Floe: by Fantasia Games | 10 Reasons to Play
Transcript
hello welcome to quack thank you for being here today we're going to be hello welcome to quacko thank you for being here today we're going to be bringing you 10 reasons why you should be playing flow from Pika SL Fantasia games now we are working with a prototype here there is a active Kickstarter project going on but if you're watching this sometime in the future when the game has already delivered the bones the framework the idea behind this project is available we experienced it you can experience it for yourself and we're going to tell you why you just might should now all the points we have here also probably work in the opposite way as well so if you want 10 reasons not to play hear us in Reverse or inverse yeah something like that this is Dennis he is a lovely firefighter leave a comment down below saying hey man I checked my smoke detectors this month oh I was going to do something more uh seductive and sensual but oh then he's a man who likes if you check your smoke detector so do you want to give a quick overview on what Flo is very very surface level and then level we'll tell people why why they should be playing by the way this video and none of the videos on this prototype copy of flow are sponsored content just in case you were curious all right so this game Flow you are taking your Heroes which are meeples like these
you're going to be going around the map exploring doing different things you may be getting down here and explo uh getting resources getting into the cave to defeat monsters and progressing through that track you'll be heading up to the Village um where you can get more heat which is the resource that you use to travel and use as health in the cave and there's also various actions at the shop The Works various locations that you do that do different things that get you better stuff yeah the main objective of flow is to explore develop your own personal tableau upgrade your skills and hunt for victory points it doesn't have a whole plethora or slew of victory points at the end of the game you trigger end game when the first person has six you have one more full round and then you check to see who's won with the high score so far being 10 yep and so few and far between yep you can get over 10 but it's not going to get too much more yeah it's very much building towards that final kind of all pieces fall into line close the Game Stop style experience a little bit of worker placement a decent amount of resource management some Tableau building maybe a little bit of programming depending on how you want to order your actions or how far ahead you want to think some adventuring mixed in here with it comes to the quest comes to the experience that you're getting some of the locations you're going to feel very experiential and then you have a little bit of fighting so you gain resources you roll some dice and you go hunt some creatures you can win in any variety of ways but you probably need some combination of all of the above in order to be competitive towards endgame that
being said let's tell them 10 reasons they should be playing you want to start out yeah so you basically just outlined my number one reason which is a variety of mechanics so in this game you've got worker placement you've got Tableau building you've got the Rondell and the way that these villagers uh congregate and and move around the Village um resource scarcity exploration you've got cascading abilities there's a lot of different things that you're doing so if you're looking for a game that has a variety of different mechanics that they brings it all together in a pretty cohesive puzzle that has a little bit of theme mixed in with it um this is this is a pretty good option Johnny pack who's one of the designers of this and a few of the other games coming from Fant Fantasia one of the co- designers I believe is known for kind of throwing the kitchen sink at games both to his success and sometimes to his Chagrin I think this is one that's doing that very well and very responsibly but you're right there is a ton of different little elements all of which are satisfying and depending on how you want to play and experience the puzzle of this game all of which could lead towards some style of Victory yep you went dungeon crawling I went dungeon crawling I love the dungeon crawling I kind of went Resource Management so and maybe next time I play I'll go you know grab a sword and dive head first in the dungeon with you and you'll sit down and focus on your mushroom Garden a little bit more closely my point number one or Point number two in this video is going to be the public publishing team behind this this is coming from Fantasia games Pika
is a subsidiary a lighter more accessible publisher version of their titles and so far Fantasia has put out good game after good game after the case of endless minds or unconscious minds fantastic freaking game uh they're knocking it out of the park so I have nothing but high expectations for this if you're backing on Kickstarter all the kickstarter stuff app you are putting an investment down for a game that's coming out down the road at some point they have successfully delivered but some of their projects have been a little bit late so keep that in mind you're also getting access to deluxified components upgrades and the best possible production which they have also proven a good track record of so the publisher alone is one of the reasons why I would be considering this Fantasia is one of those Publishers that for me I'm paying attention to everything they put out Point number three all right so uh I've gotten here also thematics so this game I had a good time like just using my imagination and I'm kind of an imaginative guy but going up to the tavern and the banter around the table of having too many drinks if I'm overusing the The Tavern action you're getting out here you're exploring you're using your warmth as you go out and get further and further away from the village obviously in an environment like this you're getting colder and colder and colder you get down in the cave and the deeper you go and the more uh you just get beat up by these monsters you just start to feel cold you know and you need the warmth of
