Its like reverse Robinson Crusoe. You are the weather dice!

Almost passed on this because of Zee, happy I played it at the DT con. One of the best coops out there. Lots of rules doesn't make something less thematic, it just makes it heavier. Literally one of the most thematic coops ever printed.

I really love the names of the spirits - they did well in bringing out the flavour of characters from folk tales / legends. "River Surges in Starlight" is my favourite.

As someone living in the south pacific, who grew up in a colonial country, with Childhood stories about local spirits and myths. This game looks really exciting to me. I don't mind euros and complexity though, so Zee's objections came across almost as positives for me.

For the fast and slow cards, the color of the ring on the Energy cost of the card is red when fast, and blue when slow ! I got you covered Tom :)

Interesting review. I know it's three years old now, but to me the Slow and Fast powers are the single most important aspect of this game and step it up from a tricky game to one where you need to get your chess mind engaged. For fast powers, you know how it will turn out. For slow powers you have to think ahead to how it will be after the Ravage, Build and Explore. That takes a good chunk of brain power. Ravage on wetlands and build on mountains this turn - fast powers to deal with the wetlands, slow powers to deal with how the mountains will look after the RBE. That's tricky!

Finally was able to play Spirit Island this past weekend. Ended up playing it 7 times, had an amazing experience. I love how different each of the spirits plays and the planning ahead for the next round when the phases shift.

Nice to see all the Miami Dice trio reviews lately! I enjoy them more than the ones with only 1 reviewer.

This video was so bizarre with the fighting. Zee seemed grumpy. Tom seemed done with it. I wish I could have seen the part in the middle they cut out. I appreciate these videos, thanks DT.

Usually I'm with Zee on these things but I can't agree with him here (and the fiddly building thing is overblown - I've played 4 games now and not once have I had to put a building on its side. Since damage doesn't carry over between rounds you always fully damage a building if you're going for it). Tom nailed it - a fantastic, original and very thematic (and heavy) co-op.

I just played this a couple weeks ago and I enjoyed it quite a bit as the low complexity earth spirit while my friend that owns it played some plague spirit. We won, but it was very close and we won from from fear! I didn't find it that heavy, not light, but nothing too heavy, and felt the theme was fairly strong. I also like how the invaders are plastic and the natives are wood, a nice little touch.

The card play seems like it's going to appeal to players who like special power cards with lots of combos, like Magic: the Gathering or Innovation. I can see why Zee thinks it's overwrought, but for players who love manipulating weird card powers that sounds ideal.

Actually, the game offers an easier mode of play with the Blitz campaign (or Blitz mode?), where there's no slow actions, but all of them are fast. So that takes some of the complications away, since you don't have to distinguish between fast and slow powers any more, all of your actions will take place before the invaders take their turn. I don't like how they missed this, since it's a huge plus in my eyes. The game offers an absurdly wide variety of customization, not just by playing against different adversaries and/or campaigns, but also changing around these things lets you vary the games difficulty to such an extent which I think is very rare, especially amongst such complex board games.

Really excited for this to arrive, appreciate the different perspectives on this.

I get what Zee is saying -- there's a lot to keep track of. Putting buildings on the side is not attractive. I also get what Tom said about maybe Slow and Fast aren't really needed. There's such a wide decisions space that anything that makes it bigger feels unnecessary .... when you're first learning the game. Having played half a dozen times now, though, I really like this game. It takes some real work to come up to speed, but I think it's very rewarding when you do.

I think this game appear to be a breath of fresh air as far as Euros go. This game sounds a little heavier than my usual but I am looking forward to playing it this week.

Just picked this up after hearing good things about the solo mode. Excited to give it a shot

I don't understand the comment about they should have made the fast/slow things green/red. They did do that, one is Red and the other is Blue. The symbol is on the top left of all the cards and it's colored that way on the powers along with a bird icon & turtle icon

This may be my new favorite co-op game... or at least tied with my all-time favorite, which is Robinson Crusoe. I only played it a couple times, so far, but I keep thinking about it and you know that is a sign of a good game when you find yourself thinking about it when not gaming. heh :-)

One of the best Co-Op games over!! Theme heavy! Heavy game! Yes, this game has a learning curve. But once you get it, it’s amazing! But the co-op nature of this game is very important. Communication is definitely important.

