Breathe deeply… Let the whisper of thought come to your ear… Harmonize your chakras and let go so that the negative energies will disappear. Meditate on your strategy and let your feelings guide you towards victory!
In Chakra, each player has a board that shows the seven chakras they must fill with gems that represent the energy flowing in their body. To score points, a player must harmonize each of their chakras in the best possible way. To do so, they must take the gems and place three of them of the corresponding color in each of the chakras. During a turn, each player (who starts the game with several inspiration tokens) chooses one of the three following actions:
Take up to three gems from one column and place them on top of their individual board — or by spending a token, place them in a more strategic position.
Spend one token to use one of eight available actions; moving gems up or down by the number of chakra spaces indicated on the action is the key to reaching a perfect alignment.
Meditate to reclaim an inspiration token and secretly look at the point value, which is common to all players, that a harmonized chakra (3 same-colored gems) will score.
When a player manages to align five of their chakras, the last turn is played before you perform the final scoring.
—description from the publisher
- calming, relaxing puzzly experience
- great for players who enjoy balance and color challenges
- replayable with interesting color dynamics
- no official solo mode (fan-made exists)
- chakra balance and color management
- abstract, meditative pacing focused on color chakras
- relaxing, calming
- Resist
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — placing a disc to move chakras and trigger actions
- drafting — drafting crystals to place into chakra tracks
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Chakra is wonderful
- I absolutely love it and I'm so freaking happy I didn't get rid of it
- Dutch Blitz is the best time
- Rove is absolutely amazing
- Witchcraft is a fantastic card based game
- Azul I am so excited to talk about my number 72
- Role Player is wonderful wonderful game
References (from this video)
- Strong thematic cohesion and accessible rules
- Engaging balance and optimization puzzle
- Some players may prefer heavier or lighter games
- spiritual balance and wellness
- balancing chakras through gem movement
- calm, meditative, puzzle-forward
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- color-based scoring — endgame scoring depends on balancing different color tracks
- Compound Scoring — endgame scoring depends on balancing different color tracks
- tile placement — placing gems to balance chakras and advance on color-based tracks
- tile/gem placement — placing gems to balance chakras and advance on color-based tracks
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Heaven and Ale is a fantastic game and I would love to see a reprinting of this one.
- Books of Time is fantastic.
- Animal Kingdoms is fantastic.
- Wizards of the Grimoire is fantastic.
- The Magnificent is fantastic.
- Chakra is such a wonderful game.