Review of Legendary Forests

Game: Legendary Forests

Published: Iello

Designer: Toshiki Sato

Players: 2-5

Playtime: 15-20 Minutes

Play Type: Tile Placement

Synopsis:

You are a Dryad attempting to create a beautiful planet covered in plentiful forests. Your goal is to make your forests be more beautiful than all of your opponents.

Game Play:

Legendary Forests is a light tile placement game where players are given identical tiles and must compete to create a high scoring forest by placing tiles and scoring cards in the best possible way. Legendary Forests is unique in that all players will use the same tiles to complete their forest. As tiles are drawn, the color of number in the corner of the tile will determine the actions that must be taken.

On a dark colored number, a leader will draw a tile, inform the other players of which tile has been drawn, and all players will place that number tile in their individual forest. Tiles must be placed so that colors match on all sides of the tile, and they must touch at least one other tile.

On a light colored number, players still complete the placement of the tile. Additionally, players will then choose a scoring token that will be placed on a portion of the forest. Only portions of the forest with a scoring token will be scored at the end of the game. Players must carefully choose the color of scoring tokens that they will place in their forest to have the best score possible as there are a limited number of each color.

During scoring, players will look at the areas that have a tree scoring token. Then they will look to see if the colored section is in a closed zone, meaning that all runes in the center of the tiles are complete circles. If the area is a closed zone, each rune is worth 2 points. If the area is not a closed zone, each completed rune will be worth one point.  The player with the most points wins the game.

Components:

Legendary Forests has a few simple, beautiful components. The main star of the game is the tiles themselves. They are vibrant, easy to understand, and truly beautiful once set out. The druids on the back do a great job of differentiating player color without distracting from the overall aesthetic of the game.

The tree scoring markers are some of my favorite wooden pieces from any game. They are gorgeous, and they stand out perfectly on the game board. The 3-D nature of them makes them easy to spot for scoring too.

I do wish that there were more bags included in the game for storage, but it was not a huge deal because we just added our own to the game. Beyond that small concern, I found the game to perfect for the price. The rule book was well laid out and the components are quality and should last for many plays.

Overview:

Positives:

• Easy to Teach
• Quick to Play
• Great for Beginners
• Beautiful
• Very Little Luck
• Encourages Planning Ahead

Negatives:

• Lacks Depth
• Limited Replayability

As a filler game, I really adore Legendary Forests. It is easy to teach to nongamers, and has a beautiful table presence. While the complexity of the game is limited, I have found that there is strategy in where tiles are placed and what scoring tokens to choose. This light strategy is perfect for someone looking for a quick and easy game to play. Though I do wish that there was more replayability through more varied tiles. When this game comes to the table, we play it several times. However, I could see it getting replaced by another game with more variety over time.