Got my copy of Kodama in the mail today. First game I ever backed on Kickstarter mostly because I fell in love with the art design.
The box was surprisingly small, but considering my overflowing shelves that was a very welcome surprise.
I ordered the delux edition so I got additional wooden player markers and a cute little kodama meeple. Furthermore some additional kodama and decree cards.
After having played the first round I can say that the game doesn't only look gorgoues but is also rather fun and has a unique gameplay (apparently the company made another game that is similar but at least for me it felt very fresh.)
The game stretches over three seasons. Each season presents a decree which is a special rule only for that season. "Gain X points for every firefly on the card you placed." or the like. The seasons last four rounds in which each player gets to choose one of the four branch cards from a display (which gets refilled from the pool after one card is taken). They then have to fit the card either to their trunk card or one of their existing branch cards. There are some rules how to place cards, the most important ones being that a newly placed card may not touch more than one card and that none of the objects (aka the symbols that are used to determine points) may be covered.
After the card is placed the player will get some points depending on how the symbols are placed.
At the end of each season every player has to choose one of their four kodama cards to get some bonus points as per the conditions stated on the card. When the season changes a new decree is revealed and the tree grows further.
Until the end of the game it will look something like this.
At the end of the last season the player with the most points wins.
This is a fun and easy game that offers some light strategic elements. Deciding which three of your four kodama cards you will use and on which turn can be crucial in winning the game. It might also be noted that there is a limit on how many points can be won through placing a branch card (if the player would score more points than the limit he has to choose another card or place it differently) so that there isn't any gain in just expanding a single branch more and more.
One thing that be might off-putting for some people is that, even with the existing rules, whether or not a branch is placed correctly, is up to some interpretation. We played it so that the two ends had to at least mostly match up as in don't place super thick beginnings on tiny thin endings, but the rules don't really state how this should be handled. (It just says it should look like a growing tree...) If you agree on an interpretation with your group beforehand that shouldn't be a problem though. In fact it adds another level of variation to the game. (Play with super strict match ups for a tougher game or loosen it up when playing with kids.)
Thanks to the high number of different decree and kodama cards the game has a high replay value as one has to come up with a new strategy for each game. Interaction between players is almost none existence. I guess when playing with more than two players, cards getting snatched away before it's your turn might become important but that is it, really. The good side to this is that the game isn't depended on a certain amount of players. I played it only with my husband but I don't think it would be any less fun with three or more (the box says up to five but technically there is enough material for six) players.
All in all a fun little game that I don't regret backing. Did I mention that the artwork is gorgeous?
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