Dorfromantik Review: It Takes a Child to Build a Village
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- Опубліковано 7 чер 2024
- Tom and Chris take a look at Dorfromantik!
0:00 Intro
1:14 Overview
5:19 Final Thoughts
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BGG Link: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3... - Ігри
The flags don’t have to be surrounded. They just need the type of territory to be sealed off. So if is forest, for example, it just needs to be a finished forest, i.e. nowhere else another forest can go connected to that flag. I love this game. It’s short and chilled. I play it in my lunch break at work.
Correct, the flag explanation was mixed up in the overview.
"Dorfromantik" seems to be selling really well with the casual crowd in Germany. I would even say it's gonna be on the shortlist for "Spiel des Jahres".
I appreciate the honest response from Chris and Tom. I'm also glad this type of niche games exist, no direction nor competition, no pressure light game. I remember a reviewer's play-through shows this game rewards balanced town development tile-laying unlike the more common goal-driven-maximize type or number of resources (specialization). This game reminds me of Stonemaier's episode about what motivates people to play a game: intrinsic value (own enjoyment) vs extrinsic value (expecting rewards from the game or player interactions). It's helpful for me to watch different game reviewers who prefer / expect different things from a game experience. I can see Rahdo finding this game charming, while Alex from BoardGame Co would say this game is not heavy enough. I balance out their praise and criticism so I will try different genres but won't rush out to buy game$$ either 🤣
Announced as a Spiel des Jahres nominee today!
Won the Spiel des Jahres today
Announced as the President of Spiel today
Bang!
"It's not a game because you can't lose." So when I play Hadrian's Wall solo, I'm not playing a game? This is a 'beat your score' kind of game, and it's no different in that regard.
I don't even know that Hadrian's Wall is a game in multiplayer. It was such a heavy handed Skinner box that I couldn't understand why anyone would play it twice.
@@VaultBoy13 Skinner box?
I think you guys are underselling a bit how hard it is to get a very high score in this game. As you get to know the tiles there is a lot of long term planning and probabilistic decision making that goes along with achieving a high score. I very much disagree that the tiles are all fine… we often cheered or groaned depending on what tiles we drew. I also think it feels like a loss when you have a low scoring game.
It’s easy to see how this game isn’t for everyone but I think a lot of people are going to like this.
Exactly my thoughts. Having played ~15 games of Dorfromantik, I think that you need to put a lot of thought into building up the different types of areas to make sure that you can make use of the different scoring options. It for sure isn't as hard as chess or anything like that, but especially with the additional scoring options you won't score highly without thinking about what tiles are still left and where to put each one.
We are in total agreement. I think this is a care where they didn't play the game much and didn't really experience some of the more challenging achievements that unlock over time. This game does generate groans of disappointment and tense moments that can lead to cheers and laughter.
This was one of my favorite games last year. It's my go to solo game if I want an interesting puzzle for 45 minutes - practically no setup, teardown or upkeep. And I do think there's tension - depending on the goals you try to achieve - and I think the achievements are great! You get so many new toys to play with every round. I love this solo, or with my 7-year old - however, I would not play this cooperativley with other grown-ups.
This game is more like the experience of doing a puzzle... a not so challenging puzzle, but a good relaxing puzzle, and I like the fact I can play this with a wide variety of age groups, and it is just sort of like chillin' with Grandma playing cards. I can't explain it, but I like it for that, and it doesn't demand the brain space 90% of games I play do... therefore I would rate it higher at a 7.5.
I agree that Dorfromantik has its own unique feel and is hard to categorize. I instantly became one of my favorites. I rate it a 9.2 and it is in my top 10. For reference; I played over 400 games.
I find it both relaxing and very exciting. Especially when you get to know the tiles and are planning for challenging achievements. Although you unlock certain items by just playing, specific goals require you to carefully plan.
It has the same addictive feeling of progression compared to My City.
I mostly play this game solo, but it also very nice with 2.
I usually dislike coops, because I find them often repetitive and / or they steer your actions because of your special power. But Dorfromantik is like a tactical puzzle in which you have to consider how the tiles come out and how to anticipate that. That aspect of the game reminds me of the Castles of Burgundy, when you try to set up your terrain so you can chain resolving the task tiles.
I am curious how Zee rates this game, I think he will love it.
