OgreBattle wrote:So it's not a deckbuilding game, the decks are set characters that aren't changed?
Oh.
Here I thought you'd actually read the KS pitch or promo pages. But since that shows you haven't, I'll have to be a bit more basic:
Lemme start with some links:
Overview / Hype page at Sirlin games online store.
Rules of the game.
Genzoman boobage
Lengthy audio discussion between a top player and the designer
Shorter, more entertaining video review
Now the game itself is the attempt of a David Sirlin, a former Street Fighter tournament player former Capcom USA developer to translate the mind game component of arcade fighter games into a card game with no reflex component. Capcom refused to grant the license to use the Street Fighter characters, so Sirlin went ahead and developed his own IP instead:
Fig 1: The card on the left uses Capcom IP, the card on the right uses Sirlin games IP.
As an IP-scrubbed Street Fighter game, each player controls their own character, and each character is represented by a deck of cards. Literally, they have numbers and suits and you can ignore the
pictures of panties and play some hands of poker with a Yomi deck. While it's got move text and numbers on it, that' card is also the ace of hearts.
In addition to the deck, each character has a character card like this:
Fig 2: with her shorts on, you're supposed to look at the numbers
These character cards have more art, some flavor text and varying numbers for Hit Points and Combo Points for and a unique special ability for each character. This represents the way that different characters in fighting games are tougher or faster or have longer combos than others.
And the spiffy new edition up on KS adds a reference card with all the frequencies of each move in each deck, which brized posted above. That's really just a checklist, so while it's helpful, it's not exciting nor even essential to the game. (Also the KS adds EX versions, which add cards you can't play in poker, but those are optional funsies add-ons, not tournament legal)
So, yeah, the decks are static totally not a deckbuilder. The deckbuiler using these characters is the game
with my name in the rulebook.
Moving on, Yomi uses a variant of Rock/Paper/Scissors as the central mechanic.
Fig3: This plus weighted valuations and hand management is the whole game.
Each player plays a card face down and then reveals it. If both reveal different types of cards (attack, throw, block, dodge) then the RPS wheel applies. If they revealed the same type of card, like if both played attack, then the one with the faster speed wins. And if you win you get a payoff according to that little chart from the hype page:
Win with a block --> draw cards
Win with an attack --> do a combo
Win with a throw --> do a combo
Win with a dodge hit --> back with a single move
Strategically, the value of each of those options will vary depending on variables like remaining Hit Points and the number of cards in players' hands.For example, if your opponent is low on cards, they probably want to draw which means blocking is good for them. But then you know that they want to draw cards with a block so you probably want to throw them. But then, they know that you know that they want to block, and what started as rock paper scissors becomes:
Figure 4: blindfolded princess sold separately
And while there are more wrinkles to the game, with special move cards
that change parts of the valuation equations and options for powering with Aces or playing Jokers as
C-C-C-Combo breaker serving to help reinforce the fighting game theme, that's the basic overview of the game.
Thematically, Yomi competes with the BattleCON boardgames, but Sirlin is a lot more obsessed with making sure all characters are balanced and actively cultivates a tournament community, while the Level99 games people seem to have more of a focus on releasing more and more new characters. However, the business strategy of revising editions to improve balance is far less exciting to casual players than releasing expansions with NEW CHARACTERS!! ShinY!! More!!.
What I'm saying is that Sirlin actually cares about avoiding power creep, and revises things when characters are seen to dominate tournaments. This is so rare in the boardgame world that it actually alienates people:
actual BGG comments for a Sirlin game wrote:
I suggest you wait for the 4th edition before buying in. This one needs more playtesting.
Wow. A complete "screw you" to anyone who bought 2nd edtion and the upgrade pack.
The speedy releases of new editions were a bit of a slap to the face for a lot of fans,
So if you want to reward doing actual playtesting and encourage the sort of game design that fixes problems when they are found instead of launching shovelware on a semiannual schedule, then you should back Yomi.
On the downside, Yomi really is lacking in the New Player Experience / casual play side. The depth of this game only becomes apparently after many repeated plays. You can get thousands of replays out of this game before exploring all of the strategy space. And if you are the sort of player who is likely to do so, that will well justify shelling out the big bucks to get the super deluxe all characters and all stretch goals and foil aces and such reward level. But if you just want a game to futz around with for maybe a half dozen plays while waiting for Steve to show up to your D&D session, you're not going to see much of that depth, and you might be better served with a game that's lighter and more humorous.
Figure 5: The side panels of the arcade cabinet.