home again so you have to return back home you're with the Villagers if you're for example if you're over here and you've got all three of these villagers there you're getting more warm than if you over here by yourself so this is going to give you three heat whereas coming over here gives you zero heat so there there's like that theme of just being around friends even within the game and getting the the Rejuvenation from that while also getting the benefit of that location going out into the world on your own adventuring whether you going by foot going by land you have a familiar that's following you around and your little buddy um I really kind of enjoy the thematics it's not a heavy thematic game um it's not dripping with theme but it's got enough where the actions kind of makes sense and you know what you're doing and you can connect it to the the theme with the mechanics yeah I think the I think the thematic and mechanics Eng Jun are very cohesive it is simple in almost each regard it's not overly pushy when it comes to thematics it's overly push you when it comes to the mechanics engine but they work very well together uh my next point point number four for this video is this is going to have something that I like seeing in games more and more nowadays it's called a developing game engine it's supposed to be a little bit more of a approachable game system coming from a lighter publisher and it still can build to a pretty complex pretty good table game however it'll be doing so by giving you unlocking envelopes that aren't Legacy they don't you know change your game system but they introduce new mechanics new cards some new rules the
first three games of flow are going to be introductory games getting you into the game engine and system so it really is taking the approach of making it as uh easy to table as possible giving you the teaching experience through playing the game multiple times and bringing the whole family involved uh when you sit down and play you can kind of gauge how much you want to add based on how receptive your family members are to what the new mechanics are and after they've mastered it you know if you're playing with a kid or you're playing with a couple kids after they've ma mastered the game system at its current stage you'll be able to open new things up and your game will kind of be rejuvenated it'll be re-experience again and it's something I really like seeing from uh games like this that have so many other little pieces going on I love seeing things that let me uh open something after I've already played the game five six seven times yeah that Segways right into what I had next which is you know kind of a d dual thing here it's The Sweet Spot of weight and you teach as you play so if you're got a group of friends that's coming together for a game night and they're not just like you said they're not heavy into board gaming you can introduce this game take a couple of modules out and even if you include those modules in I never felt this game was overwhelming in its complexity but it was deep enough it's that sweet spot of weight for me where it's got enough where you can take someone who's modestly into board games I wouldn't say a brand new beginner board gamer but somebody who's played a few games maybe they've got a wingspan under their belt and things of that sort
and some of these mechanics have been done in other games you tie this all together and I find it really hits that sweet spot of the weight where you can get something out of it if you're a heavy board gamer but then the light board gamers can get something out of it too it's right in that uh sweet spot and then of course like you said you know with that sweet spot of weight comes is is enhanced by having that teach as you play yeah which I think think is something that board games are doing more and more and more I just picked up a copy of revive which does the same thing I really like that in these games jaw of theine did it you know famously um I really enjoy that what they're doing with these board games where they're introducing the mechanics much like we did in the video game industry years and years ago board games are catching up with that same idea and I and I really like that so my next point is going to be talking about uh how you actually utilize the two workers that you have you have your main worker you have your secondary uh assistant what's it called familiar a familiar something familiar you have these two very adorable very very nicely paired characters together but they each come with their own little traits and personalities and how you use them in each stage of the game is unique for instance on the main exploration phase you have a main action that you can take by searching out the island finding Hidden Treasures looking at the different uh monuments that are around there and then your familiar pops up and gets you helpful resources and returns with some you know piles of wood in town you can use her familiar to go to your actual Village the Huts that you've build out you can get resources from that it's its own like strong engine up in the village where it's a little bit more of a secondary action down here in the explore phase or it can take another
primary action for you which is also very very useful and then finally in combat your familiar could hop in and could actually engage in a little bit of combat for you I like the fact that there's something to be said for using both characters in every single location we go to and the way that you utilize them changes in very important ways I wasn't just thinking about one action with one character every time I played you know every time I played my turn instead I was looking at the board and trying to piece out what was going to be the most useful action for both of my of my workers in whatever region I'm going to and how I could kind of chain and program and prepare for future terms to be as effective and efficient as possible you can see all the buildings that I got specifically to enhance my familiars uh you know Town action as much as possible yeah yeah that's a that's a very good point um something that I really liked about this and this would be the next point would be all the stuff all the upgrades that you can do you can upgrade your familiar you can upgrade you know your uh I don't even know what you call this asymmetric character Powers asymmetric character Powers you can upgrade your dice for your combat and then you just get lots of stuff you know whether it's bubbles it's the you know four different resources that are down here the wood the mushroom the kelp and the pearls you know then there's other things out there there's just a lot of things piles of weapons piles of gear quests that you can go on there's a lot of little things that you're playing your potions your crates there's it's just it's very satisfying when you get rewarded when you take actions and you get stuff it's
