When I saw “Box Girl” for the first time, I couldn’t see that it was a board game at all. Although there are many horror elements in reasoning games, such a horrible game cover appears for the first time in the world of board games.

Later I learned that the agent of this game is called Mysterious Island. Clicking on the crowdfunding page of Mysterious Island board games, the first impression these board games give me is Japanese, simple and light. After a brief interview with boss Xie, he told me that it has something to do with the selection of Mystery Island. “Currently, Mystery’s main business is publishing and agency of Japanese table games, and then retailing and distributing table games from major publishing houses.”

Mysterious Island board game was established in 2007, initially just selling some table games. In 2013, Mysterious Island began to gradually increase the business of publishing Chinese-style foreign board games. So far, Bin Xie has been working silently for 14 years. 

Over the past 14 years, there have been nearly 30 games published: “新幕 桜ふる代に決闘を”, “Box Girl”, “命悬一线”, “ Dwar7s “, “LAUREL CROWN”, “Testament” and “ The Wicked Forest “, etc., most of them are Japanese games that players are familiar with. Every time, Mysterious Island‘s rubbing points are very eye-catching. From ” Dwar7s ” to “新幕 桜ふる代に決闘を” to “Box Girl”, these short and powerful games have their own characteristics and are also deeply loved by players.

“Magnolia” is a new crowdfunding project recently launched on Mysterious Island. As a sister work of “PaperTales”, this Japanese-style light strategy game has a cute style and simple rules without losing complexity. The art of the game is in the style of comics, and you can find familiar shadows among many characters.

This game is also a new game that was just released in Japan in March this year. It rushed to the second place in the sales list of Huang Qian (Japanese board game chain retail store) in the month of launch!

There are a total of 102 kingdom cards in the game, a mixture of six races and six occupations. The goal of the game is to form the strongest nine kingdom. Players play as the ruler of a kingdom, recruit elite races to fight for them, and compete with each other on military strength, technology and economic development. The player with the highest score will win the game.

The initial capital of each player is five dollars and five cards. After the game starts, you can choose to discard any number of cards in your hand and make up five cards.

Deployment phase: You can choose to place two cards face down or take a dollar + place a card or take two dollars directly. After all players have played the cards, turn the cards upside down and pay the corresponding fees. Of course, the biggest innovation of the game is also here: when you deploy cards, you can get additional rewards for the cards in the same row or column of the same race or class. For example: three elven cards get 2 belief points, and three craftsman cards get 2 skill points.

War stage: Each player calculates his own frontline combat power, which is the power point of the top card in each column, and the sum is your total combat power point. (The combat power point is at the upper left of the card) The highest combat power point will get the highest VP point, and the rest will decrease in turn.

Development phase: If you deploy players with development skills, then settle the development skills. For example, the dwarf chef can gain 1 skill point, and the player advances one square. So what is the use of this skill point and belief point? When scoring in the VP phase, some hero skills = 1 VPx skill point, that is, the score for the skill point. Some heroes are good at war, and his combat power is equal to 1 combat power x skill point.

① Strong sense of substitution. “Magnolia” restores a country’s development and progress very well. Deployment, warfare, development, and income… step by step, orderly, not rushing.

② Strategy needed. In the limited 3×3 framework, how to maximize the benefits? How to continue to develop faster and get points? This is a game that requires strategic consideration + the favor of the god of luck.

③ Replay ability. This kind of brisk card game doesn’t take long, so you can play another one after playing it. It doesn’t take much effort!

If you have to say there are any shortcomings in the game, it may still be a bit random. If the cards in the starting hand are not drawn well or the cards of others are too good, it can still pose a certain threat to you. But in short, this is still a very cute light strategy game. I am also looking forward to more such light strategy games, which can slightly lower the threshold of board games.

In the near future, the Mysterious Island board game will also bring you a two-person battle type game “铁人重”, “Solo Camping” that is easy and casual for everyone to play together, and the Japanese board game script kills “月下的树精” , “The Great Summoner” where the two played against each other, and “この天才科学者が首席になれないとでもいうんですか? “, “Fram R’lyeh” and so on.

Currently “Two Rooms” and “Magnolia” are being crowdfunded by Modian, interested audiences can go to Modian to take a look.

This year, DICE CON also set up a Japanese guest of honor exhibition area, which can let more people understand the charm of Japanese board games. The designs of many Japanese board games are very clever and detailed, and they can surprise you when you don’t expect them. We also look forward to more and better Japanese board games, expanding the types and mechanics of games.