What I really like about this game is that you can leave the table, come back in a few minutes, look at it, and be right back in. In other cooperative games, everthing goes to a halt. This is such a smooth hop on - hop off experience. Very chill.
I played the video game (made in my city, Berlin) on Switch, and I can really see why a lot of people describe the board game as a "solo game you can play with other people". The video game is a meditative solo experience, in the most positive sense.
This is actually such a lovely cooperative game for 2 or maybe 3 people to just chill out. I've played it several times and bought a copy because of it. It's a point attack game. You don't need a loss condition for it to be a game, which is such a weird framing from such experienced gamers, especially who grew up in the age of the arcade game?! It is very light, and could just be done solo, but just play the video game if you want to play solo. I really like that it has a finite number of tiles. People arguing it doesn't translate from videogame to boardgame seem to only love the endless nature of the videogame; having a definite end point and knowing what is in the stack makes it far more of a deductive and probability puzzle, than the endless randomness of the videogame.
Info: the flags do not give points when they are surrounded, but when the feature, in this case the forest, is completed.
Tom, I think you haven't heard of the videogame because it is a videogame, not an app. It was made for Windows and then got popular on Steam. It's on the Switch, but then most Steam games are on Switch so it isn't necessarily popular there. The videogame is basically "Solo Carcassonne" and I like it WAAAAAAY better than Carcassonne. A lot more options. You expand the various types to earn more tiles but then you also have to enclose them to earn more and matching borders will get you more too. So it's not just, "Well obviously I need to add this road tile to my road over there..."
I have been highly enjoying the videogame of this on steam for months now. I knew they were making a board game of it. I so love the design that they went for on the board cover and tiles and score counters. I'm also glad to hear you both have had a good time with to give it a average score. I'll definitely have to look out for this one.
Hey, this is super interesting. I have played the app in the past and I want to say this: I never open it up when I am in the "game mood". BUT I enjoy playing it when I want to relax, when I want to have a nice quiet time building a landscape. When I want to zoom out and not worry about losing or gaming rules. And I feel like this BG adaptation might be just that. And yes... maybe it's a better solo experience. Or a game you play with friends when you want to chat and not be too deep in the game?
I picked up the app on GOG on a whim and have loved it. It is so peaceful and relaxing, and good for a few minutes while I am waiting for something. I grabbed this board game at Airecon and get a similar feeling from it. It is a good game, but aye I do wonder about its longevity as there is little challenge.
Though it does sound like you are playing the flag tiles wrong: they don't need to be surrounded. The flag terrain on the tile has to be "enclosed". Which means "no open ends" in this game (and the app). In other words, the tile that you showed was a forest flag. If you placed any non-forest edge next to that forest it would score you one point. If you put a 1-edge forest attached to it you would get two points, but if you put a 2-edged forest next to it you would score 0 points unless you also closed that new open edge.
I think this is a fun game to play just for the sake of playing something without any tension. I have A LOT! of games and over 80% are heavy with weight 4+ some close to 5. I love them all. But there's times when I just want to sit down and play something without actually winning or losing. But just as an act of relaxation. Completely shutting down my mind. The only game that could do that until now is playing Jump Drive solo in the fashion of trying to reach the game ending score in less "rounds". But it's like just that one game and it gets boring after some time. Dorfromantik will finally add a second title to that pile of let's call them "meditative games" Cannot wait to have it on the table.
I'm surprised by these average scores. I'm one of the few here who prefers this to the video game. I don't like single player games, but I do like playing cooperative games with my wife, just for relaxation.
Om that regard I find this game to be for tile laying games what Lands of Galzyr is for story driven games. Relaxing, no way to lose, and a nice cooperative experience.
If I want something competitive I've got plenty of games, but sometimes you just want to puzzle (or have an adventure) without worrying about stuff too much. This game scratches that itch.
So, would you say this has a good light puzzly feel to it? I didn't really get a sense on that one way or the other from the review, and I've yet to play the app. I do like brain-relaxing, light, solo games, but they have to have some positive feedback points, like clicking that jigsaw piece into the right spot or coming up with the right word in a not-too-difficult crossword.
@@jameswoodard4304 Yes. This overview and review have significantly undersold just what this game feels like and does. They were super dismissive.
@@jameswoodard4304 Definitely!
Callig this a "non game" because it lacks lose conditions is kinda ridiculous. Sure, technically you cannot lose the game, but score 50 points as Vagabond and see how great that makes you feel.
