Bittersweet Review – Board Game Quest

around board game quest discord And in many articles, I often reference dad jokes and music so a game about chocolate should be a great opportunity for lots of food-related fun. I was ready to put some sugar in this review, until I saw the chocolate-covered pea pod and realized that this game was designed and illustrated by monsters named Matthew Hawker and Olivia Raum, respectively.

It is written on the box that this game is for ages 10 and above. My son is only eight years old, so I’m not sure if I’m ready to expose him to these horrors, as it would make him afraid of chocolate. But if he fears there will be more left for me. *Queue Dark Side Music*

“Hey bud, wanna play a game about chocolate? bittersweet Plays one to four players, and the box says it takes 15 to 40 minutes to play.”

Gameplay Overview:

Each player has a deck of cards that will be shuffled at the beginning of the game and each round they will draw two cards and place one on the bottom of their player sheet with the word Yum! and yes! (One type allows you to choose which one goes where). These can be noticed but should be kept low to hide your targets from your opponents.

To win the game you have to win two rounds.

The goal of the game is to collect chocolates from the center of the table that match your Secret Yum criteria, while avoiding your Yuk criteria using two actions per round. The available actions are:
, Expose – Flip a chocolate card (probably called chocs hip)
, Take Face Up or Face Down Chalk (Did I like it? I liked it)
, return Put a chalk in the box and take an empty wrapper (another chalk card that was not in circulation) from the supply next to the box. Empty wrappers do not count towards your round scoring.

Often times, cards have special abilities that activate when revealed or selected face down. If a card allows you to reveal more chocks and has reveal abilities, you can trigger those as well.

Each chalk card has certain characteristics including coating, texture, size and “other”. The features have icons that tell you what it is, while the figure is depicted in art with a background color that matches the color on your player sheet.

A round ends when there are no chocks to reveal (all remaining are face up), no chocks left, or a player has two empty wrappers. Whoever has the most points in a round wins and turns their player sheet over to show that they are one step closer to winning. Points do not carry over between rounds and new Yak and Yum cards are revealed.

There is also a solo mode where an automata follows a very basic logic to collect cards and whoever wins the first two rounds wins.

Game Experience:

On the surface, it seems almost like memory (and it has that aspect as some chocks allow players to turn cards face down) but it is much more than that. There is a bit of variation as you can give cards to other players or take cards from them but it is not a central feature. If you want to grab random chalk from the box you’re a little out of luck. It also has a horror theme with chocolate covered garlic. But mostly, it is a set collection game played in about 10 minutes per round.

Having cards that can match both your yuck and yum is interesting because you have to see if it provides as many positive points as it is likely to cost you. There are so many yucks and yums requiring so many cards to trigger the next scoring level, that a pyramid of chocolates won’t hurt me, right?

I usually reveal a card and then take it, if beneficial for my turn and trigger some ability from time to time that allows me to reveal more cards or do something else. If I hated what was revealed, I would reveal another card. The disadvantage, especially against the bot player, is that their logic is to take face-up cards or reveal them if none are face-up. And they don’t have any yuck cards to help them collect points faster. Compared to other humans, you give away certain preferences that may let people know what you may really dislike. But due to each chocolate having three characteristics it may take a few turns to survive which will become more difficult as the number of players increases.

It becomes harder to game the system when the options in the box are reduced due to the randomness of both the cards in play and your taste/texture/size preferences. That randomness, because only a portion of the entire deck of chocks is used each round, also means that a lot of your yams won’t be in play in any given round. Even just to track size, coating, and filling – I’ve somehow amassed piles of my yucks as the cards face down and I get mixed up.

Bittersweet is relatively easy to learn and play and has fairly limited decision room – especially for those who don’t want to press their luck with blind drawing chocolates. A thoughtful player will likely perform better than someone who is more disorganized with his choices. Drawing a card that triggers a special ability can make your turn feel great, while flipping two cards that you don’t want only to see an opponent eat them is a bit of a hassle. The Creepy Wild Veggie card was a little weird to score – does that make all veggies positive? My group announced the verdict and we proceeded with the game.

final thoughts:

I can’t say my overall thoughts on this bittersweet Bitter-sweet because it is very negative. It’s fine and I’m having a hard time finding anything I’ve played that does what it does (which is a good thing) but I can’t point to anything that I can pull out of my collection. I will do it. And I guess that’s where I get bittersweet – it’s a good game and I think a lot of people will have fun with it, but like real chocolate, it may not provide enough long-term nutrition for many gamers’ appetites. Is. My family really enjoyed this game which appeals to more casual and younger gamers.

final score: 3 Stars – Bittersweet is like a normal box of chocolates in that it’s enjoyable and I wouldn’t turn it down, but there are more sophisticated options out there if given the choice.

Hits:
• Art and graphic design make the game easy to understand
• Special abilities can make some turns fun
• Faster game time with smaller number of players

Miss:
• Randomness can make turns predictable
• Some turns are boring
• No scoring tracker tokens included