Toriki Review: Escape from a castaway island

💡 Designers: Wojciech Grajkowski

🎨 Artist: Kary Jane, Tomasz Larek, Paweł Marchwicki, Ania Przybyłko, Inês Toczyska

🖨️ Publisher: Lucky Duck Games

📅 Released: 2024

🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏿 Players: 1-4 (co-operative)

⚖️ Weight: 1.71/5

⏱️ Time: 20-600 minutes

🔗 View Toriki: Castaway Island on BGG

Shipwrecked on the high seas during a 19th century scientific expedition, you find yourself marooned on a mysterious island - Toriki - with a Professor and what remains of the crew.

Your mission is not only to survive but thrive, so that you can find a means of escape.

You start the game with a simple map of the island, split into hexes. A meeple for each player begins on your makeshift campsite near the sea at the bottom of the map.

Toriki requires an app that effectively runs the game for you, revealing the island’s hidden secrets and keeping track of your moves.

On your turn you can choose to move your meeple to explore the island. Moving to a neighbouring hex is free, any additional moves cost a food token.

You input your final location into the app and it tells you more about where you are and offers you a choice of actions you can take there. It’s part choose your own adventure.

Throughout the game you’ll be presented with a series of missions and it’ll become clear that you'll need certain items to succeed. When you find an item, you take the relevant card from a hidden, numbered deck.

Sometimes you’ll need to craft an item yourself from two other items you’ve found. You do this by returning to the campsite and scanning the QR codes on cards into the app.

The app will tell you if you’ve successfully fashioned something and which new card to pull from the deck.

You also start the game with a wildlife catalogue. If you encounter a new species on your travels you get the honour of naming it and make notes about its appearance.

Other times you’ll discover something about the island that requires you to open something new from the box and add it to the game permanently.

The game takes place over a series of days with the sun setting after a number of turns, forcing you to end your exploration and return to camp for the night.

You can save your progress on the app and exit, ready to start again another time. The app keeps track of all the bits you’re using at the time (except for food tokens - keep a note of these!).

To win the game you need to successfully escape from the island. Along the way you’re looking for gold coins hidden throughout Toriki. Your final score is based on how many you find.

I can’t tell you much more about the game otherwise it would spoil the surprise!

🎲 G - Gameplay

(pacing, downtime, intuitiveness)

The gameplay is super simple. On your turn you just have to decide where you’re moving to and how you’re going to get there.

The app is incredibly well put together, with straightforward instructions that make playing a breeze.

It walks you through everything clearly, step-by-step. You barely have to read the rulebook - even for setup - as the app handles everything.

A “day” on Toriki lasts about 20 minutes. You can exit at this point, but it’s so compelling that you’ll want to play another day immediately.

The only thing to keep on top of is the swapping of items. You can freely swap items with another player if you’re on the same hex.

So just make sure to plan carefully if you need to give another player something you’ve found.

⭐ Score: 21/25

🎨 A - Art & Theme

(visual appeal, thematic coherence, component quality)

Toriki looks brilliant on the table - they’ve knocked it out of the park with the production value here.

It could easily feel gimmicky or over-produced but it doesn’t - they’ve walked that line perfectly.

There are clues hidden everywhere in the artwork, so look around carefully. Clearly a lot of love and care has gone into it.

The kids adored the illustrations of the strange animals and plants in the wildlife catalogue.

I won’t spoil the surprises in terms of the other components you unlock during the game, but I can say they are superb and really enhance the theme.

Even the app adds to the theme with subtle background music that builds tension and a sense of adventure.

⭐ Score: 23/25

⚙️ M - Mechanics

(design elegance, balance, novelty)

So much thought has gone into this game at every turn. We’ve played “escape” co-ops before such as Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters, but this one just feels on a different level.

There were only a couple of moments that were a bit anti-climatic. You’re building up to find something you think is important, only for it not to change the game in a meaningful way.

Mechanics is a trick one to review fully here because I don’t want to reveal any spoilers!

You’ll have to trust me that it works.

⭐ Score: 22/25

😄 E - Enjoyability

(fun factor, replayability, emotional response)

I’ve never seen the kids so desperate to play a game before and they’ve played 70 odd different games.

Toriki just makes you smile - a lot. It’s just so much fun.

Little touches create tension. Take when you scan two items in an attempt to craft a new one. If you’re successful, the app screen swirls until it finally reveals what you’ve made.

That adds anticipation and the kids were often up out of their seats waiting to see what they’d made.

Throughout the game we were laughing, joking and high-fiving. Sometimes we succeeded, other times we failed, but it was just such great family time.

Fairly obviously the game isn’t really replayable. Once you know the secrets of the island it doesn’t work the same way.

⭐ Score: 22/25

Wow! What a game.

I cannot speak highly enough of Toriki. Every element is truly excellent. The theme, the components, the gameplay, the fun factor - even the app - are all exceptional.

It was always going to take something special to knock Andor: The Family Fantasy Game off its perch as our favourite game to play together, but Toriki is the best family game I have ever played.

We're always on the lookout for off-the-beaten-track board and card games that aren't getting the attention they deserve.

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