Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend Review - Uniquely Neon

Straight off the bat, Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend looks Cyberpunk. The box, the artwork and the components on opening it scream like something out of a dystopian future full of rogue machines and evil corporations. But does this scenario-drive board game feel Cyberpunk? In our review, we'll talk about how some of the mechanics work, and how it feels to play.

How Do You Play Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend?

In Tamashii, players represent a group of rebel allies battling against an omnipresent AI. Players have a unique ability to jump into the bodies of others, seeking out and selecting those that are best pace to achieve what they need to.

The first thing you need to do when you start playing Tamashii is to choose a scenario, of which the core box includes 11 (including the prologue and finale). After the prologue, you can play the scenarios in any order, but you can only play the finale once you've gotten certain results on the scenario progress sheet.

In each Tamashii scenario, games are split between 2 key areas. The first is a map made up of hex tiles that represent the areas you will interact with. It works extremely well as a visual representation of how your character interacts with the world. Each tile isn't an area in a building, or even a necessarily linked building or street, but simply areas that your consciousness moves through as you progress. Each map tile offers a reward for being there, but each turn you remain there increases the trace value making it more likely you'll be found, and enemies stronger when they do.

The second area of the game, and the core part, is on the dashboard that sits in front of you. This dashboard has a slot for the current body you inhabit, along with slots for upgrades, the trace track, which details how strong enemies are when they find you, and a place for enemy cards, because they attach to you, and not your character on the map. They also stack and build up on each other.

The final part of the dashboard, and the key part in the center, is the launcher, where you have different colored tokens. The arrangement of these tokens can unlock abilities and allow you to use basic actions along with giving access to the bodies that you can inhabit.

The game takes place over 4 phases, the planning phase, where you can move the tokens around on your dashboard in order to create the required patterns, the action phase, where you move and launch the actions from your dashboard, then combat and then the quest phase.

The rulebook doesn't do a great job of taking you through the game, but honestly, once you've played a game or 2, it all fits together nicely, and you'll enjoy the scenarios immensely, you just need to persevere when learning the rules.

Does Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend Have Different Characters?

The only characters you can play in Tamashii are those of the bodies you inhabit. There are 8 available initially, plus those built into your dashboard, each with their own pattern cost to inhabit and their own abilities and powers. The first bodies available are:

• Assassin
• Knight
• Rogue
• Scout
• Hacker
• Slasher
• Quaminator
• Visionary

Can You Hack In Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend?

You don't hack as such in Tamashii, but the whole experience combines to create an extremely thematic Cyberpunk vibe. It all feels weirdly disembodied, the enemies attaching to you, the focus on the patterns and launching programs (which can defeat enemies without even going into combat), and the interaction with the world through the map, as well as the different bodies you can inhabit. I was honestly pretty skeptical about it at first, but it's captured the Cyberpunk theme better than any board game I've played previously, and aside from the original Netrunner card game, gives an extremely pleasing mechanics experience for hacking and jacking into bodies.

What Are Our Final Thoughts On Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend?

Tamashii is an incredible Cyberpunk experience, once you get into it. The rulebook feels like hard work, but once you know what you're doing, it all feels incredibly thematic and satisfying. I'm usually slating games for their skin-deep theme, but Tamashii has really captured it, between the two areas of the game, and the scenarios themselves, it's a rich environment that feels completely attuned to the mechanics it uses. It's a rewarding experience overall.

Should I Buy Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend?

If you love all that is Cyberpunk, then Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend is for you. You will love the look and the rich theme that the mechanics capture throughout. If Cyberpunk isn't your thing, then Tamashii loses some of its flair, as its real focus is on the scenarios that might not carry through on just the mechanics alone.

The copy of Tamashii Chronicles of Ascend used to produce this review was provided by Asmodee UK.