You can in fact lose tasks, you can majorly screw yourself up, you can have long discussions about long term strategies to mitigate the strong element of chance and most importantly you want to beat your old highscore.
Now, yes - you do get more elements that will help you to do that. But it is far from a given, that these actually will help you that much. While yes, the potential to earn more points increases the way these mechanics interact also make it more difficult to reach full potential for a given round. This is reflected by the achievements that unlock even more mechanics in the game. Its difficult going into detail without spoiling too much, but one of the earliest addition to the game lets you score more points through the tasks you solve. But the resulting increased range in randomness makes tasks less easy to predict. So from now on you have to get better at constructing your board smartly so you can lay your tiles in good positions, no matter what comes. Either that or you purposefully fail a task and sacrifice the points (and potentially your hope for completing some of those nasty achievements) in hopes of getting points by other means.
Yes, it starts out pretty basic and the game remains chill which is authentic to the original Dorfromantik game. And that is something that can be criticised. But while there is stuff you can critique about the game (like some of the later more obtruse mechanics, or the relatively slow pace throughout matches) you completely fail to look past this superficial point you bring up.
[It's so odd to me that you say its not like theres ever a bad draw. The amount of tension and subsequent raging or celebration my friends and me had while playing this game with certain tile draws were absolutely fantastic. But if you dont like or dont get a lot from motivation from discovering new mechanics, beating your highscore and managing arg tile draws, then yeah...]
You should really try playing this with kids. Also, it‘s perfect with two, because it’s only a solo game in theory. In practise, four eyes see more than two, because mid to end game there are always more options than you think at first glance.
The game is currently the most likely candidate for Spiel des Jahres. Maybe you should give it another whirl with Zee or your kids, Tom.
Chris said in a later vid that he and Wendy played with their seven year old daughter and she was bored
I checked out the video game version tonight, and it’s lovely. Not sure I would like the board game version as much because the video version seems more detailed and immersive, maybe leaving the board game play feeling like it’s lacking or lost something in the translation from screen to table?
This seems like a good "chitchat"or "lazy Sunday" game. No pressure, light music, just enjoying company. I think I'll pick it up if I can find it for a good price.
Thanks for the review. I played it with my daughter (11) and we really much enjoyed it. But if it came to the scoring, my daughter found it boring even though we unlocked the first box and said "just let's play it again". So the goal to reach more points does not work for us to well, but playing the game itself and completing the taskts was much fun and satisfying for the both of us.
The comparison I was missing was to Sprawlopolis.
And saying why Sprawlopolis manages to keep the tension while otherwise a similar game (though the scoring is known at the beginning).
Same feel of 'coop but prefer solo'.
I does look like a pretty faithful recreation of the app but in the app the tension comes from the numbers on the goals getting higher and higher.
I'm playing this as a solo game only at the moment. I would love to see a review by Mike of this one. It's a great puzzle that keeps you coming back for more as you want to unlock all the goodies and improve your score. Very addictive. And yes, you could play it online, but I don't want to spend more screen time at home after sitting in front of the pc all day. This game is great to relax and unwind after work with a cuppa.
The Dorfromantik app is great, the board game gets close to its chill 'winding down for the day' kind of feel, but doesn't quite get there. In the app, you can get acheivements to unlock more things, but it also has 2 other mechanics that you just can't really pull off in the board game. There are hidden tiles in the ether that when you join up, give you a goal to aim for (so many houses in the town etc), which in turn will unlock other things for you.
The other mechanism thats missing is that when you complete a goal, it adds more tiles to your stack, so it gives you that little step up to the board game, whereby not completing enough goals kind of means you lose as run out of tiles when you could have kept going to increase your score, but the board game seems to just have a finite stack.
The app also differs slightly from the board game in that the goals aren't 'number of conected tiles', its inidividual houses/trees/fields etc (Don't worry, the app counts them for you), and also comes with an exact amount goal, and an equal to or more than goal. So there's just more to it with the app.
The board game does have another stack of tiles for the quests. So if you ignore quests, the game ends sooner. It exactly replicates that from the videogame. It isn't "missing".
@Roman Boyar That's not really the same. When you complete a mission in the video game, you get several more tiles. When you complete a mission in the board game, you get one more tile. So yes you do get more, but only superficially.
