Stars of Akarios Review - Hyperflop
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- Опубликовано: 14 сен 2022
- #boardgames #review
#starsofakarios
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BGG Review list - boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/17... 
Игры
I've played this with twelve different people and they all have really enjoyed it. One group of 4 players I played with (I sometimes just was helping them learn the game, and other times sitting-in for a mission) asked to play this repeatedly over the course of a long camping trip to the exclusion of many other games we'd brought, and we played over 15 scenarios.
Personally I was unaware of the kickstarter or any "hype", but played this at a friend's house and immediately fell in love with it and bought a copy. Big fan of GH too, I've played the entire campaign plus Forgotten Circles. What I really liked about this one:
1) Short scenarios (typically completed in 1-1.5 hours with 4 players, whereas GH scenarios typically took us 4 hours) allowed multiple scenarios per game night.
2) Rolling dice then assigning them to take combat actions is fast and fun. It's a nice mental break from the thinkiness of GH-style card-driven combat.
3) Being able to intersperse actions with other players is fun.
4) The fact that it's important to try to get shots at the enemy from their rear facing adds an element of positioning and maneuvering that is interesting and absent in GH.
5) The world exploration and galaxy exploration is pretty light, which makes it a nice break from the intensity and thinkiness of space combat missions. I certainly found a sense of wonder in that you never know what you are going to find on a new planet.
6) The writing does remind me of Heinleins's Starship Troopers, which I enjoyed in my youth.
7) The components are just beautiful, with the double-layer player boards especially being very nicely designed and attractive.
8) Really like the attack modifier deck and pilot skill progression (similar to GH "perks" system). RPG-like character leveling is one of my favorite game mechanisms.
A few criticisms:
1) The writing isn't novel quality by any means - it's on-par with GH.
2) The world exploration doesn't have the 7th Continent action-deck mechanics, it's a vastly-simplified "skill-test-based" sort of system. So it isn't as interesting as 7th Continent.
3) The space combat got too easy for us after a while, especially given that you can escape a major hit by critically-damaging one of your ship systems (like losing a card in GH to dodge a powerful attack). We are going to raise the difficulty of space combat next time we play (there is a built-in mechanism for this, I think increasing the strength of enemy attacks and maybe their hull points?).
at this stage I'm happy to see a new NPI video regardless of content!
Bro you got me dying laughing at “Splendor” listed under your Zombie cardboardtier. Nice.
A Memory Called Empire and its sequel were the best books I read last year. If you ever start a book review spin off channel I'd subscribe!
Both fantastic (though the sequel did change in tone/style more than I was expecting). Actually several very good authors mentioned here. But I literally (and I'm using this word correctly) LOLed at "more bugs than in an Adrian Tchaikovsky book".
I really should get around to the sequel...
A Memory Called Empire is fantastic. I'd also encourage people to check out Ancillary Justice and its sequels.
Ancillary Justice is really cool.
In space you'd actually have a way easier time just spinning your ship around on the axis than trying to bank like an airplane given there's no air... But also then the game would have to keep track of momentum so airplanes it is...
Right? Spending energy on flipping around a frigate makes sense, but a fighter should be able to air brake a 180 no problem (e.g., Cowboy Bebop).
I’m looking forward to Velocity Vanguard which simulates space battles with momentum
Yeah. I was scratching my head at that point. Oddly enough, momentum would make the AI movement better and less weird.
@@Aaackermann That is true, especially given the mass of a given vessel, but if we're talking about a one or two seat capsule with some jet engines and a couple laser rifles wielded to the hull, flipping that thing to and fro should basically be a breeze.
@@svachalek Battlestar Galactica Starship Battles by Ares Games does it well! Brilliant quality prepainted minis too
While I knew of this game when it was getting crowdfunded etc it didn't really tick any boxes for me so I let it be, however I really do appreciate NPI's thoroughness and watched this whole thing out of curiosity - I was pleasantly surprised by the comments you made, Efka, regarding the nuance of learning from "bad" media for your own betterment. As both a writer and an aspirant game designer I will say that the notion of reading a bad book for a few quid vs spending a lot on a game like this is a daunting comparison! You did a grand job, to me at least, in highlighting how taking "working" mechanics doesn't translate from game to game whilst retaining the actual "fun" factor. It gave me a lot to think about. I appreciate the work you put into this and I acknowledge that it stressed you out so thank you. Love this channel's work!
Amazing review! Thank you for taking your time and entertain me once again! Big fan of your channel!
«The stones, nay, the moons!»
Thank you, sir! I badly needed that laugh.
The thumbnail for this video is gold. Bravo.
The last few minutes were incredibly precise, thank you for keeping it in!