Interesting perspective from all of them. I don't have the game.....yet but I'll have to say, the theme really comes out for me. Something I've never seen before where you are entities/spirits defending and island or trying not to have settlers completely populate the island. The powers themselves seem thematic. I don't think the game looks overly complex or fiddly at least not in the way Zee mentions. As far as difficulty.... I love games that give you a challenge and for games to be too easy to beat and have it's difficulty (aside from added variants or other set-up needs). Castle panic was way too easy. Wizard's tower added that much more to make the game not as easy to win and therefore the game get's played much more. Still confused on what makes games heavy or light. Still an overall good review. So is it a seal of excellence or approved?

Yeah Sam! #TeamThunderspeaker Love empowering the Dahani to crush those damned colonists :D This game is really firing on all cylinders for me so far. I was never a fan of the lighter co-ops where every player collectively decides every action that should be taken, and Spirit Island tackles both those issues handily.

I received my copy of this last week, super excited for it, intending to take it to the next games night

I actually prefer to look of the more functional side of the board.

@Dice Tower, was this played with or without the branches and claws expansion? and does the expansion change your opinions at all?

need to get Eric to re-record the opening and give zee his proper due

I'm a bit surprised to see the more mixed reviews, but I'll fully admit bias in that I've been looking forward to getting and playing this game for two years after I was exposed at Gencon. One thing on the complexity, it was very intentional. The designer wanted a game that really downplayed the "Alpha player" syndrome, and he went through a lot of ideas of how to make that happen. This worked the best, there are enough moving parts that happen simultaneously that it is much easier for the group to all handle their own board than for one guy to try and handle all four boards. It may hurt the game a little with some crowds, but I love the mental exercise I get from really digging deep with this so I don't mind the extra layers. Also, easy to miss, but the fast and slow powers also have different colored energy circles (blue and red) it is subtle enough to be about as helpful as the icons, but having both may help you remember which is which if you are having issues with it.

Well for me... The game is like pandemic... Except it's fun. XD I just cannot get behind the pandemic theme, and this is a similar overall idea, and I think the theme on this one is strong, once you can mechanize the mechanics, it's super cool how you interact by proxy, no usually directly affecting the fight, but mostly helping the natives and controlling the land to get favorable engagements...

Zee, i recommend you try this game solo, it is awesome.

zee garcia needs to be on all of these episodes

love the use of "mechanisms" by Sam

Lol love Zee, but Jesus sometimes I feel like if he wants to hate something he just will.

Zee hates lifting fiddly components, but he's getting yoked doing it. Do you even meeple, brah?

interesting, fresh theme

At last a challenging game with a proper theme not like some other idiotic games which the only goal is to become rich or king.

Totally team Tom here (as is most of the bgg reviews on this one). I think it is weird if you like or have liked MTG, and you dont like this. The only thing to make it more thematic should be the components, although the quality is epic on these. Lastly, it is a little heavy, but i think the turn steps really fits with the theme. Very well integrated and as soon as you get the turn steps down, the rest is just read and do. But then again, this might not have gotten enough playthroughs to really explore (you REALLY should though).

Had to pick this up to balance out my purchase of Santa Maria. It didn't hurt that I got it for less than 38USD shipped!

Definitely my new favorite game. I absolutely love it. And I thought that no game can be better than Cosmic Encounter. But this is fun as hell (like Cosmic), but also strategically magnificent. But it's definetaly true that it's going to take a lot of time to learn how to play this game well, and ton of time to master it. And better your are in this game, more fun it is.

First, thanks to the team for doing these reviews. I rely on each of you individually and as a team as part of my game exploration. Well done! Regarding Spirit Island, after playing 50+ times over the last year (many solo, some 2P and 3P), this has become one of my absolute favorites. I understand Zee’s comments - maybe a few more plays would have changed things, maybe not. But for me, the design is fresh and smart, the graphics are gorgeous and the theme is well-envisioned and supremely executed in every aspect of the game. As far as the difficulty - I loved the fact that I got crushed the first few games on the easiest level but still had a blast playing. That told me I had many years of replayability and engaging advancement ahead of me. The past year has proven that to be true. If you’re on the fence about this one give it a try...actually give it a few tries and let it reveal itself to you fully. Well done to Eric Reuss the artists and the rest of the team. Thank you for Spirit Island!

I am thinking about purchasing this game or Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island. Could you guys recommend one over the other?

I agree with the rest of the comments that the reviewers just did not spend enough time with this game. If you don’t realize the strengths and weaknesses and the importance of the slow vs. fast powers (as was noted in the video), you don’t understand one of the most fundamental aspects of the game itself. To anyone watching this video, please watch a different channel’s review for a more informed take on the game. They might give it more of a fair shake. Note: I realize that the DT is one of the busiest channels on KZfaq (if not the busiest), so them not being able to sink many hours into this game is understandable. All I’m saying is not to base a decision to purchase this game on such a poor review.

