Tokaido Duo Components Overview and Impressiosn
When Tokaido Duo arrived at the house for review yesterday, I was actually expecting a bit more. When I finally got the box unwrapped and everything punched, I was actually shocked by the lack of pieces in the box. I’m not sitting here claiming this is a bad thing, but from what I had read, there is a good amount of depth in this game, yet the component quantity is so minimal!
I’m ok with only a few components in the box as long as those components are good quality. As part of the recent acquisition of the Tokaido franchise, Stonemaier Games has been relaunching these games. We absolutely love Tokaido, and were really excited for Tokaido Duo. The component quality overall is really, really good. The cardboard pieces are a nice thickness, and while I do find them a bit small for my larger hands, they are the perfect size to keep this two player box size manageable.
Everything punched out really nicely – no rips or tears on my cardboard chits, which still happens way to often in my opinion. Because the pieces are so small, I think some of the artwork gets lost a bit which is unfortunate because Tokaido is such a gorgeous game. The nice, compact central playing board does give you major Tokaido vibes, though, and the design team did a great job combining artistic concepts with a useable space.
When a game is produced well you get to nit-pick just a little bit, and I plan on doing that now. Rest assured, this production is fantastic, it just could be better (although that comes at a cost). The meeples you use are molded after three characters you will be moving along the trail; one pawn is rounded and looks like an old-school moving piece you might find in a game from the 80s, while the others look like little, custom designed people. A little uniformity might have gone a long way here, perhaps with a silk screen?
Again, I’m just trying to find a problem, readers keep saying I’m always too positive. Honestly, though, Stonemaier Games has killed it again with the production, and the meeples are just fine. Everything here is top notch quality, which we’ve come to expect from this company.
Article By Adam
