I imported this from Le Puy in Allassac, Limousin, central France. These are the first French designed and made deck of flower cards that I have seen. You get the standard 48 cards plus 2 Jokers, 5 Koi Koi 'Player Aid' cards (in French x2, English, Spanish and German) as well as a Koi Koi rule book. The cards measure 87mm x 56mm and retail for 12 Euro plus shipping. There are few little issues though...
The illustrations are attractive and they pretty much follow the look and feel of the traditional 'hachihachibana' pattern.
The card backs feature a Dragon...
One interesting design feature (which I like) is the use of symbols to help beginners learn the different scoring hands. Note that the symbols are for the game of Koi Koi only.
There really should be a yellow 'Junk' symbol on the Sake Cup card as it counts both as an 'Animal' card and a 'Junk' card.
Player Aid cards (for Koi Koi)...
Another great idea but there is a typo on the English language card. It should be 'Boar' and not 'Bear'! I am sure that will be sorted out for future reprints. 'Man' shouldn't be included in Sanko either. You get 5 cards (2 are in French).
I think that Hanami would have looked better in pink and Ame-Shiko in dark grey or black. The only scoring difference I use here is 6pts for Sanko.
The Jokers...
Lights and Sake Cup...
You can't make Sanko with the Rain-man card (as the card indicates here). You can only make Ame-Shiko and Goko with it.
I love the Rabbit in the Harvest Moon...
November's storm card - My favourite card and design!
Thank you Robin Red Games!
These cards can be purchased at Robin Red Games here...
Actually, they also did the mistake in french about the bear.
ReplyDeleteThey called it ours when it should be sanglier.
Even though I think the game is quite beautiful (that's the first game of Hanafuda I bought, and the only one I currently have...), the cards are pretty fragile.
I didn't read the rules in english, but I know the rules in french are a bit not understandable. I got to find the rules on the Internet to know how the game (here, koï koï) really works...
They really should have included a visual combination guide. The player aid has so many colors and inverts the characters found on the card. Thankfully, with the help of the Internet we found everything we needed. Out of the box I think it would be difficult to play.
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