I've only played part of a 2 player game of it (we had to quit early due to reasons) but from what I played I agree with Zee. I didn't get much theme out of it at all, and it just all felt very mechanical with at best some superficial theme. Sure, there are different spirits with their strengths and weaknesses, and pretty art and a backstory, but when you play the game, it's just strategically playing to your spirit's strengths without feeling like I actually am the spirit. My starting hands have been pre-determined, so what's left for me to do? Just play the ones that make strategic sense, but at no point does it feel like I can pick what I think would be thematic for my spirit to do, that's all just done for me by the game pasting the theme of my spirit onto all my cards. Getting new cards and getting to pick one out of three, you also just pick the one that makes strategic sense, i.e. what symbols work well for you, what cards play into your strengths, what cards may help you overcome your weaknesses, but never what felt thematically relevant to my spirit. How are you represented on the board? Just some coloured discs, about the least thematic way conceivable. How does the board look? Either rather thematic but practically unplayable, or playable but cartoonish to the point where the tiles in Catan are even more thematic. There's also things like exploration still happening in areas which they already have settlements in, which is thematically utterly ridiculous and therefore feels like it's just a mechanical choice from the developers. I guess for me, if everything you can do fits thematically for your character, then that actually makes it less thematic for me, because it's not me exploring the theme, but just the theme pasted on. This game is about as thematic as chess, where sure you can explain it as being a king who commands an army in a war with a neighbouring kingdom, but in the end, you're just doing what is strategic, and no move feels more thematic than any other. When it comes to complexity, I also agree with Zee, it often felt there was so much going on that I just felt like slipping into analysis paralysis, and often asked my more experienced co-player what would be best, simply because there was just too much going on. There's also a lot of downtime of things just resolving, compared to little time actually deciding what you want to do, and all that downtime is very mechanical as well. The argument that if you're a better player, that happens less, is a weak argument in my opinion, because it means that you need to get good for the game to become less complex, and it will be at its most complex when you're new to the game and still need to figure things out. If there is any complexity curve in a game, you'd want it to be that the game is less complex for new players, and the complexity builds over time in line with player experience (similar as with video games where new mechanics and complexity is introduced throughout the game as to not overload the player with a lot of complexity right at the start), but this game seems to do the opposite of that, thus keeping players out unless they really are dedicated to learning the game and overcoming the complexity. I'll give it another play, hopefully being able to finish it, and will pick a low complexity character (this time had medium complexity character, not realising how complex the game itself already is) to see if that makes it any more manageable, but for now, I'm not convinced this is a game for me, even though, like Zee, I usually enjoy long cooperative games (and tend to dislike long competitive games)

A little dumbfounded on this one, I thought the theme was great. Not sure how it could be better. Zee much have reviewed a different game.

I love Zee's and Sam's t-shirts!

Had some interesting concepts and wanted to like this but unfortunately it was difficult to keep mental track of and repel all the invaders spreading across the various terrains on the board each round throughout this long and punishing game.

I found the innate powers to be very awkward to use. This game definitely didn't need this many different elements. I was constantly counting elemental symbols on cards just to maybe activate a single power.

I only played once and was mixed on it. I don't really like coop games and do like light war games. I felt like it was a light war game coop. I was a bit bothered because the game phases seem designed to have you plan out your whole turn rather than figure out while you went and that combined with the need to coordinate heavily made me feel anxious. I think you could easily play most of the first phases in any order to alleviate that for your first few games. Other players said that wasn't an issue after more plays, but I only played once.

Wooow,. I totaly dig this game. My favourite at the time. So i was really disappointed by this review. Hmmmmm, I get the point, more streamlined and Slow / fast power can be a pain. Settelers will hammer the island, and thats the whole point. Once you get into this game and lear the mechanisms, for me it really shines. But it take some serious work, and i´ve had to play it through quite a few times to really get into it. Appreciate the perspectives you guys have, and we all have different opinions yes, but i just feel this game deserves more credit than it was given here.

Is this a fun/good game to play Solo?

Zee is such a chump when it comes to complicated games.

I just wish this game looked better, especially the board. Great art would have put this on my buy list. The cover and spirits being exceptions.

It sound awesome!!

“Why did they have to be European”? Have you EVER read a history book, man?

Damaged building wouldn't sit on its side. I get what Zee is saying. This is a weird implementation of health reduction.

i like robinson crusoe, and if this is as complex, i dont mind. but dificulity in robinson is scale able, (back of the rule book) your telling me there is no official way to scale this game down even more? well im eventualy gona get the game, seeing as i backed it. but am i gona keep it. thats a other question for a other time.

