Kimono Memories

• Designer: Nao Shimamura
• Publisher: EmperorS4
• Players: 2
• Age: 10+
• Time: 15-30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Embark on a mesmerizing journey through Kyoto’s quaint streets, where locals and tourists wear traditional kimonos, immersing themselves in the city’s timeless charm. As a budding photographer enchanted by the beauty of kimonos, you traverse the streets, seeking permission to capture these elegant figures. Strategize and outmaneuver your opponents to secure the best photo opportunities in this vibrant scene. With captivating glimpses of kimono-clad beauties, create cherished memories to treasure forever.

Kimono Memories is a two player competitive game where players draft cards from a rotating board to place in their own album pyramids. The goal is to collect the most kimono-clad beauties with matching patterns to gain the highest influence.

To set up the (expert) game, place the octagonal board in the center of the table and place the scoring marker in the center space of each of the five tracks.  Make sure that one end of the tracks is facing each player (who are sitting across the table from each other).  The deck of kimono cards is shuffled and one card is placed at each of the 8 sides of the board.  The photographer token is placed between two cards.  The remaining deck is set aside and two cards are flipped over next to it as the Reward Display.  Each player gets a Departure card and makes sure to place it on the Expert side.  Players will alternate turns until the game ends (when there are only 2 cards left around the board)

On a turn, four things happen

1] Take a photo – the active player moves the photographer clockwise around the board, crossing over 1 to 3 cards.  The player will take the card just behind wherever the photographer stops.  The majority of the cards are Beauty cards which have one of the five scoring colors.  Five cards are prop cards, they do not have a scoring color background, but they do provide you with end-game scoring bonus opportunities on them.

2] The chosen card is then added to the player’s album (table space in front of him).  The first two cards must be placed on the lowest level.  Later cards could be placed on top of previous cards as long as that card is fully supported by cards underneath.

3] Gain and Score patterns.  Each card has icons (5 different colors and a cat) near the bottom on each side.  As cards are placed next to each other, you can form patterns when icons of matching type are placed next to each other.  There is also a wild symbol that matches any of the 5 color patterns or a cat.  If you have made a match, place a pattern token or a cat on that match.  Additionally, move the scoring markers forward on the board – one space matching the color card you played and one space for each color pattern you created this turn.  Move the marker in the direction towards you.

4] Check for game end – replenish the empty space from the top card of the Kimono deck. If no cards are left in the deck, you obviously cannot refill.  The game end is triggered if there are only 2 cards left around the board.  Otherwise, the other player takes their turn.

When the game end is triggered, take the two remaining cards and place them next to the two cards initially set out in the Reward Display.  Now, start scoring the patterns, going from lowest number (3) to highest (7).  If one player has control of the marker (i.e. it is closer to them), they take the scoring marker for that column AND they also take one card from the reward display, add it to their album in the usual fashion and adjust any unscored markers on the board.  Repeat this process for columns 4, 5, 6, and 7.  If there is a tie for a column, no one scores the for the column and no one gains a reward card.

Each player then tabulates their score:

• Points gained from winning columns
• The square of the number of cat tokens collected
• Score for any Prop cards you have added to your Album
• Score for visible suit markers on cards in your album (1 pt for level 1, 2 points for level 2, …)

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the most Cat Tokens and Prop cards combined.

My thoughts on the game

Kimono Memories is the third release in the Hanamikoji series, and as you might expect, it is a tight 2-player game, full of back and forth swings.  The two previous games were well received here, and both remain in my very slim collection of 2-player games here…

(Reviews of Hanamijoki and Geisha’s Road)

In this game, you are trying to both generate patterns to maneuver the scoring markers on the board while working on the other scoring options.  You’re always limited to just the next three cards in sequence around the board, so you’ll have to make the best you can with those options.  It’s always a good idea to look ahead at what your opponent wants, and if possible, try to keep a desired card out of their reach as well. The battle for the scoring markers can be tense, especially when players are able to sometimes move two or even three spaces at once (for both the color of the card as well as any patterns made).

As you place cards into your area, making patterns is certainly a focus.  But you also want to build the base to grow your cards upwards – just having cards on higher levels can lead to scoring at the end of the game if their icons are visible.  And due to the squared scoring of the cats, it’s hard to ever pass up the opportunity to get a card with a cat icon on it…

I’m pretty much only playing the expert version now (which is the version explained above) and I really like the way that the reward cards give added importance to the lower scoring columns on the board.  The game is generally competitive, and one extra card is often enough to sway the balance of a column or perhaps deliver a very important last minute cat token.  I have definitely seen a game swing on the results of an early added reward card!

The artwork is beautiful – and this is consistent among all three games in the series.  The cards are a little thin, but as you only shuffle them once a game, they should hold up fine to regular use.  

Kimono Memories is yet another great 2-player game that provides a tight back and forth game that plays in a short amount of time and looks absolutely great on the table.  I would highly recommend this and the other two games in the series.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…