For the replayability section of the Ohanami review, we award a solid 8 out of 10. This is as replayable as any specialty playing card game. Nothing changes from game to game, but since it is so streamlined, easy to setup/dismantle, a satisfying challenge amongst participants and puts plenty of control to take a different path to victory in your hands, its is so easy to fall into playing this one over and over again. That being said, even solitare can get a little stale, and Ohanami is not immune to that fatigue. Fun Fact: The Tōkaidō road was a real route in Japan during the Edo period. It connected the two biggest cities in Japan together, Kyoto and Edo (Modern day Tokyo). Commonly known as the ‘East Sea Road’ (東海道), Tōkaidō was by far the most important connecting route in the entire country. At the start of a round, each player receives a hand of ten cards. Each player chooses two cards, then passes the remaining cards to the left. All players reveal their cards at the same time, then decide whether to use 0, 1, or 2 of them in personal rows of cards. When you start a row, you can use any card; to add a card to an existing row, that card must be higher than the row's highest card or lower than the lowest one. A player can have at most three rows of cards. Discard any cards you don't use. The Mummy: The players must break the Mummy’s curse by aligning scarabs on a tablet and then, once the tablet is activated, entombing (defeating) the Mummy for eternity.

Each round starts by dealing ten cards to each player. Then players select two cards to keep for their gardens. Hanami (or ‘flower viewing’) is the traditional Japanese “custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers” (‘hana’). In most cases the flowers refer to those of the cherry blossom (‘sakura’). This custom involves more than simply looking at the flowers; hanami is celebrated by having an outdoor party beneath the blossoming trees, marking the beginning of spring. Because hanami is so important, an ‘o’ is often added before ‘hanami’ as a sign of politeness and respect .With no dice and little (on the surface) in the way of rules, it’s very easy to see ‘Tokaido’ as an experience rather than just another Japanese themed board game. Any time I get to dedicate a large portion of my time to researching Japan themed things and call it work, is a flipping great time. Because your concern is with both the numbers on the cards and the types of landscape they represent, both the mathematical and aesthetic parts of your brain are involved in every decision. In a very simple way, this mimics why people enjoy zen gardens: engagement. These two cards may go into the same garden or into separate gardens. Either way, you’ll only have three gardens for the entire game. And you’ll find the cards you place define the limits of your gardens. The Zatu Games blog was created so that we can bring you as much content as possible about your favourite board games. We have several different types of blog entries just to ensure that we have every covered.

Who are we? Clearly, we are gardeners, assigned the task of creating three Zen gardens. The pieces we choose for these gardens must both fit (numerically) and add up to a pleasing whole. Ohanami is published by Pandasaurus Games and designed by Steffen Benndorf. Art by Christian Opperer, it is designed for 2-4 players and plays in 20 mins. In this card game, players work to build the most beautiful gardens in the three rounds of the game. However, the criteria change each round, so you have to work on both short term and long term goals. Interestingly, while the game is played in three rounds, the gardens remain on the table for the whole game – you keep building them larger and larger. Discarding a card is simple: the card is just placed in a facedown discard pile with no reward gained. Using a card, on the other hand, is where the game’s puzzley gameplay shines through. Flowers Are Often Scattered By The WindAverage Play Time: 90 minutes for both junior and standard stages, 30 minutes for Junior only and 60 minutes for standard ages Interviews - Get the inside scoop straight from game designers and publishers, and meet the teams behind everything going on at Zatu. Either way, it’s a treat for any Japan loving board game enthusiasts like me! (And you, I hope!) How popular are board games in Japan? Compare that to ‘Shogi’ (A traditional Japanese variant of Chess) and you get a completely different result: ‘Shogi’ Search Term In Japan

To complete any of the Monsters’ tasks or to defeat them, players have to gather specific Items, located throughout the village, that they will use (and then discard) at specific locations. For example, to help develop a cure for the Wolf Man, you have to use blue (intellectual) Items at the laboratory or to smash one of Dracula’s coffins, you must use red (physical) items. In Horrified, you and up to four other players each take on the role of a Hero in the hopes of cooperatively ridding your village of these horrendous Monsters for good — and creating a safe space for Ben and Lydia to go about their daily gossip routine.At the end of round 3 (which also signals the end of the game), players score 3 points for each blue card and 4 points for each green card. They also score 7 points for each gray (stone) card and points for their pink (flower) cards — depending on the total number of pink cards they have added to their gardens throughout the game. The player with the most points after three rounds wins. At the end of round 3 (and the game), this player scores 24 points for blue cards, 32 points for green, 21 points for gray (3 cards x 7 points) and 45 points for their pink cards (based on the table). Final Thoughts Once you’ve chosen two cards, you will pass the remaining cards on to the next player. Before you look at any new cards, all players will reveal the two cards they’ve selected, and place them into one of three gardens or discard them. The aim of the game is to keep your giant panda happy by building the three types of bamboo and keep them irrigated. Players repeat this drafting, passing, and playing process until they have played ten cards. The first round ends, and players now receive 3 points for each blue card in their rows. Your once quiet, quaint village has turned chaotic now that Monsters have moved in. Read our review of Horrified to find how to stop the monsters from terrorizing the village.