I think we need some more nuanced terms that keep the words "thematic" and "mechanical" being labored upon as overly broad descriptors.

Nice review, but I heavily disagree with your opinions on this game. This is the best coop there is and there is absolutely no contest. Not even Gloomhaven. Also, about 80% of players win their first game. Once you know the game it's basically impossible to lose at base difficulty.

I reeeeeally like this game! I did find you need to play with non distracted gamers

Zee? How is the game play too euro and not thematic? I thought it was SUPER thematic! The Spirits totally play different and fitting for they background story, like the one recued by the dahan will try to keep the dahan close and work with them, while other spirits hardly need them at all! The process on how the colonists work is super thematic, because in one round they hurt the land where they built before - makes sense, peopel settle there, they disturb nature there more than it was disturbed before. They built where they explored before, makes sense, people run around and find a fitting spot to colonize, the whole point of exploring, right? and they explore from spots next to cities/villages or shores which also makes sense and is super easy to follow. I liked this so much better then automated enemies like, let's say Andor where the order in which they were handeled and what they did seemed disconnected from the monsters themselves... I love they special cards, and even though theoretically each spirit could take about any card from the deck there are abilities some spirits will gladly take, as they play into their personal powers, also including which elements they need, and the same cards might be totally worthless for another spirit! So interesting to see what you get and how you choose! I really can't see any other theme slapped onto these mechanics as they stand, even the fear, the blight tokens, the changing of the win-goal makes thematic totally sense!

I’m with Zee on this one. For me, too much AP, setup time, long rules explanation, and the game gets exponentially more complex as the game drags on. The whole thing felt too much like work for me … it lacked simple fun. You really have to not only think about your possible moves (and there are a lot of choices), you have to think about the other players’ possible moves, and you really need to plan at least one or two turns ahead. This one is a brain-burner in my book. Near the end of the game, you could literally create a spreadsheet with 50+ possible combinations of moves between you and the other players for every turn. That's a bit much. I like choices, but this one is extreme. That being said, I know that this game is perfect for some; they love the endless choices, combinations, and multiple scenarios & such. If you love this game, then more power to you.

Zee is a mixed bag for me. I like his descriptions of games, but he almost always loses me when he gives his review. Example, here he thinks Spirit Island has a weak theme, and I kept asking myself which game he thinks has an amazing theme? Every game requires a level of imagination to help the theme come through. I think Spirit Island does an excellent job giving you the tools to make the theme come alive. To each their own I suppose!

I love The Dice Tower, you guys are great but Zee what is with your distaste for Euro games?. People moan that Euro games have no theme, are boring etc and yet the theme in this one is really strong, and it has a solid design, I mean what more do you want? That's why I have to take this opinion with a pinch of salt, I love your reviews but with anything Euro in style, there seems to be an instant dislike....nitpicking on things like the building, come on, seriously?. I like to use my brain when playing and the thought of staving off British and French colonists with earth spirits sounds awesome, a complete spin on the norm. Zee you're the man, so I don't mean to offend. Anyway, looking forward to this. Keep up the great work guys!!!!

The dude on the left frames it as though theme and mechanics are mutually exclusive, but the mechanics in spirit island are really heavily tied to the theme and vice versa.

I will no longer consider zee a valid reviewer because of this review

I was really looking forward to this one, but Zee's concerns make me more cautious...

I agree with the fact that the theme is AWESOME, but I also think the theme is semi painted on, it could have been just about anything. But I am so glad they went with this. Also, yes, this game is HARD, I have played 3 times, and have yet to beat the game. The only issue I have with it - its a little LONG, and the LENGTH is caused from moving pieces around. The actual game play part you could finish this game in 45 mins, but b/c of how many times your moving / removing / adding pieces doubles the length of the game. All that said, I love the game, and I rate it a 7.5 / 10

Like the review, however I really don’t agree with Zee :). To me game is very thematic and powers are very ‘real’ feeling when you smash the invaders with Tsunamis or Firestorms, or create very scary apparitions. It is complex and particularly the difference between fast and slow powers and how they react with the invaders. You need to play this a lot to get good and quick with it, but the depth should lead to 100s of plays before it gets stale. Thumbs up.

Zee is pretty numb in this review... i love zee and his reviews, but his tasting in gaming is completeley different from mine. I love involved and complex games, he loves trick-taking and 30 or less games... heh, zee is losing points with me

Pretty sure "the games complexity is not as bad once you know what you're doing" applies to every game ever made

Now when you are kicking some euro ass, this is what I call a eurogame :)

Did these guys ever played this game? Looks like they read the instructions and made the video... Dislike for sure.

