{"id":933,"date":"2014-04-03T14:24:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T18:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=933"},"modified":"2014-04-03T14:24:33","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T18:24:33","slug":"game-review-tanto-cuore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/game-review-tanto-cuore\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Review: Tanto Cuore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deck-building card games are a strangely fascinating part of the tabletop world.\u00a0 Where a traditional trading card deck is build before the game actually takes place, deck-building games make this process part of the competition.\u00a0 It\u2019s an unusual choice that gives players a chance to chat and joke about one another\u2019s strategies over the course of the game.\u00a0 This is plenty entertaining in classics like Dominion, but Tanto Cuore<\/a> offers a unique twist on the genre.\u00a0 Instead of building a kingdom or an army, players compete to employ a variety of anime housemaids.\u00a0 Yes, you read that last sentence right.<\/p>\n

\"TantoCuore1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The mechanics of the game will be familiar to anyone who\u2019s played a game in this genre before.\u00a0 Between two and four players begin the game with small, identical decks, which they expand by acquiring more cards from a central pile.\u00a0 Adding new cards to your deck gives you additional resources to work with, allowing you to buy more expensive and powerful cards.\u00a0 Some grant special abilities, some hinder their owner\u2019s opponents, and some contribute to a player\u2019s final score.\u00a0 The key to victory is coming up with a good strategy and acquiring cards that support that particular plan of action.<\/p>\n

This process of using cards for resources and victory points is fairly common among deck-building games, but Tanto Cuore stands out thanks to its premise and art style.\u00a0 Rather than buildings or soldiers, each card features a maid drawn by one of a variety of illustrators.\u00a0 There are some prominent names from anime and manga character design featured, and the game presents a fairly wide variety of visual styles.\u00a0 While the idea of competing to employ the best staff of maids may seem a bit ridiculous, that slight absurdity makes the game more fun.\u00a0 Why build a barracks or hire a blacksmith when you can debate over whether to hire Viola or Ophelia?<\/p>\n

\"TantoCuore2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether by accident or design, Tanto Cuore also creates countless opportunities for players to joke among themselves as the game goes on.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s using \u201cLove\u201d as a resource to pay for new employees or sending a maid to your \u201cPrivate Quarters\u201d to gain special benefits, Tanto Cuore can be an absolute riot when played with a sense of humor.\u00a0 Working with named characters instead of nondescript buildings also changes the way players interact with the cards.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard not to laugh when a player curses Colette Framboise for coming up when they were hoping to draw Claire Saint-Juste.<\/p>\n

As far as gameplay goes, Tanto Cuore is best with more than two people.\u00a0 Once three or four players are in the mix, it becomes harder for one person to dominate the game.\u00a0 Anyone who seems to have the upper hand quickly becomes a target for the other players, which helps keep things interesting until the end.\u00a0 Replay value is high, thanks to a couple of factors.\u00a0 First, a variety of potential strategies encourage players to try a new approach each time.\u00a0 Second, the game provides 16 \u201cgeneral purpose\u201d maids, but only 10 are used at a time.\u00a0 This means that different combinations of maids can create vastly different game dynamics.\u00a0 Depending on which maids are available to the players, the game may take on a more aggressive or defensive flow.<\/p>\n

FINAL VERDICT:\u00a0<\/strong>If you\u2019re trying to get an anime fan hooked on tabletop gaming, Tanto Cuore might just be the ideal way to do it.\u00a0 The rules are fairly simple, the game has a relaxed pace, and the whole endeavor is just silly enough that it\u2019s hard to resist giving it a try.\u00a0 Fans of Dominion or other deck-building games will likely enjoy it as a change of scenery, and several expansions are available to increase the game\u2019s already solid replay value.\u00a0 Don\u2019t take it too seriously and you\u2019ll have a good time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tanto Cuore is available on Amazon<\/a>\"\".<\/em><\/p>\n

Review by Paul Jensen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deck-building card games are a strangely fascinating part of the tabletop world.\u00a0 Where a traditional trading card deck is build before the game actually takes place, deck-building games make this process part of the competition.\u00a0 It\u2019s an unusual choice that gives players a chance to chat and joke about one another\u2019s strategies over the course [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}