Ok – So I wasn’t expecting much from this one if I’m honest. I’m not one for the cutsie critters liking my games to have some bearded sorts with rusty axes or pointy ears with cloven hooves prancing around kicking would be adventures in the wotnames. The only reason I’m reviewing games like these is because my boy is into them, so I have been expanding my horizons with …mixed opinions.
Having played Kodama Tree Spirits recently my expectations were low. I found Spirits to be a drain, rather than fun and the quickness of the rounds didn’t exactly encourage play. How pleasantly surprised I’ve been with Kodama Forest though!
The components are solid and sturdy with beautiful imagery and a wonderful sturdy box with enough room for all the components. It is an environmentally encouraging game for kids whilst also a challenge for even the best puzzle solver. No dice, no small pieces (other than tiles) and overall, a fun little game.
What’s the Point?
So, the aim of Kodama Forest is to cover as many of the squares showing points on the two player boards you control. Each player has a left board and a right board, and, on each round, you lay tiles that you draw from a blind bag. You start by drawing three tiles from the bag in round 1 and in following rounds you draw two to replenish your hand. Each round players lay one tile on the left and one on the right, leaving one tile in your hand. Sounds really easy doesn’t it! Lay Two, draw two…… Well …. I thought so too……I was wrong.
What appears to be a basic tile placement game actually makes you have to think really hard. Drawing odd shapes from a blind bag (very few being lines or squares) and only being able to lay two each round is actually really taxing on the brain pan. Especially when trying to match the images on the tile to collect little critters too (more on that in a minute).
The boards themselves are bog standard 9×9 squares, but they are double sided offering differing levels of difficulty. On each side there are various patterns of points and Kodama critters. Point squares range from ‘10’, 5’ or ‘1’ for a plain square. Squares showing those pesky varmints Kodama cannot be covered by your tile placement. The player with the lowest amount of point squares showing at the end of the game is the winner.
Cue strategic thinking with a sprinkle of luck and a lot of frustration!
My Bug in the Pond…Splinter in the Panda …. Frog Somewhere It Shouldn’t Be
As part of the expanding Kodama games this rates highly for me, as it involves a lot of thought, but it is also luck based too which means nothing is predictable. Makes each game more interesting based on your choices and tile drawing abilities.
But, on each tile drawn there is a beautiful image of greenery with half flowers, half patches of bamboo and half ponds (puddles perhaps) at different angles and placements around the edges of the tiles. You are instructed that you should try and match these half images with others you place so that you create whole patches of flowers, bamboo, and ponds. If you have successfully achieved creating a whole of something then you can collect a Butterfly, Panda or Frog tile and place these on top of the matching areas. So, I ask you …. What is the point? None that I can see – not even point scoring abilities unless you make your own rule up. My conclusion is that it’s just a cutsie thing. Something to hook the kids perhaps in case they get frustrated – which they will – as will you!
As far as I can see collecting the critters holds little relevance to the main point or strategy of the game. I ended up just placing the tiles in the end to try and cover as many point squares as I could, whilst my son tried to match and collect.
Overall
Aside from the pointless collecting of cutise images to clutter up the boards, I genuinely love Kodama Forest. It has echoes of Tetris and QBert. You don’t have to wait on endless steps per player each round, and once everyone has drawn their tiles you just crack on and place them. Its fun, strategic and incredibly frustrating especially as you get down to the last few rounds as you realise you’ve placed tiles badly or have no room for the tiles you have drawn.
Would I recommend Kodama Forest? Yes, I would and to be fair probably over the other Kodama games currently. It has varying levels of difficulties with the boards, and the luck-based drawing of tiles means each game is different.
