Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) Lover Letter Kanai Card Game, Multicolor

First off Love Letter is a great little 16 card round-based game that plays quickly and has some really neat moments. That said this will focus on the difference between this and the AEG version that comes in the lil draw bag.This version has more Japanese-like artwork that I honestly prefer over the more traditional fantasy AEG print. Some of the names of cards have changed, but the most significant change is the Countess (AEG) vs. Minister (Japon). The Countess makes you discard her if she is "caught" with the King or Prince and the Minister simply makes you lose if the total of your hand is 12 or higher.Now a lot have complained that it's lame there's a round 1 loss condition in randomly drawing a Minister plus any 5+ card. This is easily avoided by just making a house rule that the Minister "kicks in" after turn 1. Plus the addition of him to the game makes any 5+ card just a lil more dangerous as you could draw a Minister at any time for instadeath.There are also two promo Princess cards (nerd and prince) add some nice additional flavor.So I'd say that unless you're really in love with the draw bag or the artwork of the AEG print to go with this one and soon! Especially as how this comes with some promo Princess cards that can be substituted in (the nerdy Princess and the Prince for the ladies).EDIT: Added an explanation of how to play the game for the unfamiliar.Effectively you're trying to get 4 love letters to the Princess by finding either her or her best confidants. How this plays is that each round you each are dealt 1 card and then 1 card is "burned" or discarded to the side (so as to somewhat prevent card counting). Play then rotates with each player drawing 1 card then choosing 1 of the 2 cards in their hand to play. This will usually entail you guessing what other players are with Soldiers or mucking up their hand with Wizards and the like. Anyone who's alive at the end of the round when the last card is played then finally reveals their hands and compare their numerical value. Princess is highest at 8 and Soldier lowest at 1. In my experience most games don't make it to the end as it can get pretty cutthroat. Super fast to play and I can't recommend this highly enough.

Most reviews here pretty much express the artwork, the fun factor, the enjoyment of the game, and their experience. I never played either the AEG Tempest pouch version or this Japanese version before but saw people playing and thought to myself: MUST HAVE.Since no one carefully explain what this version contains, I will write a review doing so. The Love Letter - Kanai Factory Edition contains:- 5.5" by 3.75" by 1" black box- 1 rulesheet- 13 red cube tokens- 4 reference cards to check the action of each rank- 5 soldier cards rank #1- 2 clown cards rank #2- 2 knight cards rank #3- 2 priestess cards rank #4- 2 wizard cards rank #5- 1 general card rank #6- 1 minister card rank #7- 3 prince/princess cards rank #8 (only play with one, the other two are promo cards to switch off.)For 2 to 4 players. Recommended for ages 10 and up.The cards are about the size of standard poker playing cards. The reference cards will come in handy when playing with kids. And if playing with kids, keep in mind these are paper cards much like standard poker playing cards. They could bend or rip. So be careful. But for the price, I paid $9.26 on Amazon, and for the hours of fun, I think it's worth it.

Easy to teach and learn. Short quick rounds. Play this for a quarter a round with your grandmother and watch how fast this turns into an absolute bloodbath duel !There isn't much to the game itself, you're paying for the artwork. Cards are standard playing card quality and size. Good 2 player game.Another publisher of this game upgraded the artwork and I didnt care for the "improvement." This game has a different art style more to my liking. This version ( Kanai Factory ) comes with three princess cards so you can chose which one you prefer.

I love the game so let's not even talk about that. I bought this set because I learned to play using the "Legend of Five Rings" set and thought it would be cool to see the game in its original setting. I also like the option of vying for different royal hearts. The only drawback for me is that the rules are different in the set I learned on (where the 7 card must be -discarded- if you draw 5, 6, or 8) and this set (where holding the 7 card and 5/6/8 simultaneously makes you -automatically lose- the round). Discarding the 7 makes things strategic, whereas the automatic-loser setup kind of kills the fun of strategy. So I will keep this set and I find the artwork a lot more charming than the Legend of 5 rings version. But whenever I teach people the game I'll have to say "don't do what it says on the card, do something different..." Not a huge deal but as someone who learned on another set I wish I'd known that about this one.

Great little "filler" game. I'm not going to even talk about the rules, just trust the positive feedback on this one. You can play this anywhere and everywhere...as long you're not in water.Only caveat is that this comes with a box, obviously, instead of the pouch in the original version. This means that the game isn't as commuter friendly as the original version and will probably be dented in all shapes and manners if stuck in a backpack over time. I recommend this version if you already have the original, because I truly think that this game doesn't have to be restrained to a room. Keep this version indoors where it'll look nice on your shelf.Package comes with bag of cubes which are used for tracking points, cute Japanese artwork which is the main draw in my opinion, character list cards for beginners, rulebook, and the deck of 18 cards (standard 16+2 bonus).