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Videos from Spiel 2014 XXV: Ars Alchimia, Villannex, Jushimatsu, Aristo-Maze & Colors of Kasane

Videos from Spiel 2014 XXV: Ars Alchimia, Villannex, Jushimatsu, Aristo-Maze & Colors of Kasane
Board Game: Ars Alchimia
• With Tokyo Game Market taking place — well, already having taken place — today, November 16, 2014, I thought I'd roll out another handful of game demonstration videos from Spiel 2014 that feature titles from Japon Brand and its minimalGames spinoff, starting with Kuro's Ars Alchimia from his Manifest Destiny, which debuted in June 2014 at Tokyo Game Market. I managed to buy a copy of this worker placement from someone who attended TGM, then never managed to get it to the table as I either had too few or too many players or something else was requested or game night was cancelled or my house caught on fire or my guests spoke only Swedish and I could no longer communicate with them. It's always something...





Board Game: Villannex
• Villannex from Takahiro and KogeKogeDo exemplifies the WTF spirit of some Japanese game designs because when you hear the description, you're not sure that should even work as a game. What's more, after playing it, you still might not be sure that it works as a game — even though, of course, it is a game, just something far different than anything you might have encountered previously.





Board Game: Colors of Kasane
• I posted an overview video of Hinata Origuchi's Colors of Kasane in September 2014 and think it's an incredibly clever game that challenges you to read others and take chances with which cards might be available as you try to put together scoring sets in twelve turns that fly by far more quickly than you think they will.





Board Game: Jushimatsu
• Madoka Kitao's Jushimatsu, a.k.a. 10 Sisters, fits a pattern that I've seen in a few other Japanese releases: an abstract strategy game with a high dose of luck that plays out in five minutes or less. Each player has only ten pieces and draws them one at a time at random while trying to group the finches on those pieces. It's a smartly designed game that does exactly what I think the designer intended: Give players the opportunity to play the odds and fight chance while sometimes allowing for upsets out of the blue.





Board Game: Aristo-Maze
• Designer BakaFire, who like many Japanese designers publishes under his own brand (BakaFire Party), has found success in the U.S. market with Tragedy Looper, a 2011 release picked up by Z-Man Games. Aristo-Maze, which debuted in Japan in March 2014, is a dungeon crawler of sorts, with player aristocrats trying to get as much loot as possible.

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