Crowdfunding page - gamefound.com/projects/synergic-games/harakiri-blades-of-honor-reprint--souls-of-yomi *MAJOR ERROR* - the personal character story conclusions have a major impact on act 2, changing who appears and which scenarios you play Adventure play - th-cam.com/video/yUE9DeAaoug/w-d-xo.html Exploration play - th-cam.com/video/hatnqu0TnXo/w-d-xo.html 0:00 - Introduction 1:00 - Adventure Phase 4:23 - Exploration Phase 9:45 - Characters and Leveling 13:21 - Narrative Campaign 16:24 - Final Thoughts
After playing around 30+ hours gotta say Harakiri, while not as intricate as some games like ATO or Primal in mechanics, is certainly way more complex than Mansions of Madness. Mansions of Madness is a highly regarded game, though it features straightforward combat based and focus on scenario research. Harakiri, on the other hand, features a combination of adventure phase and tactical dungeon crawler with tile exploration where players must manage several tactical layers like five skills using Ki dice and choose from four attack types: Fast, Strong, Fast with Focus, and Strong with Focus. YingYang effects. Additionally, the effects of equipped items add to the complexity. The enemy AI in Harakiri is sophisticated, akin to Middara, but with two distinct behavior types based on the oracle: Normal and Aggressive. So there are definitely several tactical choices and nuances to bear in mind. Each hero in the game has a customizable board with various options to tailor your play style and story arc, such as harnessing divine powers or uncovering personal history through missions. Travel events include encounters in magical forests, cursed villages, and battles with creatures from Japanese mythology. Your decisions influence the danger level of these events and the story itself has A LOT of marks (choice matrix with meaningful outcomes than would even change how you finish and start the next Act). The combat system allows you to choose between heavier or faster attacks and strategic focus options, while the dice-based skill system offers powerful moves with passive or active effects. The game's complexity and tactical layers provide a rich and varied gameplay experience. Anyone expecting Harakiri to be like Mansions of Madness will be in for a surprise. This game is more comparable to Middara for its dungeon crawling aspects, and to The Witcher Old World or Arkham Horror for its adventure phase. This would be a fair comparison imo.
Can't wait for this. As tactical as gloomhaven can be. Im kind of sick of it. And the negative modifiers in the deck have gotten annoying. Usually i play these games solo so ill glady take something more simple with cool powers to unlock. Honestly my favorit tactial crawler is nova aetas renaissance.
Thanks Mike, great and honest review, as always 😊 I backed this one (all-in gameplay) and was kinda hoping it would be the next Middara, but it doesn't sound like it's the case. Oh well, maybe I'll enjoy the simpler mechanics anyway 🤷♂️
Since I’m playing Middara as we speak (video next week), I can definitely say that the crawl portion of this one is much simpler than Middara, for better or worse
Very excited for this to arrive and get tabled, I thought Unconscious Mind would be the best looking game I get this year art wise but the more I see of this the more I love the look and aesthetic throughout. I have some games with really complex rules for fighting (ATO, KDM etc) so something a little paired back will be great, I also like the two different phases to the game so it's not constant fighting.
I’d rate them on 3 main areas: Combat mechanics and tactics - Oathsworn 1st, then harakiri, then agemonia Discovery and exploration - agemonia, harakiri, Oathsworn Narrative writing and storytelling - Oathsworn, then maybe a tie for harakiri and agemonia? Agemonia’s writing is better, but harakiri has better momentum in its plot (agemonia is often a lot of side missions)
I read that the game can be played true solo. Have you tried that or have any sense how that would go? Especially, as you said, it seems like each chapter focuses on 2 particular heroes, how would that work in true solo? Would you have to switch characters?
My understanding is that the only true solo play is in the Jubei’s Curse expansion, where you play one character. There is no true solo in the main campaign
I would really like to ask how does Harakiri fair against something like Tainted Grail. Just finished the first campaign of Tainted (got it from the new campaign so it's the 2.0 one) and I'm on the fence of backing Harakiri. Should I go for it or wait for something like Story of Many or Lands of Evershade.
They are actually pretty different from each other. While Tainted Grail is primarily a narrative game, with tons of reading, Harakiri is more focused on the dungeon crawler sections and tactical combat. Even the adventure portions of Harakiri are more like a Pandemic or Arkham Horror style experience, with tight action economies and specific objectives to fulfill. Whereas Tainted Grail is more about exploration, without a strict timer usually, moving around the land, uncovering locations, and seeing what there is to discover there.
@OneStopCoopShop Thanks for the insight on Harakiri. I will most definitely think this through. Hope 18 days is enough. It's just that I back not more than 2 big projects in a single year. Due to that fact,I just need to make sure that i actually like it and understand what it truly is.
