First of all, this is the best Dice Tower review in a long time. I love the format. I was not excited about this game. I do like Wingspan, and am interested in monarch butterflies and their life cycles. But the previews of the game left me unimpressed. This discussion has changed my mind. I guess I'll be part of the race to pick it up.
The amount of effort and quality that zee has put into articulating his review for this game is at par with the amount of creativity and quality that Elizabeth has put into making this superb game.!!
Really liked the 4-way discussion and review, especially after you all played the game together. It was nice to hear details, good and bad, along with strategies and wow-type moments in the game. Not sure if you planned to present low to high scores and end on a positive note, but it worked well.
Amazing review. Absolutely perfect. You four need to do this with all "high visibility" games. I know exactly where my appreciation level will probably be, how appropriate it will be for our group, all of it. And the game looks better than I expected.
In the race idea of having to get back... reminds me of Expedition:Northwest Passage, a somewhat unknown game which probably is heavier than this one, but really interesting mechanics.
Overall I thought this was a very fair review, great job guys! I really enjoyed having all 4 of you together on a video. Personally I tend to fall in between Roy, Tom, and Mike and think a 7 is where this fits for me
That board really hurts my eyes. I would've prefer pastel colours that are easier on the eyes but still distinguishable. The themeing is really cool: like Zee said, Elizabeth Hargrave does a good job of translating her feelings about a subject (i.e. nature) into a game.
I actually love the look of the board. The stark colours on black do make me think of monarchs, as well as the vibrant colours of other butterflies. But of course that is just personal bias as I rarely like pastel colour schemes.
@@modemacabre that is a good point about the color scheme being inspired by Monarchs themselves. Since Tom didn't critique the board that strongly, it likely looks better/easier to distinguish things in person. From the video it just seems overly busy, but it doesn't seem like it was a big deal.
Does Roy live at the studio? Everyone else seems to be at home and Roy just chilling 😂 love the 4 way review! Have been loving the vs videos you 4 do (forgot the name) and this is no exception to that.
Very interested in this one after all the buzz from Wingspan which I still have yet to play as well. However, I feel more drawn to this one for some reason. When Mike said it reminded him of a Knizia it really caught my attention as he is one of my favorite designers lately (which was a surprise).
Daniel Woltanski Exactly what I came to say. I have not played this game at all, but the description of going out to the field, collecting achievements and points, and then getting back to the beginning immediately and strongly reminded me of Clank.
If you hadn't noticed, the seasons of the year are kinda scripted; they tend to follow the same duration and pattern. ;~) I find it interesting how often a game can be praised for feeling so thematic, and then marked down for the same reason. I wonder if butterflies feel the same way about their lives? "You know George, my life just feels so scripted." "I know what you mean Harriett; it seems like I have to be at a certain place by a certain time of the year." "I heard Ralph tried something different." "Yeah, and he died."
Will this play well at two? I can imagine maybe that whole strategy of waiting for another play to reveal city resources wouldn't have as much payoff, increasing luck. Also, maybe more tendency for groupthink/trying to outdo eachother on the same metric of success?
We played two player and I really enjoyed it. I haven’t played with 3+ so I can’t say if it improves with higher player counts but it works well with two. Score was very tight.
@@nraw_ Yeah, it's just an ok game. I've found the scaling is fine at two players though the luck of city resources is less manageable than at higher counts.
Love hearing the opinions of all four of you! It makes it easier to know if it will align with my tastes, plus it's always more fun when you guys are all together. Thanks!
@@mr0santan I think an 8.5 is a quite strong rating, and 7.5 is nothing to sneeze at. It sounds like they have only played the game a handful of times. Assuming they do go on to play it more I would love to see if their rating go up or down. Overall for this type and weight of game I felt that their reviews were very positive.
@@marks6928 It got a seal of excellence because one reviewer gave it a 8.5. If you average the ratings, it would have been a seal of approval. I do appreciate this review format though but since my taste aligns more with Roy these days, this game is a pass for me.
@@mr0santan I agree with you. There's a lot of 'side talk' about the game but not very strong scores or talk about it replacing any game in their collections or being a must have. If you've listened to the DT long enough you can read between the lines.