just it's just a very rewarding thing I had quite a few actions uh throughout the course of play that I did a lot of things in one session I think all of us had that we were like I'm going to do this and then that's going to trigger that and that's going to do that and that feels really good when you have a whole chaining of unlocking a treasure that treasure gives you the resources to take the next action that lets you you know move your worker to this location like y all of that feels very satisfactory and I had a few different instances where that came into play uh second to last point for me Point number eight I believe yeah eight for you and then it'll be nine and then 10 yeah uh I think so maybe it's seven something like that I've got two more points left is what I'm trying to communicate I like that this isn't overly take that now if you watch our gameplay video shirro would probably to differ I seem to have stepped on her toes one too many time during the course of play however this game really is fairly open-ended fairly friendly there's only a few resources that you're all scrabbling for and even if you end up taking something from another player that they might have gotten in another turn or two there's usually other ways they can find to get access to those resources as well overall whatever you do in the game State isn't going to negatively impact the other players instead it's often times going to open up opportunities for them if you explore you'll be revealing things that they can go claim before you because well you're not going to be the first person to jump in there and grab it if you're the one that's getting the benefit of exploring and getting the experience or the victory points related to that if you're hunting and fighting well you're going
to be revealing creatures that they're going to have to fight down the road so they can prepare a little bit more strategically for them so you're giving them information but you're going to be ahead of the curve slightly which is an advantage to you as well and when you're going up here to the worker placement spot in the village you're going to be moving those workers around the town the towns folk around that'll give your other players heat and incentivize them going to other locations on the Tableau there really are no blocked locations there's really no Take that elements in the game uh outside of a few limited resources on the map and the more that you play and the more that reveal the more you're really giving other players opportunities to do things and different objectives that they can go for and I like that if you like a friendly game this very much is an exploration based game that feels very friendly and very light on its feet yeah absolutely my last one this this be number nine is is the time of play it says on the box it's 90 to 120 minutes and we hit that uh time frame exactly and we tabled it last night um just for me I tabled it last night tabled it again this morning and you know we're not pros at this game we're not playing as quick and snap as we would if we were going to table this a few more times and we still hit that time frame so I find that to be useful knowing how long that's going to be on the table and knowing what to plan for if you have a board game night and it's a Tuesday and you got to work the next morning you don't want a game that's going to drag out 3 four 5 hours when you were setting it up expecting a 2hour experience and so for this game to advertise itself as a 90 to 120 minute game and then hit that Mark I think that's a benefit and that's something I appreciate with Publishers have an
accurate time frame on the box my final point is going to be a little nuan for those board game connoisseurs out there who like experiencing new game systems or new mechanics there's a lot of cool stuff happening in here there's a lot of stuff that feels very familiar but I'm always looking for what stands out amongst the crowd I really like our resource engine here the way that you always go to Max and then spend all of your resources to do the main village action giving you access to a lot of different opportunities and then that resource bumps up and suddenly the cost of that action is going to be slightly higher very very satisfying if you're a game designer if you're g board game connoisseur this is something I have not seen in other games uh at least in an equivalent way as as accessible as this is I think it's something I'll see Incorporated in future games BAS off of this game system this game engine same thing can be said to our buildings uh and the different types of modularity that we have on the game board here it's all very streamlined it's all very accessible and I really like it another thing the dive action dive action is very satisfying it's always rotating and depending on what people have gone down to get how much they've pushed in towards of spending heat to get access to different resources you just are shifting one down to the bottom and pushing up again not Innovative necessarily I'm sure there's other games that have a very similar similar system but in a game of this scope and this scale little tiny module pieces that are as simple and accessible as that that don't require a lot of upkeep or a lot of double- checking I'm not rolling dice I'm not flipping cars I'm not pressing
my luck to see if I drown or how much heat I lose as I go down no I get the resource I'm going for or I don't if it's not available and then next time I come back through I'll get access to it yeah everything's clean everything's streamlined and I think there's a lot to be said about just how much is going on here uh verse how hard it is to actually table and run it's very easy uh to play very easy to get up and running and we're working with a prototype with prototype rules which means we're playing the worst version of this game and it's still pretty good and even you you mentioned the dive action over here and I talked about thematics earlier and how it ties to the mechanics the deeper you go down in the water the colder it is the more heat you're losing to get those items that are farther down it makes sense the thematics tie into the game mechanics in a way that I find very enjoyable and it helps me play the game a little more effectively so there you have it 10 reasons why you should be playing flow if you're not or you've listened through these reasons and you decide that it's really not the game for you fair enough good for you but if you here at this point and you're excited about it you're probably right and you should get access to this game whether you back it on Kickstarter I'll leave a link in the top of the video description or you pick it up after the publisher has delivered it and hopefully got it into some retail store locations I think this is one that'll do very well in the retail store space and it's a game that because of how approachable it is I do I do hope some families pick it up uh
beyond the more hobbyist gamer uh side of the industry I could see this being something like the Grim forest was where some people get introduced to the Hobby through its game system and game engine that would be cool so the more people we get in this hobby the better it is for everyone all right thank you for watching thank you for being here whatever the case whatever you to remember to do the important thing get out there and play some games and eat brussels sprouts we'll see you later bye