Ontario countryside are all beautifully rendered by cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung (“Stoker”) and where the film clicks with the young cast it clicks well and enjoyably. I just wish that the overall film wasn’t just such a jumbled-up mess. Blame for that must lie with the screenwriting team and director Andy Muschietti (“Mama”). I’m going to give it a kicking in my rating, since with all the marketing build-up it was certainly a disappointment. I see though that at the time of writing that this film sports an unfathomably high imdb rating of 8.0/10 so I’ll acknowledge that somebody must have seen something more in this than I did!!
Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) in Movies
Mar 3, 2020
It took me over a month to get around to seeing this last night at the cinema. Not because I didn’t want to see the end of the new trilogy and say goodbye to it in style, but because I feared it just wouldn’t be very good. Put simply, it isn’t very good. Some parts, in fact, are downright awful. But it isn’t terrible either. I can’t say I hated it – I had fun; I enjoyed it for what it was, and some small moments in isolation were very well done indeed. However…
The first thing that struck me was the pace and editing style, which seemed at last to fully embrace a Disney theme park ethos of let’s get to it and keep it moving. No notion of setting mood and re-establishing character, but rather a sense of we have a lot to fit in here so let’s get it out of the way as quickly as possible. It didn’t feel to me like it was allowed to sit at any point and just be brooding, or meaningful in any way. Which may work for the short attention spans of your average 9 year old, but for older fans who have literally waited 42 years to see an ending, it felt rushed, trivial and far too flippant.
The spectacle was very much there still. The landscape of alien worlds, creatures, droids and other necessary weirdness is all there in spades! It just feels like you would need to go back and press the pause button to see it all. And before we know what is happening (or why), Palpatine is back in business and everyone is looking for some lame GPS green triangle thingy. Forget almost everything in the story that has led to this point, this is an adventure that exists in a vacuum of space, and you either shrug and go with it, or get very annoyed. I chose the shrug.
Before we really settle into what is going on, we start to see the power of The Force flowing through Rey in ways it has never done before… she can heal, she virtually flies, and she can even teleport objects to a different physical place at will. She has become more like Neo from The Matrix than anything Skywalker. More like a Marvel superhero than anything grounded in an ancient mysticism that acts subtly at moments of great need. What that does is immediately lower the stakes, because if anything is possible, and therefore probable, there is no threat of failure. And if this movie lacks anything essential it is threat.
That said, the reanimation of Emperor Palpatine was nicely creepy, at least in a visual and vocal sense. And the journey of the excellent Adam Driver as Ben Solo / Kylo Ren remained the most interesting and satisfying thing about the whole reboot. I found myself just wanting to focus on him more and more, and felt frustrated when, typically, his key progression moments were over too soon or given away too cheaply from a dramatic context.
I have mixed feelings also about the level of mirroring and call-backs to moments from previous films. Some really worked, but many fell flat. It began to feel like a greatest hits checklist, which, of course, was a criticism of JJ Abrams’ directing style in The Force Awakens, too. He has been so much more concerned with giving fans sugary little treats, as opposed to cooking up a satisfying meal that nourishes in it’s own right – indicative of a 21st century audience that often demands its pudding before it has finished its greens.
Look, I enjoy a nostalgia trip as much as the next uber-geek, but I do also like my fantasy sci-fi to be based on an idea of weight and gravitas. Eschew that aspect and the climax is going to fall a little flat… which, I think it did. Our empathy for Rey, and in fact all of the new gang, is simply not as strong as it should have been. Daisy Ridley does a decent job, and I don’t blame her at all – I have no problem with any of the supporting cast either, but what a shame too many of them almost fade away into mere scene dressing by the end.
Very telling then, that my favourite bit by far was a 15 minute giggling fit brought on by that one, already infamous detail, when tiny weirdo Babu Frik completely misses the mood of the room and screeches his “Hey Heeeeeey!” Only to pop up again later with an equally hilarious repeat. Probably the funniest moment in any Star Wars film, bar none. Worth the ticket price alone, and I am still having regular flashbacks that leave me in fits of laughter!
So, that’s it is it? Over and done with? Well, they certainly wrapped it up in a bow, coming full circle in fairly satisfying style. With just a cheeky hint that the roots of a continuation at some point are buried within shallow reach. No doubt, amateur writers everywhere have already had a pop at what happens next. The Force is balanced, the prophecy fulfilled, but it wouldn’t take much to tip the galaxy back into turmoil, as soon as Disney fancies another few billion in ticket sales.
Personally, I don’t want to be cynical about a franchise that has been a part of me since I was 3 years old, and been such a good friend. However, I am perfectly fine with having it remain as a source for backstories and origin tales. The main saga is over, so let’s leave it alone. Episodes IV – VI will always remain the best; they won’t go anywhere. So any shortcomings can be easily solved… just watch The Empire Strikes Back again, not worrying about anything else, but revelling in just how perfect it is, and how lucky we are that it is there for us.
The first thing that struck me was the pace and editing style, which seemed at last to fully embrace a Disney theme park ethos of let’s get to it and keep it moving. No notion of setting mood and re-establishing character, but rather a sense of we have a lot to fit in here so let’s get it out of the way as quickly as possible. It didn’t feel to me like it was allowed to sit at any point and just be brooding, or meaningful in any way. Which may work for the short attention spans of your average 9 year old, but for older fans who have literally waited 42 years to see an ending, it felt rushed, trivial and far too flippant.
The spectacle was very much there still. The landscape of alien worlds, creatures, droids and other necessary weirdness is all there in spades! It just feels like you would need to go back and press the pause button to see it all. And before we know what is happening (or why), Palpatine is back in business and everyone is looking for some lame GPS green triangle thingy. Forget almost everything in the story that has led to this point, this is an adventure that exists in a vacuum of space, and you either shrug and go with it, or get very annoyed. I chose the shrug.
