Toriki 

• Designer: Wojciech Grajkowski 
• Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 200-300 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4iZVv4O 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

It is the 19th century. You are teenage members of the first scientific expedition to the semi-legendary uninhabited Toriki Island. Just as you’re about to reach your destination, your ship gets caught in a storm and crashes on underwater rocks. With the last of your strength, you swim to shore, and that’s when your adventure begins! Do you have what it takes to face the challenges of a desert island?

Toriki: The Castaway Island is a cooperative family game of adventure, exploration and survival. Using Scan & Play technology to mix digital elements with a traditional board game, it offers an immersive, interactive experience enriched with beautifully illustrated components. Search the island for resources, craft new tools, discover species unknown to science and name them! But most of all, secure your survival and find a way to return home!  The game is played as a single continuous adventure that takes about 6–8 hours to complete, though you can pause and save it at any time.  The ultimate goal of the game is to find a way to leave the island. 

The map shows the island of Toriki – over the course of the game, you will unlock three other forms of the map – they start the game in sealed envelopes.  The game also uses a Camp Board and a coin board to track things.  You’ll need to install an app on your phone to play – though once it is downloaded, you do not need the Internet to play.  The app will help you with setup as well as track the round you are in and the current player.

On a turn, the active player does two things.  First, they decide to move their meeple (or stay in the same place).  You can move to an adjacent hex for free, but you must spend 1 Food for each additional space.  After moving, input the final destination into the app – and then the app will give you a description of your location as well as available actions there.  Then, the player performs any actions available in that Location. 

• Use an Item – scan the QR code on an item you are holding and then the app tells you what happens
• Ask for a Mission Hint – can only be done from the Camp location
• Craft a new Item – try to combine two of your current item cards into a new item
• Trade Items and Food – you can trade with another player in the same location as you, or you can take/leave things if you are at Camp
• Discover a Species – if you find a new plant or animal, you get to name it – and then you might be able to use this later in the game
• Find Coins – the rules mysteriously don’t tell you what you can do with them
• End Turn – Umm, this ends your turn. Hit the button on the app so it knows you’re done

After 3 rounds, the Day ends. All the Meeples return to a Campsite location.  Then you repeat the process.  As you play the game, you have other things to consider.  You can take on Missions – these will increase your score, but they may also give you hints to the overall puzzle of how to leave the island.  You can find Coins which you will eventually learn how to use in the future.  Players can also finish different Achievements – though these are only for game end points; they don’t do anything to forward your progress in the game.  

The game ends when the team figures out how to leave the island. The app then gives you a score from 1 to 10 stars.  You can increase your score with completed Missions, found coins and discovering new Species.  Hints will reduce your score.  Interestingly, the number of Days spent on the island do not affect your score, so take as much time as you like in exploring your surroundings. 

The app pretty much tracks anything and everything.  If you ever get lost, you can pull up a history of the game to date.  You can also use it to double check your team’s inventory of things.  You can also save the game at any point if you don’t have a full 6-8 hours to finish the game in one sitting. 

My thoughts on the game

Toriki is one of the hybrid games that Lucky Duck is well-known for.  There is a definite table presence with the board and cards; but you will also rely upon the smartphone app for a lot of crucial functions in the game.  I have found that Lucky Duck is amongst the best in integrating the app and game together, and Toriki is no exception.

You’ll download the app for free from your phone store, and you can start a game in no time.  Though we played the game in a single sitting, it could take more than one session to finish, and the app will remember where you are in the game in that break.  While you are playing, the app will advance the story as you tell it where you go each round.  Definitely pay attention to the clues that you find in the app (as well as in the guidebooks) – there is a lot of helpful detail to be had there.

There are some fun puzzles to work through in the game as you try to escape the island, and it’s also a lot of fun to explore and see what you can do.  My favorite part of the game might be the crafting mechanism.  You will definitely have to figure out how to make some of the solutions to the puzzles; and it’s a well done system.  There is a fairly limited number of basic items in the game, and the way that they can be combined was a really pleasing part of the experience for me.  The QR code scanning for this worked really well, and we saw no glitches in that system (always a plus for a game that relies upon an app!)

The game is rated to take 6-8 hours, but our group of three intrepid puzzlers managed to finish it in about 4.5 hours.   The game is surprisingly free form, and you can explore at your own pace.  There are also plenty of side quests – which you do not need to complete before getting off the island.  If you’re a completist, you can stay on the island and keep playing until you finish everything…. If you’re goal oriented like my group, you can rush to the exit and end the game.

As it’s a puzzle game at heart, it’s unlikely (at least to me) that you’ll play it more than once.  Sure, you could go back to finish the side quests or maybe to do a speed run, but realistically, once you have solved the puzzles, you’ll remember the answers.  FWIW, I’ve also never understood people that have won Zelda but then spend months trying to get a 100% completion score – so maybe other gamers will want to keep playing until they get that 100% coin score…  For me, it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening, though I could easily have seen this go 2-3 sessions with other less focused groups.  

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Steph H: Also played through in about 4+ hours as a 2p game. I quite enjoy a lot of what the game has, including the exploring mechanic I love. I think the biggest downfall with the game is that there is really no punishment for taking too much time. No negative thing will happen to any player (no death/elimination/loss). That said, good for families and kiddos to have a fun time with no real worry. 

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

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

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4iZVv4O