De Vulgari Eloquentia: Deluxe Edition

EvEvanstar4,6

Unique and interesting game plagued by really terrible graphic design issues. Players start as merchants collecting money and book steps from various board spaces. When you collect the right combination of things, you can upgrade your character gaining an asymmetric ability but limiting your future ability to get money. The game is totally viable to play through without ever upgrading your meeple, but upgrades can be worth a ton of end game points if you collect enough vote cubes. This 2019 edition is a big improvement on the original, but it seems clear they never looked at printed proofs because the board is full of illegible help text and bad iconography. ☆ 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