From Silk to Steel — Nippon: Zaibatsu Review

Welcome to this week’s review! This go-around, I’m looking at the new edition of on older title. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it.

Disclosure: A review copy of this game was provided to The Meeple Digest in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.

Nippon: Zaibatsu is the latest edition of Nippon – a game that was originally released in 2015 (it’s hard to imagine that was over a decade ago!). Unfortunately, I’ve never played the original Nippon, but Zaibatsu retains much of the core formula of the original game, while reworking a few gameplay features, as well as new art and enhanced components.

The game is set in 19^th century Japan during the Industrial Revolution, and players manage their zaibatsu, which is a conglomerate of closely-related companies. Players construct factories, produce goods, and expand their influence throughout the country.

The game is played over the course of three periods, each containing several rounds. There’s an interesting round timer mechanism relating to the workers, so each round could last a different number of turns.

The core gameplay loop is relatively simple. There are nine different actions, which are divided into five separate sections. On a player’s turn, they select a worker from one of the of the five sections, and they perform an action associated with that section. The actions themselves are also relatively simple to understand (e.g., spend money to move up a track), and most of them are quick to perform. Having just reviewed Covenant, where you’re often chaining many actions together on the same turn, turns in Nippon: Zaibatsu are snappy in comparison.

Arguably my favorite mechanism in the game is the worker selection mechanism. Not only does the worker dictate which actions you can perform, but the color of the worker also drastically impacts the turns where you must consolidate – effectively a rest turn. The first and last worker you take before a consolidation turn grants the player certain rewards, such as additional resources. In addition, the more different color workers you have, the more money you must pay when you consolidate. All of this adds up to create many interesting decisions in terms of what you prioritize. This can certainly lead to a fair amount of analysis paralysis (AP), but I personally enjoyed the amount of decision space. Overall, the game isn’t very rule intensive, but offers a lot of different options.

The game also strikes a nice balance of both strategic and tactical decision making. One unique aspect that I really enjoy about the game is that you get to decide which areas of your zaibatsu will score at the end of the game. There are eight different ways you can score points, such as building more factories or progressing further up a track. Essentially, the better you do in that area, the more points you’ll score at the end of the game. However, for a certain aspect to score, you’ll need to place a token on that section during the game, which is done during consolidation turns. However, not all your tokens score equally, so you’ll need to plan for which areas you’ll want prioritize to maximize the number of points you can gain at the end of the game. While this creates many strategic choices, the game also allows for a lot of short-term goals. For example, say you want to supply a good to a local market, so to do so, you’ll need to build a factory, produce coal to run your factory, and potentially mechanize the factory to allow it to produce more goods. Yes, while there are a fair number of hoops you’ll need to jump through to get there, I still found this loop very enjoyable.

This also leads to an enjoyable sense of progression during the game. Players start with no factories or goods, and they’ll need to gradually build up their production to be able to produce the more advanced goods. Resources are very tight to come by, and it’s very satisfying to see your zaibatsu come together by the end of the game.  

Likely the most notable difference from the original game is the overall production. My version was the Emperor’s Edition, which includes 30 additional factories, heat-printed wooden pieces, a new Common Goals module, and organizer trays. I believe this is only included in the Emperor’s Edition, but the cloth bag for the workers with custom print and a flat bottom is a luxury I didn’t think I would appreciate as much as I did. Overall, the production value is top notch.

Moving on to a few caveats, while I appreciate the added factories and additional modules, I don’t think Nippon: Zaibatsu is a game that I would want to play multiple times in short succession. While there are differences in which areas you decide to focus on each game, the core gameplay loop of building factories, producing goods, and supplying markets feels similar from game to game. It’s just the choices you make along the way that will differ.

In addition, it’s difficult to specialize in a certain area since all the actions seem to be necessary to move forward. For example, increasing your coal production is practically mandatory if you want to be able to produce regularly towards the end of the game. And since your influence markers are fixed, you’ll likely be forgoing a lot of points later in the game if you don’t build the more advanced factories. Whereas, the train or ship actions feel more situational. In addition, the game can feel quite punishing if you struggle early, as actions during the beginning of the game can have a drastic impact on your ability to kickstart your engine. Therefore, while there are eight different aspects of your zaibatsu to focus on, you’ll ultimately have to do a little bit of everything rather than focusing entirely on one action, and I found that certain ones were easier to do well in than others.

The new edition also includes a solo mode. Overall, it was easy to pilot, but it wouldn’t be my preferred way to play the game. While each player is building out their own zaibatsu, the game has a subtle amount of player interaction. During the game, I can quickly glance over to my opponents’ boards to get a sense of which actions they might perform soon, and if there’s a certain colored worker that I need, I might prioritize that action sooner. In addition, a large number of your points during the game will come from influence scoring, effectively an area control/majority mechanism, which happens at the end of each period. Not only will players be competing in the same markets, but since the round timers are dynamic, sometimes players might want to either speed up or delay those scoring milestones. All of this interesting tension is lost in the solo mode, and while it’s certainly a faster way to play the game, I think I would accept the tradeoff of playing the game multiplayer.

Finally, while the additional factories add some extra variety, most of them do feel like subtle variations of each other. Some of them are quite unique, like one that allows you to carry over three money and/or coal during consolidation turns (normally any extra are lost). I would be perfectly happy to see an expansion that adds even more variety to the factories that opens up more unique strategies.

One of the new modules adds late-game factories, which act as goals that give rewards when built. The other module adds common goals that players are competing against that reward the player who is doing the best in that area at the end of each period. One thing to note, since both of these modules function similarly, the rules recommend only playing with one at a time. Of the two modules, I likely prefer the late-game factories, but I’m a bit mixed on both as they encourage all players to go after similar areas in the game.

I know I’m being a bit critical of the game, but overall, I really do enjoy Nippon: Zaibatsu. It’s not a game that I think I would play multiple times back-to-back, but I find the worker selection mechanism incredibly compelling. In addition, the sense of gradual progression throughout the game is extremely satisfying. It also doesn’t hurt that the game has excellent components and looks great on the table. This is an easy add to the collection, and while I know we’re still early in the year, I strongly suspect that Nippon: Zaibatsu will be among my favorites at the end of the year.

With that, I’ll wrap up this week’s review! If you’ve played the original Nippon, what are your thoughts on the new edition? And if you’re new to the game, what do you think of Nippon: Zaibatsu? I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the games I’ve mentioned or future content suggestions in the comments below. Happy gaming!

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