Sérgio Halaban and André Teruya's Walking in Kamogawa, EmperorS4, How To Play & Review
Transcript
A peaceful stroll with plenty to think about. Walking in Kamoa may look like a peaceful stroll along the Camel River, but underneath its serene artwork is a surprisingly thinky game full of clever decisions. Walking in Kamogawa is a light strategy game featuring mechanics such as hand management, layering, open drafting, pattern building, tile placement, and solitire game. Designed by Sergio Halaban and Andre Tuya with illustrations by Sai Pepu. The game is published by Emperor S4 in 2026. It accommodates one to five players, takes around 30 minutes to play, and is recommended for ages seven and up. The Kamo River runs through Kyoto, Japan, and is a popular destination for both locals and tourists. The riverside is a lively place where people gather to exercise, relax, enjoy a meal, or simply take in the scenery with plenty of restaurants, cafes, and shops nearby.
In walking in Kamogawa, players take on the role of people strolling along the Ko River, creating a panorama by playing river cards in front of them. Each turn, players extend their panorama by adding a card to either end of their growing landscape. Cards can overlap one another, allowing players to cover certain icons while revealing others. Players score points by collecting different background icons and searching for groups of animals in their panorama. After playing a card, players can choose one of three scoring actions. Picnic sightseeing, which scores based on the backgrounds they've collected. Search for same animals, which focuses on consecutive animals of the same type, or search for different animals, which involves finding a consecutive group of different animals. These actions allow players to place markers on the game board, earn points, and collect rewards such as tiles and objective cards that can contribute to their final score. The game lasts 10 rounds with each player extending their panorama and choosing when to score. Since each background type and each road can only be scored once, players must carefully manage their card placement and decide how to make the most of their scoring opportunities.
The player with the highest total score at the end wins. Now, let's take a closer look at how to play Walking on Kamogawa. How to play game setup. First, place the game board in the center of the table with the normal Moch side face up. Shuffle the animal tokens face down. Then, randomly place 16 of them face up in the spaces beneath the four background icons on the left side of the board. Place the remaining animal tokens and other reward tokens and tiles beside the board for later use. Each player draws three river cards, chooses one to place face up in front of them as the starting card for their panorama, and keeps the other two cards in their hand. Each player also takes the wooden markers in their chosen color. Shuffle the remaining river cards and place them face down beside the board to form the rivered card deck. Reveal four cards and place them beside the deck to create the river selection area.
Shuffle the objective cards and place them beside the board as well. Finally, arrange the 10 round cards to track the rounds throughout the game. If you choose to play with the end of round card variant, shuffle those cards and fan them out so that the icon at the top of each card is visible. The player who enjoys strolling the most becomes the starting player. Before we dive into the game play, let's take a closer look at the river cards. River cards. Each card depicts different elements of the scenery and is divided into four horizontal sections. the sky at the top, the upper river bank, the Kamo River itself, and the lower river bank at the bottom. The cards feature six different types of animals. Ducks, sheiba, copyas, herons, turtles, and giant salamanders.
There are also four types of background elements, tea, dongo, onigiri, and bridges. The first three appear in the sky section while bridges can appear across the other three sections of the card. Bridges also serve as dividers separating the scenery into different areas. These areas called segments are formed between two bridges, between a bridge and the edge of a card or along an uninterrupted path without a bridge. Each segment contains an upper road and a lower road, and each road can be scored once per animal searching. Gameplay overview. Walking in Kamagawa is played over 10 rounds with each player taking one turn per round, starting with the first player. Turns proceed clockwise around the table. On your turn, you must first extend your panorama by playing a river card from your hand. You may then optionally perform one of three scoring actions.
Picnic sightseeing, search for same animals, or search for different animals. After completing your turn, play passes to the next player. At the end of each round, players resolve the round card to track their progress. of playing with the end of round card variant. Players also compare the icons in their panoramas to determine who earns the corresponding end of round card. After the 10th round, the game ends and players calculate their final scores. The player with the most points wins. Extend your panorama. On your turn, you must play a river card from your hand. To extend your panorama, you may draw a replacement card either from the four face up cards in the river selection area or from the top of the river card deck. You can choose to draw your replacement card before or after playing your card. When playing a river card, you must place it at either the far left or the far right of your panorama.
You cannot insert a card between two cards that have already been played. The new card must cover at least one icon, which can be either an animal or a background icon. You may cover multiple icons if you wish. Cards can overlap existing cards, or you can slide a new card underneath a previously played card, allowing you to build your panorama in different ways. Remember that the arrangement of your cards matters as the animals, backgrounds, and bridges in your panorama will determine your scoring opportunities later in the game. If you draw a card from the river selection area, immediately refill the empty space by revealing a new card from the river cards deck. If you draw directly from the deck, you do not need to refill the selection area.
Scoring options. After extending your panorama, you may choose to perform one of three scoring actions. Each action offers a different way to earn points or other rewards. Picnic sightseeing. Score based on the background icons in your panorama. Search for same animals. Find consecutive animals of the same type along a road in one of your segments. Search for different animals. Find consecutive animals of different types along the road in one of your segments. You may perform only one scoring action on your turn and you can choose to skip scoring altogether. Picnic sightseeing. For this action, choose one of the background types in your panorama and count how many times that background appears. Place one of your markers in the corresponding space in that background's column on the game board. then take the animal token from that space as a reward.
You cannot place your marker in a space already occupied by another player's marker. However, you may choose to place your marker on a lower valued available space within the same column. Additionally, each player may score each background type only once during the game. Once you have scored a particular background, you cannot choose it again for this action. The position of your marker determines how many points that background will be worth during final scoring. Search for same animals. For this action, choose an unscored segment in your panorama and select one of its throats. Look for a consecutive group of animals of the same type along that road. Then count how many matching animal icons you can find. Place one of your markers on the chosen road, usually in an empty space. If your marker covers an animal icon, that animal is considered removed.
