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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/
Ross (3284 KP) rated South Park: Phone Destroyer in Apps
Nov 20, 2017 (Updated Nov 20, 2017)
This is basically a South Park version of Plants vs Zombies, where you assemble a cast of South Park characters and look to attack others. There is a "career" mode where you play the New Kid looking to control the cowboys to put Stan and his Indians in their place. This soon develops into battling against Kenny and his aliens/robots.
A great fun little game where you can power up your cards to be more powerful/last longer, and take on other players in PvP battles.
A nice little waste of time.
A great fun little game where you can power up your cards to be more powerful/last longer, and take on other players in PvP battles.
A nice little waste of time.
Hazycoot (15 KP) rated Cult Following in Tabletop Games
Mar 31, 2019
Hilarious and obnoxious
In Cult Following half the players create cults based off of topic cards, using three topics out of ten each player is given. You will have to create a story about your cult using the three topics, then the other players will proceed to ask you questions about your cult that they draw from the deck. They will then give their question card to the cult who answered the best symbolizing a new follower joining your cult. To win you must be persuasive and quick witted
AT (1676 KP) rated Coin Master in Apps
Apr 18, 2019
This is a mindless game where you spin a wheel to get coins. Sometimes you get to attack or raid someone else's land for coins or cards, too. You build on your lands depending on how many coins you have at the time. That's it. No deep thinking. It's a decent time-waster, since the app works smoothly, and the characters are cute. It's not a game that will suck away your entire day in one sitting, so that's good! If you like this type of game, Coin Master is a good one. You could also play it through a third-party app that pays you in credits to play!
Rhubarbio (27 KP) rated Love Letter in Tabletop Games
May 26, 2019
Easy and fast to learn, accessible to kids (3 more)
Addictive gameplay
A game lasts only a few minutes
Easily transportable and playable on the go
A lovely card game
Love Letter is a slightly bizarre but innovative card game that consists of only 16 cards. At its current price, this may seem expensive, but is likely countered by the hours of fun that may be had. When you are looking for a simple but mildly strategic game to play with friends or family, this game should be at the top of your list. It perhaps doesn't have great staying power, but as a small filler game, this is my favourite.
Entertainment Editor (1988 KP) rated War of the Ring (Second Edition) in Tabletop Games
Mar 7, 2018
For me, this version is an improvement to the original. It tries to help you learn the game rather than fight you as the FFG version seemed to do at times. If you already have the FFG version, you can purchase an upgrade kit that has all of the new cards in a nice tin for about $30, and then download the new version of the rules from the Ares Games website, that might be enough for you.
Original Rating: 10/10
Reviewer: Elliott Miller
Read the full review here: https://thegaminggang.com/our_reviews/tabletop-gaming-reviews/one-edition-to-rule-them-all-war-of-the-ring-2nd-edition-reviewed/
Original Rating: 10/10
Reviewer: Elliott Miller
Read the full review here: https://thegaminggang.com/our_reviews/tabletop-gaming-reviews/one-edition-to-rule-them-all-war-of-the-ring-2nd-edition-reviewed/
Krojollen (1 KP) rated Century: Spice Road in Tabletop Games
Apr 4, 2018
Easy to learn (2 more)
Good replay value
Simple mechanics, only have a few options each turn
A really simple game to learn and just as easy to teach others. I've played it as a duel and with up to 5 people and it works well with all numbers. You do have to adjust your strategy based upon how many players there are, but this adds to the replay value. The only real downside is that there are some cards that are very powerful and can be game winning if got early on. A great game to get in to card collecting/deck building games.
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