I tend to align with Zee's opinions, so I like hearing his perspective (sorta like a voice of dissent but not pessimistically)

I do miss Zee too

They need to make it the "5 Star" review going forward.

Zee is the voice of the people for a reason. His opinion aligns with many people.

@Valerio Di Gregorio oh really, did it change recently ? i thought the title has always been Zee's

@Valerio Di Gregorio I disagree that Fantasy Realms is a bad game. It VERY random but it plays quickly and is a lot of fun if you enjoy trying to built the best scoring hand out of what you have available. It hits the table a lot in our house and goes along with us when we're out and about. Waiting at the doctor's office? Fantasy Realms! Waiting for your food at a restaurant? Fantasy Realms! Taking 5 to relax the feet after browsing the mall? Fantasy Realms! If you have 10-20 minutes to spare you can fit in a game of Fantasy Realms.

But since they’re together there are no longer four squares on screen....unless

Shouldnt they test these things though before producing?

Is he the one with the Dr. Pepper shirt?

I thought the same exact thing!

Thought that in another video. Agreed!

hope hes o.k.

It is on purpose! It was a lot of hard work!!

@@EpicGamingNight what’s your secret Roy??? You look great!

I haven't played Red Rising, but Fantasy Realms is a very apt comparison... and the play time of FR makes it a lot more alluring.

I agree. I enjoy this game much more than the DT crew. I've played one six player game and around 8 solo games. I love the solo on this one.

There is an official mulligan rule

Gotta agree. If I got my favorite book IP I would do my best to make it feel the way I felt reading the book.

Although, and I don't mean this harshly, most of his games seem to be low on the interaction scale. Its the fact that it is low interaction, and the interaction you do have is take that, that makes this seem rough.

While I partially agree, I would argue he made an accessible game for fans of the book and a peak at the Red Rising universe in a light pretty package for gamers.

who's naruto?

@@TheXtreme32 He is the anime character on Roy's shirt.

@EnoFruitSalt. I don't get it... : /

I’ve been brainstorming (for fun) a Harry Potter Worker Placement game forever. With a Hogwarts board where you can see the inside of the castle (like a blueprint). Would be so great

@@evannadeau3938 Argent the Consortium rethemed?

@@zvonk2480 hmm maybe? Haven’t heard or played it. Looks interesting.

You know, people always say this. I bought a lazy Susan. They're heavy, bulky, a pain to put on the table and a bigger pain to store.

Seconded

having purchase tied to social justice cause donation was first red flag for me

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I to think this review was nitpicky. Now, these guys have played a TON of games so they are always comparing them to others whether intentional or not. I feel they expect a game to cater to their every whim in regard to components and such. The suggestions you made regarding the colored cubes, insert, etc. is exactly how I feel. They are minor and the “solution” takes little to no effort. It’s as if they don’t want viewers to think they will love everything release by SM and so they become unnecessarily critical regarding things that ultimately don’t matter. Also, the comments from a lot of people saying they are selling their game or not getting it purely based on the opinion of four guys whom they’ve never met is unfortunate. I watch how a game is played on several channels, find and read the PDF manual and make my own decision based on that.

I 100% agree with you. I would also not give up the metal cubes and the metal sovereign token which feel fantastic in hand. I also had issues with increasing hand size at first but after more and more plays I've found that there are usually ways to accomplish it. Thanks for your comment, I would also give this between a 7 and 8. The solo is definitely an 8 for me.

Totally agree with this comment. I wonder how many times they played the game? I felt like it took a few plays to get a feel for the pace and arc of the game, and also to get a little more familiarity for the types of actions that are available and how best to leverage them.

@@tc3p Same thing happens in the video game realm. YT creators post reviews after they’ve only played a few hours of a game that has many modes and side quests. It’s the rush of having a review out that causes a drop in quality.

I had Aja and Antonia played against me in the same game and won. It's a big deck. The odds of getting a bad hand in fantasy realms and not being able to improve it fast enough is higher.

Several games have figured out how to make a good insert for both sleevers and non-sleevers: CMON's Dogs of War and Ethnos, Camel up 2nd edition. And there's several ways to do it. Its just lazy design not to accomodate both.

Red rising is simplier, but longer. It depends on your tastes. Every card in fantasy realm have a lot of conditions, it creates extreme downtime between opponents turns.

I haven’t played Fantasy Realms. But I really love Red Rising. This is definitely a game that you have to play multiple times to get the intricacies of it.

