A Good Walk Updated: TOKAIDO (new edition) review

My Gumbo Live tag team partner, Steve “The Name Father” O’Rourke and I had a Tokaido addiction back in 2017-2018. We had a long running game series on BGA, where as soon as we finished one game, we were setting up another. Two player, three player, and four player counts — we played them all.

But, the cavalcade of new hot board games since then shelved our interest in Tokaido. (To be honest, we’ve had a running series of games of The Castles of Burgundy since then instead.) Ten years is a long time between game plays, so I was very excited to see that Stonemaier Games purchased the IP of Tokaido from Funforge to publish a new edition. And even more excited when our review copy arrived.

Back around 2017, I would have probably named Antoine Bauza as my favorite or top two favorite designers. We used to play Takenoko all the time. Same with Hanabi or 7 Wonders. But there was something about the “walking” mechanism in Tokaido that I just really latched onto back then.

For those of you who have not played the original version of Tokaido, you are in luck. There are not a lot of changes in the new edition from Stonemaier, just more of a freshening up of some elements. As Jamey Stegmaier said about the original game, the company “wouldn’t have acquired it if (Stonemaier Games) didn’t think the game was already awesome.” Before we dive into the changes, let’s give a quick overview of what makes the original special.

Tokaido is a 45 minute set collection and scoring game where players are taking a leisurely stroll down the “East Sea Road”, apparently a very peaceful and picturesque byway in Japan. The mechanism of doing that is simple — players will take their one single pawn, and move it left to right (or vice versa for a different challenge) down this long game board stopping at various sights along the way.

The “walking” mechanic means that players can walk as far down the path as they want (within limits set by the game) and take an action, but then have to wait for the other players to catch up before moving again. We’ve seen this implemented in games like Parks or Heavenly Ale or Aqua Garden or even Patchwork, but Tokaido was the first one I played that utilized this sequence, and frankly it’s much more interesting to me than the version that is in Parks (although I seem to be in the minority with that opinion in my game group).

The decision space is so juicy. Do I grab the next best spot, so I can ensure I can take a lot more actions? Or do I grab one further down, because it’s exactly what I need, but give up a bunch of free actions to my opponent?

Those decisions walk hand-in-hand with the strategy of scoring points in the game. There are a number of different ways that points will fall your way as you meander to the east. You can visit different scenes of the sights from the roadway (called ‘panoramas’) to collect sequentially higher scoring cards, or visit the hot springs to grab a set number of points. You can boost your coin purse by visiting the farm, or shed some coins for points by donating to the temple or purchasing souvenirs at a local Dollar Tree (although their souvenirs in Japan are better and the shop appears cleaner than my local store).

If I had to name my two favorite places to stop on the trail, the first would probable be the encounters, where you stop to chat up “friends” you meet along the way, and just for paying a little bit of attention to a fellow traveler, the friends give you stuff or points or both. The second favorite stop would be the required respite at the midway Inns, where players will “rest” after purchasing a “meal” (for points, again, if you have the money to afford them) until the turn order is reset starting with whoever entered the inn last. Timing is everything in life, but even more important in Tokaido, where timing your stop correctly could be the difference between getting the meal you want (and an end-game goal accomplished) or certain defeat.

The game would be almost too simple, but Bauza threw in some very slight wrinkles to make it more engaging. There is both an in-game and an end-game race for various points, that come in the form of the donations to the temple — highest donor scores more points) and the collection cards, where players are rewarded for having the most points in panoramas or meals or other types of collections.

And, each player chooses a ‘character’ to play, with a decision as to whether to play it in standard, family mode (where the character has no special powers and a set number of coins) or advanced mode where players have asymmetric powers and coin starts. (Hint: play the asymmetrical powers mode).

So, what is different about the new Stonemaier Games version? It includes the obligatory Automa (solo) mode, for starters. I don’t solo many games, so I was more curious about the other additions. The best thing about the new edition are the handy dandy player reference cards, which have highly legible recaps of every space in the game. Having that at a glance, instead of having to remember some icon or thumb a rule book, makes the game play so much faster. I also like the metal coins that I purchased as an upgrade via my Stonemaier Champions discount. They are very well done, and there’s just something about clinking metal coins around especially when making a donation at the temple.

The other changes are minor, things like component quality (using Panda as as the sole manufacturer of all components for this edition), rule book clarifications, and lots of friendly text explaining things like the powers of each character right there on the back of the tile.

I do have one quibble. The scoring track around the board has very faint numbers on my copy. It’s not a big deal, merely a picayune complaint about my tired old eyes trying to count off points without a clear image of each number as you go down the board. It’s just frankly surprising, given how good of a production the rest of the game is.

I already loved Tokaido before getting this version for the game that it is. It’s a very relaxing game, that families can play in under an hour, and advanced gamers can speed through as a quick tapas game in under twenty minutes. The game’s only interaction is in the end-game-in-game race elements and competition for the spots on the track, but that’s plenty enough for the style of game it is.

Tokaido is still a relaxing jaunt through the Japanese landscape, just maybe cleaned up with a nice fresh coat of paint. I’d still rather play Tokaido than Parks, but I also rather the economic and engine building parts of Heaven & Ale and Aqua Garden better, to be honest. But there’s plenty of room for all three games in my collection.

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!

— BJ from Board Game Gumbo