Comments | kris_schnee: Games: "Anima: Shadow of Omega", "Endgame: Singularity"

kris_schnee

Games: "Anima: Shadow of Omega", "Endgame: Singularity"

May 09, 2011 21:05

This is about interesting choices in games. I tested a card game called "Anima: Shadow of Omega", part of a series. (Cool art from it here.) I was only able to try it alone, so I missed some of the mechanics, but it got me thinking ( Read more... )

game design, games

Comments 3

terrycloth May 10 2011, 04:54:01 UTC

Anima is basically a race between the different parties. It's all about screwing the other players every way you can. q:3 One of those ways is to go up and beat them up and possibly kill their party members. It is *not* a cooperative game *at all* and if you think it is you're liable to get VERY VERY ANGRY. Or at least, that's how it went in our group.

It's not one we play often (it's so random and frustrating) but we pull it out every now and then. The expansion makes it a bit better.

kris_schnee May 10 2011, 05:42:58 UTC

Did you ever play "Arcadia: the Wyld Hunt" (or the expansion/sequel "King Ironheart's Madness")? My brother and I used to. From your description, "Anima" sounds like that minus the idea of moving around on a map, plus and minus buying packs of cards to pick starting advantages for your character. "Dungeoneer" is basically "Arcadia" minus card-buying, plus help me/hurt you cards that're powered by "Glory"/"Peril" points you accumulate by moving around. The theme seemed thinly done in "Anima", though there's only so much complexity you can put in a board/card game format. ("Android" is an example of a cool theme that's made way too complex for a board game.)

I'd like to see something with a map and more of a cooperative element. By the way, I'm planning to get "Thunderstone: Dragonspire" soon if they don't come up with an even cooler random combination of fantasy words first. (Also, BoardGameGeek has a variant ruleset that lays the dungeon cards out as a map.)

terrycloth May 10 2011, 17:40:56 UTC

I haven't played arcadia... I played a few solitaire games of Dungeoneer (I think I had... one set about undead, and one set about rats?) but wasn't impressed enough to force anyone else to play it with me. Maybe it would be better in actual play?

Heh. I'll have to look into the dungeon-map variant for Thunderstone.