UNDO: Cherry Blossom Festival
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Time heals all wounds, they say, but the sudden death of a loved one sometimes shakes those who are left behind so much that their faith wavers. To prevent this, the gods send fate weavers to change the past and prevent death. In the game series UNDO, players slip into the role of these destiny weavers and do everything in their power to undo sudden deaths — whether murder or suicide. Not only do they travel minutes or hours back in time, but sometimes thousands of years to change events that have laid the foundation for the later stroke of fate. Sometimes a leap into the future can also provide important information.
The UNDO series combines the theme of time travel with emotional, extraordinary stories that players must assemble piece by piece. Each time jump gives them another choice in how they can change the past — and not every change is a turn for the better!
UNDO: Cherry Blossom Festival, one of the first three UNDO titles, is set in Okayama, Japan in March 2000. A man in his sixties lies lifelessly on the floor of his living room, a broken wine glass and the photo of a young woman in a wheelchair next to him. The deceased wears an old-fashioned blue suit and has no visible injuries aside from a barely perceptible scar above the eye. In his jacket a telephone rings with the melody of "Moonlight Sonata" and on the table lie cherry blossom branches…
This title isn’t about solving a crime or catching a murderer. Instead, players must embrace their role as disembodied destiny weavers to go through the past of this man’s travel to prevent his death. Everyone who leaps through time carries a momentous decision that in the end will determine whether he lives or dies?
Ages | 10+ |
---|---|
Players | 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, 5 Players, 6 Players |
Play Time | 45m – 90m |
Designer | Lukas Zach, Michael Palm |
Mechanics | Cooperative Game, Storytelling |
Theme | Card Game, Deduction, Murder/Mystery, Adventure |
Publisher | dV Giochi, Ediciones MasQueOca, Gigamic, Hobby Japan, Lifestyle Boardgames Ltd, PaperGames (III), Swan Panasia Co., Ltd., White Goblin Games, Pegasus Spiele |
oranssioranki
Undo is an interesting concept for sure but there was something rubbing me the wrong way the whole 60+ minutes we played it. Maybe I'm not the type of gamer who likes these kinds of games after all? But I like how you're not obliged to know _exactly_ what happened (SH:CD I'm looking at you), instead all what's needed are the right decisions in critical times. As I said, an OK concept but did not leave me wanting more.
Chris Schreiber
After a terrific demo at the booth during Origins 2019, I bought all three with a convention coupon (buy 2 get 3rd free). Cherry Blossom Festival was our first of the three to the table. Verdict: Big Fun was had by all!!! It's right in our wheelhouse. It scratches that Chronicles of Crime/TIME Stories/Unlock itch with a condensed presentation and plenty of room to speculate and still make reasonable decisions. How much of our enjoyment was enjoying each other? A lot. But it doesn't matter, because the game didn't get in our way at all. In summary, this approach keeps the heart of the fun never too far off or buried beneath too many design mechanisms. Also, dense on the time to decision ratio and speed of narrative reveal. Really looking forward to the others in this series and excited to share the fun when we hand this off to other friends.
pusboyau
Stimulates: Imaginative Story Building (Structured - to approximate) What piqued my interest about this and the rest of the titles in the series was the time travel element. However, it isn't handled like the typical time travel feature of influencing or avoiding upsetting the timeline. Instead (and as explained in the last side of the set up cards) the influences you make in the narrative happen simultaneously in the timeline. Once you reconfigure your expectations your enjoyment will very much depend on how much you immerse yourself in the narrative of being a time travelling detective. Firstly I like how, much like in Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, you have to really exercise your imagination from reading to get as much information to then speculate and make hopefully informed choices as to where to 'time jump' next. Adding to the tension are the limited resources of time travel and clue gathering, so you really have to evaluate what could be relevant or not, emphasising the need to read and imagine well plus pick up any implications, such as ages and dates, taking care not to jump hastily to conclusions. Thankfully the value of the fate cards provide some kind of feedback loop to put you right if you make a few hiccups. It works well solo, giving you time to savour the details, but I suspect it works best as a 2 player just to bounce off ideas etc. (3 would be a squeeze with the way the cards are laid out, would probably switch to something like the Sherlock Q system).