Happy Valentines day everyone!
What better way to continue Japan months reviews then with a review of Love Letter!
Initial Thoughts
As mentioned in our podcast this month many Japanese designed games have been making their way westward and finding great acclaim for their easy to learn but deeply layered design. One of the first games of this kind that I had the pleasure to come across was Love Letter.
Love Letter is a quick to play card game designed for 2 to 4 players that is design by Japanese author Seji Kanai and published by AEG outside of Japan, coming in several different themes. Whether it is the base version set in the world of Tempest or the Samurai based world of Legend of the Five Rings to the Christmas Themed “Letters to Santa” or the Munchkin inspired “Loot Letter” the game’s popularity has surged. I’ll be referencing the base version in this review, though all of the various versions use the same mechanics.
Basics of Love Letter
Love Letter is played with a deck of 16 cards that represent the various characters in a fictional court, where the players are playing suitors passing Love Letters amongst themselves through those in the court to try and catch the eye of the Princess.
Each of the characters in the court do something different and come in different amounts. While the guard is quite the common draw, there is only one Princess. At the start of the game players are each dealt on card from the deck of cards, with the winner of the last round (or the person who last went on a date in the first round) drawing a second card and playing one card before passing to the next player.
Play continues until only one suitor remains or there are no cards remaining in the deck, with the person who has the largest number printed on the card in their hand winning. Their letter having made its way to the Princess she awards them a token of her affection and depending on how many suitors there are more tokens will be required to win the game and be selected by the Princess to take her hand.
Flow of play
As mentioned above a player’s turn can be summed up by draw a card, chose one of the two cards you now have to discard/play, perform the actions on the card and pass to the next player. Because the deck is only made up of 16 cards rounds are quickly over and your next chance to catch the eye of the Princess is only just around the corner.
While this may seem overly simple it only takes a few rounds for everyone to learn what each card does and how common they are and what other player’s gives are. Did she just draw the Baron? Can I risk trading my priest with someone else to hope I get a better card or will they draw a guard and end my round?
It is this easy to learn but quick ramp up in challenge once everyone learns the game that is a classic trait of games developed in Japan. That and a quick game time, with games of Love Letter usually not lasting more than 20 minutes.
Final Thoughts
With so many different themes now available there is a version of the game for any geek and the ease of play makes it one of the easier games to draw friends and family in with before cutting their teeth on the more complicated games out there.