Tokaido 10th Anniversary Edition: New Coat of Paint, Same Great Game

Take a journey through ancient Japan collecting souvenirs, encountering fellow travelers, and putting together your own unique trip.

Published by Funforge, Tokaido is designed for 2-5 players, and has a 45-minute playtime. This 10th anniversary edition includes new artwork and a slimmer box but plays the same as the original.

Gameplay

Each player is dealt two traveler tiles and chooses one to play with. Different travelers have unique abilities and start the game with a different number of coins. Abilities include scoring extra points at certain locations or making things cheaper to purchase, for example.  

The board shows a series of locations in a line that runs from left to right. All players place their meeple on the start location on the far left. Some locations, including the start location, have multiple spaces that are placed in a column. Turn order is always determined by whose meeple is farthest behind. The player whose meeple is at the location farthest to the left goes first. If there are multiple meeples at that location, the player whose meeple is at the lowest space in the column of spaces goes first. A player can have multiple turns in a row if he is furthest behind and moves his meeple forward to a location that is still behind everyone else.

On a player’s turn, he moves his meeple forward to any open space between his current location and the next inn stop on the board. The further ahead of other players he goes, however, the longer he may have to wait for his next turn. The location type he moves to determines what happens.

At a shop, a player draws three souvenir cards and may buy as many of them as he wishes to, as long as he has the money for them. There are four types of souvenirs, and players score points for collecting sets of different souvenirs. At a farm, a player earns three coins. There are three different types of panorama locations. When a player stops at one of these, he paints the next panorama card of that location. The more cards he collects of a specific panorama, the more points they are worth. The first players to complete each of the panorama locations also earn three bonus points. At a hot spring, a player draws a hot spring card, which is always worth two or three points. At a temple, a player must choose to donate 1-3 coins. Each donated coin is worth one point. At an encounter, the player draws the top card of the encounter pile, which represents someone they meet along the way who gives them a bonus such as extra money or bonus points.

Finally, there are four inns on the board. Players must always stop at an inn before they can continue past it. For each inn, food cards equal to the number of players plus one, are drawn. When a player stops at an inn, he may purchase one food card. Each food card is worth six points, but their prices range from 1-3 coins. So it’s possible, if a player arrives at an inn late, that all the cheap food will have already been purchased.

Because turns are always determined by who is furthest behind on the board, players always wait at the inn until everyone has reached that location before continuing on. The game ends once everyone has reached the final inn. Bonus points are awarded to the player who spent the most money on food at inns, who went to the most hot springs, who collected the most encounter cards, and who collected the most souvenirs. Finally, the player who donated the most to the temple throughout the game earns 10 points. Players who donated the second and third most also earn some bonus points, and any other players who donated score two points. The player with the most points wins the game.

Review

Tokaido is a delightful game, as players make their journey across the board. It feels cozy and contemplative. No matter who wins, there’s been an adventure to reach the end and it feels satisfying to put your journey together and see how it plays out.

There is a lot of player interaction, though, as you elbow each other for space, blocking locations someone might wish to go to, or balance jumping ahead to visit a spot you especially want to land on while it’s free, with giving another player two turns in a row. The fact that everyone has to stop at the inns, ensures that everyone stays within a certain distance of one another so that level of player interaction always stays in effect.

Each location has its own strengths, and there are multiple paths to victory. Players have to adjust their plans based on the traveler they start the game with, as well as what locations other players choose to focus on.

While playing with two players does require a few additional rules, we’ve found they worked well, and the game is solid across all its player counts. Gameplay is always swift, so there is never too much downtime, even at the higher player counts.

The version we were sent is listed online as the 10^th Anniversary Edition. There is nothing on the box that names it as such. The artwork is updated and the box is slimmer, although the plastic insert has been removed making it less tidy inside. The new artwork is definitely nice with the panorama cards especially getting a good visual upgrade, but if you already own a copy of Tokaido there’s nothing here to make upgrading particularly tempting. It would have been nice if the expansion was included to make this edition feel more special. As it is, there’s not really anything to earn the anniversary edition title.

Tokaido is an excellent game, with beautiful artwork, gameplay that is easy to learn, and fast turns that still give players plenty of important choices to make. It’s been around for a while and is still as engaging and enjoyable as when it was first released.

Pros: Great player interaction, the game looks beautiful, the theme is very satisfying

Cons: 10^th Anniversary Edition felt a little underwhelming and there’s no reason to upgrade to it if you already own Tokaido

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.