The Garden Trilogy (Aqua Garden, Sky Garden, Dino Garden): A Buyer's Guide
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Transcript
Hi everyone, I'm Tally. This is Frell and we're bored of it and welcome to our buyers guide for the garden trilogy. This is a series of games by designer Touka Chu and publisher Uchoya and is based upon refining and expanding their game Aqua Garden. The games in this collection include Aqua Garden, Sky Garden, and Dino Garden.
Congrats on the pronunciation.
Thank you so much.
And should say that it's Aqua Garden second edition. So, in this buyers guide, being a buyers guide, we are going to take you through what the games are, how they play, how each one is different to the others, and then we're going to tell you what we think. But before we jump into that, know that we are provided these copies by the publisher, and they are not final production copies as the Kickstarter hasn't come yet, but they are the final games. So, some elements of production may change, but as you'll see, I think they look pretty damn good. Mhm.
Aqua Garden is a Euro game for one to four players and it was released in 2021 by Japanese publisher Uchipoya. It was probably the first of their games to get real attention from Western audiences and that's in no small part due to its excellent production and wonderful art direction. Aqua Garden tasks the player with creating an aquarium over three to four rounds depending on player count. Players will move around a central track, stopping on either marine life spaces or advertising spaces, collecting creatures or income, respectively. When a player stops in a marine life space and takes a creature, it empties that space so other players cannot then go there and collect marine life. After collecting the creatures, but before placing it in their aquarium, players must move their employee one to three spaces on their playerboard or their aquarium. And then they may place the newly acquired creature in one of the two tanks that the employee is now adjacent to. They'll also have the opportunity to buy coral or seaweed or creatures that have been discarded into the central pool. Now, each creature requires a different amount of oxygen, and there's limited oxygen available in each tank. Although adding seaweed to a tank can boost oxygen, some creatures require certain conditions to be met, like turtles need to be in tanks with seaweed, or sharks and certain fish aren't able to live together in the same tank. You'll want to create certain
combinations in your event tanks as that will get you some additional income. And you'll want to create other certain combinations in your other tanks as that can get you bonus points and free fish from milestone cards and also get you income from advertisements. At the end of the game, you'll score a set amount for each creature, points for leftover money, and score points for any milestone cards you've achieved. If playing with advanced fish, which is an optional module that lets you buy special fish when stopping at advertisement spaces, you'll also score up for these with each special fish scoring differently based on what else you have in your aquarium. Aqua Garden is a game with a rather simple rule set. Move on a track and collect fish or money. However, the competition for marine life and spaces on the board combined with your employee constantly moving really elevates the decision space and ask for some serious forward planning from you, which creates a game that is rather easy to teach, but is a lot trickier to play than you'd initially expect.
Sky Garden is an upcoming reimplementation of Aqual Garden, but still for one to four players. In Sky Garden, it's a very similar concept except you're creating an aviary. So, you're going to move around a track just like you do in Aqual Garden, collecting birds this time, and of course, collecting funding. Now, you'll also still have the same core mechanism of collecting a bird and then moving your employee around your enclosures and then placing the birds where that employee is adjacent. And similar to the oxygen consideration, you now have a size consideration where each bird has a different size and you're going to have to manage that when you put them in the enclosures. Now, generally when we talk about sky garden, if we don't mention specifically something, you can assume that it works the same way as Aqua Garden. First up, the way you collect your animals has changed. Whereas before the meuples themselves were placed on the track and when one was gone, it's gone. Now you have tokens which represent birds or the funding spaces and you draw them out of the bag and put them randomly around the track. So this has two significant changes. The first that the funding spaces are varied each round and the second is that multiple players could go to the same space within the same round and still get something which wasn't possible in Aqua Garden. However, you can still only have one player per space in a turn.
So you also will now start with special birds as a part of the core game whereas in Aqualore Garden it was the advanced version and these are birds you can buy from the uh funding spaces if you don't take funding and they give you victory points for doing certain things. Your player board will be slightly different. It's still recessed, still has six enclosures, but now those enclosures are going to start covered. And you also have the opportunity to buy a seventh enclosure, which will sit outside of your player board if you so wish. Now, the reason that it starts covered is because on your turn after you take a bird and you move your employee, you can either buy a lake, buy a tree, or buy a nest. Now, trees and lakes, there can only ever be one in an enclosure. And this is because each of them will increase the space of an enclosure by two. But to put a tree, you'll put a little tree on top, but to get a lake, you'll take that covering tile off to reveal the lake. Nests, on the other hand, can go into any enclosure, and they do not increase the space. The nests are used for breeding. So now on the main board on spaces with a pre-printed icon, you will have the breeding action. Something you take after your normal action. And essentially what breeding wants is it wants you to have two of the same type of bird in a single enclosure on a nest.
