At first glance, I thought of Xenofera as a game meant more for young children into the aesthetics of a game rather than the game itself -- like a Yu-Gi-Oh! card collector that doesn’t duel themselves. However, as I played with my friends I realized my first impression was completely incorrect. The play is simple: action, build, capture, draw. But the intricacies of the game elevate it tremendously, making it much more than a simple game of hunting and collecting wild space creatures. Playing with four players from the get-go made for a long-lasting game but one that allowed me to familiarize myself with and pick up the strategies behind the game rather quickly.
I first realized the importance of strategy when I made the simple mistake of not locking one of the cages I had built. I thought using my build points elsewhere (i.e building another cage) would be a greater, more efficient expenditure of points. I found myself playing on the offensive front… feisty. Like with sports, I should have thought to take certain precautions and focus on the defensive end. As I did not lock my cage, I lost the one medium-sized creature I felt so accomplished in capturing. The ability to lock a cage falls under the build phase.
The next strategic decision is capturing creatures. One could simply capture the creatures that yield the greatest amount of points, but in the end, this would only work against them. This is because collecting certain creatures in certain combinations allows for bonus points which I found to be extremely valuable. It’s best to keep this information away from fellow players as if they find out which collections yield bonus points for you, they will intentionally attempt to capture the creatures you need (another mistake I made… ).
This is where attentiveness comes to play in Xenofera. For example, when battling other players for creatures, if one keeps track of the battle cards played by another, they can eventually figure out whether or not it's worth challenging their opponent (this is because the cards played are of the values 3, 2, 1, and decoy. So when one uses up their 3s and 2s, it’s the right time to challenge them as they’re only left with 1s and a decoy/dummy card). For once, I succeeded here and won a battle by keeping track of my friends’ battle cards. I found this to be similar to aspects of the board game Secret Hitler where I would do my best to keep track of liberal and fascist cards played to see how many remain in the deck.
But away from the technicalities of the game… It was executed beautifully. The background story and the gameplay itself was intriguing and I can’t forget the artwork. Each animal was so different from one another, playing on combinations of real-world animals and mythical creatures. Ahh… and the names of each one. Simply fun! I hope you all get the opportunity to play Xenofera.
Vignesh M.