@@sorrowsong08 yes. But it's true in the absolute sense? A board game cannot be endlessly variable. That's why videogames exist. But the element of the game "extending" as a result of doing quests still exists. I think it was translated very well! A boardgame is literally by definition going to be "finite" so it's an extremely bizarre complaint. Every boardgame is more finite than any videogame.
I would like the solo, chill out aspect from time to time. I like anything really as long as it’s good.
Chris is a great addition to the channel. Give him a raise, Tom!
Looks nice but I think this plays better and more relaxing as a video game. Thanks for the review and your opinions.
Interesting! I knew of the video game on Steam. Never knew it became a board game.
Surprised to hear that Tom's never heard of Dorfrimantik, because I'm pretty sure the first time I heard about it was when Eric mentioned it a few times on the podcast with him.
Purely solo game for me - but I’m loving it. And the tension really is there for some of the harder goals. Three of them have been eluding me for several plays now.
Probably an 8.5 for me.
I’m not competitive at all - I just love to play. This sounds perfect for me 😊 ✌🏻
Perfect! I think a lot of people will enjoy the free-flow nature and unlocking bonus bits to add more to their puzzle. Hope you enjoy.
You should watch the BGG team's video review; that will dispel the idea that there's nothing worth deciding strategically. You're missing a whole layer of the game.
Interesting review 😊, this has been surprisingly well received by a lot of regular gamers in my group including my friend who always wants to win to the point that she breaks some engine games 😂. I found the intrinsic achievement system highly enjoyable.
In my opinion, this is just wrong. We as a family enjoyed the game 16 times in 3 weeks untill we unlocked everything.
In my opinion you are just wrong. We as a family didn't enjoy the game, the kids found it a snooze fest. So...
I really really enjoyed it. Definitely a solo or 2 player only. Played through the game in 7 days and 22 games. Was really fun unlocking everything. Was very relaxing
I thought I wouldn't like it but apparently my wife an I enjoy the puzzle for a relaxed evening play with a bit of talking on days where we are not in the mood for anything heavy
I really enjoying this game myself and I can see you reasons for this game about no competition or win/lose condition. But this kind of game make me wanna pull off the shelf and just lay everything off to build as much as many points as I can and also unlocking new challenging for the next game to see if I can do better next time. For sure, this game is not a tense game with any tension, but it gives me a very positive vibe while playing it and I can pull out at anytime to play without have to be really serious about it. I, myself, mostly enjoy many euro game with a lot of things to think. But this one feels very weird that’s not somy thing to think but very pleasant to play. So I agree on not really tension in there, but the vibe it gives was really good vibe I cannot help myself to halt😂
I thought that it was about golfing, because of the windmill and the sand trap and the green and because I honestly thought it was a licensed Dorf On Golf game.
The video game is very "zen like" and probably my most played game of last year, by accident. I will probably give it a try because of how much I liked the video, but I probably won't play it nearly as much.
Definitely try the app
Maybe you would like the game a bit more if you played by the correct rules 😅 I saw 2 rule mistakes: 1. The flags dont need to be surronded but instead score if they are part of a completet area of that type with no open ends. 2. The number for the task tile is drawn before you place the tile. That gives you the opportunity to place a bit more strategically.
Anyway it doesnt make that much of a difference i guess. But i still like it. I would even say this might be considered for the Spiel des Jahres this year.
You're right, the flags explanation was mixed up with perhaps something else that is unlocked layer in the campaign (seeeeeecrets!). We did play by the correct rules, but fair points to mention.
@@DTChrisYi Well then you have clearly no clue when it comes to good boardg....Just kidding, i totally get how this game doesn't work for everyone. In this way it seems somewhat special...often games are polarising in a way where people either hate the game or love th game. This one seems more to be one where people either love it or are rather unconcerned.
Anyway, love you videos even when you're wrong ;-) Keep it up and greetings from Germany (not from a romantic village though unfortunately)
@feijee8937 I agree here that this game isn't for everyone, but I think a LOT of people will really enjoy what it offers. It seems to be a pretty faithful adaptation of the video game and might be perfect for folks who otherwise don't vlbuy a lot of board games.
@@DTChrisYi I wonder what that means for us, we have 400ish game collection and consider ourselves serious gamers, and everyone who's played this with us has been loving it. No, it's not Brass Birmingham, but it's not a mindless activity with no point either. The challenge to do well does ramp up the more you unlock and the more achievements you have to shoot for. ;)
The honest review is appreciated, all points are valid. If I haven't played the video game before, this review would be bad news for me. Luckily, it seems the board game tries to replicate the video game, which I love for its puzzle aspect and relaxing feel.
