“Love Letter: Batman” is just so flippin’ awesome…there, I said it. It’s just so easy to jump into and seriously, who doesn’t like Batman? “Coup” wasn’t half bad either, though it tends to be slightly more complicated. I later learned that “Lost Legacy” is the official spin-off to “Love Letter”, prompting me to pick it up. “Lost Legacy”, based on my research, includes two sets of cards: “The Starship” and “Flying Garden”, the former of which we’ll be touching on today.
Lost Legacy: The Starship – 2-4 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 10 Minutes
Components
The game includes 16 cards, 4 reference cards, one bag, and a rule book.
Setup & Gameplay
The 16 cards are shuffled to form the draw deck. One card is dealt face down sideways to form the ruins. Each player draws one card from the deck to form their starting hand. Whoever inherited the most awesome legacy goes first (just choose one at random, for goodness’ sakes).
On a player’s turn, they’ll draw a card and choose one to discard face up, resolving its effects. All discarded cards remain in front of the player who played them. It’s possible for players to get eliminated during this phase…if they do, their card is discarded in front of them face up without resolving its effects. The exception is the Lost Legacy card, which is shuffled into the deck. If only one player is left standing at this point, they win!
If more than one player is left standing when the deck runs out, they and only they move on to the elimination phase. The Investigation phase is resolved in the speed order of the cards the players have in their hands – lowest first. As players are not allowed to show their cards, simply call out “any 1’s? No? Any 2’s? Any 3’s?”and so on to determine investigation speed order. If several players have the same investigation speed, they cannot investigate at all. Also, an X is not a number, therefore that player cannot investigate either.
To investigate, a player reveals one card from either a player’s hand or one from the ruins. If the card is the Lost Legacy, they win. If no one guesses the location of the Lost Legacy, nobody wins.
Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.
The Review
Out of all the micro-deduction games I’ve played as of late (“Coup”, “Cypher”, “Agent Hunter”, etc.), this is the one that resembles “Love Letter” the most. I suppose that stands to reason, seeing as how “Lost Legacy” is the official spin-off to “Love Letter”. Anywho, I did like the addition of the investigation phase, giving players one last chance to put all the information they’ve gathered that round to try and figure out who has the Lost Legacy card. Of course, YOU could be holding it and win when your turn comes around to investigate.
One things that still don’t like is the fact that there is player elimination. Granted, games generally don’t take that long. However, some folks aren’t keen to sitting on their thumbs for a couple of minutes waiting for everyone else to finish. That’s what I liked about “Cypher”…no player elimination. While I do still really enjoy bringing out “Love Letter: Batman”, there are times when I just want that extra oomph…hence where “Lost Legacy: The Starship” comes in. It’s fairly easy to say that if you enjoyed “Love Letter”, then you’ll like this one too.
Final Verdict: 8/10
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