The beatles once said “All you need is love” and that rings true in Tanto Cuore.
Tanto Cuore is a deck building game and is designed for 2 to 4 players. Each player starts with the same cards available to them, and then takes turn “purchasing” cards from a pool of available items. Tanto Cuore offers a unique twist on the genre. Instead of building a kingdom or an army, players compete to employ a variety of anime housemaids.
Like most deckbuilding games, Tanto Cuore is pretty simple. But adds a twist on it, You use a common currency Love, to recruit maids from a common pool of cards which you then add to your discard pile, which eventually cycles back into your hand.
Each card falls into one of the following categories:
- Maid Chiefs – these are very special and powerful maid cards with enhanced abilities, the starter box set comes with 6 of these
- General Maids – these cards get discarded after play and may allow for special actions such as drawing another card, etc.
- Personal Maids – these get stored in your “chambers” and counted towards your score at the end of the game
- Illnesses – you can play these on your opponent and nullify the effects/bonuses of their maids
- Bad Habits – you can play these also on your opponent and at the end if a maid has a bad habit her value is reduced when calculating the final score
- Love – it’s the energy system used, you need this to play cards from your hand, or purchase cards from the community pool
COMPONENTS
The cards of a good quality stock, they feel nice in your hands and will shuffle and pick up off the table easily. They have a slight shine coat to them, so overall the cards themselves are great. The artwork is straight out of anime, so if you’re a fan of that, you will be a fan of this. Colors are bright and pop, the maid theme is strong throughout, anime fans will be right at home here, if your not a fan of anime or Japanese culter, you might find the maid concept jarring or odd. Just go with it.
Where I had a problem with them, is the same problem I have with most deck builders, the font is small, like crazy small. I’ve mentioned in other reviews that I have a vision problem, so this does not help, but wow, this is some small print. As in other reviews, this might just me and my vision, and most player will not have an issue with it, but keep that in mind.
RULEBOOK
The rulebook is the size of the card box and is black and white, They give your examples of cards and cover gameplay well, I wish it would have been in color, but overall the book does a good job. After a few reads of it, you should be able to jump right in and get going. I apricated the fact, they took time to explain all the different symbols used on the cards, The book really does a great job of explaining how to set up the game, as well as explaining different areas, cards, and keywords used in the game.
GAMEPLAY
If you’re a fan of deckbuilding, then you will be right at home here, Turns consist of drawing a card from your draw pile, playing any cards from your hand, which typically begins with placing love cards for energy, and then playing maid cards for their abilities, or if you don’t have a maid to play in your hand currently, you can use love to draw a new maid from the “Town” (community draw pile). Some cards give you bonuses for collecting multiple maids (same card multiple times)
At the end of the game, a winner is determined by whoever has the most maids in his chamber serving him at the end, especially those maids who have not developed a bad habit or illness.
Final Thoughts
This is a solid fun deck builder, that adds a unique twist on the genre, The game knows what it is, the maid theme is prevalent throughout, and of course the anime theme is there. Tanto Cuore is a competitive game with great production value, the theme is a welcome change on the deck building genre, It’s easy to set up and highly replayable, ending quickly enough for you to play and teach to a friend.
If you’re a fan of deck builders and anime, then this deserves a place on your shelf for sure.
Find out more information at the official site
You can purchase the game via the official online store
or via Amazon
Big thanks to Japanime Games for sending us the copy to review, this in no way reflected the outcome of the review
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