Topic: Tanto Cuore

Has anyone played this? I saw it at my local comic store (yeah, they also carry board games), and I've been wondering what it's about. Is it any good?

It is actually quite a bit of fun. I play it most Saturdays with a friend who comes into our family store. The game is a cute deck-builder (thus, very similar in structure to Dominion) where you're a "master" who is collecting a household of different French maids. The ultimate goal of the game is to be the player who builds up the highest level of victory points. Only certain maids give victory points in the base game, but buildings and reminiscences also become major sources of VP in the game's two currently available expansions. The best maids in the game, most of which are also the ones who tend to provide more victory points, are expensive, of course. If you've never played a deck-builder, the idea is that there is a store of cards available to buy throughout the game which can be purchased with some form of currency that you collect more of throughout the game. The currency in this game is love from your maids, both in the form of love cards and additional units of love that are derived from actual maid cards.

The gameplay itself is simple, but the variety of ways in which you can approach your ultimate goal add a lot of strategic depth to the proceedings. Several maid cards also feature dueling or battle mechanisms of some sort, and you are able to send bad habits and illnesses to the maids in your opponent's chambers to try and lower his or her accumulated VP. They can retaliate, however. A variety of play-styles are supported by this game, and it can be as calm and friendly or as vicious and cut-throat as you want.

Gameplay sessions normally last between 45 minutes to an hour with my friend and I, but we also have both the expansions (if you like the base game, SERIOUSLY consider getting at least the first expansion, Expanding the House). The game is not much of a time-sink, and is ridiculously fun. The art is cute and fan-servicey, but usually isn't terribly risque. It's probably the most fun I've had with a card game in years. I highly recommend it.

@Ralizah Huh, from your description, it actually sounds kind of fun. My only real concern is whether or not it'll be worth 50$, since I don't know if my friends are gonna be into a game like this. Any way I can get this for a cheaper price?

Apparently, there's also a mobile (App Store) version of this game!

[link]
Might give this a spin first (it's only 3$).

I'm an Android guy, so I'm very jealous that iPhone users got that app. Let me know how it is. The game is really fun if you can find someone else to play it who isn't prudish about the maid art.

@Ralizah Well, the iOS version is... complicated, to say the least. There's still game mechanics I don't get, but it's an entertaining game overall.

(No clue how faithful it is to the original card game though)