Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game *Learn to Play Edition* Review
DISCLOSURE – THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS…
Reviewed by H Chan
I come from a family which loves games. We love board games, computer games, card games, especially is it’s portable or tradable! We’d never tried Lorcana but had seen the trading cards on sale whilst out and about. I wanted in on the hype, so was thrilled to be invited to try the Learn to Play edition.
I love the box, it is colourful and bright, depicting four characters ready to battle. The board itself is very easy to set up, and we just loved the little trading cards. These cards, have an image of a character on the front, each one different and many characters in different scenarios than you’d expect. Many cards have special abilities and a quote or piece of trivia on the bottom. We did spend a lot of time after our first game just looking at the pictures and reading the cards.
Whilst the game is relatively easy to set up, but there is quite a bit of reading to do on where to put the cards and how to use them. There is a handy QR code which takes you to a video, teaching you step by step how to play with the set you have. It’s actually really clever, they have pre-set up the cards in a certain way, that when you watch the video, it walks you through each of the cards in your hand. This means that for your first three turns each, you’re playing along with the video in attempt to learn the structure and the rules. It does only help on the first play though, for second rounds, you need to either try to follow as best you can or try a different video.
On our first play, I think we did pretty well, we did have to check the rules a few times and did need to consult the internet for one thing that we didn’t find very clear, but there are a wealth of videos and hints and tips online which really help getting started.
The aim of the game is to gain lore, and get to 20 lore points before your opponent. You do this by battling character cards against each other.
If you’ve never played before, it might take you a few games to get that penny drop moment where it all clicks into place, or at least this was the case for us. Once into the game though, we really enjoyed playing our characters against each other. It did take a little bit of time to figure out all of the different numbers on the cards, and the children found it much easier than I did.
I think it’s a good gateway game into games like Magic the Gathering and Pokemon, and it’s good for Disney fans who will love to collect the character cards.
The children have already been asking for more card decks. As with most games like this, there comes a point where you want to extend the longevity of the game, which is where Disney have been very clever and run with a similar idea to Pokemon card collecting. You purchase different decks and add ons for your starter game, and these are also tradeable with others who collect. You then play your favourite deck in the game.
Whilst the starter pack is very reasonably priced, and comes with a game board, tokens, instructions and game pieces, it can soon spiral into a collecting hobby. Personally, we love collecting things, so it’s a thumbs up from us. Whilst is doesn’t seem that there is any clear story line or point to the questing, other than to get to 20 lore points, it’s still very playable. The starter game is limited though, it is one of those that, over time, the combinations of cards will become predictable in this form without expansion packs, which is clever marketing to get you to buy more cards. However, it is a starter pack! And it does exactly what a starter game sets out to do, which is to instil the rules and gameplay and the want to collect and battle.
You can purchase the starter game here
RRP of £22.99. Card packs vary between £3 and £39 per deck. We will have to read up about which cards can be added to which deck.
We gave this game 4 out of 5 stars, because it was difficult to play with more than two players which often left my other children out, and half a star was lost due to the difficulty we had learning the rules. Once overcome though, it’s a fab little game, perfect for Christmas and the cards would make great stocking fillers, in the future we will build on it.
Rating: 4/5