Rising Sun Kickstarter

The Rising Sun Kickerstarter is live and I have backed it.  From Eric Lang and Cool Mini or Not it has been described as the spiritual successor to Blood Rage.  I already have Blood Rage, but I wanted to get this as well.  I thought I'd talk about why I have decided to back it.

The Five Clans of Rising Sun. Koi, Dragonfly, Bonsai, Lotus and Turtle

Rising Sun set up

The first thing I have to mention is the hype that was going on for this game.  I have been seeing posts about it for weeks on BoardGameGeek and Facebook.  It seemed that everyone was excited for the start of the Kickstarter and that was definitely something that got me to look at the game and does help build excitement.  The launch of this game is one of the biggest I have seen since I starting playing games and if that many people are excited it is something I think I should be looking at.  I like to think I wasn't swayed by the hype, but is defiantly a big factor in getting me interested in the game.

Oni of Skulls and Oni of Souls

Another big thing was this game being described by it's designer as a spiritual successor to Blood Rage.  I really like Blood Rage as a game and a game that I know will feels like that, from the same designer and production company, does appeal to me.

Komainu, Yurei and Oni of Spite

Like Blood Rage it has a mystic theme, this time Japaneses instead of Viking.  The theme isn't one I'm as interested in as the Vikings but I like the idea of it all the same.  It also has monsters, clans and some really beautiful miniatures that come with the game.

The Clan's Alliance tokens

What set it apart for me and made me want it instead of just settling for Blood Rage was the slight changes.  Rising Sun adds a diplomacy aspect that you didn't get in Blood Rage, players can join together to form alliances to benefit both of them and break those alliances to ultimately win the game for themselves.  Not many of the games in my collection have mechanics like that and it is something that interested me.  Eric Lang said that while Blood Rage's distance ancestor was Risk, Rising Sun's is Diplomacy.  Diplomacy was always a game that interested me because of the political nature of it, but the huge length of the game meant that it wan't something I felt was worth getting because it was just too long for me to even get to the table.  Plus I like my friends and after Monopoly I've heard that Diplomacy is the best way to lose them.  Something lighter, on  a smaller scale but with the same political manoeuvring and backstabbing was something that made me think it would be worth having as well as Blood Rage.

So why did I Kickstart it?  With Blood Rage I waited and was able to pick up a retail copy at a decent price.  In fact most of the games I have Kickstarted before were ones that I thought I might have trouble getting in retail in the UK later on, I know this will likely be easy to find for a long time so it might have been better to wait and see some proper reviews before I spend money on, even if I was sure I was going to like it.

The Phoenix, a Kickstarter Exclusive

One big reason is Kickstarter Exclusives.  I looked at the Kickstarter campaigns for Blood Rage and other CMON games and the amount of exclusives that were included or upgrades that were unlocked is massive.  I knew this game was going to fund quickly and break a lot of stretch goal.  By Kickstarting it I am getting more in the box than I would be able to get if I waited for the game to come out in retail.  Blood Rage ended up including a number of expansions which would cost me a lot of extra money to buy later and the chance to have these straight away did help sway my decision as well.  The chance to get extra monsters that I wouldn't be able to get afterwards or expansions included for less than the normal retail price meant I thought that this was one game worth backing now rather than waiting.

I am glad I have backed this and I'm sure it will break more stretch goals.  The game funded in less than 30mins so I guess I am not the only one.  Only time will tell what comes with the Kickstarter edition or whether I actually enjoy the game, but everything I've read, watched and seem from it so far is positive.

If you are interested the Kickstarter campaign is running until April 4th 2017 and can be found here