If that's the case, they will produce an egg and you'll put it in your little 3D nest uh basically on space matching that species. If you've already produced an egg of that species, then you'll instead move up your token on the egg tracker and this acts as a multiplier because you're going to multiply the score on that tracker by the number of eggs you have at the end of the game. The milestones are also different and in our opinion more interesting. So on the left hand side of your playerboard, you'll have a row of cubes. And when you complete a milestone, which are things such as have X number of this type of bird or have these three birds together in an enclosure, take that cube, put it on the relevant milestone. And the more cubes you get out, the higher your score for milestones. But you'll also get prizes for completing rows and columns, and you'll get a better prize or bonus if you're the first player to do it. Of course, the scoring is going to be a little different now that there are new mechanisms in play. First up, the trees and the lakes. So now birds aren't really worth that many points on their own, but they usually will have a preferred type of habitat, either a lake or a tree. And if you match the birds to their preferred habitat, you get a lot of bonus points. So that's really how you want to score the the base birds.
You'll also get points for your special birds if you've met their condition. You'll get points for your eggs multiplied by your egg tracker. You'll get points for your milestones. You'll get points for your event card and you'll get points based on kind of where you finished in terms of coming out of the last round uh in turn order.
Dino Garden is an upcoming re-implementation of Aqua Garden for one to four players. Now, it has the same core as Aquagon. Eg. you're going to move around a track collecting dinosaurs, putting them in closures, moving your employee, but it manages to quite excellently layer on several mechanisms to increase the decision space and the thought complexity, but without increasing the turn complexity of what you're doing. So, we're going to explain what's different. And please note that if we don't mention something, then you can assume it's the same as it was in Opera Garden. First up with the changes, the way you collect animals, dinosaurs in this game. So before you would pick up the meuples from the spaces you land on. Now there are tokens which are drawn out of a bag and they might have dinosaurs or they might have funding spaces. So there's two big changes. One, multiple players can go to the same space within a round, although still only one player per space per turn. and the fact that the funding spaces will be randomly distributed, so you can't count on where they are. There might be four in a row. And another thing about the funding spaces is that now you just get a set amount, three coins, rather than trying to meet specific goals, which can vary how much money you get.
Then you will also have special dinosaurs included from the beginning of the game because in Aqua Garden the special marine life they were a kind of advanced version of the game but here you had them from the start and they are things that can be bought from the funding spaces. Your playerboard will also be a little bit different. Still recessed but now the different enclosures have a covering for that recess. And this is because underneath the recess is a lake, but on top of the recess you can put a volcano. And these are things you can buy after you take a turn where you collect a dinosaur, move your employee uh from you can buy them from the center, but you can only ever have one of them in a single enclosure.
So either a volcano or a lake. And this is because they will expand the area of that enclosure by two. So, similar to the oxygen requirement in Aqua Garden, dinosaurs have size requirements. So, this can help you expand your enclosures to fit more in. Now, for some new mechanisms, dinosaurs will be classed as herbivore or carnivore. Herbivores will produce certain types of meat tokens, whereas carnivores only want to eat particular type of meat tokens with there being three different types of meat. So, the game becomes trying to get the meat to the right carnivores, and you have a second employee to help you with this who sits on a second track on the outside of your board. Uh, and they can basically pick up and drop off meat as they move around. However, you can only trigger them to move by landing on very specific spaces on the main board as you take your action. These are kind of preprinted icons. And if you land on that space, you can then move your guy around and distribute meat. So, this is something you want to do because at the end of the round, the carnivores will consume meat. Uh although you're also going to lose any meat that isn't consumed, but then herbivores will produce more meat for the next round.
