Miyabi

Miyabi (2019) is a world-building brain game where you build elegant Japanese gardens. You place Tetris-shaped garden tiles in your garden matching different flowers, stones and trees with scoring columns. Because the garden tiles are awkward shapes and only have one scoring spot on them, the fun is fitting them together (and overlaying them) to score the most points.

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Play involves taking turns to place tiles on your board. You have to work around other tiles already placed. You can't half overlap them (but can fully overlap them). Crucially, the symbol on the tile has to go in its designated row on the board.

As you progress you build up scoring potential and must decide when the optimum time is to move the lantern and score a column. Staking symbols on top of each other has a cumulative effect of up to five levels. Once all the tiles are placed or everyone has to pass, the game is over and final scores are totalled.

It's an elegant game about creating graceful and refined gardens. By skillfully placing stones, bushes, trees, ponds and pagodas on multiple levels you work towards the best garden of the round. There are five expansions that extend the garden curation fun.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Miyabi 3 years ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 4 months ago.