Yokai Pagoda Review: The best card game I've played this year
A short, sharp 'filler' still stuck in my head
š BGG rated 7.7/10 w. just 498 ratings š
At first glance, Yokai Pagoda has āfillerā written all over it. But scratch the surface and thereās far more lurking beneathā¦
š Quick stats
š” Designer: Jacobo Rufete
šØļø Publisher: PIF Games
š Released: 2023
š§š»āš¤āš§šæ Players: 2-5
š Age: 8+
āļø Weight: 1.33/5
ā±ļø Time: 10-15 minutes
Buy a copy:
šŗšø Riftgate Games (North America)
š¬š§ Chaos Cards (UK)
š§© Game Overview
Every culture has its meddlesome creatures.
Imps, leprechauns, fairies. Spirits that tamper with human affairs when weāre not looking.
In Japan, theyāre called Yokai. Some are playful, others malevolent. If youāve seen Spirited Away, youāll recognise a few.
In Yokai Pagoda, you explore a haunted temple (the card deck), trying to appease ten different Yokai with careful offerings.
The deck consists of ten suits ā one for each Yokai ā with cards numbered 1 to 10. Each round, players receive a fresh hand of ten cards.
Playing Cards & Making Offerings
In the centre are two offering piles, one on each side of the pagoda deck. On your turn youāll play a card onto one of these piles and trigger an effect, depending on how your card compares to the one on top.
Match suit or number? You discard on top and offload a second card from your hand into another playerās. Cue the āhot potatoā of punishing cards bouncing around the table.
Canāt match?
Play a higher card. You discard it and either draw a blind card from the pagoda deck or take the top card from the opposite offering pile.
Want to play a lower card? You then calculate the total value of your hand. If itās above 3, nothing happens. If itās 3 or less, you can end the round immediately, or choose keep playing. End the round and you must show your hand.
How You Score
This is the sharpest part of the design. The goal is a low score, but itās not as simple as adding up your hand. You only score the lowest card in each suit.
So a single ā1ā in a suit cancels out that ugly ā9ā you were stuck with. This means collecting low cards in a wide spread of suits can be key. Passing that high card to an opponent might not be as devastating as it seems.
At the end of each round you add your leftover hand to your āfailed offeringsā, a personal, face-down pile.
You can check your failed offerings pile at any time to track your score and plan around it.
After three rounds (four in a 2-player game), everyone reveals their failed offerings and totals the lowest card in each suit.
Lowest score wins.
š§ G.A.M.E. Analysis
š² G - Gameplay
(pacing, downtime, intuitiveness)
As youād expect from a pure card game, Yokai Pagoda is brisk. Setup is near-instant and youāre done in about 15 minutes.
The rules, however, arenāt as breezy. Each play option is highly conditional. Match suit or number and you do X, go higher and do Y. Go lower instead and if Z is true choose between A and B, else just do A. Initially it feels more like an Excel formula than a card game.
Itās not naturally intuitive. In early plays, youāll often find yourself narrating turns aloud just to confirm youāre doing it right. If youāve read my other reviews, youāll know I love a good player aid. Fortunately, Yokai Pagoda includes one and it helps a lot.
After two or three games, the logic starts to click and the friction fades. That said, managing your āfailed offeringsā pile remains a bit fiddly. Youāre constantly thumbing through it to recall whatās there.
ā Score: 18/25
šØ A - Art & Theme
(visual appeal, thematic coherence, component quality)
Iām a sucker for a Japanese theme and thatās what initially drew me to the game. Unfortunately, it doesnāt do much beyond window dressing. Thatās not uncommon for card games as itās tough to nail a theme without a board or other components.
The card art is fine, though on the darker side. I just feel the artwork could sing more. The yokai illustrations are mostly hidden in-hand and the only way to distinguish suits is by background colour. No suit symbols, which isnāt ideal.
Card quality, however, is excellent. No corners cut there.
ā Score: 14/25
āļø M - Mechanics
(design elegance, balance, novelty)
If it seems like Iāve been down on the game so far, Iām about to award some big points. Yokai Pagoda is just so damn clever.
At first, it looks like a simple game. After all, there are just ten cards in each of ten suits. However, the sheer depth of the gameplay astounded me. With each new game comes another āHuh!ā Moment when you discover a fresh layer.
Hereās just one example of how the two piles make for interesting choices. The well thought out scoring system means that people naturally want low cards to mitigate their high cards. Playing a high card to the opposite pile makes it a lot harder for them to take a low card from the other. So hanging on to high cards can be powerful, but also you risk getting stuck with them. For me, itās these kind of tense trade-offs that make the game.
Everyone Iāve played with so far was unanimous that this is a gamerās card game. Thereās no way itās as light as its BGG rating suggests. The rules may seem clunky at first, but they make for a beguiling game.
It has the highest strategic depth to game length ratio of any filler game Iāve played.
ā Score: 23/25
š E - Enjoyability
(fun factor, replayability, emotional response)
This isnāt a game people laugh through, but itās enjoyable in a different, more cerebral way. Itās all about the mental dance of outmanoeuvring opponents, setting traps and blocks, and watching high cards ricochet back and forth in a tense battle of wits.
Itās short enough that most times it ends with āanother game?ā Replayability is strong, especially once everyone knows the system.
ā Score: 20/25
šØ Final Verdict
Yokai Pagoda is the best new card game Iāve played so far this year. Itās a rare case of a fast-playing āfillerā that offers real strategic meat.
Iām happy with the theme, but Iād look again at the artwork and then it would really pop.
But even now itās an elegant, under-the-radar gem that should be winning far more plaudits.
Buy a copy:
šŗšø Riftgate Games (North America)
š¬š§ Chaos Cards (UK)
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