Hmmm...I don't know about this one. On one hand, sometimes I really do feel like a solo "game" that's really just me sitting around chilling, with my brain cruising in second or third gear, with little to no stress. It's like working on a jigsaw or a word search.
On the other hand, even jigsaws and word searches provide those tiny little aha moments, and I'm not sure fulfilling the task tiles will do that.
I guess it all depends on the distribution of the tiles and if it has any puzzliness to it at all. It doesn't take much, but there should be something.
It is there. Way more than what TDT indicated.
@@RolandIronfist13 ,
Thanks for the input.
The board game is an attempt to transfer the 'cozy' style of video games that the video game was part of. Essentially removing the 'losing' conditions that may cause issues for certain people.
Seemed kind of boring until you revealed the extra boxes. Now I’m intrigued.
Good relaxing game on itch and Steam for sure. But I can see it being less so as a co-op game.
So in the video game (not app, video game) the only difference between it and the boardgame is that you have a limited number of tiles and you get more tiles by completing those objectives where you connect consecutive tiles. That would be your "lose" condition, where it shows you what your score is once you run out of tiles, because quest objectives become progressively more difficult to fulfill.
having said that, if you think games need lose conditions to be games, I recommend never playing Animal Crossing.
That is already somewhat simulated in the boardgame via the game ending once you run out of normal tiles, but there are always 3 goal tiles, when one is completed you need to place another, so the more goals you complete the more tiles you place, there's just a hard limit.
I played this game several times; it's enjoyable. As commented a couple of errors re: flags and placing the task tiles. Not to comment on more errors only (Dice Tower do an amazing job as always) but I believe you can have as many tasks as you like in play; you are not limited to 3 but rather you must have a minimum 3 in play at any one time; it is the player's choice to choose a task tile or a landscape tile and the essence of the game is balancing the two so you don't draw out the landscapes tiles and end the game prematurely with a low score.
I believe you are limited to 3 and draw immediately from that stack when you complete the objectives.
you are right I was playing it wrong! however there are several game tips which talk about keeping the number of unrevealed tasks as low as possible....this makes these tips pointless as it is no longer a choice in this case....less than 3? play a task. got 3? play a landscape. I think I actually prefer the game the other way : 0
@@joelhaslam1120 well it's your game! Play it how it works for you haha
Isnt the flag to make the biggest something and not surrounding it?
"I thought it was about dwarfs" -
Wow, I have never seen so many (and so long!) comments so quickly under a review
This or Mythwind?
Ive playd the video game version of this an enjoyd it an now that i know the basics the bored game version of this seems a bit more fun but interesting
Actually I really enjoy playing it with my kids and they really like it too. Getting the achievements and opening the boxes is a lot of fun. To unlock certain achievements you really need to carefully plan and it's definitely not just about zen laying tiles only to build a nice looking village. Far from it. And the achievements are not only about scoring more points but change the way the game is played. Each game is not samey like it is in eg Mists Over Carcassonne. You can play Dorfromantik roughly about 15 times to get all the achievements and each game would be played differently. It's also great as a solo game. I cannot disagree more with the final thoughts and to be honest basically the same things can be said about most of cooperative games ;)
Sounds like a board game for people who do jigsaws
I'm really triggered by calling the video game an "app", although it is not even available for Android or iOS.
Also, the video game very much has a lose condition and you play to beat your own high score.
I often call these games 'puzzle games'.....where its fun to play with other players to help solve the puzzle...it's just a different type of game experience to me
The video game version dose have a fail state which is running out of tiles. You gain more tiles by completing objectives, miss those objectives and its game over where as the board game is limited by the amount of tiles in the box. This may just be how it was described but the scoring at least in the video game seems a lot more complicated than the board game with each of the sides to a piece being allocated a biome and being worth 10pts and "perfects" gaining bonus points as well as extra tiles. To me based on the review here this seems like a simplified version that is similar or just based on the video game but almost to the point of being a game that shares the name and aesthetic and little else. But ill admit I haven't played the board game so I could be wrong.
