Welcome to the mansion Lord (or Lady) insert your name here! Here you will collect Love cards to employ maids, have them serve you, and, in turn, collect the most victory points of all the Lords! Choose your strategy wisely and focus on the maids who best suit your plans so you can come out on top! Anime and deck building lovers, take a seat, it’s time to check out Tanto Cuore!

What Is It?

A light deck building where players are trying to collect love points to hire various types of maids to gain abilities for gameplay and, ultimately, plenty of victory points. Players will need to make sure they have enough love to hire maids, servings to play them on their turn, and employ points to allow them to obtain more than one per turn.

Who Is It For?

I’d recommend this to anime-fan gamers (you don’t have to be into anime to enjoy it by any means, but I know some people who don’t like it tend to not be a fan of the art style, which is of course prominent here) and at least some deck building fans. It’s good for beginner deck builder players because the rules are laid out nicely and it’s on the easier side. It shares a few similarities in play with Dominion, so fans of that who like this theme/art may enjoy it as well.

The game itself recommends ages 13+, and that’s a good estimate in my opinion. A few, not many, of the images are on the “risque” side,  and the theme may not be suitable for younger audiences, but overall the gameplay is really solid and would be great for a wide range of players.

Quality of Components

There’s not much to it overall, but it’s fairly solid. The cards are your average quality, very standard. The rules are laid out nicely, as I mentioned, great for beginners, but they are in black and white which just isn’t as great to look at when reading through. The art is very colorful and vibrant which is great! Some of the cards (like the 1/2/3 Love cards and the Viola and Rogue Crescent sisters) look quite a bit similar, but overall not terrible. The box is a little lower quality than I’m used to seeing and it has folding flaps in the front instead of having a top and bottom like many other games, and it’s a small rectangle which can be hard to fit on the shelf among other games, but hopefully you can find room to squeeze it in!

PROS

  • Cute art
  • Easy to learn if you’re new to deck builders (even easier if you’re familiar with them)
  • Some variety of cards for different combinations each game
  • Smooth play; a lot of symbols on cards, but easy to understand and execute so everything works well together
  • Depending on the cards in the store, you can combo/chain cards a lot, which is cool.

CONS

  • We found that, at least in a 2-player game, the game doesn’t work as well without Claire (defense card) because it’s too easy for 1 player to get bombarded with Bad Habits (“attack”/negative point cards). We felt Claire was necessary to have in order to avoid that strategy because it really bogged down the game
  • There is a set store which is something I’m not usually a fan of because it can often allow for stagnation in strategies or (because of end game conditions) can let players rush the end. I didn’t see it a lot in this game, but more plays might make that show through
  • 10 out of 16 cards get selected for the store each game, so I do question the overall replayability
  • Private maid abilities don’t seem to have such great abilities that they are “worth it” since you can only have 1 active at a time. But not going for them seems to defeat a whole portion of the game; can really depend on who you play with and how they play

Difficulty

Like I’ve said, it’s a pretty light and easy, kind of introductory deck builder, so I’d give it a 2/5 for difficulty. I think a wide range of people can understand, play, and enjoy it!

Final Thoughts

Overall, definitely not a bad game here, just a basic deck builder with some nice art. It’s nothing super exciting, but a good addition to any deck building game collection. It has also aged really well. If you didn’t know, Tanto Cuore has its’ 10th anniversary this year and Japanime has big things in store! I can’t say more about that, but can share a little image with you:

Keep an eye out for more info coming soon! And check this game if you get a chance because it’s pretty cool!
Happy Gaming~

Additional Information:
Designer – Masayuki Kudou
Publisher – Japanime Games
Artists –  Tohru Adumi, CARNELIAN, COMTA, Takahito Ekuchi, Various Others (see BGG)
BGG
BGA

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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