Kodama is a whimsical card and board game where players “grow” trees for friendly tree spirits called Kodama. The game is played over three seasons Spring, Summer, and Fall with a decree card that sets special conditions for each season. Players select and place branch cards with various details on them on their trunks to grow trees throughout the seasons and earn points based on how many matching attributes they have on connected cards. Additional points are achieved at the end of each season’s “growing” phase through playing a Kodama card which gives extra bonuses based on the unique Kodama in the card.
The core mechanic of growing the tree by connecting branch cards I find is overall very successful, there is a good variety in the branch structures and mix of characteristics present on each branch and you can tilt and adjust the cards to line connect to other branch cards in interesting ways. Each branch card has a mix of 6 characteristics: fireflies, stars, clouds, flowers, mushrooms, and caterpillars with the decree and Kodama cards offering point bonuses for certain characteristics being present. The variety in card conditions set by decree cards for each season as well as the many different branch cards available allows for each player to create trees of different structures with different characteristics. Throughout the seasons the player’s trees grow from a trunk with not many branches in spring to trees with lots of characteristics that can take over a table. Since each player has different Kodama cards you will often tailor your branch choices towards Kodama cards you have for example if you have a Kodama that really likes fireflies and gives bonuses for having fireflies on your branches you will tend to go for branch cards that have as many fireflies as possible and end up with a tree with a lot of fireflies whereas someone else might have a Kodama that prefers something else so everyone’s trees will vary based on the Kodama cards they have. I feel that the tree-growing mechanic contributes to the game’s emergent narrative in that each player will grow unique trees with different Kodama attached to them and interesting branch and trunk structures. The narrative is unique each time depending on the decree cards and branch cards available so there really is a grow-it-yourself feel that I find lends to the game’s replayability. Each time you play your tree will look a bit different with different Kodama favoring the tree.
One thing I felt that could improve the overall game experience would just be more designs and characteristics in the cards. I would have loved for there to be more unique Kodama designs for each Kodama card as opposed to the same selection of Kodama designs that would have made each Kodama card feel truly unique. Additionally, it would have been interesting to see a variety in leaf colors or maybe some other characteristics although I understand that these would overcomplicate the scoring system. I just find that I would have loved for trees to be even more varied in appearance. Overall, I just would have loved to see more art and designs because the art in Kodama is very beautiful and really adds to the cute whimsical feeling of the game.
Overall, I found Kodama to be a very enjoyable experience that to me felt like mixing a cozy game with a board game as there is something very comforting and relaxing about a game centered around growing and curating trees for adorable tree spirits. The beautiful art and unique tree-growing gameplay I find are very successful in creating a whimsical yet fun gaming experience.
