Flamecraft Review - Cup of Tea and a Biscuit

foreign [Music] craft everybody loves flamecraft I mean look at it what is there not to love it's got all of the things in it and isn't it pretty so I love plain crop in fact I had to put in so much work to love flyingcraft this is Wingnut hot dog thistle love potato brisket Jasmine cookie death thing and mulch they comprise the dragon's death flamecraft will Usher you to employ in small businesses in a village so saccharine you'll need to write your own nav sugar and algae just to get through one game maybe a dentist joke you decide flamecraft doesn't so much go on the charm offensive as it is the charm offensive it screams like me or you're not human a monster an immoral anomaly bereft of understanding and soul which brings us to me and my shameful inability to reconcile the fact that maybe this board game isn't all it's cracked up to be let's take a closer look in flamecraft a game for ages 10 and up which I believe puts me in the golden middle of its Target demographic you're trying to have the most reputation these Hearts which are not victory points even though they function exactly like victory points how do you get reputation well there are a number of ways but Chief amongst them is the enchanting of shops how do you enchant shops well come my young dragon HR representative I will show you each enchantment has a requirement in resources collect them and you can claim the enchantment and tuck it under a shop if you do that you'll collect various bonuses one of them being reputation we've gone over the what let's talk about the how flamecraft will chug along with each player taking a turn at a time on your turn you will take your dragon piece from one of the shops and move it to a different shop where is is that oh no oh no [Music] dear viewers I regret to inform you this game is Rife riddled poxed with puns critical roles funky Brewsters oh my God so cute I beg to differ are the clever witty Expressions blending with the rich tapestry of artwork that paints a holistic picture of this town its inhabitants and the way of life culture and a happy-go-lucky attitude formed by a tightly net caring Community yes but it's puns and puns are illegal you get arrested for that sort of thing on NPI so I can't allow that anywho each turn you will move your dragon to any of the game's shops for a visit if there's already another player's Dragon there they will get a free resource of their choice out of the bank and then you get to either gather at the shop or Enchanted each option opening up a cornucopia of procedures the gist is that gathering at a shop will net you resources whereas enchanting at a shop will get you reputation and this rule of thumb is true at the start of the game but shifts into unpredictable complications as the game State evolves and becomes more muddy and convoluted let's say we do choose to gather then all things can happen first we'll collect resources depicted on the shop the dragons that work there in any enchantments already present next as the HR Representatives that we are we might be bringing our own Cadre of potential flame breathing employees who seem to be dead set on on being exploited by small business owners because they misguidedly believe that this will bring them happiness what what do you mean tone it down this isn't a family game okay sorry the dragons are very happy to be working yes if you have Artisan dragons in your hand you can play them to the shop as long as the type matches the type on the spot if doing so covers up a bonus symbol you will get that bonus immediately such as reputation or maybe a shiny coin which is a wild resource imagine the shop requiring employees with certain skill sets like breathing fire to bake bread or breathing fire to smell metal or breathing fire to brew potions and not making fun this really is very adorable especially because after you've visited a shop you get to activate one of the dragons that work there and it could be the dragon that you just brought there and it's like you're the parent and it's the first day at work and they're already doing their thing is if they know what they're doing Baker dragons will let you draw a new dragon card smelters will make two more resources that the shop produces herbalist dragons let you gift a resource to another player and get a bonus two points and so on if a shop gets entirely filled up with Dragons then a new one will open business at the end of that round the shops at the start of the game simply provide different resources and employ different types of dragons however these new ones will provide abilities for any gatherers as the fourth and final step or instead of doing any of that you can choose to enchant you pick an enchantment matching the type of shop you travel to from this row pay the resources depicted on it tuck the rewards in your metaphorical pouch and Tuck the enchantment itself under the shop then you get to activate all the dragons in that shop instead of just one which is what you do when you do a gather again this entire elaborate presentation must create a very familiar board game trapping collecting and converting a genre filled to the brim with reliable reward-based endorphin releases from Splendor to Century spice road if you've seen one you've seen them all at the start they lull you into a familiarism because the formula is simple if I collect free anvils 2 Breads in one steak I can take a turn and convert that into six points okay how do we do that so I'm gonna take my dragon to Smith Mark where I can collect two animals and also two potions that I can use later for something else then on my next turn I can go back to guilty Treasures get free breads ah all the Breads and a diamond again can use that for something else and finally I can fire up one of the Dragons here let's say I fire up Jewel heart that will give me three different resources of my choice so let's say I take a steak an anvil and let's say another diamond and finally next turn I can take the someone already took that enchantment life has lost all meaning but as the game chugs along more and more this Rhythm becomes discordant you might get a fancy dragon that introduces new scoring opportunities exclusive to you or maybe a new shop opens its doors offering abilities that if timed well can be as lucrative as enchanting if I