Legacy of Yu Review

I'm no stranger to solo games and when Shem Phillips is designing a solo-only campaign game, you take notice. In Legacy of Yu, you are attempting to build canals to prevent the impending flooding that will wipe out your territory. You'll do this by spending the necessary resources and workers. Easy peasy. Except there are also jerk barbarians that want to pillage your lands and take your stuff. Each round begins with a harvest phase where you'll collect resources and workers depending on what you've unlocked on your board. Then you play cards/workers. You can exhaust a card for its top-left ability in the brown box when you play it. You can also discard it for its full ability use but it is removed from the game. Also, you can tuck it under your board for ongoing effects during the harvest. There's also the option to build buildings that can give more spaces to tuck cards or better harvest bonuses. Any time you build a canal, you'll unlock trading abilities. This is key to being successful in this game. Recruiting new cards is also important. If you build a canal, you'll likely be discarding from your deck. Or if you get attacked by barbarians. Or if the storybook hates you. The moral is, to get cards. Speaking of barbarians, you can attack them by spending workers and provisions to get resources but also to remove them from the queue. Every time you use all of your actions, they take stuff from you and multiply. If the board ever is overrun, game over. Or if the flood reaches the boat, game over. Or if you run out of cards, game over. You win if you build all canals and survive that round. Then more stuff gets added.

The Good: This is a serious challenge in the best ways. You need to manage so many different things at one time and figure out how to create the ideal combos. There is so much trading going on in one round but it's incredibly satisfying. I love that even when you progress you somehow get knocked back because you're constantly losing cards. You can plan for what the barbarians are going to take from you but that doesn't mean you'll be able to do it fully. When it all comes together it's fantastic. More often than not though, you'll be playing defensively. The multi-use cards are well done. I love that if you want to use it to its full effect, you need to get rid of it completely.

The Okay: It can feel somewhat overwhelming at times to juggle as much as you need to. Because you are trying to solve so many problems at a time, you can absolutely hit analysis paralysis (I hate that term). This is definitely a game that you can dig a hole for yourself in a hurry. If you let barbarians get out of hand, it's going to be tough to actually stop them from ruining you. The challenge is where the fun is, though.

The Not So Good: For some, the campaign aspect may be a difficult thing to stick with. That's with any campaign-style game but a solo one can make it even harder to commit to. I personally can only really play a campaign solo but if you are a player that thrives with a group, this won't be it.

Final Thoughts: Legacy of Yu is great. I'm not surprised at all writing that. Shem Phillips continues to be one of my favorite game designers with a unique story and mechanically sound game. It's tough but it's an incredibly rewarding experience. Without giving anything away, this is a story that is interesting and the gameplay challenges it adds is always throwing you a curveball. Winning may not happen every time but when it does, it's a wonderful feeling that makes you want to keep going in the story.

Thanks to Garphill Games for providing a review copy.