Spirits of the Rice Paddy

EvEvanstar3,5

In this game, players draft cards, and then the numbers on those cards determine turn order. The cards that tend to make you go last have better abilities than the ones that make you go first. This is important, because you need water to grow rice for points, and water is claimed in turn order, so you can wind up out of luck. This is a big deal since there aren't many rounds to the game, so a bad turn can really sink you. At times, this can be painful, as players are always expanding their areas, which means you might make a critical error and not realize it for another full round. Overall the game is cute, and does a few nice things, but the graphic design of the game really works against the fun. The action spot area kind of serves as a player aid reminder for the phases, but not really. At least one of the action icons means two different things in two different places. I'm also not one to shy away from a quality game that's got fiddily bits, but in this game the fiddling seemed more frustrating than fun. Not terrible by any means, but not thrilled. ☆ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ☆ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment

MCMitchell Cstar4,6

A fine game with a very specific order of events. Needs to play again to really figure out