Great review Mike for what sounds like a...not great (for me) game. Means I can easily stop following the pre-launch page though, so that's something! 😁
You can watch my playthroughs for an idea of how it runs, but I didn't find it too bad. The characters start off with very few skills, so there isn't a ton to track and manage
@@OneStopCoopShop thank you. There is getting to be so many of these hybrid adventure with some role-playing board games , it's very hard to spot the diamonds in the dirt.
Awaken Realms would like to make a dungeon crawler with these mechanics. Take a look at some AI of any enemy I have followed the project very closely and the AIs of the enemies are very good, in the style of Middara. Don't draw conclusions from the introductory scenario, I played the prototype at level 3 and the dice management of the characters and the enemy AI are great. You can see the video of Gaming Rules who play it and I think one of the players who played the game made his review in the BGG with great expectations.
@@OneStopCoopShop to me that's horrible, I waited for this for roughly 3 years, back it during the kickstarter and then I get a half baked ruleset that needs an faq?
This game is completely out of content. They have mix Chinese, Korea, Japan culture and they have add and a ridiculous name because is very popular and serve this as a Japanese culture game. lol This guys have zero knowledge about Japanese folklore, culture and gods pantheon.
I can't say that they got everything right, and of course it's a fantastical take on a historical period that isn't too close to reality. But all of the yokai and kami and such are straight out of Japanese/Shinto mythology and folklore. So... can't agree with your take on this at all, sorry!
You can tell you have no idea and have not tried the game. The game is FANTASY, it does not pretend to be a historical game, I have tried it in several fairs and there are a large number of yokais and themes related to Japanese culture. Besides, 2 cultural assistants worked on it. I think the one who speaks without knowing is you.
Crowdfunding page - gamefound.com/projects/synergic-games/harakiri-blades-of-honor-reprint--souls-of-yomi
*MAJOR ERROR* - the personal character story conclusions have a major impact on act 2, changing who appears and which scenarios you play
Adventure play - th-cam.com/video/yUE9DeAaoug/w-d-xo.html
Exploration play - th-cam.com/video/hatnqu0TnXo/w-d-xo.html
0:00 - Introduction
1:00 - Adventure Phase
4:23 - Exploration Phase
9:45 - Characters and Leveling
13:21 - Narrative Campaign
16:24 - Final Thoughts
After playing around 30+ hours gotta say Harakiri, while not as intricate as some games like ATO or Primal in mechanics, is certainly way more complex than Mansions of Madness. Mansions of Madness is a highly regarded game, though it features straightforward combat based and focus on scenario research. Harakiri, on the other hand, features a combination of adventure phase and tactical dungeon crawler with tile exploration where players must manage several tactical layers like five skills using Ki dice and choose from four attack types: Fast, Strong, Fast with Focus, and Strong with Focus. YingYang effects. Additionally, the effects of equipped items add to the complexity. The enemy AI in Harakiri is sophisticated, akin to Middara, but with two distinct behavior types based on the oracle: Normal and Aggressive. So there are definitely several tactical choices and nuances to bear in mind.
Each hero in the game has a customizable board with various options to tailor your play style and story arc, such as harnessing divine powers or uncovering personal history through missions. Travel events include encounters in magical forests, cursed villages, and battles with creatures from Japanese mythology. Your decisions influence the danger level of these events and the story itself has A LOT of marks (choice matrix with meaningful outcomes than would even change how you finish and start the next Act). The combat system allows you to choose between heavier or faster attacks and strategic focus options, while the dice-based skill system offers powerful moves with passive or active effects. The game's complexity and tactical layers provide a rich and varied gameplay experience.
Anyone expecting Harakiri to be like Mansions of Madness will be in for a surprise. This game is more comparable to Middara for its dungeon crawling aspects, and to The Witcher Old World or Arkham Horror for its adventure phase. This would be a fair comparison imo.
That map is absolutely gorgeous! Good job Mike.
I'm eagerly awaiting my copy!
Thank you. I backed this and look forward to playing it soon.
Can't wait for this. As tactical as gloomhaven can be. Im kind of sick of it. And the negative modifiers in the deck have gotten annoying. Usually i play these games solo so ill glady take something more simple with cool powers to unlock. Honestly my favorit tactial crawler is nova aetas renaissance.
Thanks Mike, great and honest review, as always 😊
I backed this one (all-in gameplay) and was kinda hoping it would be the next Middara, but it doesn't sound like it's the case. Oh well, maybe I'll enjoy the simpler mechanics anyway 🤷♂️
Since I’m playing Middara as we speak (video next week), I can definitely say that the crawl portion of this one is much simpler than Middara, for better or worse
Very excited for this to arrive and get tabled, I thought Unconscious Mind would be the best looking game I get this year art wise but the more I see of this the more I love the look and aesthetic throughout. I have some games with really complex rules for fighting (ATO, KDM etc) so something a little paired back will be great, I also like the two different phases to the game so it's not constant fighting.