I totally respect all of your opinions, especially Roy, but this game is an absolute let down. It's beauitful indeed. The theme is interesting, but after five plays my game group decided never again. Every game felt the same. Hurry head north! Hurry reproduce! Hurry head south! The game's totally lacking something. It doesnt feel satisfiying when I struggle to get a few butterflies home...and I get it.. that's reality...butterflies struggle in their journey. Well, that's great. I'm struggling to find the fun here. Moreover, the randomization of the waystation tolkens seem like a good idea, until you constantly flip over ones that don't match yours. I don't know, maybe we missed something or everyone wants to love it, because we all loved Wingspan. I could be in the minority, but I give it a 5.5.
The "meandering race" idea sounds almost like Tokaido. I mean, the moving mechanic is clearly very different, but the point salad while everyone is making the same journey at their own pace feels reminiscent of Tokaido.
Pretty cool the artistic flair they put on the borders of the hexes. I've seen so many hex maps in games but I don't think I've seen one that intricate.
I guess I'm a minority here. As much as I wanted to like this game because of the theme, watching the game's main mechanisms I see no interest in getting it.
I don't know what to think of this review. It didn't seem like a lot of negatives were brought up, yet the review scores are on average less than 8? And then the game is given the Seal of Excellence? Roy shouldn't even have been given this game to review since he openly admits he doesn't like the style of game. I feel like everyone was being too nice because of the popularity of Elizabeth and how much attention this video might get.
They rarely make a big review at four like that. So maybe they have a rule for the seal that is not based on the average but on the highest score given by a reviewer. It seems somehow logical since most of the time they are reviewing games and giving the seals (or not) by themselves. And as for Roy... Some would argue that it is in fact *because* it is not his style of game, that his opinion is especially interesting (his tastes do represent a lot of boardgamers out there) : despite his preferences, he still gave the game a solid 6.5, showing that it has maybe a wider appeal than expected.
@@aimajica I don't consider a 6.5 a solid score. He had some good opinions of the game during the video, but later saying he doesn't like this style of game, and giving it a score reflective of that, really discredits anything he said. Basically, he gave it a bad score cause it's not his preferred style of game. That's like me reviewing a complex tactical world war II game and giving it a bad rating cause my favorite games are Everdell and Quacks of Quedlinburg. Don't get me wrong, I like Roy and his enthusiasm for gaming. But I feel he should've left this review for Tom, Zee and Mike. Overall, I felt the scores given at the end didn't reflect the opinions given during the video. Since there were hardly any negatives mentioned, aside from some minor quibbles, I expected higher scores. That was all..
This game had so little interaction that towards the end of the game we stopped waiting for our turns and just finished the game as fast as we could solo. The theme is beatiful, but the game itself was very lackluster.
Dice Tower Crew: This is not a territorial combative theme. Science: You know Monarch caterpillars are cannibals, when they start running out of food, eating other eggs and monarchs?
Tip : remember that you have to get rid of butterflies at the end of the first two seasons. Consider these butterflies your 'explorer' butterflies because they're going away.
I like the format of the four of them reviewing. It makes it balanced. For the game itself I'll wait for more long term reviewing. Is it still interesting and surprising after playing it several times?
I pre-ordered Mariposas a while ago based on the theme and the designer. This review keeps me really excited to play the game, especially since my gaming tastes tend to align closest with Zee among the Dice Tower reviewers. This is a great review format!
Is this game color-blind friendly? I noticed the life-cycle cards have distinctive deck patterns which is good, but couldn't make out anything like that on other components.
I wish they didn’t have to shoehorn a number into their review and just talk about it. The ranking of any sort of media is cumbersome and reductionist and the reviews feel affected by having to provide an arbitrary number at the end. IDK
Good point. It's hard for me to develop a strong opinion on this. . I like the multiple views and I think we get more broad view of the game but review has less narrative or a clear message.
It takes time to develop group chemistry so I would prefer to give this group a bit more time. It would be interesting to go back and see the first couple of videos from Tom/Zee/Sam. That said, it is really hard to replicate on video conferencing the feel and dynamic of three or four people siting around a table. If you have ever been in a video conference I am sure you can understand. I'm not saying this group will ever replace the "3 O.G.," but I felt this was a promising start for this group.
@@zerosomeone2200 it's a solo game as much as a race is a solo activity. Racing comes down primarily to your own performance, sure, but it's still more exciting when you have people to race against.
Wow... This overview/review just made me a lot less interested in this game. I still would like to try it out, but I am not chopping at the bit to go out of my way. This is nothing like Wingspan - except for the animal theme & the fact that there it is a low-interaction game. Wingspan is a heavier game.
