In Bitoku, players embody forest spirits trying to "ascend" by building temples and sending priests to various altars. It's a euro game at heart with a tricky mix of worker placement, area control and hand management. It's one game most players in my group actually own (a promising metric!) yet I had an ambivalent first impression which made me drag my feet on a review, at least until I got a better grasp of it.
1-4
120mn
12+
Setup: In medium-to-heavy games, the gaming experience often correlates directly with the number of components on the board. Bitoku is especially daunting that way, with pieces that are not all that distinct from one another. It takes a few plays to nail the setup down: initially, a substantial amount of time needs to be dedicated for this (~20-30mn?), which you'll eventually be able to cut down to 10mn. Inserts go a looong way towards relieving most of the pain here.
Gameplay: The game unfolds across multiple seasons in which each player will play in turn. The turns themselves look fairly simple since you have only 2 actions:
- play a card (which activates one of your dice)
- move an active die (to the board, or "cross the river")
But these primary actions trigger a whole range of secondary actions (based on the card or the location of the die) that affect a region of the board (build a temple, move to an altar, unlock a priest, etc.). This is where the meat (and the complexity) of the game is: you have to squeeze as many points as you possibly can out of this action economy. When done right, it leads to combo galore which is both hugely satisfying (when you pull one off) or pretty humbling (when you are on the receiving end). Players don't directly hit on one another, but timing matters: getting to some resources first or delaying an action to block a spot on the board are ways you can use to build an advantage; the game however does a great job of always providing alternate options to stay in the game.
Theme: the Japanese theme is both original and colorful, with good shelf appeal. However, it doesn't translate into a smoother the learning the curve, quite the opposite. The iconography, rather than trying to facilitate the understanding of the game, doubles-down into the theme, overly relying on the rulebook and adding to the confusion. I actually found it easier to enjoy the art once the mechanics made sense and I internalized how the game's board region work and interact, at which point it did provide a good measure of immersion.
Impression: The game packs a satisfying amount of strategic depth, with a lot of interesting mechanics and very good replayability. It really is a gamer's game that doesn't really try to reach for broader audience. It may be a clear-eyed call made by the game designer, but it feels like the game could have gone a little out of its way to make itself more approachable using more explicit iconography, relying less on the rulebook (which is honestly not friendly to new players) and possibly cutting some of the more underwhelming mechanics to lower complexity (ex: there's some limited deck building involved, which doesn't really add or deter from the gameplay). With
TLDR: An intimidating game that rewards perseverance and offers solid replay value.
Score: 7/10
Cheers,
Ady
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