Have you ever played Munchkin and thought, "Man I wish I could build a spaghetti sword."? Fool's Blade delivers on that thought, and then some. The concept is very similar to Munchkin, you equip gear, collect instant use cards to help in a pinch, but then with a twist. You can collect parts of a sword, the hilt, pommel, guard, and blade, and you then mix and match these parts and create a sword you use to hunt down monsters (and other players sometimes). The goal is the same as Munchkin, collect loot and hunt down monsters in order to have the most points at the end of the game. But Fool's Blade feels a lot cleaner than Munchkin, and I mean come on, look at that box!
The cards are set out to serve as the hub of the game, quest cards which give you helpful abilities to use to boost your power or mess with other players, then three levels of monsters to fight (based on the skulls you see), then an anvil where you may pick up three cards (usually three different parts of a sword) and pick one to add to your sword, a tavern deck which you draw from when your turn starts, the loot pile, and then the class pile. The first thing we noticed was there were SO many classes to pick from, more than 20. I picked the Cheater Class, which let me try to steal one card from the loot deck per turn, and I was allowed to keep it as long as I wasn't caught. I used sleight of hand, had people come in the room so the players would turn their backs to me, waited for my friend's stomach to rumble dangerously so I could steal a card, you name it, I did it. Each class had a unique mechanic to it, and they could have easily stopped while making six or seven, they clearly had fun and made a lot more classes than they needed to, which brings the replay value way up. Having the eight decks set out this way definitely helped with understanding the game, it took a little while but we got the rhythm down and moved pretty fast. The Tavern deck and the quest deck kind of felt like the same mechanic, so we didn't really quest, but if I played it again I would quest a lot more for better cards.
The set up for each player is pretty much what you see above. Your class, your sword, then your hand, plus a couple of curses Rich got at the beginning of the game that instantly ruined any chance he had of winning. But as funny as that is, the sword building is what sets this game apart. You can see (before he was condemned to lose) that Rich had a Guard, pommel, and hilt of a sword, combining for 5 strength (based on the red, blue, and grey icons on the cards.) The cards are designed so they can be stacked on top of each other and you can still see what each card does. It's a fun and pretty unique game mechanic that has you looking for different combos of sword pieces, and the game does give a set bonus for some sword types if you find all four pieces of the same set. Which none of us did because it seemed like a pretty long shot to luck into all four pieces. There is enough in this game to make each playthrough feel varied, and the sword mechanic alone makes it worth buying. Like c'mon check out this spaghetti sword.
The game certainty has enough variety to it to make it feel new each time, and we didn't even get to play with the expansion it came with. The curses seemed a bit heavy at times, and it was weird tracking them without some kind of counter included, but beyond that the game felt pretty fair. Here is what Rich and Ian had to say
Pro | Con | |
Rich | Fun art, easy to pick up and play, lots of classes leads to a high replay value, interesting concept with building your own sword, good amount of actions to do per turn | Curse cards last too long and can ruin someone's chances early, some of the questions were hard to find or weren't answered in the rule book |
Ian | Tavern cards were fun, wasn't too much of a "take that" element. Wasn't too easy to mess with other players. | The type advantage concept seemed extra (so extra I'm realizing I didn't even include it in the review), and dice seemed extra, not really used much. |
Summary
Fool's Blade is a more simplified version of Munchkin, but it delivers the exact same experience, in a new and compact way. The replay value is high; with a variety of different classes, swords, and cards to play with. There are some components (dice) that don't really seem needed, but the game uses each of it's pieces well, and if it ever does get expansions it will only improve the experience!
Score
7/10
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