Before we really settle into what is going on, we start to see the power of The Force flowing through Rey in ways it has never done before… she can heal, she virtually flies, and she can even teleport objects to a different physical place at will. She has become more like Neo from The Matrix than anything Skywalker. More like a Marvel superhero than anything grounded in an ancient mysticism that acts subtly at moments of great need. What that does is immediately lower the stakes, because if anything is possible, and therefore probable, there is no threat of failure. And if this movie lacks anything essential it is threat.
That said, the reanimation of Emperor Palpatine was nicely creepy, at least in a visual and vocal sense. And the journey of the excellent Adam Driver as Ben Solo / Kylo Ren remained the most interesting and satisfying thing about the whole reboot. I found myself just wanting to focus on him more and more, and felt frustrated when, typically, his key progression moments were over too soon or given away too cheaply from a dramatic context.
I have mixed feelings also about the level of mirroring and call-backs to moments from previous films. Some really worked, but many fell flat. It began to feel like a greatest hits checklist, which, of course, was a criticism of JJ Abrams’ directing style in The Force Awakens, too. He has been so much more concerned with giving fans sugary little treats, as opposed to cooking up a satisfying meal that nourishes in it’s own right – indicative of a 21st century audience that often demands its pudding before it has finished its greens.
Look, I enjoy a nostalgia trip as much as the next uber-geek, but I do also like my fantasy sci-fi to be based on an idea of weight and gravitas. Eschew that aspect and the climax is going to fall a little flat… which, I think it did. Our empathy for Rey, and in fact all of the new gang, is simply not as strong as it should have been. Daisy Ridley does a decent job, and I don’t blame her at all – I have no problem with any of the supporting cast either, but what a shame too many of them almost fade away into mere scene dressing by the end.
Very telling then, that my favourite bit by far was a 15 minute giggling fit brought on by that one, already infamous detail, when tiny weirdo Babu Frik completely misses the mood of the room and screeches his “Hey Heeeeeey!” Only to pop up again later with an equally hilarious repeat. Probably the funniest moment in any Star Wars film, bar none. Worth the ticket price alone, and I am still having regular flashbacks that leave me in fits of laughter!
So, that’s it is it? Over and done with? Well, they certainly wrapped it up in a bow, coming full circle in fairly satisfying style. With just a cheeky hint that the roots of a continuation at some point are buried within shallow reach. No doubt, amateur writers everywhere have already had a pop at what happens next. The Force is balanced, the prophecy fulfilled, but it wouldn’t take much to tip the galaxy back into turmoil, as soon as Disney fancies another few billion in ticket sales.
Personally, I don’t want to be cynical about a franchise that has been a part of me since I was 3 years old, and been such a good friend. However, I am perfectly fine with having it remain as a source for backstories and origin tales. The main saga is over, so let’s leave it alone. Episodes IV – VI will always remain the best; they won’t go anywhere. So any shortcomings can be easily solved… just watch The Empire Strikes Back again, not worrying about anything else, but revelling in just how perfect it is, and how lucky we are that it is there for us.
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Made In Abyss in TV
Mar 3, 2021 (Updated Mar 27, 2021)
Animation, this anime is beautifully drawn (2 more)
Soundtrack, the musical score adds much to the ambiance of the world
The characters, great character design and character development
I wish it was more than 13 episodes (1 more)
The cute characters design fools you into thinking nothing bad can happen in this show
A Beautifully Frightening Journey That's Emotionally Gripping
(CCR Original Content) Made In Abyss Review [Spoiler Free Review and Spoiler Section below picture] (9/10)
Made In Abyss is a Japanese dark fantasy/adventure/sci-fi anime series adapted by Kinema Citrus from the manga written and illustrated by Akihito Tsukushi. It was directed by Masayuki Kojima and written by Hideyuki Kurata with character designs by Kazuchika Kise and animation by studio Kinema Citrus. Kevin Penkin composed the soundtrack and the anime originally aired from July 7 to September 29, 2017. The series was licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America.
The Abyss, a huge gaping chasm stretching down into the depths of the earth, filled with mysterious creatures and relics from a time long past raises countless questions. How did it come to be? What lies at the bottom? Countless brave individuals, known as "Delvers", have sought to solve these mysteries, fearlessly descending into its darkest realms. An orphaned young girl, Riko, and a humanoid robot, Reg begin their adventure to descend into the titular "Abyss", that leads deep into the Earth, in hopes of finding her mother.
This show is definitely going to be on my list as one of the best anime of all time. The animation is beautiful and the character designs were definitely misleading or deceptive in how cute and "chibi"-ish they look in comparison to how the story or plot goes. This was definitely a tear jerker in my opinion and such a great show. I personally haven't seen any of the movies that came after it but I hear that two (Made in Abyss: Journey's Dawn & Made In Abyss: Wandering Twilight) are actually just re-caps of the series and the third Made In Abyss: Dawn of The Deep Soul is actually something different. Not sure if it's a prequel or sequel because I didn't want to read any spoilers before watching it. As I was saying before, not to hype it up to much but this was definitely a great anime from the animation to the soundtrack to the concept and plot. I really liked the characters too. Riko is so smart and determined and Reg has the whole "born yesterday" thing going on with amnesia which is a little "cliché" but he still comes out being a pretty cool character too. The anime has a lot of beautiful and unique scenery and landscapes and it really feels like you go with them on the journey which only heightens the ups and downs of the adventure with gets surprisingly dark for how cheery it seems from a lot of the pictures I've seen of it. I would get into more details but I don't want to spoil anything, definitely gave me some Studio Ghibli vibes and I can't recommend it enough for people who like anime like Princess Mononoke and Madoka Magica. I give it a solid 9 which isn't a first for me but I usually don't give anything higher than a 8 and I'm sure there's things that you can find wrong with it but for me it was the whole experience from beginning to end that really sealed it for me.
-------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler Review Section:
(I actually didn't spoil anything because I didn't want to ruin for anyone because I thought this anime was so good.)