Both have a place in my collection, Fantasy Realms is cleaner, the mechanics allow for quick play and quick end game conditions. Agreeing with the review, I LOVE Red Rising but the end game conditions can be slow and not a major driver of the strategy. My games have gone both ways: My hand is great mid-game and I'm just scouting to trigger end game faster OR my hand sucks and the cards I need don't show up the entire game no matter how much I delay the end game trigger. The main difference to me is that if I have a bad Fantasy Realms game it's easy to say "let's go another one" and play it again in Red Rising I rarely play twice the same night.

Agreed. I need to know the secret because I'm in the market for losing a few pounds myself.

I think what he means is that when you get to that point where you have a good, solid hand of cards, you dont want to get rid of any of them because you feel you've got the "right" setup, so instead of DOING interesting things, you just go really passive and let the AI do stuff until it activates the endgame condition. Of course, whether or not it's a good idea to do that is another matter.

@@Amalga_Heart but that's not how it works you can actively push the end game yourself. The automa does not need to meet any end game conditions.

@@challiecoppel9022 Yes, but my point is that players in that position of having what they see as the perfect hand might simply decline to do that. They might figure "Okay, this hand is already fantastic and I already have a decent number of resources, so since I dont want to mess the hand up by playing any of these cards, I'm just going to keep scouting on my turn and let the automa be the one to trigger the end game". It's a complaint I've heard in other reviews too. Though again, whether or not it's actually a good idea to do it is another matter. Technically, it's something that would work in multiplayer as well; if you think your hand of cards is set for victory and you refuse to disturb it... just go passive and let the other players keep going until they trigger the end condition. Heck, the rulebook even says this about the Scout action: "Players typically only choose to scout if they are completely satisfied with their hand". In that situation, I imagine many players will simply do it over and over until the game ends.

@@Amalga_Heart I am only saying that when you scout you are pushing the end of the game. Not saying it is the best thing but that you can end the game scouting.

I like RR quite a bit too. But Wingspan is a way better game.

A home run? A game with tons of flaws and warts is a home run? To say this game is a home run is like saying that Olive Garden is the best Italian restaurant!! I mean yes, to each their own but just curious if this is a home run, what games would you consider to be better?

I agree with this comment, a big omission by the dice tower.

I wouldn't... the game is much worse then they even suggest

@@Ironhawx I want to say "Not necessary", but that would be me just being polite. Since I engaged I will give you my true 2 cents. TL:DR: the game is boring. It just doesn't give you any options. On your turn you can basically almost always do 1 thing. You don't want to play your good cards because you lose them, so basically you keep 4 of the best cards and cycle 1 of the other constantly. THIS is super boring. The issues they share the for the game are 1000% more prominent. 1) As with almost all stonemaier games this is very very very very much imbalanced. And I am not talking about the luch part. A card can give you 15+15 points if you have this 1 other specific card from a deck of 120+ cards and a card can give you 35 points for a condition that is automatically completed as you play the game (empty location for example). There are many such examples. 2) As Chris said, the game is bipolar. It is "supposed to be able" to give you this enjoyment of big plays, but it never actually does that. Even if you do get it, the other people on the table are probably misarable then. 3) Even if you get the perfect hand from the first deal... that would mean you don't get to play the game at all, since all you do is do the "pass" action. To elaborate: if you have good cards the game is boring, since you don't want to use/waste them. If you have bad cards, the game is barely enjoyable. 4)There are many cards that depend on different colors/suits to show up and they DO NOT show up in the game (4-5 players) Some cards even require you to have multiple of the same suit. AND they just don't show up. 5) More players doesn't mean more cards will show up. Quite the opposite... you actually get less choices at what you want to do, because the options get taken before you. 6) the "lose 1 card" take that mechanic... basically is the " you can stop trying to play now" mechanic. I lost card is usually a difference of at least 15-20%. So your max score now becomes 20% less then other players. 7) The oposite is also true. Get more cards is almost a certain 10% min increase up to 30% max score increase. 8) there are barely any new cards in the game (4-5players) then the starting hand players get. Abilities that put more cards on the board are barely played because putting cards on the board makes other people's turns better, not your. By the time your turn comes you are back to same position. I will stop here but there are many many many many more glaring issiues:

@Valerio Di Gregorio Actually, I did buy this game to look at the cards since I love the RR books. But because of the mechanics, I promptly sold it. I think a review should take into account production quality, art, and component quality not just mechanics. Conversely, look at how many people/reviewers dock Terraforming Mars' rating because of its art, cardstock, and player boards. After listening to the DT crew's talking points, but before their numerical rating, I guessed correctly that it would sit around 6. The game didn't even get a seal of approval. I suspect they would play it again if someone would request to, but would not suggest it themselves.

