presentation

Sakura

Tactics to win the favor of the goddess

It’s the time when the cherry trees blossom time in Japan, a time to be thought a time of renewal - the Goddess of Fujiyama, Konohana Sakura Hime, renews the fallen blossoms of last year. Players want to discard cards without taking a trick and thus win the favor of the goddess.

52 cards in 4 colors have values 1 to13; in case of 2-3-4-5-6 players in the game, you are dealt 14-12-10-8-6 cards; two cards are laid out to the left and right of the Yin-Yang card, the rest is set aside. Five characters are on display, the rest is stacked face-down.

In your turn, you play one card on each of the stacks, of the same color and of higher or lower value, as demanded by the orientation of the Yin-Yang card. If you play the same value, the color of the card is irrelevant If you cannot play a suitable card or do not want to play a card, you take the respective stack and the related number of coins as indicated on the cards. With those coins, you can hire a character from the display - the costs depend on the position of the card in the display - and use it immediately and then discard it; the display is replenished from the stack. You can also opt to pay six coins to renew the complete display of character cards and then use one of the new characters. When all players are down to two cards, you count the shuriken stars on your cards and, after three rounds, you win with fewest shuriken points.

First of all, Sakura is a very beautiful game with enchanting graphic design! The mechanism of the game is familiar and standard, but nicely varied; the characters balance the luck of the draw and introduce additional tactics.

Players: 2-6

Age: 10+

Time: 30+

Designer: Csaba Hegedüs

Artist: Attila Szögyi, Gyula Pozsgay

Price: ca. 23 Euro

Publisher: A-games 2017

Web: www.a-games.hu

Genre: Card shedding

Users: For families

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr hu

In-game text: no

Comments:

Very beautiful graphics

Standard core mechanism

“need not” rule not explicitly mentioned

Compares to:

Uno, Mau Mau and other shed-cards-on-a-stack games

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0