Revisiting a recreation that you simply performed a few years in the past, when your expertise within the passion was a lot much less, generally is a difficult proposition. Generally these older video games maintain up extraordinarily properly, and generally these video games we liked have been so beloved as a result of they have been the one issues we had actually performed on the time.
Yokohama was one of many first mid-weight Euros I performed after I entered the passion. Will it maintain up after the 8 years since its launch and after I first performed it, or will it pale compared to newer video games, and possibly even itself?
Gameplay Overview:
In Yokohama, gamers shall be taking turns putting Assistants across the totally different location boards after which transferring their President piece to a location. The variety of Assistants you will have on the situation your President lands on determines the Energy of the motion you’re taking. As an example, if there are two Assistants and the President on a location, then that location’s motion Energy for the flip could be 3.
Every location has totally different actions that shall be performed from them. Some actions are merely useful resource gathering, some are amassing contract playing cards, some are amassing rule breaker Know-how playing cards, and so on… A few of these actions might seem on a number of boards, whereas others might solely seem on one location in a given recreation.
Since Yokohama is a modern-day Euro, it ought to come as no shock that the target of the sport is to assemble as many Victory Factors in as many alternative methods as you may. Most factors are gathered by changing the gathered assets into factors, largely by way of Orders. There are additionally a number of of the areas which might be miniature Space Majority contests, in addition to some Set Assortment thrown in for good measure.
Sport Expertise:
In case it wasn’t apparent from the principles breakdown, the fundamental bones of Yokohama are nothing distinctive. Gathering and changing assets is concurrently an oversimplification of lots of Euro video games, and but it’s not removed from the reality for many, both. The place Yokohama stands out above the remaining is with its selections with participant interplay.
See, the position of Assistants and Presidents is a little more difficult than the way in which I described it. If I wish to place Assistant(s) in a location with an opponent’s President, I have to pay that participant 1 Yen per Assistant I want to place. Additionally, if I wish to transfer my President by way of an area that has an opponent’s President, I have to pay 1 Yen.
This mechanism is the meat of Yokohama. This makes an extremely easy useful resource conversion title flip right into a brawl. Every resolution about Assistants’ placement is now twin goal: offense and protection. In each recreation of Yokohama I’ve performed, there are Assistants that I place out on the board with no intention of activating the motion of that location any time quickly, however I place that Assistant merely to realize me some chilly laborious money. Additionally, each time I transfer my President, I’m not solely looking for the opponent’s Presidents to keep away from paying them money, however I additionally wish to attempt to decide on a location that’s actively in the way in which of different gamers for his or her upcoming turns.
I completely adore this mechanic of the sport. It takes a recreation that could possibly be “mathed out” and fairly simple and provides a wrinkle of human interplay that lots of useful resource conversion Euros discover revolting. I actually can’t imagine that there’s a Euro with as a lot chunk as Yokohama has. The draw back to this mechanic, nevertheless, is two-fold.
One, this recreation actually suffers at decrease participant counts. Sure, the map of the town shrinks, however the variety of gamers between my flip shrinks, and thus makes exploitative strikes more durable to drag off. Two, there’s a distinction of viewers at play right here between pleasant Euro gamers and confrontational Euro gamers that makes this recreation fairly tough to get performed.
One other mechanic I didn’t focus on within the guidelines breakdown is the implementation of Shophouses and Buying and selling Homes. These are buildings that may be positioned on every location by every participant that act as everlasting Assistants. I’ve all the time had a problem with these buildings. First, they signpost to different gamers the place you’re most invested in taking actions sooner or later, making their impression really feel lesser. Second, they begin to take away the impression of the Assistants as the sport goes on, which as I alluded to above, is the principle cause to return play Yokohama within the first place. Lastly, the buildings could be expensive to get out, and due to that, they really feel like they’re railroading your technique in ways in which the Assistants don’t.
Lastly, I wish to speak about what I foreshadowed with my introduction: how does Yokohama really feel eight years later? I actually really feel like, despite the fact that the sport itself hasn’t aged a day, its place inside the board recreation group has shifted. This recreation is simply too imply for pleasant avid gamers to take pleasure in, and for feistier Eurogamers on the market, there are such a lot of higher choices. This has all the time been true to some extent, after all, however with the saturation of the market as a complete, I simply really feel that Yokohama is such a tough recreation to place into only one camp, and thus that makes it pricklier than ever to attempt to get performed.
Ultimate Ideas:
Yokohama stands out for its aggressive nature and “route constructing” employee placement, however it’s nonetheless a reasonably barebones useful resource conversion Employee Placement recreation. If you happen to’re searching for a bit feistier of a Eurogame, you’ve come to the fitting place. In any other case, this recreation doesn’t have a lot to supply in as we speak’s crowded panorama.
Ultimate Rating: 3.5 Stars – In 2025, the sport has misplaced its luster however continues to be higher than most Euros.
Hits:
• Distinctive employee placement guidelines
• Excessive variability
• An excellent mixture of ways and technique
Misses:
• Doesn’t stand out from the gang
• Numerous minor guidelines
• Assets can turn out to be off-balance