@@LeeKenshin7 As I mentioned before :) I add or deduct 0.5 for production/art/theme etc etc. Or you can note that you despite or because of such things you score higher lower. But overall the it should be if the game is enjoyable and if it works.

@@zippystar I guess they probably put more weight into production, art, component quality than you do. In any case, 6-6.5 is a failing grade in Tom's eyes (in another comment, he equate his rating system to school grading). Reading the comments, some thinks it should be rated lower and some thinks it should be rated higher even suggesting that the DT colluded to not give this game a seal of approval. In the end, the numerical rating is just a reflection of their subjective taste/opinion and I would not call their integrity into question. Suffice it to say, with all four reviewers giving it 6-6.5, this game likely won't get the traction that many SM games do.

did you get the deluxe edition?

​@@lexodius Yes, and I do understand the criticism with the cubes. I still think the game over all is better than what they make it out to be.

I agree with you. For me it’s a solid 7.5 and could be higher if it weren’t for the fact that once you have a good hand there is no real incentive to play cards from your hand. I’m thinking of adding a house rule where by once a round a player rolled the die and plays a card from the deck to the spot that was rolled (picking one and banishing one of those come up) it would add more variety to the board rather then having the same five cards being picked up and played back to back. Their criticisms are all fair though aside from the insert.

Personally, if I'm left feeling I have to add house rules to make a game interesting then it's not getting a 7.5 rating. 😁

Wingspan is not Jamey's design

@@notsaved I know it's not but I'm sure he was somewhat involved in it, meaning if he published it he must've played the game and suggested tweaks to improve it

-10 per card.

@@bricelory9534 i know but if you keep a card it's gonna net you way more than that, so it feels weird

a) Hundreds of people, including 2 of the 4 DT reviewers, began reading the books because of the game. b) Many players of the game, including 2 of the 4 DT reviewers, were excited to see artistic representations of the characters. So your comment is a bit weird.

@@StevenStJohn-kj9eb a) What about the game excited "hundreds" of people to check out the books? I can't find any data to back that up. b) "Artistic representations" could be posters, fan art, art books, etc. They didn't need to be cardboard cards to get the same effect. Like they said in the review, you could paste any IP onto this game and have the same artistic representation. Seems like a waste of money to produce a game that isn't more expansive.

@@ralelunar Red Rising Facebook group.

I started reading the books only because the game was released, so #1 worked with me. I have thus far finished the first book and have the second book ready to go as soon as I have a little time.

I'm glad you enjoy the game!

I'm surprised they gave it as high as 6! Possibly in order not to offend Jamey Stegmeier (who i respect a lot).

I agree that the combos are more interesting in Fantasy Realms. But at the same time, it is much more luck based whether you are going to hit those big combos. You see fewer cards overall in Fantasy Realms. and greys and oranges in Red Rising can change suits and names respectively, so there is a higher chance of completing combos in Red Rising. There are 8 cards out at the beginning of Red Rising, and base Fantasy Realms ends when you see the 10th card out. The expansion ends at 12 cards, but then you have 3 more suits added, so it's the same issue with more variance in scores in Fantasy Realms. I think both are extremely fun, but Fantasy Realms is more luck based than Red Rising.

Love these posts that reduce a game down to such simple acts. Guess what, you can say that about any game.

@@windbane69 agree on a lot of this, but I think the flaw in Red Rising it has luck in it that is more devastating and lasts for a longer time. If a player gets extra cards and you get none, it feels terrible and you’re probably going to lose. If you get a card taken away, you’re playing the whole game down a card, and you’ll probably lose. Fantasy realms has you shooting for combos based on your own decisions and limited time frame, and the randomness is more palpable based on the game length.

Doubt this is meant for people who already own FR. Either way, RR isn't tedious at all. Turns are quick and satisfying with the planet abilities

@@kumanight I disagree. The AP that is caused drags the turns down, with players checking cards that are covered by others, as well as planning on what cards to play based on the previous turn. I agree with Tom a lot in this case. In addition, the small actions of placing a cube and moving up a track or getting a resource don’t merit the down time. I was so excited about this game because Jamey loved Fantasy Realms, but it took a great system and added a cool theme but hindered it with unnecessary mechanics.