{"id":10301,"date":"2024-09-23T20:54:51","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T00:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/?p=10301"},"modified":"2024-09-23T20:54:51","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T00:54:51","slug":"sara-estus-takenoko-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/?p=10301","title":{"rendered":"Sara Estus – Takenoko Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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  1. Was it fun?<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes, I felt like the game was entertaining and enjoyable! I have a soft spot for playing plant-based games, and the unique pieces and art made the experience more enjoyable! The game included an adorable comic about the story behind the characters in the game (A panda and a bamboo farmer) so the added lore to the game was a nice touch.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. What were the players\u2019 interactions?\u00a0<\/strong>Like most games, diving into a game with quite a few pieces and a very specific rule and guideline book is always a little intimidating, but I\u2019m super biased at this point and will always agree that Amber does a fantastic job of explaining the rules and assuring the game is played. Although there was one rule, we didn\u2019t realize was incorrect until the game was a fair way through irrigation channels, we eventually agreed to play the game (still incorrect) but as we were before. \u00a0The most difficult part of the game was completing the tasks we needed to get points, but it was super fun once we got the hang of taking turns and fulfilling task cards.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. How long did it take to learn?<\/strong>\u00a0I would say about 10-15 minutes, Amber was super concise with the rules, so questions were asked, and as far as the basic understanding we started the game quickly, learning a bit on the way and getting the hang of it by the mid-game.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Would you play it again?<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely, this game is so so fun and cute and I was actually trying to find it over the weekend to buy it!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Analyze the game using the 3-act structure:<\/strong>\u00a0Act 1: Establishing the game, the pieces, and the idea of task cards. This beginning was not as rough as some beginnings of games can be that I have experienced. It was all about placing tiles and getting tasks at this point. Act 2: At this point, we all started to focus on completing tasks, the difficult part is deciding which task to do, as some are more complicated than others. Act 3: This is where it was sort of obvious who was winning and who was behind. I had focused a lot of time on one task, which I believe was my downfall. Collin ended up winning with lots of points, as he focused on getting as many tasks as possible completed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game?<\/strong>\u00a0The game is highly competitive, with players trying to get the most points from task cards, but it is also collaborative in a way, as certain moves you can do, such as placing tiles, or choosing where to move the panda can help other complete their tasks, on purpose or not!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. What is the game\u2019s metaphor, and which mechanics stand out?\u00a0<\/strong>In researching the meaning of Takenoko, which means \u201cBamboo child\u201d \u2013 referring to the strong bamboo sprout that can grow 1.5 inches in an hour. Takenoko is about growing and spreading regardless of barriers that might attempt to prevent one’s growth. Throughout the gameplay, we never ran out of bamboo, even though we removed a lot of it from the board by \u201ceating it\u201d as the panda. I think the mechanic of never losing a feature of the game, no matter how much is going on, really brings not only the metaphor to life but also an aspect of never being done with the game.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-design","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10302,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10301\/revisions\/10302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmu.andrewyames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}