HAGAKURE
Designer: Frank Crittin, Grégoire Largey| Publisher: Studio H
Trick-taking games vary vastly in variety, playtime and levels of complexity. Some, like Preferans, played with a standard deck of cards, are not newcomer friendly, with its high levels of strategy and hefty playtime. Others, like Indulgence, aim to introduce trick-taking to more casual players by including custom cards with appealing artwork and non-card components that add extra gameplay elements.
Hagakure takes Indulgence’s approach even further: a small card game, with swift five-card rounds, it makes trick-taking accessible and appealing. The core trick-taking staple remains: the highest card takes the trick. However, Hagakure also comes with its own little spin on the basic rules. For example, if a player lays down a samurai (a red card) at the start of the round, others must also play a samurai card, if they have one. This essentially weeds out the higher valued cards, making discarding low ones, that are unlikely to take a trick, harder and therefore raising the competitive bar of the game.
At the start of the round, players can also play a Nobori token, a one-off ability that can, for example, double your points from tricks. These tokens can help you get ahead if played in a combination with the right hand of cards. A player has to have a sensible assessment of a hand dealt to estimate if spending a token is worth it and if it is, which one would yield the best result.
The light Japanese theme fits perfectly with the artwork that is both humorous and elegant. However, the game’s attempt to give all of its components Japanese names, like Nobori for tokens and Yomi for the non-player deck, feels slightly tryhard. The name of the game itself refers to the spiritual guide for Japanese warriors and the Book of the Samurai, however, it is unclear how that is related to the tricktaking or the game and once again feels like the theme is being pushed too hard.
Despite this relatively small shortcoming, Hagakure succeeds as an absolutely delightful gateway into tricktaking games.
ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA