Sagani - A Solo Review
Image: Skellig Games
INTRODUCTION
At this point it feels like I am the last person on Earth who have yet to play Nova Luna, the abstract solitaire game about harvesting the power of the moon from authors Uwe Rosenberg and Corné van Moorsel. It is no secret that Rosenberg tends to reiterate on his previous board game designs whilst simultaneously tweaking certain aspects of the game in question. Such is the case with Sagani, the spiritual successor to Nova Luna which once again has you placing down tokens so as to create interlocking tile patterns. Only this time you are not harvesting the power of the moon, instead you are trying to liberate trapped elemental spirits.
Full disclosure: a review copy of Sagani was kindly provided by publisher Skellig Games.
COMPONENTS
In terms of aesthetics and components I found Sagani to be something of a mixed bag. On the one hand I really like the way artist Lukas Siegmon has interpreted the elemental nature spirits, opting for a more surreal look that on occasion borders on being eerie. But these intensely coloured tiles of fiery oranges and lush greens create a stark contrast, intentionally or otherwise, to the exceptionally bland player tokens that take on the form of round wooden discs of predominately brown and grey tones. From a practical standpoint I understand why publisher Skellig Games made this decision so as to differentiate the tokens from the actual tiles, after all placing white or light grey tokens on a vivid elemental tile makes the game more accessible and readable for lack of a better word. But by the same token no pun intended it also makes Sagani look more than just a little bit drab. I would have loved to see some form of adornment in the form of screen-printing or custom shaped tokens, something that would add a bit more liveliness to these plain wooden discs. Still, in terms of practicality the components do the job like one would aspect from a modern board game production.
The elemental spirits, equal parts adorable and a bit unnerving. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
THE SOLO MODE
The phrase “the theme could have been anything” is one of my absolute pet peeves, personally I perceive that sentiment to be somewhat condescending when used to describe a board game in such a simplifying manner. But even I have to admit that in terms of a narrative hook Sagani is definitely something of a poster child for the abstract, themeless board game. Now granted the rulebook does present us with a story featuring “natural spirits who are trying to achieve balance between the elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire so as to create a world of equilibrium and consequently harmony. In order to lure these elusive spirits into our realm players are competing against one another for some reason by deploying sounds discs” and that is about the point where my brain tunes out. Let us take it from the top.
Sagani is an abstract game about creating interlocking pathways between tiles by adding tokens in an attempt to satisfy the condition of the tile in question. In addition to a numerical value indicating how many points are rewarded upon completion, each tile also has a number of arrows pointing in different directions. These arrows correspond to the four elements and represents tasks that must be fulfilled in order for the tile to be flipped to its spirit side thus earning you points. Whenever an adjacent tile matches the colour of an arrow you get to put one of your sound discs i.e. wooden tokens on the arrow in question indicating that requirement has been met. Once fully completed the tokens are returned to your supply and points are rewarded. Should you run out of tokens from your personal supply then you are forced to take a penalty known as cacophony discs which are worth minus two points. The upside though is that these red tokens act as sound discs once acquired, essentially expanding on your available supply for subsequent turns. Believe it or not but that is Sagani in a nutshell, it is the sort of game that you can explain in literary under a minute and then you are off to the races.
Each of the arrows on the blue nature tile correspond in colour to adjacent tiles, allowing the player to add tokens to all three arrows. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
So how does Sagani fare as a solitaire experience? Not particularly well I am afraid. Unlike multiplayer where tiles are selected from a central display thus providing some degree of flexibility in terms of matching colours, in the solo mode you randomly reveal one tile at the time and then add it to your tableau making do with the figurative bag of lemons you have been handed. Sagani was not exactly ripe with strategical depth or complexity to begin with, by removing one of the key components namely the tile display the game becomes even more simplistic bordering on tedious. The game is built on a foundation of managing the influx of tokens, where players need to decide if it is worth going for the higher tiered tiles and therefore run the risk depleting their supply. When solo playing Sagani you have zero control, resulting in an experience marred with frustration. It is absolutely possible to be completely hosed by unlucky draws in the early turns of a solo game as a result of the colour of the drawn tile not matching any of the arrows on previous tiles. When you are forced to collect the dreaded cacophony discs not as a result of taking a gamble but because the randomness of the draw was not in your favour it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Eventually the game reaches a tipping point where your tableau has expanded to the point that it can accommodate for basically any subsequent tasks, but by then my interest and enthusiasm for the underlying puzzle that constitutes the core of Sagani had waned considerably.
FINAL THOUGHTS
At the end of the day, despite my enthusiasm for Uwe Rosenberg as a board game designer I have to admit that from a solo player’s perspective Sagani turned out to be a huge disappointment. Like the vast majority of my reviews here on table for ONE it should be noted that I have only played Sagani solitaire, however based on the comments of fellow content creators I have no difficulty imagining that this particular Rosenberg design fares a whole lot better as a multiplayer experience. If you are looking for a more enjoyable abstract solitaire experience then might I recommend Crystallo or Lux Aeterna, two excellent solo game designs well worth your time and shelf space.
