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S
2014 · 1-7 players · 45min · weight 2.13 · 5,058 ratings
port: no portdifficulty: Easy
BGGv4 widev4v4 deep5Sources2Rules cardCandidate0.491Deep dive
Bayes
6.22
Users rated
5,058
Owned
8,484
Wishing
976
At a glance — v4 wide
Controlled-vocabulary primitives + 8-axis MDA aesthetic vector. Vocab v1.
Core loop (micro)
Draw a bandit card, choose to fight, defend village, or pass; push your luck toward beast transformation while balancing team survival.
MDA aesthetic vector (0–3)
Sensation
1
Fantasy
2
Narrative
1
Challenge
2
Fellowship
3
Discovery
1
Expression
1
Submission
1
Mechanic-interaction primitives (5)
- [3]push_your_luck_escalation— “the challenge consists of balancing choices: fight each enemy to quickly reach beast capacities while risking death”
- [3]variable_player_powers— “each player is a fierce samurai — each one controls distinct beast transformation with unique ability”
- [1]cooperative_with_traitor— “co-operative game — each player is a fierce samurai defending a village surrounded by a horde of bandits”
- [3]escalating_threat— “seven of you face dozens of enemies — play out over three turns, bandit horde threatens village if not contained”
- [2]cascading_failure— “should you fight to reach beast capacities while coming closer to death and risking further loss by not defending”
discovery_score: -0.444
Archetype fits — v4 deep
How well this game shape maps to mobile archetype templates. Composite is a weighted sum of the 10 fit dimensions.
| Archetype | Composite | LTF | Session | Combo | Arc | Share | 5in | Onboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balatro push_your_luck_escalation toward beast transformation is a roguelite-friendly arc — strength 3 in v4-wide. Three-wave structure with lieutenant climax gives Spire-shape boss ladder (arc_tightness 9). variable_player_powers (samurai-beast forms) drives combo scaling within a single run, but no joker multiplicative stacking. | 6.30 | 8.0 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 6 |
| Coop Strong coop fit: shared village-fail-state, variable_player_powers create Pandemic-shape per-player roles, escalating wave climax gives a tense final-bandit moment. Pass mechanic is mild info-coordination across players. 30-45 min lands at the long end of coop sweet spot. | 6.30 | 7.0 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Snap Cooperative shape — Snap is PvP — fundamental mismatch. Bandit cards are open-info on draw; no factional faceoff structure. | 4.80 | 6.0 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Wordle Wave/boss arc shape gives a daily-puzzle feel if solo-compressed, but 30-45 min full game is way over Wordle target and three-wave structure is too long for 60-90s. | 4.50 | 6.0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Cozy Coop fail-state (village destruction) + escalating_threat + cascading_failure are explicitly anti-cozy primitives — Tonal-cozy tier doesn't fire. Falls into Coop-or-Solo tier (no cap), but tone is desperate-defense not cozy. | 4.00 | 4.0 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
Translation candidate
Composite fit_score = bayes×0.30 + wish×0.18 + compress×0.17 + difficulty×0.20 + headroom×0.15.
bayes_norm×0.300.040
wish_norm×0.180.246
compress_norm×0.170.500
diff_norm×0.201.000
port_headroom×0.151.000
fit_score (total)0.491= 0.491
Difficulty reasoning
Compact solo/co-op with a three-turn arc and binary decisions per bandit card plays well as a mobile solitaire; no current digital port.
Closest loop translation
none yet
Sources (2)
Inputs to rules-card synthesis. Click any pill with ↗ to open the original source.
BGG comments0.75LLM memory0.10
BGG tags
Mechanisms (3)
Categories (3)
AnimalsFantasyFighting