This was such a great anime and I had a really great time watching it with my brother who showed it to me. It has beautiful animation and the musical score really adds to the ambience and the awesome world building they did when they made this anime. So the whole thing with this anime is the people in it live in a town called Orth that exists on this island around a giant pit in the ground and when I say giant I mean gigantic. This pit is not only huge in circumference but is also very deep something like 12,000 meters or around 40,000 feet which would make it deeper than the Mariana Trench. In this world there are explorers who go down into the Abyss to explore it's many mysteries and also to bring back ancient relics of a long lost civilization. These relics are worth money and the orphans that are the main characters in this anime do this kind of like a job while they live at the orphanage called Belchero Orphanage in the town of Orth. People that explore into the Abyss are called Cave-Raiders or Delvers and they have a lot to deal with beside the dangerous creatures and the arduous descent, there is also the "curse of the Abyss" which gets worse the deeper you go. It's a very mysterious and potentially deadly side-effect of having ventured into the Abyss and because of it there are very few people who have gone down into the lower depths and returned. The only way I can explain it is that it's similar to deep underwater diving and how if you don't decompress it can damage your lungs and kill you. There's also a class system put in place that classifies the different cave-raiders by experience or capability and it uses different colored whistles to differentiate them. White whistles are of the highest rank and considered legendary delvers who are also given a title. The main character is name Riko, she is a small 12-year old girl whose blonde with glasses and her mother is a legendary White Whistle named "Lyza, the Annihilator". Riko is obsessed with exploring the Abyss and has plans to reach the bottom and see her mother who never returned. The other main character is Reg, who is a robot or cyborg and like I mentioned earlier has amnesia and no memories of anything before being found by Riko. This anime may seem pretty "chibi" and innocent but believe me their journey isn't for the feint of heart and so much happens in such a short amount of time over the 13 episodes. That being said you definitely need to give this anime a chance, it has beautiful animation, a great soundtrack or musical score and a gripping plot that advances the characters through obstacles and dangers the further they go into the Abyss. This anime gets my "Must See Seal of Approval" and I give it a 9. I really can't wait to see what they have in store for the other movie that I still haven't seen yet but you can bet I'll be putting a review for that too.
https://youtu.be/om6HVFxmr_s
Made In Abyss is a Japanese dark fantasy/adventure/sci-fi anime series adapted by Kinema Citrus from the manga written and illustrated by Akihito Tsukushi. It was directed by Masayuki Kojima and written by Hideyuki Kurata with character designs by Kazuchika Kise and animation by studio Kinema Citrus. Kevin Penkin composed the soundtrack and the anime originally aired from July 7 to September 29, 2017. The series was licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America.
The Abyss, a huge gaping chasm stretching down into the depths of the earth, filled with mysterious creatures and relics from a time long past raises countless questions. How did it come to be? What lies at the bottom? Countless brave individuals, known as "Delvers", have sought to solve these mysteries, fearlessly descending into its darkest realms. An orphaned young girl, Riko, and a humanoid robot, Reg begin their adventure to descend into the titular "Abyss", that leads deep into the Earth, in hopes of finding her mother.
This show is definitely going to be on my list as one of the best anime of all time. The animation is beautiful and the character designs were definitely misleading or deceptive in how cute and "chibi"-ish they look in comparison to how the story or plot goes. This was definitely a tear jerker in my opinion and such a great show. I personally haven't seen any of the movies that came after it but I hear that two (Made in Abyss: Journey's Dawn & Made In Abyss: Wandering Twilight) are actually just re-caps of the series and the third Made In Abyss: Dawn of The Deep Soul is actually something different. Not sure if it's a prequel or sequel because I didn't want to read any spoilers before watching it. As I was saying before, not to hype it up to much but this was definitely a great anime from the animation to the soundtrack to the concept and plot. I really liked the characters too. Riko is so smart and determined and Reg has the whole "born yesterday" thing going on with amnesia which is a little "cliché" but he still comes out being a pretty cool character too. The anime has a lot of beautiful and unique scenery and landscapes and it really feels like you go with them on the journey which only heightens the ups and downs of the adventure with gets surprisingly dark for how cheery it seems from a lot of the pictures I've seen of it. I would get into more details but I don't want to spoil anything, definitely gave me some Studio Ghibli vibes and I can't recommend it enough for people who like anime like Princess Mononoke and Madoka Magica. I give it a solid 9 which isn't a first for me but I usually don't give anything higher than a 8 and I'm sure there's things that you can find wrong with it but for me it was the whole experience from beginning to end that really sealed it for me.
-------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler Review Section:
(I actually didn't spoil anything because I didn't want to ruin for anyone because I thought this anime was so good.)
This was such a great anime and I had a really great time watching it with my brother who showed it to me. It has beautiful animation and the musical score really adds to the ambience and the awesome world building they did when they made this anime. So the whole thing with this anime is the people in it live in a town called Orth that exists on this island around a giant pit in the ground and when I say giant I mean gigantic. This pit is not only huge in circumference but is also very deep something like 12,000 meters or around 40,000 feet which would make it deeper than the Mariana Trench. In this world there are explorers who go down into the Abyss to explore it's many mysteries and also to bring back ancient relics of a long lost civilization. These relics are worth money and the orphans that are the main characters in this anime do this kind of like a job while they live at the orphanage called Belchero Orphanage in the town of Orth. People that explore into the Abyss are called Cave-Raiders or Delvers and they have a lot to deal with beside the dangerous creatures and the arduous descent, there is also the "curse of the Abyss" which gets worse the deeper you go. It's a very mysterious and potentially deadly side-effect of having ventured into the Abyss and because of it there are very few people who have gone down into the lower depths and returned. The only way I can explain it is that it's similar to deep underwater diving and how if you don't decompress it can damage your lungs and kill you. There's also a class system put in place that classifies the different cave-raiders by experience or capability and it uses different colored whistles to differentiate them. White whistles are of the highest rank and considered legendary delvers who are also given a title. The main character is name Riko, she is a small 12-year old girl whose blonde with glasses and her mother is a legendary White Whistle named "Lyza, the Annihilator". Riko is obsessed with exploring the Abyss and has plans to reach the bottom and see her mother who never returned. The other main character is Reg, who is a robot or cyborg and like I mentioned earlier has amnesia and no memories of anything before being found by Riko. This anime may seem pretty "chibi" and innocent but believe me their journey isn't for the feint of heart and so much happens in such a short amount of time over the 13 episodes. That being said you definitely need to give this anime a chance, it has beautiful animation, a great soundtrack or musical score and a gripping plot that advances the characters through obstacles and dangers the further they go into the Abyss. This anime gets my "Must See Seal of Approval" and I give it a 9. I really can't wait to see what they have in store for the other movie that I still haven't seen yet but you can bet I'll be putting a review for that too.
