Nippon: Zaibatsu

As I approach the end of today’s long ramble, it is time for “well then, Nippon.” Back in distant 2017, I wrote that it was “among the best medium-weight pseudo-economic euros out there”: carefully measured, clever and, or so I believed at the time, highly replayable. It feels like yesterday, although the box eventually ended up in a cupboard with a door in the vault and I did not particularly seek it out again. The new, super-duper edition that arrived in Ioannina was exactly the excuse I needed to rekindle my relationship with it—and yes, that very same night I ordered the Emperor edition too.

At its core, Nippon remains that medium-weight pseudo-economic euro that asks for careful calculation and smart choices. Its flow rests on decisions that need to fit together properly, so that your economic path makes sense and you make effective use of whatever you build.

The new edition adds new mechanisms, with ships being the most noticeable addition. They do not merely change how things look on the table: they improve the game and bring renewed interest to its decisions, making me feel that I am not simply pulling the same old box back out of the cupboard.

I will correct my former self on one point, though: its replayability did not prove to be as high as I had claimed, since at some point I simply stopped looking for it. Even so, the new edition of Nippon: Zaibatsu has improved it a great deal and reminded me why I was excited by it in the first place. For econ-lovers, it comes recommended without hesitation.