I love the board game and I love the computer game. I play the board game with my wife and the computer game solo :)
you convinced me to buy it 😁
The app definitely has a way to loose because you eventually can’t put out anymore tiles if you don’t keep scoring
A good cooperative game will have game mechanics where the players can help each other...Not just discussions to help. This is not a good cooperative game. It might be a fun solo game or activity.
I would argue by your definition, pandemic is not a good cooperative game.
@@RolandIronfist13 That isn't true as in Pandemic each player gets a role card, and most of those roles give the player the ability to do something that helps other players out - Ops Expert can build research stations that help all players, Researcher can give cards to another player, the Dispatcher can move another player's pawn - so you are all working together by actually helping each other out. This game you're just discussing the options as one person hold the tile, and then placing it. There's nothing the other players can do to help outside of the discussion.
The point lost here is how great of a gateway game this is. Most coop games go over the heads of inexperienced players. Because this is so easy to understand and to play, that makes it a perfect cooperative gateway game. And the fact that you can’t even lose makes it even more perfect, as there is not that fear of screwing things up (for everyone!), which is the biggest fear of unexperienced players.
So, the super gamers did not give it a high score? That is because it’s SO well designed for non-gamers. And don’t be surprised to see this get a Spiel des Jahres nomination for the same reasons 😊
Just one is the same thing, no winning or losing, just see how many points you can get 🤷🏼♂️
Just One has a lot of tension and excitement each round, which I didn't feel here. Pretty different genres too. However you're right that win/loss isn't always needed. Heck, I never score Telestrations, just play it to laugh at it.
@@DTChrisYi yes! I was just making the point in response to Toms thoughts on this game is that just because there’s no losing doesn’t make it a bad game, because Just One. But I totally agree that the reason this might be a bad game is what you just said in your comment, no tension/excitement! Love your reviews, hope I can make it to a dice tower event one of these days!
Not necessary bad, but it tends to other players.
I like it a lot for being a different experience.
I dont have the boardgame already but i do have played the video game a lot , and its quite satisfactory in many levels, which is why i understand the board game success so far , altough i have the same feeling as Tom about it perceiving "not a game" regarding the lack of competitive mode nor the lose game outcome , that being said , i do think this "issue" could be easily fixed by house ruling some minor tweeks .
playing 2 or more :
A: task can be completed by any player , but only the player wich placed the last tile achieving the number required by the task will be granted the "task complete" , adding this value as a Victory point to his own . then it is granted to pick and place the next task tile wherever he wants on the map and passes his turn
B: Every player on his turn , may pick only 1 tile from the pile and place it on the map considering the rule A So here comes into play some bit of strategy and tension , the player may try to complete a task , but he must consider that if his tile do not complete the task number , the next player could and get the VP of it instead of him, otherway , he can place his tile somewhere else trying to "block" areas that may be available to other players to complete other tasks . Some times tasks may get fully blocked and this VPs lost for everyone.
C: Railroads and rivers functions like a growing task, when ever a player picks a tile with rail or river he may place it on the map connected to an existing rail or river , if this lane has at least 4 already connected tiles , he's granted with the title of ownership of that lane and gets his 5 VP (a point for every tile) put a player token above to show , this is only until someone else place an other tile connecting those and then this VPs goes to the new player , somehow like Catan does with roads,.
When no more tile were left in the pile , and the game finishes , the last player who owns a lane gets the many VP as tiles conected to it ,
C2: There could be many conected rivers and railroads that allow various players compete for them simultaneously as the map grows and railroads and rivers were placed.
C3: Players can block as well rivers and railroads areas placing a tile that has no conection to it or even prolong lanes to zones more over to areas that were enclosed by other types of tile stoping other players to take away this oportunities ,
As a final point , spending your only one tile per turn blocking a lane of river wich gives you 5 or 6 VP instead of complete a forest task , for example , its the knid of decision that pushes a bit of the relaxing theme , engaging players to decide every turn if they are up to try to score some VP or try to avoid other players to do so.
D: Game ends when no more tiles were available on the pile, then every player counts how many VP has , considering completed tasks and railroads / rivers lanes .
Chicken Winner the one with the most VP as usual
or whatever , i think the game allows some little bending to the rules as it is
sorry for the long post ! just got too enthusiast about it , jaja.
Hasta la vista !
So is "The Game of Life" not a game either? That game has no losers.
And to anyone replying "The game has winners, so the other players are losers", winning in Dorf Romantik can easily be seen as getting a higher achievement and unlocking new packs, so by the same logic, losing would be not achieving any progression.