(the rest was excellent but just glad you put it in there as a final statement of quality)
I just came to comment that I love the thumbnail 🤣 I’ve already seen a review of this game. And the tier list at the beginning is hilarious. Good work.
Thanks, this is great! Would love to see an Oathsworn review as well, especially with the reprint coming up
I'd love to see your review of ISS Vanguard when it comes out!
5 Game Reviews in one Review. Love it
I don't know a lot about this game, so I can't comment on the criticism, but I am a bit wary of a review that constantly refers to Brendan McCaskell as a first time designer when a cursory look on BGG makes it clear this isn't the case.
How did this get past even cursory research when writing the script?
Subbed, thanks for saving me some money, I was right on the fence of buying this before Frosthaven arrives and I appreciate your review!
Thanks for the review NPI, top quality as always 👍
Thank you so much for this video. I've been on the fence with this game for months and your taste seems to be very close to my own based on the games you've reviewed in the past. You saved me $200!
Very entertaining review, thank you. All honest and smart points you've raised but still a game I could dream of playing. Lets see what version 1.5 will offer in November this year. The space atlas book replacing the cards for exploration looks already promising.
BAHAHHAHAAA LOVE THE TIER LIST! (And of course the bun 🙌)
NPI does the only reviews longer than 22 minutes that I will ever watch (why 22? science!). As usual, it was thoughtful and interesting all the way to the end, well done.
Even though I'm really enjoying this game I can appreciate your criticisms as this game is far from perfect. I would recommend that anyone who thinks this game looks interesting to read/watch a few different reviews.
I backed the Kickstarter and saw the production heave and lurch through trial and tribulations in the difficult time of Covid. I haven't opened my copy, it sits like a heavy troll on my shelf. I appreciate this considered review. I would question - is there a way to "save" it from itself? A rulebook / Scenario book 2.0? Or is this just a bad romance novel at the checkout counter and should be forgotten ?
Resell it. By the time a version 2.0 will be out, your version won't have any value anymore because 2.0 will be out.
I'd advise to try it yourself before listening to NPI blindly, the game is quite good despite all the typos and negative comments. It's not definitely GOTY but I'm perfectly happy with the price I paid for it. I'm done with the campaign and there are many paths I haven't explored in the campaign book.
There's an FAQ/errata list if needed but it's perfectly fine without it, and the second edition is on its way to Kickstarter I believe (they are focused on Mythwind at the moment).
I still have not played mine, but I heard that is the type of game that you love or hate. So It is hard to tell. Maybe i'll sell mine, not because I think is bad, probably I'd love It, but It could be too much for my SO (now I only play games with her), and that is very important too: would you like It, and also all the other players? If the answer is yes, keep It, It looks quite fun and a very unique experience.
The game is super easy to learn and play. One of the easier big box epic experiences to learn.
Thank you for another in-depth and thoughtful discussion of not just one game, but the broader field of game design.
Great video as always
Can I get this instead of all the other games you referenced to get a single refined experience?
No bun included. Sorry. Had to do it
I'll allow it.
Thanks for the review.
glad you touched on the writing! but I thought the writing in Gloomhaven & JoTL wasn't good either. excited for Frosthaven & Sleeping Gods though!
I think there's a lot to be said about Gloomhaven understanding that story isn't its strong suit and choosing its focus points well. The amount of time Akarios spends on story is not even comparable - they are vastly different games in that regard. (edited grammar)
The writing in gloomhaven is doing its job, I'd say. OG GH especially is really lacking some structure in terms of narrative but the city and road events are just small pieces of story that kinda shape the world and I appreciate that. The way the game allows you to play whatever scenario at any time really breaks the immersion and coherence of the story imo.
JOTL has a much clearer focus on an overarching story. But still, it's more like giving you a scenery to work your imagination on and is by no means Pulitzer stuff. The best writing in GH were the KS mini campaigns. They are very well structured and don't overburden you with too much information. However, they are also pretty damn bland.
I'd say the writing itself is well done in GH. It doesn't get into the way of the experience consistently like it does in some other games (e.g. by laughing about the bad or forced writing like in most recent Crime Games) but it really suffers from the fact that most groups don't play more than once a week (if at all). You just forget most of what already happened before when you continue a subplot 2 months after your last encounter with it. That made us quit GH halfway through, we were not invested in the story anymore and played enough of it at that point.
Well written narratives are pretty rare in board games imho. I really liked the writing in Sherlock Holmes. Also, I liked the little stories in Above and Below (which gives me hope for Sleeping Gods, but haven't played that yet). But apart from that, most stories I encountered are very bland and don't understand the medium and it's limitations very well. They try to tell too much at the wrong time or are just really, really bad.
