Episode 211: Bitoku Review

The theme of Bitoku is that players take on the roles of Bitoku spirits of the forest in their path towards transcendence, with the goal of elevating themselves and becoming the next great spirit of the forest. Bitoku is played over four rounds, split up into 4 seasons. During each round, you will use 3 cards and 3 dice. Cards and dice represent Yōkai — Guardian spirits of the Forest. Every player has the same set of Yōkai cards which they will play out of their hands to unlock their die which will then be placed onto the main board to trigger actions. These Yōkai cards have abilities on them that are activated when played and there are ways to get more Yōkai cards in your hand and also a way to cull your deck throughout the game. This game has so much going on, literally when you look at the game board you are going to be very overwhelmed. But in this gist here is what happens during the game. On your turn you can either play Yōkai cards into your play area (which may or may not unlock dice), play your unlocked die onto the board in a variety of different ways that will gain you spirits, dragonflies, soul crystals, buildings that can be played into different areas of the forest and so many other options, move your die across the river or pass. Each player has a set of pilgrims that will also be used to move them down a path towards illumination spaces or torii spaces which provide a variety of things. Oh wait there is more, there are vision cards which are end game scoring, there are Iwakura rocks which provide end game scoring, Bitoku cards which is essentially a set collection game, and Kodamas that move along forest tiles to gain points. There are so many paths to victory it’s nuts. Let’s head back over to the pegs to see if any of them were able to become the great spirit of the forest.