Game Review: The Master Alchemist

Game Review: The Master Alchemist by Jireh Suministrado

    For those people who loves to play with elements, then Master Alchemist is the game for you! The Master Alchemist is the newest game created by exesgaming. It revolves around you, as the player, that can control all 5 elements which are earth, fire, water, air, and lightning. Their game mechanics are worker placement and a little bit of push your luck to make it more exciting.

     Their story line is very simple yet interesting. It is said that the current Master Alchemist who controls all 5 elements died and now, the people are fighting over who would be the rightful person to replace him as the master.

     All that aside, everything seemed wonderful. Even the gameplay itself. It is a one-on-one game and they battle each other using the elements' strength and weaknesses. each have their own 25 deck and is equally  divided into 5 elements. Each player takes two turns before the other player chooses their move. They have to draw a card before their turn. After that, you can either choose to put one card for defense or use a card for attack. This goes on continuously until the player with most defense card on the platform wins. If your defense platform has lesser cards than the opponent, you lose.

     Their game design was also remarkable. I was able to witness their design progress from the beginning 'till the end. Their prototype of the deck was using opposite colors which are black and white. The idea of using such theme and mechanic suits well but i hope, in their final product, it would become more enhanced than before.

     If i have to rate it, I'd give them 9 out of 10. its a very fun game and can also be addicting. I will surely keep on watching over them as they progress.

Visit their awesome website here!

Game Review : Pithos by Weird Minds Entertainment

For mythology and trivia lovers out there rejoice for a new epic game has risen! Pithos is a trivia board game for two to six players. In Pithos each player is given five life cards in the beginning of the game and players are given a choice of which country's mythology they'd like to answer. The countries available in Pithos are Japan,Egypt,Philippines,Greece and Israel;world wide cards plus Europe is also included. The game is also played on a game board with several circles of different colors on it that symbolizes the portals going to each country.

Pithos is also a role-playing game set in a world wherein various gods exist and assign you to stop evil forces from wreaking havoc in the world. This game also has unique sets of characters you can choose from. The game's characters are Miiko Miyamoto, a Japanese Priestess assigned by Amaterasu, Amihan de los Santos, a Filipino witch assigned by Bathala, Althea Giannopolous, a Greek oracle assigned by Zeus, Kristoffer Olvenderson, a Norwegian warlock assigned by Odin, Herkheba Mubarak, an Egyptian embalmer assigned by Ra, and Dijon Zilka, a Jewish healer assigned by Yahweh. Aside from the colorful cast of characters this game is also a potential friendship breaker because within this game there are cards that you can purchase using the points you've earned from answering questions and some of these cards can be used to steal other people's life cards or to steal their turn. I know this game almost potentially ruined my friendship since I kept winning against my friend. 

Let's face it , if a game wasn't potentially friendship breaking it would be less fun, wouldn't it ?  I really enjoyed playing this game with my friend because number one I'm a huge fan of trivia games and mythology, number two I love games that can potentially break your friendship cause games like this are so thrilling. I also think that the plot of this game was very interesting , mixing  various mythologies together in one game is just, brilliant! This game is also perfect for people who have to study about various mythologies for their history or literature classes. Pithos is both fun and educational so I recommend that teachers buy this game and use it as potential teaching material. 

Weird Minds Entertainment has really outdone themselves for they've created a truly remarkable game that has won my heart. I'm not an avid fan of board games but this game is almost converting me to think otherwise. This game is actually pretty easy to play , that is if you know a whole lot about worldwide mythology. I guess it can become  a challenging game if you lack knowledge about the various mythologies out there. Fret not , for even if you lack knowledge about the various mythologies , you'll surely gain a lot of knowledge about it  after playing this game.  

It was an honor to be able to play test this game. The game is still being developed so some mythologies like Egypt's and Israel's aren't available yet. Nonetheless it was still a great experience to be able to play this game despite it not being complete yet. I had so much fun winning in this game, twice, against my friend , no wonder it almost broke our friendship. I'm hoping that I'll be able to play this game again in it's complete state. 

Want to know more about them ?  Then check out their awesome website:  http://weirdmindsent.blogspot.com/     

Game Review: Mad World by TriAdagio

Yet another one joins the ranks of the best and simplistic one-on-one games of today! Mad World is a strategic game inspired from Alice in Wonderland that involves two players competing against each other. It is created by TriAdagio, a company established recently by three talented game designers. It's a great game which makes you think and plan carefully about your moves. Simple, yet enjoyable.

The game has an interesting plot which deviates from what we generally know of Alice's story. Two players portray two different Alices, one from the white kingdom and another from the red kingdom, and these two are tasked to win the war against each other. The players are given a set of cards which represents their soldiers; Swordsman, Spearman, Shield Bearer, Archer, and Queen. Each soldier has its own power and defense points. There are also special cards you get every time you get 5 kills, which is a great reward for being successful in the course of the game.

The board of the game is cut in half, each with a number of rows and columns where players can place their cards. At the end of each side there is a base, one colored in red and the other in blue. The players strategically place their soldiers on their respective boards (excluding the base) facing down and once they are to attack or be attacked, they are flipped over. The deck of soldiers will be placed on the additional space beside the board, and on top of it is the graveyard, where they place the fallen ones.

The gameplay has very few rules to consider. You only have 2 moves per turn, but it limits the strength of every move you can do. You can attack, switch your soldiers on the same column, draw a card from your deck, or place a card on the board from your hand. You deal damage by subtracting the power of your soldier to the defense of the opponent's card, which is sometimes hard to track when there are multiple cards being attacked. Once a card reaches 0 defense, it is removed and transferred to the graveyard. Players must be able to reach three areas of the enemy's base in order to win the game.

When I first played it, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pave my way through. But I have to say, it has the potential to frustrate your friends and keep you grinning when you play it together (that's if you're on the winning side). Overall, its a really good game worth playing. It's still on the prototype phase so it's sometimes difficult to play without the visuals around, but I'm sure that later on it will improve for the better. I'm definitely looking forward to play this again.

Check out their awesome website here!