I kinda gave up on story driven games but still massively enjoy well written little Vignettes like in Above and Below or the City Events in GH.
You didn't ask for my opinion but there you have it lol
I did not, but those are all very well reasoned good points.
@@NoPunIncluded oops I made this comment before your credits section. I see the bar can and will go lower than bland! I liked the city events in GH too, and the scant flavor in Cthulhu Death May Die. Sherlock Holmes is wonderful! Clank legacy did a nice job imo. AH LCG gets it good sometimes.
Generally nowadays when I'm itching for a narrative game I remind myself to pick up a book instead, but that's just cause our group can't do a campaign.
@@maxmustermann9036 This brings to mind Arabian Nights. The game doesn't take you through a story, the story creates itself with the little events. Which can make every game unique. Granted at that point it's not so much a game as an experience.
Thanks for another great review, I appreciate the detailed explanation of why you like or don't like a game
A 35 minute review yet everything you say is on point, informative and entertaining. Proffesional stuff Efka, good job.
I'm looking forward to your review of Oathsworn
I am not, it's gonna take a lot of work to tackle that beast! But hey, hopefully soon.
Thank you for the review. I own the game but I've not played it yet. Now I know what to look out for.
Great review !
Curious to know why you don't like Ares expedition.
I'm not allowed to elaborate, sorry.
Space Gloomhaven sounds like an amazing Kickstarter hook, but I can see how the gas would run out in the actual game design phase.
I have liked what I have seen so hopefully I can get a secon hand copy somewhere.
So how far through your Gloomhaven campaign are you peeps now?
Thank you for the review! I am currently designing my own fantasy Viking dungeon crawl without randomness in combat, so seeing this was super interesting as something to learn from! Cheers and maybe see you in Essen.
LOVE the thumbnail
Very good review.
"Only get this game if you want to learn what no to do." WOW! On a brighter note they showed they have Oathsworn makes me so happy. I am so looking forward to that review. I love that game.
You mean The Tall Game? There won’t be another review. It’s tall, Efka said it.
Loves the Adrian Tchaikovsky reference great author! Best part of the vid 😂 jk made my day though
Will you look at ISS Vanguard and compare it to Stars of Akarious?
Entertaining review that made me order an Adrian Tchaikovsky book and re-install Starcom Nexus (Highly recommended, say hi to the Phage for me).
Man these videos r incredible. Whole cloth?! Whole cloth, babyyyyy!!
I have no thoughts regarding Akarios, but I NEED elaboration on that Ares Expedition take
Not allowed, sorry. Out of my hands.
Are you going to review Iss Vanguard? It seems that it is the space game that I have always wanted.
You know, I just got really burnt out on Dreamscape or Dreamtheatre or whatever it was called. Etherfields, that's the one.
Weird, i really liked playing this game with my daughter who also enjoyed it. I agree that its not fully polished, but the story reminded me of any generic Robotech anime style story. While I agree a lot of it is rinse and repeat over and over and over again, we could do 7 or 8 scenarios in a game play session where as we might be luck to get through 2 scenarios in GH, just due to trying to find all the tiles and setting up everything. I liked that the game was super simple to pickup and because its a long narrative i can skip a week or more and easily come back to it without having to remember the 80 plus page rules book that other big name games have. Also, gloomhaven's story was absolute rubbish, we played all of it and around scenario 30 or so in it, I couldn't tell you what the overall story was, so we just started going through them in whatever order was unlocked because it didn't seem to matter anymore. Jaws of the line's story was way easier to follow, but it was pretty much a single line path, I'm hoping frosthaven is better than gloomhaven, but if not I've got plenty of other big narrative story campaigns left to start/finish. Anyways that's my 2 cents that probably aren't worth a penny.
This was really good, thanks
The Trains cardboardtier is my jam. Or bag. Or... bag full of jam?
The difference between videogames and board games is usually that board games have low computing power because long bookkeeping could hurt a lot. The minigame of telling a story with numbers printed in locations, works very much like videogames. The problem is that not many board game designers have ever designed a small PC game.
So trying to go big without understanding big videogame projects, may deliver problems.
If you play Urquan Masters, it is a masterpiece of writing. So creative and yet so complete, if you forgive the aged graphics. Urquan Masters is an open source project.
I've really liked Arkady Martine's 2 tleixcala books. also if youare okay with Will Wheaton voice He does a good job on the Collapsing Empire series Audio Books.
Brilliant review, loved your analysis as always.👍
I like how Splendor is in the zombie tier and half of the brown tier is repeated
so brown I listed em twice.
