Rising Sun Review - with Jason Peacock

Jason takes a look at this recent critical darling of negotiation and conflict.

[Marviczekpusiczek]

Never would have I thought that I'd be watching Keanu Reeves doing review on Rising Sun.

Great review btw. I am convinced, I love negotiating.

[diegoorrego]

A couple of weeks ago I finally bought the Kickstarter version of Rising Sun. This video made that decision possible. Thanks!!!

[qutzl]

I have got the kickstarter version of the game with everything except the metal coins. And I think CMON made a mistake in making the stronghold miniatures kickstarter exclusive. I can imagine getting rid of all the exclusives except for the strongholds, the cardboard tokens just don't work in between the clan mini's and monsters imo. I agree that the game is great, although I have played this with two groups now and one of them unfortunately didn't like it.

[RedEyedGhost]

I keep watching every review of this game as they come out trying to find what I'm missing with this game. I've played it twice, and I haven't enjoyed it much either time. There hasn't been much negotiation in either game, and the groups that link up at the start seem to ride that same alliance throughout the entire game. Maybe that's it? I don't really like the battles though, as the person committing the most sepuku seems to be the winner each game (even beating out someone that got the max territory bonus at the end of the game in one), and that just doesn't jive with what I want in a dudes on the map game - I want those in your face all out battles for victory. I'll probably play it a couple of more times before I give up on it (and sell my all-in KS pledge - still waiting on that play mat), but I just don't get all of the love it's been receiving.

My biggest complaint about it is that I don't feel like the mandates do enough - it's feels very euro-y in how much more I want to achieve each game and am unable to. I love euro games, but this is too much in where I was expecting more of an American style game. I'll definitely be playing it as a euro gamer the next time it hits the table.

[BenH]

Do you mostly play with all the expansions, or do you prefer focusing on some or excluding others? Any expansions that you would not play the game without?

[markusschmidt]

We also all enjoyed our games so far, though seemingly not quite as much as you. However, one thing you mentioned made me gulp a bit was you claiming to have tossed away ALL the cardboard. Don't get me wrong, most of the bling extras are great, and we wouldn't play with out them, since we have them. But the plastic flags are plain AWFUL, such a superfluous and stupid extra! We stopped using them after one spring season and never came back. It really annoys gameplay, if not everybody around the table can see all the time, in which order the provinces will be executed. What were they thinking when including this flags? Probably NOTHING.

[josueouellette]

Wow ! Really great reviews man! Keep up the good work.

[Raphaelus]

Why not call a game design elegant? Its one of my favorite things to hear from a game. Can't wait to play this.

[nekochen]

I missed the kickstarter project and I'm stuck with a retail version which is just 1/2 of the actual game. 1 less playable race and a whole lot less of neutral monsters which adds tons to strategy. I couldn't care less about the upgrades on the tiles, fortress figure, etc., it's those two gameplay components that are missing from the retail version kind of pisses me off. It's like paying a full price for an incomplete game, something EA games or the recent Bethesda would do lol.

[RazzleDazzle]

The game is beautiful, too bad it's a negotiation game.. that makes it a 0/10 for me.

[yrusomad]

Game is just hype.  I see all these rave reviews.  You need every player to be a backstabbing negotiator to have any resemblance of a decent game from this system.  I feel it is not a main stream game by any means. Some mechanics seem interesting in concept on paper, but thinking about them for longer than 2 minutes I feel far too many games would just leave a sour taste in my mouth. It takes the worst aspect of gaming (ganging up on someone) and amplifies it to 9000.