Daitoshi Components Overview and Impressions

Daitoshi is yet another game from DEVIR that is blowing the doors off the competition in terms of components, and while (again) I am writing and begging DEVIR to make their boxes just a cm or 2 taller, I cannot help but be amazed at what the company is doing in 2024. We loved the look of Rock Hard 1977, and the gameplay was excellent, so can Daitoshi live up to that hype? Let’s take a look.

Daitoshi is another game in a run of games by DEVIR focused on the world of Yo-Kai spirits. We’ve played a few of the other games in the past – Sand, Bitoku for example – and were delighted to yet again step into a world with outstanding Yo-Kai characters to interact with. The theme of Daitoshi comes through in spades, as you manuover through the age of steam, expanding cities, building factories, and building new and exciting inventions. All the game pieces and artwork come together to create a fantastic, thematic experience before you even take your first turn.

The central board is beautiful, and reminds me of Bitoku in more ways than one. Yes, the colours, the theme and everything else is completely different, but the way DEVIR uses every part of the board for either pieces or beautiful art just brings back good memories of playing Bitoku. The fantastic central board carries over to the player boards as well. Each player board represents a factory, with great slots for pieces, but again tons of art to really give this game a ton of thematic appeal. I love that these boards are dual layered, which is both a nice touch for holding tracking pawns, but also serves a purpose as well.

When it comes to the boards, I have one wish – how great would a dual layered central board be! I know that makes the board MUCH to thick and would never happen, but a guy can hope, right?

Past the boards, the game pieces looks phenomenal as well. It’s odd to me that most pieces are screen printed, with a few not being (the worm bus and the victory track token). It’s odd to me, but ultimately doesn’t impact my opinion of the pieces. The other thing I could see people nit-picking is the games various coloured workers – they are not anything special, and are as close to the original “meeple” design as possible without being a 1-1 copy. Again, I’m nitpicking again, because these pieces are great, and again add to the thematic feel of the game, especially the chimney piece that tracks water and coal!

The cardboard chits used are a good thickness, although I’ve seen a bit better quality cardboard pieces in other games. They aren’t bad here in anyway, and are very useable. They just aren’t the best I’ve ever seen.

I LOVE that Daitoshi uses acyclic pieces for the steam resource and the various player resource trackers. I enjoy when games mix-up the components and do a bit of wood and a bit of acrylic. I think using acrylic for all the games spendable units (trackers, wild resource tiles, and steam) is a great touch, and elevates the overall appeal of the games, and the games table presence.

Overall, Daitoshi is a game that looks so good it begs to be played. It is not going to be for everyone, as getting going is going to take some effort. But if you love a board game with solid talbe presence, than this is one we highly recommend!