https://youtu.be/om6HVFxmr_s
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Space Plague in Tabletop Games
Mar 9, 2021
When is the word “plague” ever a good thing? We as a people have endured several plagues and none of them could be considered super great. However, what if the term plague was merely that of endearment? What if, in a fantasy sci-fi world, a plague was merely a settler of new worlds? Now you can play as a plague and be inspired by the game’s tagline: “We are many, yet we are one. We are the plague.”
Space Plague is a new game from first time designers who hail from the country of Colombia. In it players assume the command of a race of aliens attempting to colonize a newfound planet before the other races assume majority. Each race is essentially the same, and have similar tactics, but may use these tactics differently from other races. The player who amasses the most plagues from their race by the time the game ends will be crowned champion, and settler of the new world.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, follow the instructions, as there are many steps for setup. Once complete, the game should look similar to the photo below. You will see in this photo the main board at the top, the circular world core board (in black and red), and individual board setups for three players. Of course, for this review I will be playing the purple faction: The Flat-Earthers (not that I agree with the actual group of Flat-Earthers). Each player receives the same components, just in their player color. This includes six action cards to serve as the opening hand.
Each round follows four phases: Planetary Deck, Play Action Cards, Planetary Event, and March. On the main board a Planetary Event Card is flipped at the start of each round. This will inform the players which terrain type will generate energy this turn, as well as give a glimpse into the future event that will occur once the card travels to the activation zone on the board. Once players have placed energy shards onto the requisite terrain tiles they must each choose one card to be played this turn from their hand. As each player has the same six beginning Action Cards turns may seem similar. These action cards include Producing Plague (placing a plague disc on the space furthest from the end of the terrain tile line, on top of the picture of the player’s spaceship), Producing a Captain (a stronger version of the normal plague disc), Fast Movement (allows plague discs to move twice toward the core or two discs to move one space each), Slow But Steady (allows one plague disc to move forward one space OR allows the player to place a shield disc on top of a plague to protect it from harm), and Evolving OR Getting Lucky (which allows the player to purchase an Evolution Card from the Market or to roll the energy die and place energy shards on the resulting terrain type). More action cards can be purchased at the Market and used on future turns in order to buff certain actions, abduct opponent plagues, or even create new types of plagues with special abilities.
Once all players have played and resolved their action card for the round the Planetary Event phase begins. If an event card has moved its way to the activation zone of the main board its event text is resolved now. These events signify death of plague discs if they reside on specific terrain types, allow for purchasing cards at the Market or else destroying the plague furthest toward the core, or other various and nefarious events.
When the event has been resolved the active player token is passed to the next player and the March phase ensues. Players will move each of their plague discs one space toward the core to make room for more incoming plagues and captains.
Once the final event card has made its way through each of the main board slots and past the activation zone the game will end. Players will count their plague discs that made it onto the core of the planet and the player with the most discs will win! The rules also include several tie-breakers, ending with a shared victory and a snarky, “tough toothpaste,” style of comment.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, and components are not at all final. However, component quality aside, this game looks amazing on the table and hints at some really excellent plans for the final aesthetic. The character art and art on the cards is cartoony, but not in a bad way, and the other art in the graphic design is just stellar (checks around the room for the hook). The game feels “spacey” and “alieny” but also hip and lighthearted. I like it. I like it a lot. My hope for the final product is that the rulebook gets much more detailed, as I had to ask several questions to the designer that just were not clear or present in the rules. I am also hoping that the cards themselves will see quite a bit of beefiness added to them, as this prototype copy shipped with mega-thin cards that are delicate to handle. For a prototype, the components are good and show me what could be upon a successful Kickstarter campaign.
The gameplay is definitely something I want to discuss. I was blown away by how much fun I had playing this game! I cannot count how many times I vocalized how impressed I was with the design and how much fun I was having. I love the mechanic of giving all players the same components but allowing them to choose how to use them best for their strategies. Sometimes I felt that I need to flood my track with plagues and get them moving, while other times I wanted to just upgrade my race by using the evolution cards from the market. Those evolution cards are so interesting to use because they can change the course of the game, especially if specific cards come out near the beginning of the game.
Players can choose which world they wish to conquer at the start of each game (five were included with this copy), and each world possesses different strategies of play. That said, Space Plague definitely scores points for replayability from us.
While it was difficult to get into at first (remember all the rules questions I had), once I was able to truly learn the game it became so enjoyable, and everyone I have played with has thoroughly enjoyed it. If this is the style of game we can expect to come out of Colombia and Bamboo Studios in particular, I am very excited for the future and for the board game community as a whole. This one is a gem and I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you are looking for something a little kooky but with great art and super fun play, then it’s a no-brainer. Space Plague is a must-play at the very least.
Space Plague is a new game from first time designers who hail from the country of Colombia. In it players assume the command of a race of aliens attempting to colonize a newfound planet before the other races assume majority. Each race is essentially the same, and have similar tactics, but may use these tactics differently from other races. The player who amasses the most plagues from their race by the time the game ends will be crowned champion, and settler of the new world.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
To setup, follow the instructions, as there are many steps for setup. Once complete, the game should look similar to the photo below. You will see in this photo the main board at the top, the circular world core board (in black and red), and individual board setups for three players. Of course, for this review I will be playing the purple faction: The Flat-Earthers (not that I agree with the actual group of Flat-Earthers). Each player receives the same components, just in their player color. This includes six action cards to serve as the opening hand.
