Takenoko: Chibis Review – We Love the Baby Pandas, But…

A review of Takenoko: Chibis has been a long time coming. Released over a decade ago, it’s been sitting patiently on my shelf waiting for its moment, and that moment has finally arrived. I’ve already shared my thoughts in my full Takenoko review, where I called it a near-perfect family game. Colourful, charming, and just the right mix of thinky decisions and light randomness, it’s always welcome at our table.

This expansion to Takenoko, designed by Antoine Bauza and Corentin Lebrat, adds new mechanics, new tiles, and a brand-new mama panda miniature. On paper, it sounds like an easy win. And yet, despite that, it has never quite become an automatic inclusion when we play.

So what’s holding it back?

What’s New in Takenoko: Chibis?

Everything in Takenoko: Chibis can be shuffled straight into the base game without too much fuss. That said, it does layer in a few extra rules and moving parts.

Inside the box you’ll find:

• 1 Miss Panda figurine
• 9 baby panda tokens, three green, three yellow, three pink
• 18 new objective cards, six of each type
• 17 additional bamboo sections
• 6 new special plot tiles

The headline addition is Miss Panda and her nine little panda-lings.

Whenever one of the new special plots enters play, Miss Panda joins the garden. She can be moved using the standard panda action, or via a lightning storm. If she ends her movement on the same tile as the panda, sparks fly. The player who moved her scores two points and gains a random baby panda token matching the colour of the plot where they met.

Each baby panda provides a small bonus. You might gain a free irrigation, a free improvement, or the ability to swap out one of your objectives.

(And if your child asks why this keeps happening, well, it might be an opportune moment to pause the game and have a chat about the birds and the bees.)

The new special tiles also shake things up. Sacred Hills plots grow bamboo for every matching coloured irrigated tile in the garden. There’s a new pond tile that lets you create fresh irrigation channels. Kami’s Garden supports all three bamboo colours at once, while the Gardener’s Shed allows you to choose an objective instead of drawing blindly.

Individually, none of these additions are game-changing. Collectively, though, they introduce more scoring opportunities and a little extra unpredictability to an already lively garden.

More Pandas, More Problems?

When it comes to expansions, I always ask the same question. Does this actually make the game better?

With Takenoko: Chibis, the honest answer is… I’m not entirely sure.

There are definitely things I like here. The new tiles, objectives, and extra bamboo sections are all welcome. The pond tile makes it much easier to expand your garden, often leaving you with sprawling, slightly unhinged landscapes that look like they belong behind the gates of a haunted manor. Sacred Hills help fuel those leafy monstrosities by accelerating bamboo growth across matching irrigated plots.

The new objectives are also genuinely interesting. You get fresh bamboo patterns to chase and new panda objectives that can only be scored when the panda returns to a pond. That adds a nice little positional wrinkle to consider.

If the expansion stopped there, it would probably get my seal of approval without much hesitation.

But then there’s Miss Panda and the kids.

My biggest issue is balance. Takenoko has always had randomness baked in, but it feels manageable in the base game. With Miss Panda in play, there’s always the possibility she’s sitting in the perfect position for an easy two points. Roll a sun on the weather die and suddenly that’s almost a free scoring burst that no one else can meaningfully respond to.

And it’s not just the points themselves. It’s how they feel.

Most points in Takenoko come from careful planning over multiple rounds. You grow the right bamboo, position the right tiles, line up the right objectives. You earn it. The two points from panda babies can feel like a drive-by reward. Right place, right time, cash in.

On top of that, Miss Panda nudges the game away from its beautiful simplicity. One of the base game’s strengths is its clean rules-to-thinking ratio. Add in baby tokens, bonus effects, extra triggers, and suddenly there’s just enough extra overhead to dull that streamlined edge.

That’s why Takenoko: Chibis has never become an automatic addition for us. The extra tiles and objectives are genuinely cool, but they don’t quite outweigh the added rules and swingy scoring moments. The original feels elegant and focused. With the expansion mixed in, it feels busier.

Still charming. Still cute. Just not essential.

So, is Takenoko: Chibis worth it for your table? For players who love Takenoko and want more variety, it can be a fun addition. But if you adore the streamlined elegance of the base game, you may prefer to leave this expansion in the box.