I agree. I'm so flabbergasted by such a take. It's a point scoring game. Literally what every arcade game ever really did. They mention donkey kong as having a win or loss condition, but... they're just end conditions, either way you count your score??
Maybe my point wasn't as well articulated as I hoped. This is a game, because you play it for the sake of playing it and having fun. Donkey Kong is also a game, where you try to get the best score. But I'm more interested in playing for high-score in a video game than a board game. I feel that fun tension in Donkey Kong but not in the Dorf Romantik board game.
I wonder if they were trying to keep the price point of this game down by making it cooperative. It almost sounds like you need to buy multiple copies to make it competitive (but with something to keep the playing fields seperate)
If you want to have 2 games going simultaneously to see who scores higher, you could do that? Did you need pandemic to be competitive though?
As someone who's played quite a lot of Dorf Romantik on Steam, a board game version seems destined to be inferior to the video game. In the video game, you have a finite number of tiles in the build queue before you run out and the game ends, but whenever you complete a task you get a handful of extra tiles added to the build queue. So there's always a light pressure to get something done before it's Game Over. In the board game, you're limited from the offset by the number of tiles in the box, and there's no scaling of tasks as the game progresses (going beyond 4.5 or 6 to complete a task, say 10 for example). A physical version would never allow the semi-endless nature of the video game version, and therefore falls flat.
I also played a lot of this game and they really could have done it in a way that you start with fewer tiles and when you complete a task you add new tiles to the draw pile.
As someone who played both I can recommend Dorfromatik the board game. Even tough the limitless of the tiles need another missionsystem, it feels a lot like the boardgame. It has some unique system up it sleeves that make it interesting in its own way👍
@@ElaDivine You functionally do. By completing quests you get more tiles. You are incentivised to do the quest. They're in a separate draw pile, and if you don't complete quests you have fewer tiles. So completing quests extends the game, which is literally what the video game does.
Idk about the board game, but the steam game is a lot of fun. So chill. Few things I'd do differently, but basically you try to play as long as possible and show the highest score you can. Certain number of rules but each time you complete something that limit goes up
I love the pc game, the board game as is was mediocre as a co-op but a faithful clone as a solo game. One solution I found for co-op was to make a simple adjustment. The person that finishes the goal takes the victory point and you simply use it as a Carcassonne style game and tally the individual victory points at the end of the game.
It looks like Sprawlopolis in a 100 times bigger box and with MUCH more bloat. Except the goals are more boring. Because the structure is the same: draw a tile (a card in Sprawlopolis) and discuss what to do with it. Am I missing something? Sprawlopolis is such a replayable and elegant design in a TINY wallet. Why would I pick Dorf Romantic over it?
I want everyone to remember: you can't really "lose" Hanabi either. you try to go for a high score and it's a coop too... and it won the Spiel des Jahres award
(technically you can "lose" Hanabi but playing it dozens of times (albeit a long time ago) I can't remember "losing" a single time, just low scores)
but yes, I agree with a lot of others in the comments: the app is nice.
Just won Spiel des Jahres! But my favourite thing about games is the competition and tension so…
I think you can say it is like a puzzle with a campaign. Well, sort of
Games that you can't lose don't hold my attention. Gives me the feeling like there's no point. I can get why other people would be into it though.
Looks like the spiritual successor to *Rivers, Roads & Rails*
I'll say in the steam game when the board gets ginormous there's more choices to be made
probably best described as a coop activity rather than a game.
Im absolutely amazed that this puzzle has won the SDJ
Probably just me, but I played the PC game and have enjoyed it... this is one of those games, much like Slay the Spire that just didn't/doesn't need a board game.
I'm a big fan of the app. 🙂 From the review of the boardgame it sounds like one really important difference between the app and the boardgame is that, instead of the number of total tiles you play being fixed like in this boardgame, in the app you start with a certain number and then every time you complete a mission or flag tile it adds more tiles to your stack. And you also can add even more tiles to your stack if you can completely surround a tile on all sides with matching edges (e.g. forest edge to forest edge). All of which means it sounds like there's a bit more tension in the video game because you really do want to keep completing those tasks in order to keep getting more total tiles to play. Failing to complete tasks ultimately means the game ending.
