Back to Basics - Yomi Review

Despite the fact that Sony's PSP is an almost universally reviled piece of hardware in the Western press, there continue to be a steady stream, or more of a gently flowing creek, of amazing releases on the platform. These occasional blessings are likely in no small part due to its relative success in Japan, and soon another heavenly gift will have managed to float downstream to us here in the west in the form of the upcoming Final Fantasy IV Complete Collection. Originally released as Final Fantasy II on SNES, and then again with the correct Japanese enumeration on various platforms throughout the years, the game is arguably one of the best titles in a series now desperately in need of a break. In a refreshingly traditional move, this one will feature fresh sprites instead of the abominable 3D graphics that were found on the Nintendo DS releases of Final Fantasy III and IV. In an era where your average triple-A titles, which include the last few entries in the series, have production values that are through the roof it's nice to see Square Enix realizing that they can just go back to the essence of what made them a great company and turn that into something we all desperately need. Lets hope that when they cast their baleful gaze on Final Fantasy VI they will have the good sense to not disturb the bones of that game too much. A little bit of a touch-up is nice, but when you have a game that so perfectly defines the genre there's no need to go and mess with the basic ingredients. Which brings us to a new game that succeeds primarily because it presents the essence of a genre to a player in almost as pure a form possible.

Yomi - Boardgame (2011)

Yomi is a remarkable card game that expertly simulates the core tension that exists in a fighting game like Street Fighter. The game was designed by David Sirlin, who is a well respected competitive Street Fighter player and game designer who was responsible for the balancing on one of the best versions of Street Fighter ever released: Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. So, before even looking at the cards it's safe to assume that the guy knows a thing or two about fighting games. The game consists of 10 pre-constructed decks of cards(i.e. it's non-collectible) that represent individual fighters with their own special abilities, moves, strenghts and weaknesses. The decks are patterned after poker decks and feature the standard array of cards from ace to king in four suits. Two players will each pick a deck and proceed play the various attacks, throws, blocks and dodges printed on each card, hoping to beat their opponent's moves and do damage to them. It is basically rock-paper-scissors at its core, with attacks beating throws, throws beating block and dodge, and block and dodge beating attack. Dodges and blocks are unique in that successful blocks are returned to your hand and allow you to draw an extra card, and successful dodges allow you to strike back with a single attack. Players select their moves secretly and reveal them simultaneously and the game ends when one fighter is reduced to zero life, usually after about 10-15 minutes of play.

The core mechanics of Yomi are pretty simple, but once you get past the basic rules you'll see that much like the video games that inspired it there is quite a bit of depth to plumb for those who are so inclined. For starters, each card has two maneuvers printed on it so the direction that you play the card in matters and there are a lot of special moves with extra rules that go along with them like discarding extra cards, drawing cards or penalizing your opponent somehow. Trying to predict what move your opponent is going to throw based on how they tend to play and what moves they've played in the current match is the main thrust of the Yomi, but hand management also becomes a major consideration in a game where you're usually only drawing one additional card per turn. This is primarily because most attacks allow you to combo into additional attacks out of your hand, but your opponent can invalidate your combo after your first hit by playing a face down joker (the equivalent of the Burst move in the Guilty Gear fighting game series), so you might lay out an impressive and highly damaging combo only to have those cards go to waste. You also burn through your hand by discarding pairs, three of a kinds and four of a kinds to search your discard and library for aces which are usually a character's best attacks and can sometimes only be played in multiples. The mechanics of the Yomi breed a tension that comes from deciding when it's right to sacrifice cards and go all out to lay your meanest attack on your opponent or to hold back, keep your options open, and slowly build up your hand. Once you get the hang of it you'll learn to hold your big attacks until after you successfully dodge or your opponent is knocked down or in some other penalized state where you'll have an edge because their potential plays are limited. The intricacies of the combat system such as attack speed, knockdown and some of the deeper combo rules add a necessary granularity to an otherwise simple system, and the combination of fast play and tough choices each turn make Yomi a pretty engaging game overall.

So what's the deal with the 10 decks? For starters, the cards are well made and feel similar to a high quality deck of playing cards rather than your standard CCG cards. They're thin and flexible but not flimsy. The art is very high quality with a consistent and generally imaginative design, but it would have been nice to see more variety in the art for the normal attacks and throws. The differences between each deck are much more than cosmetic with each character having a unique set of moves and special abilities. Rook, for example, has no dodge moves, is throw oriented and though his normal attacks are slow they are very strong and he can sometimes just attack through an opponent's faster attacks. He's sort of the Zangief of the game. On the opposite side of the specturm, you have a character like Valerie, who is reminiscent of Chipp. Her individual strikes are weak but her attacks are fast she can combo any basic strikes together meaning she can pull off explosive combos regularly almost regardless of what cards are in hand. The other 8 characters are equally varied and include ninjas, diplomats, pandas and fish men among other things, and each one takes a bit of practice before you begin to understand what their best attacks are and how they match up against other characters. The game is available as matched pairs of 2 opposing characters ($25), or as a deluxe of all 10 that comes with play mats, counters and a box ($100). It's expensive, but the combination of portability and replay value mean that you'll more than get your money's worth out of it. Some tabletop or eurogaming purists might balk at the theme but it's hard to not recommend this game to anyone, especially if they have an appreciation for the material that inspired it.