Looks so complicated

The only problem with this game is the rule book. That said, I don't agree with Zee. Hell, I've listened much to his advice and he is definitely wrong here. I am curious how he thinks about this game now few years later. This is definitely the co-op game to go. It crushes Marvel united which is way too simple and overrated by Zee in my opinion.

I really didn’t understand Zee’s takes on this game as someone who has played a bunch. It feels VERY thematic to me. I mean aside from role playing as the spirits, what more do you want from the game? The card names, the spirit names, the way the spirits function is super thematic. Also I think the building thing is over stated. You really don’t have to use it because damage doesn’t care over. It can be pretty easy to just remember. Maybe that’s where he thought it was fiddly.

Why Europeans? Are you kidding me? Why Not Europeans?!

played it 15 times, never lost. Zee's changes would fuck up the game. ^^

The game seems great but I agree with Zee. What bothers me the most about the game though, is that they spent a lot of money to make one side of the island boards really nice that'll never get used. That money could've gone somewhere else in the game, like components. The components in the game don't help the game at all. For one I believe the island boards should've been much bigger. This would increase the component quality. The components seem random like they were pieces from other games put together for this game. Nothing went with each other very well except the boards and cards. This bothers the graphic designer in me so much. I'm cool with wooden pieces and plastic pieces but when you mix them and none of them match, it's a problem. I think they should've stuck with wooden town and city's. The same concept of putting numbers on the buildings would still be a thing. The wooden mushroom pieces are not the greatest. They perhaps could've gone with wooden triangle cones. I want to play this game but with everything I've seen and all the time it takes to learn this game, it's not right for me or my gaming group. I wish it the best though.

One of the worst reviews of the Dice Tower. They are wrong about a lot of things. Anyway, great game!

This is probably worst review I've ever seen on dice tower, or probably anywhere. To be honest, I'm questioning your ability to understand games. E.g., the heart of this game is the ability to combo powers, you learn that in your *first play through*. You can combo your powers with other spirits, or with your own powers using slow/fast mechanism. Claiming that the existence of "slow and fast" powers is because the game is not polished or streamlined shows a complete lack of understanding.

From the intro, I couldn't help thinking "Betelgeuse!" And then they went all anti colonialism. And then we saw the characters - and it became Avalon from "Gargoyles"

Map looks weird n cheap.

I was a fan of DT and watched many a review but have yet to see such a low energy review with such negative body language. Disgraceful. Curious why? If you don't like the game, fine but no need to brood about it.

why do they have to be European colonizers, Sam? well, name a single country from another part of the world that did any significant colonization. being offended on behalf of European colonists is a bad look.

It has to be a Europen country because spirit island doesn't have oil. You can't do ALL the invading, America.

Why do they have to be european? Hm I dunno couldn’t possibly be because of all the colonizing done by England France Spain and Portugal in history right

European colonialists? Guys, YOU are European colonialist :))))

No Spanish, Dutch or French colonists? R. Eric Reuss should have done his homework.

Zee clearly doesn't get it. What a chump.

Magic: The Riskening with Monopoly, North&South and some other games tossed in the blender. Is it a cool game that's fun to play? Sure, once you get into it and have friends who don't mind learning it. Could it have been made simpler? A LOT simpler? Yes. Definitely. There's too many different types of everything to keep track of. It could have only been about explorers with no 2 or 3 power settlements. It could have only had one spirit action phase instead of the fast and slow. There are lot of things that might make it more streamlined. A game like this would be fun on a PC where you don't have to do all the fiddling around with the tiny pieces, but in a physical game? Ehh. Oh and don't check out the expansion. Just... don't. It takes the micro and the complexity up to the wazoo and then some with several new mechanics that you have to include ALL of into the game at the same time.

Such a bad review of such an amazing game 😅

Tried to like this game, but play was an ironically soulless morass. Just didn't have fun. 😕

Love you guys but you got so many things wrong in this review. This game requires multiple games before having a decent idea of what the game is. You will probably not enjoy/comprehend this game (as much as you should) before getting into your 3rd/4th game.

*mmmmmmmm* listen to that cardboard CLICK against the table. Yummy.

This is too fast and too much info jumbled, my goodness. Some explanations are lacking and assume you already know stuff. Awesome game bad presentation.

Disagree with Zee. It’s definitely thematic and fantastic. Anti-colonial? That’s so sick. Too complex? Nah, that’s what makes it fun. If you can’t deal with the complexity, then don’t play it Zee