Each round follows four phases: Planetary Deck, Play Action Cards, Planetary Event, and March. On the main board a Planetary Event Card is flipped at the start of each round. This will inform the players which terrain type will generate energy this turn, as well as give a glimpse into the future event that will occur once the card travels to the activation zone on the board. Once players have placed energy shards onto the requisite terrain tiles they must each choose one card to be played this turn from their hand. As each player has the same six beginning Action Cards turns may seem similar. These action cards include Producing Plague (placing a plague disc on the space furthest from the end of the terrain tile line, on top of the picture of the player’s spaceship), Producing a Captain (a stronger version of the normal plague disc), Fast Movement (allows plague discs to move twice toward the core or two discs to move one space each), Slow But Steady (allows one plague disc to move forward one space OR allows the player to place a shield disc on top of a plague to protect it from harm), and Evolving OR Getting Lucky (which allows the player to purchase an Evolution Card from the Market or to roll the energy die and place energy shards on the resulting terrain type). More action cards can be purchased at the Market and used on future turns in order to buff certain actions, abduct opponent plagues, or even create new types of plagues with special abilities.
Once all players have played and resolved their action card for the round the Planetary Event phase begins. If an event card has moved its way to the activation zone of the main board its event text is resolved now. These events signify death of plague discs if they reside on specific terrain types, allow for purchasing cards at the Market or else destroying the plague furthest toward the core, or other various and nefarious events.
When the event has been resolved the active player token is passed to the next player and the March phase ensues. Players will move each of their plague discs one space toward the core to make room for more incoming plagues and captains.
Once the final event card has made its way through each of the main board slots and past the activation zone the game will end. Players will count their plague discs that made it onto the core of the planet and the player with the most discs will win! The rules also include several tie-breakers, ending with a shared victory and a snarky, “tough toothpaste,” style of comment.
Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, and components are not at all final. However, component quality aside, this game looks amazing on the table and hints at some really excellent plans for the final aesthetic. The character art and art on the cards is cartoony, but not in a bad way, and the other art in the graphic design is just stellar (checks around the room for the hook). The game feels “spacey” and “alieny” but also hip and lighthearted. I like it. I like it a lot. My hope for the final product is that the rulebook gets much more detailed, as I had to ask several questions to the designer that just were not clear or present in the rules. I am also hoping that the cards themselves will see quite a bit of beefiness added to them, as this prototype copy shipped with mega-thin cards that are delicate to handle. For a prototype, the components are good and show me what could be upon a successful Kickstarter campaign.
The gameplay is definitely something I want to discuss. I was blown away by how much fun I had playing this game! I cannot count how many times I vocalized how impressed I was with the design and how much fun I was having. I love the mechanic of giving all players the same components but allowing them to choose how to use them best for their strategies. Sometimes I felt that I need to flood my track with plagues and get them moving, while other times I wanted to just upgrade my race by using the evolution cards from the market. Those evolution cards are so interesting to use because they can change the course of the game, especially if specific cards come out near the beginning of the game.
Players can choose which world they wish to conquer at the start of each game (five were included with this copy), and each world possesses different strategies of play. That said, Space Plague definitely scores points for replayability from us.
While it was difficult to get into at first (remember all the rules questions I had), once I was able to truly learn the game it became so enjoyable, and everyone I have played with has thoroughly enjoyed it. If this is the style of game we can expect to come out of Colombia and Bamboo Studios in particular, I am very excited for the future and for the board game community as a whole. This one is a gem and I cannot recommend it highly enough. If you are looking for something a little kooky but with great art and super fun play, then it’s a no-brainer. Space Plague is a must-play at the very least.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Faza in Tabletop Games
Oct 28, 2020
You know those fantasy dreams you have where an alien race comes to Earth and tries to take over the world and terraform it to match their homeland? Just me? Well, this is awkward. Okay, how about the ones where you are a freedom fighter trying to save the world from those aliens and you only have three friends to help you in your impossible mission? That one is better? Okay! Then you are in for a treat with Faza, no matter which dream is yours.
Faza is a sci-fi, grid movement, modular board, purely cooperative board game for one to four players. In this review I will be addressing it from a solo player’s viewpoint. In my plays I have used the full complement of four characters and controlled them all simultaneously.
In Faza, players take on the roles of four Faction Zeta members tasked with saving Earth from the Faza alien race. They will accomplish this by using each character’s skills effectively and efficiently, killing alien drones invading the town tiles, and attacking motherships using the help of turncoat rebel Faza. Only one path to victory lies ahead with several ways to lose. Do you got the GUTS? DO YA??
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 game of Faza, each player will choose a character to control throughout the game. These characters are medical, political, tactical, or technological in nature, and there are two of each from which players may choose. The map of the town is comprised of 16 tiles, and once randomly setup in a 4×4 grid players will place their color-matched meeples on the appropriate Outpost tiles along with two rebels (purple fazeeples). Each of the three mothership standees will be placed on tiles corresponding to rulebook placement along with three drones and two drones per orthogonally adjacent tiles. The Faza deck is to be shuffled and placed aside, along with the remaining drones and rebels. Each player places out their character action cards in numerical order and the game may now begin in earnest!
On a player’s turn… well, there aren’t any turns in this game. In fact, the game is played over several phases: the Team Phase and the Faza Phase. During the Team Phase players may use several free actions and one action pertaining to each of their four player action cards. Each of these cards offer the player a choice of two actions. Perhaps one side is movement and the other a bazooka. Or one is an airplane while the other is a raygun, for example. As actions are spent cards are twisted 90 degrees to keep track.
During the Team Phase players may play their actions in any order that would benefit the team best. This also includes fighting drones and sending rebels to damage the motherships. However, with every damage to the mothership taken a Faza card is drawn and put into play. These could be real bad news for the heroes, or even reward cards. They can be devastating or not so bad at all. Once players have finished the Team Phase, the action now turns to the Faza.
During the Faza Phase the Mothership Activation Tracker will move to the next mothership in sequence and activate their abilities. The motherships will typically move, do something bad to the terrain or drop more drones or destroy something, and then pass play onto the players again.