Next, place a second marker on the game board's scoring grid in the column corresponding to the number of consecutive matching animals you found, 3, 4, 5, or six. You then immediately choose one reward token or tile from beside the board and add it to your panorama. The scoring grid determines how many points you earn at the end of the game. The leftmost scoring spaces are worth 2, 4, 6, or 9 points, depending on the number of animals found. If the space you want to occupy in the leftmost column is already taken, you may still place your marker there, pushing the existing marker one space to the right. The displaced marker moves to a higher scoring space. If both spaces are occupied, both existing markers are pushed one space to the right with the rightmost marker being pushed off the grid into the threepoint area on the far right of the board.
Search for different animals. This action follows the same general procedure as search for same animals, but instead of finding matching animals, you must find a consecutive group of different animal types along a single road within an unscored segment. Count the consecutive animals, making sure each one is a different type. Since the game features six animal types, the maximum group consists of six different animals. Place one of your markers on the chosen road. As with the previous action, any animal icon covered by your marker is considered removed. Next, place a second marker on the game board scoring grid in the column corresponding to the number of different animals you found.
three, four, five, or six. Instead of taking a reward token or tile, you draw two objective cards from the deck. Choose one to keep face up in front of you and return the other to the bottom of the deck. These objective cards can earn you additional points during final scoring if you meet their conditions. The scoring grids work similarly to the one used for search for same animals with the leftmost space worth 2 4 6 or nine points depending on the number of animals found. If the space you want to occupy in the leftmost column is already taken, you may still place your marker there, pushing the existing marker one space to the right. In this case, the displaced marker moves to a lower scoring space, but its owner immediately receives a reward token or tile as compensation.
If both spaces are occupied, both existing markers are pushed one space to the right with the rightmost marker being pushed off the grid into the threepoint area on the far right of the board. Scoring markers and roads. There are a few additional rules to keep in mind when placing your scoring markers. Each road can contain only one player marker. Once a marker has been placed on a road, that road cannot be scored again for animal searching, even if you later extend or cover a bridge, making the road longer. The marker stays in its original position, and the road remains scored. If you need to place a marker but have none available, you may move one of your markers from the game board.
However, the marker loses its previous score when moved. Markers placed on river cards within your panorama can never be moved. End of round. A round ends once every player has completed their turn. Result the top round card or discard it if required by your chosen mode and continue to the next round. If you are playing with the end of round card variant, players compare the relevant icons across their entire panoramas. The player with the most matching icons wins the corresponding end of round card. These cards serve as both a round tracker and a source of endgame points with the number of cards collected determining the final bonus. The game continues until all 10 round cards have been resolved or discarded. At that point, the game ends and players proceed to final scoring.
Final scoring. After the 10th round, each player should have 11 river cards in their panorama. the starting card plus one card added during each round. Players then calculate their final scores using the following categories. Bridge scoring. For each bridge icon in your panorama, multiply the number of matching animals shown on the icon by the number of those animals in the same section of the riverbank. Only count animals on the corresponding side of the riverbank where the bridge icon is located. Each bridge icon is scored separately. Objective card scoring. Check each objective card you collected during the game. If your panorama meets the condition shown on the card, score the points indicated.
Board scoring. Score the markers you placed on the game board during picnic sightseeing and the two animal searching actions. The number of points depends on the spaces occupied by your markers, including any markers that were pushed into the three-point area on the far right of the board. End of round card scoring. If you played with the end of round card variant, count the cards you collected. Your final bonus depends on how many you have. Six cards, 12 points. Five cards, nine points. Four cards, five points. And three cards, two points. After adding up all points from these categories, the player with the highest total wins the game.
Walking in Kamogawa is such a peaceful and serene game. But don't let that fool you because there's a lot to think about while you're strolling along the Ko River. A big part of the game is deciding which cards to take, where to place them, and how to layer them into your growing panorama. These decisions can have a big impact later on. So, you'll want to think ahead and consider which scoring opportunities you might create and which scoring actions you want to pursue. All three scoring options can really benefit you in different ways. You can gain animal tokens through picnic sightseeing. Build up your panorama with background icons or search for groups of animals to score points and gain additional rewards. I particularly like how the different elements can work together, especially when you manage to set yourself up for multiple scoring opportunities throughout the game. The game play can also feel very tactile and comboastic when everything starts coming together.
One of my favorite parts is the bridge scoring at the end of the game. The bridge icons can potentially add a lot of points to your final score, especially when you've planned your panorama carefully and managed to line everything up just right. It's a really satisfying way to finish the game when you've set yourself up for it. There can be some downtime in walking in Kamoga, mainly because there's quite a bit to think about on your turn. Deciding which card to add, where to place it, what icons to cover or reveal, and which scarring opportunity to pursue can take some time. For me, though, that fits the nature of the game, as there's always something to consider when building your panorama. The artwork in the game is absolutely serene and gorgeous, and I've really enjoyed all of the illustrations throughout the game, including the game box. Everything has a beautiful visual style that fits the peaceful setting of the Kama River perfectly. The components themselves are fairly standard, but they get the job done and work well with the game play. Overall, Walking in Kamogawa was such a wonderful surprise for me.
I've really enjoyed my playthroughs of this fantastic game, and it has quickly become one of my favorite games I played this year. You'll definitely be seeing Walking in Kamogawa on my top games list for 2026, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up making my top 10. Thank you so much for watching. Hope you enjoyed the video and see you next