Hurray for the riff raff!!
great review!
I did get the impression that if they had stuck to the space combat and only focused on making that as good as possible, it would have been a better game. But then I did not like 7th continent, so I was primed to dislike this one that basis alone.
It still sounds like they just didn't have a good enough system. Obviously if they didn't have the other aspects they could have had more complex enemy movement rules which might have helped but gloomhaven has enemies run straight at you so you can't just transpose it's AI onto it and expect it to work. I mean even videogames didn't try and deal with enemy ship AI for a long time, generally just scrolling a screen and having enemies move left and right across it... Which honestly might be a smart way to do it in boardgames too, but the point is it's hard and it's going to need an approach specific to it.
The other problem with it's seemingly intentional gloomhaven comparison is the thing that makes gloomhaven tick is burning cards. Resting burns cards, taking too much damage burns cards and your best moves burn cards, which removes those options from play. Replacing that with an energy track just doesn't work because energy doesn't provide sufficient tangible limitation. Not to say all games need to be gloomhaven, but you have to have something more tangible if that's your solution maintaining tension.
It could be better, but it would need some significant changes to be what it promises it's space combat would be like... And honestly the easiest to imagine option would be making it a team game instead, but then you'd loose the Kickstarter excitement of having a campaign, and let's be real here, people talk about Gloomhaven not Guards of Atlantis...
As SheezyBites mention. Hit points doesn't mean anything until there is only one left. This combat system is not punishing enough from what I've seen so far. No reviewers (and people i know who owns the game) have expressed that combat felt tense and strategic.
For all its other failings (oh boyo there are many), the Pathfinder deckbuilder game has your deck function as your health directly with cards getting removed from the game as you cycle through it and damage effectively speeding up the rate at which this occurs.
Hyperflop, hahaha, amazing!
“Read bad books” - great advice!
Stumbled upon your review and was impressed. Well done, my friend. It's refreshing to see critics actually being be critical.
Please! Keep up the good work of actually analysing and talking about subtext in games. Anyone who like me thinks boardgames are a legitimate cultural expression should be happy that that people as insightful and eloquent as you and Elaine help shining a light on this fact. If we want our hobby to be taken seriously maybe just maybe we can't wet our pants every time someone suggests that the narratives of our games does not live in a void but rather are part of the larger cultural context with in which they exist. For most of us this is obvious, so please, don't let loud, scared people dissuade you guys from including the kind of discussions you have at the end of this great video.
How does this have an 8.7 on bgg? I have realized that a lot of people think that the most basic of writing is a story. For example, the event cards in Scythe. I'm sorry, but there is no story there. Chronicles of Crime or Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective have story not just flavor text.
Thank you for reviewing this from both a mechanics and story perspective. Sometimes if you confuse the players with a vastness of tasks, players believe it must be a fun game. But simple is often better.
Thank you for being able to break down both sides of the game.
Maybe the rating is based on expectations and the sunken cost fallacy.
Have someone read a great a short story while other players play a simpler, multiplayer solitaire game. You might get a more memorable experience.
BGG ratings are weird. There's a noticeable trend that big games with lots of mechanics score higher and are therefore good. My hypothesis is that people with enough interest in the hobby not to be put of by massive games per se will probably do their research beforehand (doubly so if they are time-limited) and therefore those people that do buy (and therefore rate) these large games are more pre-selected to like and highly rate the games, so the games do well in the ratings because the people who don't like them don't buy them and therefore don't rate them at all.
Very good review
Great review as always.
Looking at the thumbnail, SNL writers could learn a thing or two when they use memes for their sketches.
PS: agree 123% with your father-in-law about writing on Doctor Who.
So bargin bin for minis?
As a fellow content creator, though in the miniature wargaming sphere, I always find your reviews informative for not only the game, but just how to do well thought out quality content that really has something to say. Also, as a backer of this game, I really hope I like it more than you do. I fear I will not.
Still dreaming of a good and functional version of Xia. Card-based space exploration sounds wonderful, conceptually. But concept isn't everything, as the whole history of hobby gaming shows...
I would say a functional version of the promise of Xia. I think the actual functional version of what Xia is is Wormholes. I think the best example of what Xia promised is Star Trek Frontiers, but it's still not exactly, although it is very good in its own right.
@@SheezyBites I do love Mage Knight and have been a trekkie since small times, so i really should give Frontiers a shot.
Efka, you’re amazing. This was a great review. Very well thought out. I’ve been watching you for so many years now and you’ve inspired me to make my own videos now. Your clever, funny, well spoken, and really astute.
