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Game Info
Year
2025
Collection
Your Tier
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Description
A group of animal friends set out on an epic journey to catch rare foods and to combine them to make Legendary Recipes. Create the ultimate Recipe to help them unlock the secrets of the Umamiverse!
Umami Friends invites players to choose a umami chef, each with a distinct type and ability, providing unique advantages in culinary battles. The core of gameplay revolves around collecting ingredients to craft recipes.
These recipes evolve into more potent combinations, culminating in the creation of Legendary Recipes through strategic layering. With numerous character and ingredient combinations to discover, every cook-off is a fresh experience!
The player or team that has earned 30 Umami Points at the end of the game wins!
—description from the designer
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 4
This page: 4
Sentiment:
pos 2 ·
mix 1 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–4 of 4
Video do5h18c_fDk
Shelfside Playthrough at 0:00 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 87014 · mention_pk 295349
Click to watch at 0:00 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- Rich combo potential and high interactivity
- Tasty thematic flavor with a clear cooking/recipe vibe
- Turbo mode adds pace and excitement
Cons
- Turbo mode can be chaotic and may throw players off
- Rule complexity and hand management can be dense for new players
- Some rare recipes may feel underwhelming or situational
Thematic elements
- Culinary competition, recipe drafting
- Competitive cooking tournament featuring chef characters with recipe cards
- Group commentary with host and players; live playthrough
Comparison games
- Grand Archives
- Splendor
- Magic: The Gathering
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — Players draft recipes and buy them with ingredients spent from hand or board.
- Deck drawing/draw options — On your turn you may draw three ingredients from the deck (four under Turbo rules).
- End-of-turn refresh — After performing actions you refresh to your hand/board size (usually five ingredients).
- Orange corner ability — Some recipes show an orange marker that grants an extra action when bought.
- Rarity and upgrade path — Common recipes are available in multiple quantities; rare recipes appear later and are typically stronger.
- Reclaim as Action — After performing actions you refresh to your hand/board size (usually five ingredients).
- Resource Management — Ingredients are spent to buy recipes; some recipes require other recipes as costs.
- Turbo rules — Turbo rules allow drawing four cards and placing two ingredients instead of the standard three and one.
- Turn actions — Each turn you perform one action from: draw, place, use a character ability, or buy a recipe.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- when you play a combo deck you ignore everybody
- the goal is to hit 30 Umami VP victory points
- some recipes require other recipes as a cost
- on your turn you first put down any sweet cards you may have on your hand onto your board then you take one action
- draw three ingredients from the deck
- end of your turn you draw back up to your refresh
- orange on the bottom right corner you get to take another action
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video G2CNO0-HbSg
M University Rules Teach at 0:12 sentiment: positive
video_pk 75920 · mention_pk 184026
Click to watch at 0:12 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- collect and combine ingredients into better recipes to score Umami points
- sentient animals after the crash of the radioactive Comet which brought the foods to life
- instructional/tutorial
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Actions (4 total per turn) — Draw ingredients, plan an ingredient to your board, make a recipe, or cook your Chef's recipe.
- Additional action via sweets — You may spend three sweets to take another action.
- Chef's recipe — Cook your Chef's recipe by spending ingredients; the Chef card's bottom shows an ability; if it's a recipe, it has a cost and resolves when used.
- Draw ingredients — Draw three new ingredient cards from the top of the deck and add them to your hand; you must discard down to your hand size limit at end of turn.
- Eggs and expansion — Eggs behave as common recipes; expansions may modify the number of rare recipes dealt.
- End Game — The game ends when any player reaches 30 Umami points; all others get one final turn; tie breakers continue until resolved; in 4-player game players form two teams and cannot share hands but share a recipe board.
- End Game Bonuses — The game ends when any player reaches 30 Umami points; all others get one final turn; tie breakers continue until resolved; in 4-player game players form two teams and cannot share hands but share a recipe board.
- End of turn — Draw up to hand size or discard down to your hand limit.
- Hand limit and board interaction — All players start with a five-card hand limit; board effects can alter the max refresh; your board's recipes plus your Chef create the Umami points.
- Icon types and power levels — There are seven basic icon types (plant, burger, noodles, sauce, sweets, taco, spicy) and four power levels (circle, triangle, pentagon, star).
- Ingredients and costs — Costs are based on the bottom-left icon; you may overpay and some icons are wild; eggs count as common for all purposes.
- Lose a Turn — Draw up to hand size or discard down to your hand limit.
- Make a recipe — Choose any one of the face-up recipes (20 total); pay its cost using icons from hand/board; card then adds to your board with its effects (immediate vs passive).
- Opponent targeting — If an effect refers to your opponent, you must choose the opponent opposite you; if it says an opponent, you may choose any opponent from the opposing team.
- Plan ingredient to your board — Take an ingredient from your hand and place it face up on your board; its value on the board is not greater than in your hand.
- Pre-action — May take any number of sweets cards from your hand and place them face up on your board.
- Recipe — Choose any one of the face-up recipes (20 total); pay its cost using icons from hand/board; card then adds to your board with its effects (immediate vs passive).
- starting setup — Initial setup includes laying out the four decks (ingredients, rare recipes, etc), dealing 10 rare recipe cards face up, and drafting a starting recipe and Chef.
- Turn structure — Gameplay is conducted in turns starting with the first player, proceeding clockwise.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- we are using a prototype copy of the game so the rules and components may not be final
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 4lJz0xu7R6Y
Discussion
video_pk 70529 · mention_pk 167538
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
none
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- "Umami friends is a light fun family strategy game with cute food cute animals and angry looking tacos"
- "the game plays two to four players"
- "the game is of light complexity"
- "first to 30 points first wins"
- "Umami friends project page I'll put the link in the description below"
- "the components we featured in this video are prototype so rules and artwor are not final"
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 4lJz0xu7R6Y
Discussion at 0:04 sentiment: positive
video_pk 70529 · mention_pk 184031
Click to watch at 0:04 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Light complexity
- Family-friendly
- Cute food and animals theme
- Two to four players
- Power cards add strategic depth
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- cooking/recipes
- lighthearted
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- collect points to win — Recipes have points that you need to win; first to 30 points wins.
- display and refresh of cards — Common recipe cards are limited and return to display after exchange.
- draw three ingredient cards — On a turn, a player may draw three ingredient cards.
- exchange common to rare recipes — Exchange common recipe cards to upgrade to rare recipe cards.
- make a recipe by matching icons — Match icon cards from your board or hand to claim an available recipe card.
- play one ingredient card to board — On a turn, you can put out one ingredient card from your hand to your board.
- Power cards — Recipe cards have powers that help players in the game.
- Recipe — On a turn, a player may draw three ingredient cards.
- special actions from powers — Healthy Snake gives an extra action; Coco de Cat makes taco recipes cost one less; Sasha the shepherd lets you draw two ingredients after making three recipes in a turn.
- team play rules — In four-player mode you cannot share ingredients with teammates, but you can share recipes.
- two to four players / team mode — Game supports 2-4 players; in four-player mode turns may alternate between teams.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- "Umami friends is a light fun family strategy game with cute food cute animals and angry looking tacos"
- "the game plays two to four players"
- "the game is of light complexity"
- "first to 30 points first wins"
- "Umami friends project page I'll put the link in the description below"
- "the components we featured in this video are prototype so rules and artwor are not final"
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–4 of 4