New Usagi Game Pack for Arcadia's Quest

[david20009]

Not really sure what Arcadia's Quest is but I noticed they just went live with an expansion pack to add Usagi, Gen and Kitsune to the game. Does anyone else know about this or play Arcadia's Quest and can give us a run down of it?

https://arcadiaquestusagiyojimbo.backer ... b8b0bbe523

Does this mean Usagi could team up with all the Marvel heroes? Or is that another set of rules?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/marvel-united

[TheBroox]

I was not familiar with Arcadia Quest before this announcement so I did some light research on it on BoardGameGeek.

I looks to be a light dungeon crawler where players each control an adventuring party and compete to have the most successful dungeon delve by completing a series of secret quests while at the same time doing their best to interfere with the quests of the other adventuring parties/players. One of my favorite reviewers, Tom Vasel, has done a full video review.

It has favorable reviews. It is currently sitting at a 7.7 out of 10. It is currently ranked 37th in the Thematic category and 152nd overall. It was released in 2014 so the shininess/"cult of the new" should have worn off and these should be rather stable ratings/rankings.

It looks like this Usagi expansion is completely backwards with other Arcadia Quest content but is not compatible with the spin-off Marvel game, Marvel United. Per the designer of both games "Marvel United is a 100% brand new game. It’s not based on any other title." So my guess is that they will be somewhat similar given that media outlets are calling Marvel United a spin-off and the both products are using a similar chibi art style but they will probably be mechanically different enough that they can't be mixed together.

Marvel United is not yet available. The game is currently in the production/shipping portion of its Kickstarter campaign. So while it isn't a fair comparison we can still do a comparison of the two games. Marvel United currently is rated considerably worse. A 6.5 out of 10. 1,741th ranked in the family game category and 11,939th ranked overall. Arcadia Quest does have over 8,000 ratings while Marvel United has less than 100. BGG does use a "secret algorithm" to derive a games rating though to try and combat the swinginess of ratings for games with few ratings. (All that is known is that games get a standard but unspecified number of 5.5 "dummy votes" to help pull everything into a curve.) Will have to wait for Marvel United to get released and be on the market for a few years before we can really do a fair comparison.

[david20009]

I am not really familiar with action figure games since I stopped playing D&D sometime in the 1980s (but have enjoyed the references on Stranger Things).

I did back the TMNT Kickstarter campaign that had the Usagi box and was quite impressed with all the mini figures. Don’t think I can convince my wife and daughter to play though. I did get them to watch the Batman animated series during the lockdown. This was an insidious plot so I could then show them the Batman Animated Series game on Kickstarter. I am happy to say it worked and they now want to play it so I was able to order the game so perhaps I will get back into action figure games. (We play a lot of board games as a family).

As I am new to this world of action figure games I am confused. If the Marvel United game has yet to be released how can people review it? You can look at photos of what the game is like but how can you judge whether it is fun to play or not. I was debating doing a late pledge on it just to get the characters as I think once painted they would look awesome to display (although the TMNT and Batman characters need to be painted too).

I think I will ask the local game shop (which is also a late Kickstarter pledge manager or whatever the title is) to see if they can get this Usagi set in. Even if I can’t play them they can go in the Isagi collection.

[Gaffey]

Even though the figures are cool looking I'm going to have to pass on this one. I also purchased the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures: Stan Sakai Pack and it just sits in a box in the closet. I'm never going to play it. I think I was suffering from FOMO the day it was announced.

I did get them to watch the Batman animated series during the lockdown.

Well done.

[TheBroox]

As I am new to this world of action figure games I am confused. If the Marvel United game has yet to be released how can people review it? You can look at photos of what the game is like but how can you judge whether it is fun to play or not. I was debating doing a late pledge on it just to get the characters as I think once painted they would look awesome to display (although the TMNT and Batman characters need to be painted too).

As soon as a game is announced and gets added to BGG people can start rating it. Most people won't rate something they haven't played but some will for whatever reason. Games usually get demoed/play-tested at conventions and the like before they got into production so it is possible to have played (a possible unfinished version of) the game.