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Deckbuilding and Japanese myth combine in this gorgeous tabletop strategy gameA hex on both your houses
A hex on both your houses
Card-basedstrategy gamesseem to have really found their feet over the last 12 months. Now that we’re a few years clear of Slay TheSpire’s chokehold over the genre, deckbuilders are starting to come thick and fast in a variety of exciting mash-ups. This year alone, I’ve sunk a hefty number of hours into the deckbuilding tower defence ‘em upORX, got lost in the tabletop plots ofForetales, and later this week we’ll see the launch ofMarvel’s Midnight Suns, the new card-based strategy RPG from XCOM makers Firaxis. It’s a good time to be a fan of deckbuilders, is what I’m saying, and early next year the mythological exploits ofMahokenshiwill be looking to carry the baton forward into 2023.
Mahokenshi - COMING JANUARY 24Watch on YouTube
Mahokenshi - COMING JANUARY 24
Utilizing these terrain types can be key to winning large battles, and the gradual process of building up your deck to try and take advantage of them scratches all the right tactics itches you’d expect from a turn-based strategy game. I do have a couple of concerns over the way the preview build was balanced, though. You see, when most enemies cling to the islands’ forests and mountainous borders, taking pot shots at you from afar rather than following you down to the stat-neutral plains, you’ll usually need to bring them fight to them before you’re able to take them down. This can mean that even one-on-one duels can feel like wars of attrition, as you’ll need to hit them with multiple attacks before breaking their terrain-boosted defences. Armour replenishes at the start of each turn, too, dragging out simple encounters into multi-turn affairs that risk hampering the game’s pacing.
In fairness, there is a certain tranquillity to be found in Mahokenshi, so perhaps I’m just being a bit too hasty in my goblin bashing. Away from battle, its koto-infused orchestral score brings a very calming presence to the game, and while fast forward options are available, your warrior’s default walking pace is little more than an amble. It speaks to a more considered style of deckbuilder, and with so many points of interest to potentially discover per map, the temptation to take little detours away from your central objective is almost impossible to resist.
Some tiles contain narrative events where you’ll need to make a decision on how to progress. Most decisions result in different types of stat buffs, but others may lead to additional sidequests.
However, there are also times when its mission design butts heads with this philosophy. In your second main story mission, for example, you’re tasked with racing across the map to stop an enormous flaming ogre from destroying a castle. It’s the kind of objective that would normally inject a welcome sense of urgency into a turn-based strategy game, but when your path is littered with demons chucking poison knives at you (each of which takes multiple precious turns to defeat), getting there in time - and in one piece - can be exceedingly tricky. Remember, you’ve also got to balance things like seeking new cards and actually building up a reasonable deck to take them on with.
And yet, there’s something about Mahokenshi that continues to intrigue me. I’m a sucker forJapanese mythology stories, and the allure of its floating archipelago has me piqued. There’s a kernel of something special here, and perhaps I just need to switch up my strategy a bit in order to unleash its full potential. I will continue plugging away at it over the next couple of months, so expect more thoughts in the new year when it releases on January 24th onSteam.