It’s definitely easier to table than Aeon Trespass 😅
Very helpful review! Know it’s probably not worth pursuing for my tastes…
Glad to help out!
Thanks for the review Mike. How would you rank Oathsworn, Agemonia and Harakiri for your tastes?
I’d rate them on 3 main areas:
Combat mechanics and tactics - Oathsworn 1st, then harakiri, then agemonia
Discovery and exploration - agemonia, harakiri, Oathsworn
Narrative writing and storytelling - Oathsworn, then maybe a tie for harakiri and agemonia? Agemonia’s writing is better, but harakiri has better momentum in its plot (agemonia is often a lot of side missions)
Thanks so much for an in depth ranking. I appreciate your time.
I read that the game can be played true solo. Have you tried that or have any sense how that would go? Especially, as you said, it seems like each chapter focuses on 2 particular heroes, how would that work in true solo? Would you have to switch characters?
My understanding is that the only true solo play is in the Jubei’s Curse expansion, where you play one character. There is no true solo in the main campaign
@@OneStopCoopShopthanks for that clarification! I didn’t realize that.
When you're playing solo in the base game, you control all four characters.
I would really like to ask how does Harakiri fair against something like Tainted Grail. Just finished the first campaign of Tainted (got it from the new campaign so it's the 2.0 one) and I'm on the fence of backing Harakiri. Should I go for it or wait for something like Story of Many or Lands of Evershade.
They are actually pretty different from each other. While Tainted Grail is primarily a narrative game, with tons of reading, Harakiri is more focused on the dungeon crawler sections and tactical combat. Even the adventure portions of Harakiri are more like a Pandemic or Arkham Horror style experience, with tight action economies and specific objectives to fulfill. Whereas Tainted Grail is more about exploration, without a strict timer usually, moving around the land, uncovering locations, and seeing what there is to discover there.
@OneStopCoopShop Thanks for the insight on Harakiri. I will most definitely think this through. Hope 18 days is enough. It's just that I back not more than 2 big projects in a single year. Due to that fact,I just need to make sure that i actually like it and understand what it truly is.
Thanks for sharing. Great review.
Great review Mike for what sounds like a...not great (for me) game. Means I can easily stop following the pre-launch page though, so that's something! 😁
Happy to help out either way! 😅
How complex is solo playing?
You can watch my playthroughs for an idea of how it runs, but I didn't find it too bad. The characters start off with very few skills, so there isn't a ton to track and manage
How similar is this to Folklore the Affliction ?
I’ve never played folklore, but from watching videos, I think this one is less a pure narrative game and has stronger mechanics
@@OneStopCoopShop thank you. There is getting to be so many of these hybrid adventure with some role-playing board games , it's very hard to spot the diamonds in the dirt.
Yeah
Seems lackluster
They put in a lot of uninteresting gameplay concepts
Does not sound good. Really hoped this would be the next big thing, but maybe the summary of it all makes the cake.
Looks very pretty, sounds pretty basic. Not for me.
Looks like Awaken Realms games: rich narrative and exploration, weak mechanics and combat.
Awaken Realms would like to make a dungeon crawler with these mechanics. Take a look at some AI of any enemy I have followed the project very closely and the AIs of the enemies are very good, in the style of Middara.
Don't draw conclusions from the introductory scenario, I played the prototype at level 3 and the dice management of the characters and the enemy AI are great. You can see the video of Gaming Rules who play it and I think one of the players who played the game made his review in the BGG with great expectations.
I’d agree with the previous reply that the mechanics are solid. The game does lack polish and clarity at times. Hopefully there will be a good FAQ
@@OneStopCoopShop to me that's horrible, I waited for this for roughly 3 years, back it during the kickstarter and then I get a half baked ruleset that needs an faq?
This game is completely out of content. They have mix Chinese, Korea, Japan culture and they have add and a ridiculous name because is very popular and serve this as a Japanese culture game.
lol
This guys have zero knowledge about Japanese folklore, culture and gods pantheon.
I can't say that they got everything right, and of course it's a fantastical take on a historical period that isn't too close to reality. But all of the yokai and kami and such are straight out of Japanese/Shinto mythology and folklore.
So... can't agree with your take on this at all, sorry!
You can tell you have no idea and have not tried the game. The game is FANTASY, it does not pretend to be a historical game, I have tried it in several fairs and there are a large number of yokais and themes related to Japanese culture. Besides, 2 cultural assistants worked on it. I think the one who speaks without knowing is you.
Personally I don't care, when I sit down to play a game I want fun rather than reading a school text book.
They don't owe anything to your expectations. This is not a historical war game.