Kamigami Battle - River of Souls: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Deck Builder, Variable Player Powers, Hand Management
Player Age: 12+ Player Count: 2 - 6 PlayersTime to Play: 45 Minutes
Game Designer: Rich Gain
Publisher: Japanime GamesYear Published: 2018BGG Weight: 2.0
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 12+
Game Designer: Rich Gain
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Introduction:
Kamigami Battle - Battle of the Nine Realms is a game I reviewed a few years ago (full review avaliable here). Kamigami Battle - River of Souls is a compatible standalone expansion which was released at the same time, it just took me ages to add to my collection due to the availability in Australia. As the core rules remain the same, I am simply highlighting what the expansion adds or changes to the base game.
Combining sets:
When combining the standalone sets the gods and temples can be mixed with their respective piles. Each game can only contain one disciple of each level type and the warrior deck is constructed by six red warriors, three of each other warrior type. To make the choice easier, these can be compiled randomly using randomizers or you can keep the choice through self-selection.
Key Words:
The new keyword of this set is ‘Netherworld’. You will banish cards through actions but they need to go somewhere, this is the Netherworld pile. The action ‘Netherworld’, as seen on one warrior and three gods, allows players to return banished cards.
Disciples:
This expansion adds three new disciples; one for each level. The level one and level two disciples add a secondary act ability that the player can choose instead of recruitment value. Additionally, the level one disciple (Magi) is my new favourite disciple as she can look at the top card of any deck and place it on the bottom this is perfect for planning your next move or hindering your opponents.
The level two disciple allows your god to heal using your temple's health and the level three disciple is heavily focused on temples, allowing you to draw a card if defending and deal more damage if attacking.
Warriors:
A full assortment of warriors is brought in adding a large range of variability. My particular favourites from this set are; Jinn, Seraph, Manticore, and Nefertiti.
Jinn has more options to choose from to either attack, heal or draw cards. Seraph feels like an enhanced disciple who can generate money or use the react ability of another disciple in your discard pile. Manticore can guarantee at least one damage, and Nefertiti can either return a red warrior from your discard pile into your hand or heal.
Gods & Temples:
There are 12 new gods in this set that join the fray and my favourites are the attack-focused gods. Ra has an unblockable attack as long as you discard a red warrior, and Konshu can make the white (moon) warriors have a new act for attacking. Ishtar is also great as she will manipulate your deck to place red warriors from your discard on top of your deck, and enhance the amount you draw when other cards allow you to draw.
The temples in this set have the same abilities as the temples in ty⅝he first set. I believe with later expansions this issue resolved and new temples become available.
Final Thoughts:
- Enhances the variability for every aspect of the game except the temples.
- A lot of great new warriors.
- There is now a way to benefit from banished cards.
- The temples contain the same abilities.
- The art remains very risqué which limits the games appeal to some (while enhancing it for others).
Kamigami Battles was always going to thrive with expansions since without them there was no variance in deck building possibilities. Now with this set added the variability has increased greatly. It is disappointing that the temple cards remain the same however this set incorporates the temples more than the original. It may be that temples were added into the original game but were always intended for this set.
If you were already a fan of the original system, as an excellent head-to-head deck-building game with an interesting combo chaining system, then this expansion is doing exactly what you want by adding more variability to help keep the game fresh and exciting. I still enjoy this game and every time I play I find myself looking into the released expansions as this is a game that was built for variability. If you only have one base set then you are missing out on the wider opportunities of the game.
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Japanime GamesKamigami Battles - Battle of the Nine Realms on BGG
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