Each mothership starts the game with 4 HP and once players send enough rebels and encounter the same number of Faza cards the mothership is downed and less powerful when their ability card is activated. However, players will win once all three motherships have been defeated! On the other hand, players will lose when any one player dies of injuries from unsuccessful battles, the players run out of drones to be placed on the board when needed, all of the Outpost tiles have been terraformed by the Faza motherships, or all rebels have been removed from the board in Hard Mode.
Components. When contacted about reviewing the game I first turned to the website and watched a how to play video by Jon Gets Games. He did a great job explaining the rules clearly and succinctly. Then I happened to get a notification on BGG that Marco Arnaudo posted a video on Faza, so I watched it as well. In his video he complains that though the components are all very nice (which they are for sure) the color palette is not great. I can certainly see why he would say such a thing, but orange is my favorite color, so to see so much of it on a game is a big plus for me. Yes, having the orange drones sitting atop an orange town tile can maybe make for unpleasant color contrast, I happen to find it tolerable and enjoyable. The quality of the components is wonderful and the box has a nice heft to it. No complaints from ME about the components. Did I mention the rebels are an amazing purple color as well? No secret here that we love the color purple! Maybe even more than Oprah!
The gameplay is where it’s at for me. Marco too. We both love this little gem! The ability to sandbox your entire turn and just have one character do one action, then switch over to another character to do one or more actions, then back to the original is just so much fun. Each character has a special ability and four action cards. Even when an injury must be sustained, actions are still available, but at a much lesser potency. That’s a great way to negatively affect the players without having to completely debilitate them. To sustain an injury the player will flip their lowest-numbered action card to the back side, and once all four of their action cards are injured they are dead. D-E-D dead.
As a solo game Faza really delivers the goods. Being able to control two to four characters by oneself and determine the best order to activate abilities and move meeples around is delicious. Having certain tiles offer combat bonuses to matching characters is excellent and a great way to thin the herd of pesky drones. I really cannot say enough great things about the game. If you have never heard of this one, please don’t worry. I really hadn’t either until the designer contacted me about reviewing it. And I am certainly glad he did because this is a marvel of a game. I am looking forward to my next play against the Faza and increasing the difficulty to really bash my confidence on this one.
If you are looking for a game that is relatively quick to play and offers so many great choices, while using a wonderful art style and color palette, I urge you to check out Faza by visiting the website and ordering your copy right away. The Earth needs you to ward off the invaders and you need to play this game of mostly orange with a dash of purple.
Faza is a sci-fi, grid movement, modular board, purely cooperative board game for one to four players. In this review I will be addressing it from a solo player’s viewpoint. In my plays I have used the full complement of four characters and controlled them all simultaneously.
In Faza, players take on the roles of four Faction Zeta members tasked with saving Earth from the Faza alien race. They will accomplish this by using each character’s skills effectively and efficiently, killing alien drones invading the town tiles, and attacking motherships using the help of turncoat rebel Faza. Only one path to victory lies ahead with several ways to lose. Do you got the GUTS? DO YA??
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 game of Faza, each player will choose a character to control throughout the game. These characters are medical, political, tactical, or technological in nature, and there are two of each from which players may choose. The map of the town is comprised of 16 tiles, and once randomly setup in a 4×4 grid players will place their color-matched meeples on the appropriate Outpost tiles along with two rebels (purple fazeeples). Each of the three mothership standees will be placed on tiles corresponding to rulebook placement along with three drones and two drones per orthogonally adjacent tiles. The Faza deck is to be shuffled and placed aside, along with the remaining drones and rebels. Each player places out their character action cards in numerical order and the game may now begin in earnest!
On a player’s turn… well, there aren’t any turns in this game. In fact, the game is played over several phases: the Team Phase and the Faza Phase. During the Team Phase players may use several free actions and one action pertaining to each of their four player action cards. Each of these cards offer the player a choice of two actions. Perhaps one side is movement and the other a bazooka. Or one is an airplane while the other is a raygun, for example. As actions are spent cards are twisted 90 degrees to keep track.
During the Team Phase players may play their actions in any order that would benefit the team best. This also includes fighting drones and sending rebels to damage the motherships. However, with every damage to the mothership taken a Faza card is drawn and put into play. These could be real bad news for the heroes, or even reward cards. They can be devastating or not so bad at all. Once players have finished the Team Phase, the action now turns to the Faza.
During the Faza Phase the Mothership Activation Tracker will move to the next mothership in sequence and activate their abilities. The motherships will typically move, do something bad to the terrain or drop more drones or destroy something, and then pass play onto the players again.
Each mothership starts the game with 4 HP and once players send enough rebels and encounter the same number of Faza cards the mothership is downed and less powerful when their ability card is activated. However, players will win once all three motherships have been defeated! On the other hand, players will lose when any one player dies of injuries from unsuccessful battles, the players run out of drones to be placed on the board when needed, all of the Outpost tiles have been terraformed by the Faza motherships, or all rebels have been removed from the board in Hard Mode.
Components. When contacted about reviewing the game I first turned to the website and watched a how to play video by Jon Gets Games. He did a great job explaining the rules clearly and succinctly. Then I happened to get a notification on BGG that Marco Arnaudo posted a video on Faza, so I watched it as well. In his video he complains that though the components are all very nice (which they are for sure) the color palette is not great. I can certainly see why he would say such a thing, but orange is my favorite color, so to see so much of it on a game is a big plus for me. Yes, having the orange drones sitting atop an orange town tile can maybe make for unpleasant color contrast, I happen to find it tolerable and enjoyable. The quality of the components is wonderful and the box has a nice heft to it. No complaints from ME about the components. Did I mention the rebels are an amazing purple color as well? No secret here that we love the color purple! Maybe even more than Oprah!
The gameplay is where it’s at for me. Marco too. We both love this little gem! The ability to sandbox your entire turn and just have one character do one action, then switch over to another character to do one or more actions, then back to the original is just so much fun. Each character has a special ability and four action cards. Even when an injury must be sustained, actions are still available, but at a much lesser potency. That’s a great way to negatively affect the players without having to completely debilitate them. To sustain an injury the player will flip their lowest-numbered action card to the back side, and once all four of their action cards are injured they are dead. D-E-D dead.