But the key reason you want them to eat the types of meat that they want is because this will let you move up a track on the top of your playerboard. And these tracks are asymmetric. So you'll randomize from each game, which is quite cool. And each one will give you different bonuses. usually a mix of kind of one-time bonuses, instant bonuses, but importantly, each one will let you score extra points for certain types of dinosaurs, which means you can end up with quite a lot of points for a particular type of dinosaur each time you have that dinosaur. Milestones are also handled a little bit differently. So, they'll be randomized, so you'll have a kind of top tile and a bottom tile, and they'll be put together in the middle of the main board.
And there'll be things such as have x amount of this type of dinosaur or have these dinosaurs together in an enclosure. And when you complete one of the half, you'll put your cube on it. And then if you complete the second half, you'll move your cube in between them. So the earlier you complete a milestone, the more points you get. But importantly, and which is one of my favorite improvements, you could say in Dino Garden, you have a hand of milestone cards, which are bonus cards. So when you complete a milestone, you can then play one of those cards and they have quite good rewards. So there's also an incentive to get a lot of milestones completed. So you can play these cards which give you some good bonuses.
Coming on to what we think uh we really enjoyed the core is that all three of these games. So I think initially you look at the rules and you kind of question where is the game here like we did at least with Aqua Garden maybe not so much with the others as they layer on more complexity but you you question it and then you play it and you suddenly realize that there is quite a puzzle there uh you know with moving your employee around and also moving on the main track. the one you
yeah speak when you first said the rules I was a bit confused and thinking okay so you just move around a truck and take some fish but after a while you realize that it is not quite that simple and you do have to plan a lot because you need to always move your employee you can never keep them static next to a tank so as much as you can go after a fish because you want to put it in a certain tank to make a certain combination you because because of that fact you always have to move your employee You've always got to be planning in advance when to take the right fish because they employee the employee can only move one to three spaces. So, he can't get all the way around. So, yeah, it really takes actually quite a lot of planning which yeah, you just you just realize it after a couple of turns. Hang on a second.
And I think what Aqua Garden by extension the other games do really well is is having a very simple turn to turn uh experience. you know, you move someone, you move someone again, and then you put your bounty into your enclosures.
But the fact that that is kind of expanded out into this quite spicy decision space where you're pulled in a lot of different directions and there's a lot of considerations even for such a simple action as moving. So, you've got milestone scoring, which you want to go for, uh, because that's going to get you some extra points and bonuses throughout all the games. So, you're pulled in that direction to get those type of marine life, fish, dinosaurs, birds. You also have your event card, which is going to pull you in a way to get specific things into your event tanks or enclosures. And then you you kind of might have a variety of other little things that pull you in different directions. And then you mix this with the fact that you have the randomized assortment of of what's available each round.
And because whoever is last takes their turn, it can be beneficial to other players to go too far ahead and you're missing out on on more actions. But of course, you want very specific things at times and you don't want other people to get them cuz often chance uh only one player is going to go to this one space in that round.
Yeah.
And then just by how it works often nobody else will get another chance. So it's really a tough balance between do you just go slow and take everything you get but don't have that much control or do you try and control it?
Yeah. And with the milestones, you have to complete them in rows and columns and you'll always get a bonus for doing that.
This is in Sky Garden.
In Sky Garden, sorry. Yeah. Um, so that's something we really enjoyed and kind of moved it on from Aqua Garden because it also creates a little bit of a there's maybe more tension because of the way the the tokens are randomized and the things that you can collect on the track
and like you say with the way that the last player last on the track will always go first. But also there's this kind of little bit of a race element to complete the rows and columns on the master board because you get a bit of a better bonus if you're the first one to do it. So then that makes you go after certain things on the track because you want to complete it and it is driving you in in different directions. There's definitely more things that you can lean into in both Sky Garden and Dino Garden, I think, um than than Aqua Garden and and just Yes. It's hard to kind of put into words, but like the core is there and then you're just like going outwards.
Yeah.
More and more. But the you know, once you've played Aqua Garden, it's super easy to get into the others because the turn to turn gameplay is the same relatively. There's just like more stuff.
Yeah, there's more to think about. They layer in quite excellently uh some new mechanisms and that just broadens the kind of complexity makes it sound like you might be scared of but it's like
decision complexity rather than game complexity.
Yeah.
