What the gamers are saying: Takenoko

We have delved into the world of Reddit once again to see what the gamers are saying about our favourite board games. This time round we asked them to comment on Takenoko and the response was great!

There were around 50 comments for me to choose from for this piece, both for and against the game, and here are the ones I chose:

The Good

RSburg says:

"I think it's a lovely gateway game. It does what it does. Great appeal to the eye. Expansion is lovely. Makes the game not overly complex. The extra rules provided in the expansion are nice. They balance the game out."

CaTaxAuditor says:

"It's fun if you're in the mood to dance tiny pandas around a colorful garden and piece together cute little bamboo stalks. If you're looking for a game that is deep, competitive, and will stand up to high level play day in and day out, there are other options. But you're not always looking for steak. Sometimes popcorn is what you're looking for."

DatLancedJack Says:

"I played it for the first time very recently and it shot up as a must buy for me. Showing people who don't normally play this game is just asking them to ooh and aww over the various pieces and to watch that light flick on behind their eyes when they, very quickly, get it? Incredibly satisfying.

"It's not about to become an analysis in tactical masterpiece or strategy development but it's incredibly fun and that's all I really want my games to be."

meatwhisper says:

"Beautiful and fun little game that is great to use as a gateway game or as something to play with people who aren't "hardcore" gamers. The bits and colorful tiles make it a pleasing little game for most people."

benbernards agrees:

"I love it. One of my favorite gateway games."

The Bad

tydelwav Says:

"I was so enamored with this game when I first saw, and played it, for the first time... but that love quickly turned to hate. One of my most despised game mechanics is when point cards are drawn randomly. Not just that, EVERYTHING in this game is random!

"Random die roll, random location draw, random card draw... worst of all, every other player is messing up your plans on their turn, and they don't even know it. I just find myself continually frustrated when playing, despite that adorable chubby panda smile."

PrWNed Says:

"Personally I find it to be too luck dependent. The objective cards you draw and the weather die together basically decide whether you win or lose the game and these are entirely luck based. My fiancé once almost exclusively rolled the 3 actions symbol on the weather die giving him a huge advantage.

"I also think that with the full player count, there's so much chaos that you can't really plan your turn in advance. For these reasons, I don't enjoy the game as much and will be looking to sell my copy of the game."

G8kpr Says:

"Overall, the game is merely ok in my opinion, but got a lot of hype from TableTop. I find it's usually pretty easy to accomplish goals and there never feels to be worry over what to do or what other players are doing.

"I find it only really shines with 4 players, I wouldn't play with anything less, it's just dull with 2 players."

Improvise 

RadicalDog Says:

"Takenoko is built to be house-ruled. Fact is, there's a huge swing in how well you draw on the objective cards; it works much better if you do it Ticket-to-Ride-style and lay out 4 publicly to be grabbed by people, or letting people draw 2 and choose, etc. By house-ruling in a decision on what specific objective you go for, the game gets a lot better. Wish something like this was done by the original designer."

RSburg agrees:

"This game needs house rules. If you do not want that, it's fine. I personally think with house rules, this game is better. So even before the expansion I already used the set bonus, because of an unbalance in goal cards.

"I even tried to make the landscape cards a bit better to score them without irrigation and if they are irrigated they're +2 points extra. That was a bit too fiddly to explain (for a gateway game) so I let that one go."

Buy Takenoko

If you are interested in playing Takenoko, you can buy the game from our online store now!