As a solo game Faza really delivers the goods. Being able to control two to four characters by oneself and determine the best order to activate abilities and move meeples around is delicious. Having certain tiles offer combat bonuses to matching characters is excellent and a great way to thin the herd of pesky drones. I really cannot say enough great things about the game. If you have never heard of this one, please don’t worry. I really hadn’t either until the designer contacted me about reviewing it. And I am certainly glad he did because this is a marvel of a game. I am looking forward to my next play against the Faza and increasing the difficulty to really bash my confidence on this one.
If you are looking for a game that is relatively quick to play and offers so many great choices, while using a wonderful art style and color palette, I urge you to check out Faza by visiting the website and ordering your copy right away. The Earth needs you to ward off the invaders and you need to play this game of mostly orange with a dash of purple.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Custom Heroes in Tabletop Games
Feb 7, 2022
You know that feeling when you play a game that FEELS familiar, but has really improved on certain aspects? Take, for example, the famed “Yahtzee mechanic” that has been extended and improved upon by so many games. Or the “I Cut, You Choose mechanic” that has shown up in several titles with slight variations to improve it? Well such was my feeling when cracking open Custom Heroes. I thought to myself, “Man, this feels natural in my hands, but it’s better.” I know I left myself open for tons of jokes here, but this is a PG(ish) forum, so keep it classy, everyone.
Custom Heroes is a fantasy/sci-fi-themed, customization, ladder-climbing, trick-taking card game for two to six players. In it players are using their hand of cards to win tricks (a la Tichu). The twist is that each card is able to be upgraded by using various Advancements that are added directly into the same sleeve as the base card. The winner of the game is they who amass 10 or more points and win a subsequent hand.
Before the first game after unboxing, all Character Cards will need to be sleeved. These Character Cards are numbered from 1-10 and come in six sets (one set of 10 cards for each player, at max player count). To setup the game, each player chooses a Player Screen to hide their resources and provide the scoring table. Shuffle the Character cards and deal each player a hand of 10 cards. For this review, I will be using the two-player rules. Players also begin with 1VP Token and 2 Power Tokens, along with an Ascended Form Advancement Card and Kodora Advancement Card. In a two-player game, players begin with three total Advancement Cards, as shown in the photo below. The rest of the VP Tokens and Power Tokens are placed (or thrown, in my case) on the table, and the remainder of the Advancement Cards are shuffled and placed in the bag to be drawn randomly throughout the game. The battle for tricks may now begin!
As with all (most?) trick-taking games, Custom Heroes is played over a series of rounds. However, Custom Heroes is played across three phases: Upkeep, Main, Scoring. During the Upkeep phase, the deck of Character Cards is shuffled and 10 cards are dealt to each player. On each player’s turn during the Main phase, they will decide if they would like to upgrade any card by sleeving Advancement Cards along with the Character Cards. These Advancement Cards are clear plastic and will alter the value of the card, provide special abilities, or provide modifiers to the card’s value. Sleeving new Advancements may be done at any time during the turn, before playing it, but the caveat is that ALL cards are shuffled and dealt to players after every round, so the chances of receiving that same card in future hands diminishes with each additional player at the table!
Once Advancements have been applied, or whilst applying, the players will determine the lead play. A lead could be a single card or several matching cards in a set. The following player will need to play a card, or cards, of the same number, but of higher value. For example, if a single 7 was led, only a single 8, 9, or 10 will beat it. However, if a pair of 5s was led, a pair of 6-10 will beat that lead. Players may pass if they cannot, or choose not to, beat the current trick, and can engage in play on a future trick. Once a player has run out of cards for the hand, or all players have passed. The first player to run out of cards, or the last player to play a card, wins the hand and receives the benefits listed on the scoring table shown below. Again, when a player earns 10 VP and wins a hand, they win!
A few notes about Advancement Cards. The Ascended Form card given to all players at setup will allow the player to win the trick for that round once played. It is essentially a wild insta-win card. That is, unless another player plays an Ascended Form on top of it and wins with the most recent Ascended Form. The Kodora card, however, can be played to the player’s tableau instead of as a card in a trick. When played this way, the player “bets” two VP Tokens that they will win the hand. If they do, they gain an additional two VP Tokens, but lose their bet if they do not finish in 1st Place. All other Advancement Cards may be added to the Character Card sleeve as long as the associated gem icon at the bottom is not already present in the sleeve. As there are four gem slots on Character Cards, each Character may be upgraded four total times.
Components. This one comes with a number of components of different types. The tokens are all small, but not too small, the bag is cool, but obviously the main attractions are the clear plastic cards and sleeves common to the Card Crafting System that AEG produced. I think I first saw this idea of layering plastic cards on top of one another in the Gloom series, though it may have existed even before that. I adore this idea and really fell in love with it when I was big into Mystic Vale, also from John D. Clair and AEG. So components for me get a big ol’ seal of approval. I love ’em.
Similarly, I think the gameplay gets a big seal of approval from me. Like I said, I was big into Mystic Vale for a while, but I think that Cusom Heroes, to me, trumps it in many ways. Though both boxes mention games approximately taking around 45 minutes, I found Mystic Vale to be much longer, mostly due to having to explain and re-explain rules and oddities to players at the table. It feels like Custom Heroes has cut down the complexity of gameplay, especially for newer gamers. I can bring out Custom Heroes and have it taught and played in under an hour – a feat I still haven’t mastered with Mystic Vale.
I think that I also prefer the trick-taking style of Custom Heroes a bit more. My family really enjoys playing Euchre at family reunions and other events, and while Custom Heroes isn’t a Euchre clone at all, the feel is very similar. There is still a led card, and cards that are more valuable to be played atop them in order to win tricks. While there isn’t necessarily any suits in Custom Heroes, the ability to trump an entire hand with an Ascended Form Advancement or other Advancements adds a layer (see what I did there) of strategy and tactics that is just so satisfying. I am a big fan of games that allow players to upgrade their starting resources, or level up their characters, and this one fits right inside a little 60 minute pocket and is relatively easy to teach and play.