Uh and we really like the new additions you said about the milestones in Sky Garden. I really like that because it takes something very omnipresent in games and very boring. You know, do this to get some points. um and and makes it more of a game with these matching rows and columns. I think that the egg mini game in Skygon is quite nice as well. It kind of again it's just another way to draw you in a certain direction because now you want same birds in an enclosure
and then obviously among all three games you have this balance of space in an enclosure which is quite interesting. So you can't just like throw a bunch of stuff in there. You've got to manage that. Uh and then if you come on to Dinosaur Garden, I also like how it expands in a different direction. Uh but probably keeps about the same complexity as Sky Garden.
Yeah.
Where you have this predator track and the little meat worker who's moving around. And I just again there's just another pull now with with Yeah, you can put the the herbivores and the carnivores together to move up that meat track easy, but then you lose a lot of bonus points from them not being able to be with something they want to be with the volcanoes or the or the lakes. So again, another interesting decision. And I also like how these predator balls are asymmetric. So then each game you you have different considerations and different bonuses. Um,
I think like both all of them, but particularly Dino and Sky Garden, it's so interesting because you kind of say this requires you to plan a lot, but at the same time, you're so at the mercy of what's on the track and what the other players do.
So, it is very interesting that yeah, as much as you need to plan in terms of where your worker goes and where you want to put certain things, you you cannot guarantee that you're going to get those certain things. So it is about maximizing what you can do in the moment as well. I think it's just quite a nice balance between planning and being kind of opportunistic with what comes up and maybe that's where the kind of joy of it is.
I think I really like that there. Yeah, it's like you're making these tactical micro decisions like over and over. So you get like a lot of decisions throughout a game,
but the games, you know, they play in a really nice time.
Yeah.
So I think that's something as well. Yeah.
So coming to Yeah. What do we think? As we said, I think these two are kind of level in complexity and a bit more complex than Aqua Garden.
Personally, Aqua Garden is my least favorite, but that's not because
I'd say there's anything particularly wrong with it. I just think it's too simple for my taste. And also now I can see where certain elements have been improved. Uh, but Aqua Garden is still a great game if you're looking to have very low complexity and maybe share with non-hobvious gamers and also obviously the excellent components has a great table presence. So it has that nice kind of you know people are going to stop and say oh what are you playing although they will with any of them but at least anyone can join in I think with Aqua Garden.
Yeah agree. My preference is Sky Garden and I think it is very difficult to choose between the these two because like you said the complexity level is the same. They do like slightly different things with what you can choose from. But I think just the milestone the way milestone kind of board the way that works and just prefer birds to dinos. What can I say? I think if you're like undecided between these two that could just be a deciding factor. Do you want dinos or do you want birds?
Yeah, I think similar. That's why Dino Garden is my favorite. Uh I think I do like the the mechanisms in Dino Garden a little bit more and I like the theme a little bit more. But I will say that I do think one of the best elements out of all three is the milestones and sky garden. So I think you win there.
But I definitely and I think we both agree on this don't think that you will need all three. No,
I think
they are all very similar. At the core, you are doing the same thing in each. Although I will say that both Dino Garden and Sky Garden, they kind of twist the core quite excellently. Like some very,
as you said, like easy twists to get on board with if you've played Or Garden, but
that it's not that it does make them feel distinct and different.
Yeah.
Um, but again, it's it's kind of it's always up to you, right? I think I would personally recommend definitely get one and maybe two like Sky Garden, Dino Garden, I think you could have cuz they have more going on. But yeah, I I can't see why someone would need all three. Although we we enjoy having all three
100%. I mean, if you fancy it and you like that kind of thing and you're a completionist, then I don't think you're going to be upset to have all three. I think that's But you don't need them. They are in the grand scheme of, you know, everything. They are like relatively similar. You could even maybe go for like an aqua garden to play with the family. Maybe if you want to play with different audiences and then choose one of the other two um to play with an audience that prefers something a little bit more complex could be a nice combination as well.
But yeah, if you get all three, don't think you regret it, but you know, if you're worried about space, then you definitely don't need all three. Yeah, I think to be honest like if we had Dino Garden, Sky Garden, we would play both. Yeah.
Because we'd want to play both, experience them. So, there is that element.
But that is our buyers guide for the Garden Trilogy. It's a trilogy we really, really enjoyed playing. It was really fun getting to explore all three games and see how they changed. And we really liked how they changed. Um, but we also like the core. I think it's a very strong core and that's what makes this series so great to play. So, please ask us any questions. Please subscribe if you found this helpful. And we really appreciate appreciate you watching. And see you next time.