Honestly this boardgame version sounds fun enough, but as someone who plays the video game I'm not sure why I'd bother playing this boardgame over the app. The app is (I suspect) a bit cheaper, it referees all the tile placement outcomes automatically, and it has that extra bit of tension driving you to complete missions that the boardgame might be lacking. The app even has unlocks like boats and windmills and such as you go like the boardgame.
Oh the board game also has missions for you to complete. It actually motivated me to play it way more often that other board games
It really depends if you want to sit down with someone/s and play it, or just play solo. But they're both point scoring games. If you prefer solo, then the boardgame is more limited. But a session of the videogame, if you're taking time and carefully planning and doing well, could take much much longer than the boardgame. The video game has the ability to go on infinitely and generate significantly more variability.
@@RolandIronfist13 The video game also auto saves as you go, so regardless of how long an individual session can last it's trivial to just leave it and come back later.
@@BodyknockI'm aware. I mean the total time to complete "a session".
When I heard that Dorf Romantik was getting a board game implementation I thought....why? I enjoy the app and just don't see what this would do better. The review made me want to play the app, but not the board game.
You can't lose Sprawlopolis.
You can, the minimum score you need to reach is determined by the mission cards.
@@ko9 Having a floor isn't in of itself a loss condition. Not beating your high score is.
@@RolandIronfist13 The results of a test (anything under 50% is a fail) or a task at work (needs to be done by noon tomorrow) of course are loss conditions - beating that floor means you didn't lose. Anything after that is just by how much you didn't lose by/how much you won by - but if you can't pass the test or get the task done on time, yes it's a loss... same for Sprawlopolis. If the three cards add up to 25 and you don't make it to 25, you were not successful and lose the challenge.
the game plays itself, zone out and enjoy the ride.
It somehow won game of the year in Germany which is quite baffling to me. The award is generally for beginner style/simple game but they still dropped the ball with this imo. Last years was Cascadia which i also consider really boring. They used to give the award to games like Catan or Carcassonne :(
Dont get me wrong i get why people like it but i wouldn't really call it a "game" too. For me one of the main criteria of a good board game would be interesting human interaction which i can't really see in this.
I think you missed the point of the game. It’s not a “maximum score possible” game. It’s a relaxing game. kinda weird to grade the game as “not complicated enough for me” as a professional reviewer, when it never pretended to be complex. You’re like the people who play Stardew Valley (the videogame) to maximize profit and only grow the highest profit crop, then say the game is bad because it’s not hard enough for you.
He got the point of the game, he just said it’s not for him. Frankly, I don’t find it relaxing. I find it boring but I get the appeal for others
Without a way to lose the word is not game it’s activity, it’s a solo or coop activity
Seems almost like a jigsaw puzzle with rules
Crap, I just ordered this
Be happy, really. A great game!!
It's really good.
Yeah, we'll still try it. Hopefully the kids like it.
@BobbyJuno I think so. It's a very chilled game. But is really great fun unlocking everything.
I'm not sure the video game translates to the board game well.
The video game gets so much from the graphics, music, achievement sounds. It's very meditative.
This just seems... pointless? It just seems like a solitaire game trying to get a high score.
That's exactly what it is, and does it very well. It works very well as a boardgame. But if that isn't what you want from a gaming experience, then obviously it won't work for you.
🧠🧙
im cringing so hard at you calling this an „app“… bro it’s called a game. not a difficult word
It's also not particularly hard to capitalize sentences, but we all make shortcuts, I guess.
This is one of my favorite video games. I'm not so sure I love the idea as a board game. Too many things to manage or lose. Just...Too much.
The reason I love the video game is I can just kind of zen out, random totally different tiles of likely thousands just pop in, I match, then on to the next one.
This just seems like work 😟
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a complex, detailed, involved board game. If it's telling a story. If you're actually collecting some things to a specific end. If it gets your brain going in a way that is enjoyable.
But for a zen out experience, which is the entire point of the original video game for me, it's just counter-productive.
This sounds dull as dishwater. I was glad to learn the expression "Brain Wizard" however.
I've thought about buying the game on Steam. I see no reason why I wouldn't just do that instead of getting this ...
It's a puzzle
I play this game in steam and I LOVE it as a dynamic puzzle, but I don't think of it as a game. The music is relaxing and it is just a great low brain load puzzle "game". So if you want something that you can just kick back and relax to I would recommend the Video game, but a board game implementation is something I have no interest in.
The computer game is perfect for what it is and looks much better than this visually.