May 31, 2024
My favorite new term to use to describe certain games is Co-petitive.
A Co-petitive games still end with an overall winner. The actions you take during the game will help not just you, but your opponents as well. Flamecraft takes that idea of Co-petitive and includes it with its theme, amplifying the game to be one of my favorites.
In Flamecraft, players take on the role of Flamekeeper, allowing them to talk to dragons to help find the store that needs their help the most.
On a player’s turn, they choose to move to any shop in the town that they currently are not at. Once there, they choose to either gather resources from the shop and play a dragon that matches the shop’s needs. This will improve the shop for all future players and give the player a small reward. The player may also kindle a dragon at the shop when gathering, performing a power based on what type of dragon they are.
Rather than gathering at the shop though, the player may choose to enchant the shop instead. Paying the cost of a matching enchantment available to the shop, these enchantments make future gatherings at the shop more valuable and provide victory points.
As the game continues, more shops become available, opening more spots to add dragons to or to enchant. Your actions feel stronger as you continue to play and as players improve the town. This feeling of cooperation to improve the town is found in your actions too when you can give resources to other players for victory points.
While most victory points come from enchantments, players can also impress fancy dragons, showing off how great of a Flamekeeper they are and scoring even more points.
While the gameplay can keep you coming back to play again and again, the art is what will attract you to the game first. The art on the box is beautiful and captivating. Each dragon card has their name and a different art, with the fancy dragons being even more unique than their dragon friends. The game also has some beautiful add-ons for those who love that sort of thing. From plastic minis and metal coins to wooden resource tokens, the quality is to die for. The box insert was even designed to hold all of these upgrades!
I truly love everything about this game. The solo mode is great, limiting what shops you have access to behind achievements, and making you play in certain ways to unlock those cards. This game is a must have your gaming shelf.