I’m also excited to see your box of oathsworn. I’m normally a dry euro fan or a party game fan, but gloomhaven really did open the door to something bigger and I’ve been plaything though oathsworn lately and have been consistently impressed with several elements - though I have a few criticisms. It’s no gloomhaven when it comes to the strategic depth, but it definitely builds an engrossing world and narrative with genuine surprises and excitement in both story and combat. I hope you do a review of it!
Did you review ISS Vanguard?
Love that he was saying 2017 better not be as bad as 2016!
Knizia’s New Tactical Games is great! Do you have a favourite game from it?
Is it weird that I'm just sort of reading it? Not played a single one yet, but I hear the decathlon game is good?
@@NoPunIncluded Dubito is probably my favourite, it’s a bit of a early lost cities. Decathlon, Mr. president, 600, goal (I might be remembering the name wrong) are all good… just don’t get his book blazing aces, it hasn’t aged well and you’d probably hate it.
Why is Splendor in the "Zombies" tier?
Those dashboards are pretty spiffy anyway.
I have questions about Wingspan's carboardtier
Why? Seems perfectly normal to me.
Have you ever considered review Kingdom Death: Monster? Would love to see your take on my favorite game of all time.
No, it's genuinely not something I can afford, but also I think there's a level of minutae that I'd struggle to have fun with and also the art is something that will actively work against my enjoyment of it.
this is exactly how I felt about it. Have you ever tried Battlestations? Would be interested how you find that space combat game.
Talking about writing, in a short PDF, "Space Aces TNG The New Guidebook" manages to deliver COUNTLESS solo scifi adventures. And all of that using a single D6. It is so amazingly crafted that you can see genius and very well though retro scifi. This makes you think that probably a bigger project should have done better.
Will we be seeing an ISS Vanguard review?
probably not, you can blame Etherfields.
I just came for the Undaunted Stalingrad glimpse 🤤 @22:10
I hope the comprehensive review delivered.
@@NoPunIncluded "A good game". instant purchase, just pre-ordered it now thank you 👍🏼
Love these reviews! Fantastic editing and pacing of the video. The game though, meh... I think you should keep an eye out for the Rogue Angels board game. I was looking into both of these, but Akarios just feel bad in comparison. Looking forward to the kickstarter of Rogue Angels (second run).
I bought the game, loved the initial thought of it but as time when on (1year later than expected delivery) I started loosing faith and did have a buyer. But then it arrived, played the first mission (wrongly) and loved it. Played same mission again and we loved it. Going to paint it all up before I carry on.
I agree, potential here is enormous but it's underdeveloped. Still having a blast, though. You just need to improvise a bit.. ;)
In 1996 Derek Smart had this magical idea of having a Capital ship with shuttles, fighters, trading, space combat, ground combat. But it seems the publisher took his project in Alpha stage and published it absolutely unfinished, for whatever reason. Smart was not Mr Charm, so I can figure that someone could have made a move to retaliate. And the result was a tremendously cool concept and a poor implementation. Still, playing the game with bug fixes, makes you imagine what could have been. Later Independence War Deluxe Edition did the magic with capital ships, and Battlezone 98 redux made the magic with ground combat. Both are at Steam.
At least Smart could pack a patch so people could play a more stable version. But I am sure components will not be replaced by the publisher for Akarios. What a mess...
Soooo, it's basically Xia: Legends of the 7th Gloomhaven: Bullet❤ Edition
Where should I send the magpie picture?
Yeah I've been wondering that too
@@NoPunIncluded ☺
Engagement for the engagement god!
please tell me of good board games with spaceships, i too want to be a spaceship.
Are you reviewing a tall game anytime soon?
UNDAUNTED STALINGRAAAAAAD!!!
It's tough to watch things be very justly dragged. But I did play a couple scenarios of this and simply could not return.
As a designer/publisher I really feel for these folk. Obviously loads of work has gone into this.. ..but enough time and writing has not.
The shrimp movie politics was real.. .. especially given where it was set.
I get it. cuz in space it takes a lot of Time to get where you want to go
Those are some great cardboard tiers!
22:09 *childish glee* 😊
get a room!
I always enjoy and appreciate your analysis and commentary on boardgames - even for games that do not match my game preferences. Thank you for continuing to create boardgame content that is full of honesty and integrity. Cheers!
i do love the modifier deck from gloom haven and hope it is adapted by more games and rpgs. i also hope useing them can be something you do without being called a gloomhaven rip off. the space combat here dose sound fun, wish it lived up to the promis
5 minutes in, I knew I did not want this. Can't help but watch for the presentation. Excellent as always.
Flyperhop
After watching this, I think I wanna replay the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster fan expansion for Star Wars - X-Wing instead. 😁