do a gather action at Pizza coven not only do I get to do all of the normal things that I do when I gather like collect resources place a dragon and placing a dragon here isn't gonna net me three bonus points just for nothing I then also get to activate its ability which says if you can match the resources that you have to the dragons in the Park area here and then you spend those resources for each resource you get a point that's five extra points on top of everything else that I do of course the real trick is to combine gathering at Pizza coven at the right time get all the points and then in the next 10 use the resources you got from that to enchant the shop for more gains bobbing and weaving through this cutesy idyllic Town an Unstoppable force of capitalist efficiency and exploitation go looking at all the adorable names like huh [Music] I was uh very early adopter of smartphones which naturally made me a very early burner outer on smartphones so in an act of complete wanting Rebellion I shed the silicon's smart chip and got myself this obviously it wasn't what you would call a feature-rich phone it could answer calls in a pinch you could listen to some music through the world's worst headphones but also you had the ability to set your own welcome text [Music] just don't ask okay I don't know what infantile purpose led me to type in the words thought cutlet but I did so this was now fog cutlet that was its name the key thing here being the word cartlet which in my humble opinion is the finest word in the English language Cellar Door please just sounds like celery disgusting naturally because of the irresistible beauty of the word and it's comedic juxtaposition against fog Elaine was quickly taken to calling it font cutlet as well one day it accidentally fell into her work bag as if setting off on a brave adventure of its own and throughout the day I got email updates with pictures of the various things it got up to in the library it became a member of our family Elaine even wrote a steel ice fan like folk song for it which she will now perform in full [Music] he farts in the morning in the evening [Music] fart [Music] I wanted you to understand exactly at what point flamecraft pierced my crusty Old Man armor and melted my heart and not in a fire-breathing dragon incinerary your organs kind of way once I saw that there was a dragon called cutlet that was it I was Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas morning I embraced the cuteness Dental cavities and all and I never looked back asterisk on the Never And if flamecraft is a Formula we've seen one time too many so be it it's competent lighthearted engaging and joyful its exuberance captures the imagination like no other if it can convert this tide so think of the formative attachments it can create for someone who's younger in that regard it's not only a real winner it's Unique it did make a point to highlight how thematically what you're doing doesn't really make sense you move a dragon from shop to shop that represents you but then you don't seem draconic you come across more corporate in your resource Gathering HR agent Endeavors but there is a mechanical tonality that nevertheless feels apt because flamecraft matches its thematic positivity to its game design positivity anywhere you go anything you choose there's a reward at the end of it the game part is being slightly more efficient at it than others so this bright and cheery world is also bright in gameplay flamecraft more than most games knows exactly what it wants to be and it nails that landing and I said all of that just now just to make you understand that I get it I understand why people like flamecraft but actually I still I still don't know I still don't like it I'm sorry I still don't like it and all the criticisms real criticism that I do have for it stem from all the positives that I just mentioned so there is that it is precisely this positivity that eventually gets to me and I'm not a cynical dude I hopefully just explained that but because okay imagine someone says to you hey would you like this pizza or some sushi or this bowl of ramen or some ice cream or a milkshake or Alyssa ah I don't know just give me anything they all sound great and I don't care anymore flamecraft nums you with positivity so much that by the end of the game it feels like five people are simultaneously giving you a hug and telling you that it's all going to be okay and you just want them to leave you alone because it's not helping you know that Gogol Bordello song have you ever been to American Wedding where's the vodka where's the marinated Herring don't worry I know this game is for kids I'd never give them marinated Herring but that's how I feel when I play flamecraft by the end of the game the game state becomes so complex yet simultaneously so homogenous that I just want to tell my friends that I have to get up early tomorrow get a cab and go home which I guess brings us to the verdict where I don't like this game but that turned out to be a lie I think it's very good except that it makes me feel numb all in all a fantastic notebook included review many more to come I'm going to play you out with a song give us money give us give us money give us money on patreon board games in the morning board games in the evening board games in the morning money patreon oh that Elaine wit and musical talent but she's not kidding because this year we aim to bring you more notepad included than ever for example if not flamecraft then what else well I would recommend Evergreen same length same complexity family friendly beautiful artwork but where can you find out more about it well we've just resurrected our podcast and renamed it to talk cardboard and you can find more about Evergreen and other games on our very first episode on all your podcast devices and notepad included.com which is a website and if you'd like to support this ongoing work well there's a link to our patreon right here

Channel: No Pun Included

Views: 48,889

Keywords: no pun included, board game, review, npi, boardgames, boardgamegeeks, brettspiel, brettspiele, jeuxdesociete, tabletop, games, juego de mesa, gamenight, flamecraft, susd, watch it played, dice tower, shut up and sit down, cardboard alchemy, sandara tang, manny vega

Id: eNiwrfh7o78

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2023