Review: Kanagawa

• December 17, 2016
• James Skemp
• review

The following is a review of Kanagawa, received as part of the Amazon Vine program.

Beautiful game, best learned from someone else

Kanagawa, as the box suggests, has some extremely beautiful artwork and components. That’s what appealed to me about the game when I was looking at the product page, and what people I played with commented on.

But when I was reviewing the rulebook before the first game I played I was a little intimidated, and was immediately glad that someone else in the group had played before. She walked us through the rules, and while she stumbled a few times and had to look through the rules, overall everyone had an enjoyable time and asked for it to be brought again.

Looking at the rules now, having played the game, I can easily agree that the 16 page rulebook is still a little verbose and complicated, but not as bad as some other reviewers think.

I won’t say this is my favorite game, but it’s rather relaxing, and the components, as mentioned above, are quite nice on the eyes.

Ultimately I give Kanagawa four of five stars, with the single star docked (half a star if I could) because of a rulebook that could have stood for a one or two-page cheatsheet. Recommended, but I do think it would be a challenge for beginners.

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