All in all, I am so glad I found this one at my FLGS (well, not super local), and there was a big sale going on. I picked it up solely for the Card Crafting System logo and it was a big hit for me. This will completely replace Mystic Vale for me in my collection, and I couldn’t be happier with that. If you are looking for something quick, easy, but full of choices and modifications, this is certainly the game for you. It’s the game for me, and that’s why Purple Phoenix Games gives Custom Heroes a mostly-upgraded 5 / 6. Could this reach into my Top 10 someday, or earn a Golden Feather Award? It is entirely possible. We shall see with more and more plays. I am excited to give it many more plays and find out! Are you in?
Custom Heroes is a fantasy/sci-fi-themed, customization, ladder-climbing, trick-taking card game for two to six players. In it players are using their hand of cards to win tricks (a la Tichu). The twist is that each card is able to be upgraded by using various Advancements that are added directly into the same sleeve as the base card. The winner of the game is they who amass 10 or more points and win a subsequent hand.
Before the first game after unboxing, all Character Cards will need to be sleeved. These Character Cards are numbered from 1-10 and come in six sets (one set of 10 cards for each player, at max player count). To setup the game, each player chooses a Player Screen to hide their resources and provide the scoring table. Shuffle the Character cards and deal each player a hand of 10 cards. For this review, I will be using the two-player rules. Players also begin with 1VP Token and 2 Power Tokens, along with an Ascended Form Advancement Card and Kodora Advancement Card. In a two-player game, players begin with three total Advancement Cards, as shown in the photo below. The rest of the VP Tokens and Power Tokens are placed (or thrown, in my case) on the table, and the remainder of the Advancement Cards are shuffled and placed in the bag to be drawn randomly throughout the game. The battle for tricks may now begin!
As with all (most?) trick-taking games, Custom Heroes is played over a series of rounds. However, Custom Heroes is played across three phases: Upkeep, Main, Scoring. During the Upkeep phase, the deck of Character Cards is shuffled and 10 cards are dealt to each player. On each player’s turn during the Main phase, they will decide if they would like to upgrade any card by sleeving Advancement Cards along with the Character Cards. These Advancement Cards are clear plastic and will alter the value of the card, provide special abilities, or provide modifiers to the card’s value. Sleeving new Advancements may be done at any time during the turn, before playing it, but the caveat is that ALL cards are shuffled and dealt to players after every round, so the chances of receiving that same card in future hands diminishes with each additional player at the table!
Once Advancements have been applied, or whilst applying, the players will determine the lead play. A lead could be a single card or several matching cards in a set. The following player will need to play a card, or cards, of the same number, but of higher value. For example, if a single 7 was led, only a single 8, 9, or 10 will beat it. However, if a pair of 5s was led, a pair of 6-10 will beat that lead. Players may pass if they cannot, or choose not to, beat the current trick, and can engage in play on a future trick. Once a player has run out of cards for the hand, or all players have passed. The first player to run out of cards, or the last player to play a card, wins the hand and receives the benefits listed on the scoring table shown below. Again, when a player earns 10 VP and wins a hand, they win!
A few notes about Advancement Cards. The Ascended Form card given to all players at setup will allow the player to win the trick for that round once played. It is essentially a wild insta-win card. That is, unless another player plays an Ascended Form on top of it and wins with the most recent Ascended Form. The Kodora card, however, can be played to the player’s tableau instead of as a card in a trick. When played this way, the player “bets” two VP Tokens that they will win the hand. If they do, they gain an additional two VP Tokens, but lose their bet if they do not finish in 1st Place. All other Advancement Cards may be added to the Character Card sleeve as long as the associated gem icon at the bottom is not already present in the sleeve. As there are four gem slots on Character Cards, each Character may be upgraded four total times.
Components. This one comes with a number of components of different types. The tokens are all small, but not too small, the bag is cool, but obviously the main attractions are the clear plastic cards and sleeves common to the Card Crafting System that AEG produced. I think I first saw this idea of layering plastic cards on top of one another in the Gloom series, though it may have existed even before that. I adore this idea and really fell in love with it when I was big into Mystic Vale, also from John D. Clair and AEG. So components for me get a big ol’ seal of approval. I love ’em.
Similarly, I think the gameplay gets a big seal of approval from me. Like I said, I was big into Mystic Vale for a while, but I think that Cusom Heroes, to me, trumps it in many ways. Though both boxes mention games approximately taking around 45 minutes, I found Mystic Vale to be much longer, mostly due to having to explain and re-explain rules and oddities to players at the table. It feels like Custom Heroes has cut down the complexity of gameplay, especially for newer gamers. I can bring out Custom Heroes and have it taught and played in under an hour – a feat I still haven’t mastered with Mystic Vale.
I think that I also prefer the trick-taking style of Custom Heroes a bit more. My family really enjoys playing Euchre at family reunions and other events, and while Custom Heroes isn’t a Euchre clone at all, the feel is very similar. There is still a led card, and cards that are more valuable to be played atop them in order to win tricks. While there isn’t necessarily any suits in Custom Heroes, the ability to trump an entire hand with an Ascended Form Advancement or other Advancements adds a layer (see what I did there) of strategy and tactics that is just so satisfying. I am a big fan of games that allow players to upgrade their starting resources, or level up their characters, and this one fits right inside a little 60 minute pocket and is relatively easy to teach and play.
All in all, I am so glad I found this one at my FLGS (well, not super local), and there was a big sale going on. I picked it up solely for the Card Crafting System logo and it was a big hit for me. This will completely replace Mystic Vale for me in my collection, and I couldn’t be happier with that. If you are looking for something quick, easy, but full of choices and modifications, this is certainly the game for you. It’s the game for me, and that’s why Purple Phoenix Games gives Custom Heroes a mostly-upgraded 5 / 6. Could this reach into my Top 10 someday, or earn a Golden Feather Award? It is entirely possible. We shall see with more and more plays. I am excited to give it many more plays and find out! Are you in?
