So many games get bigger and more cumbersome as they’re rereleased. There are expanded editions with metric tons of bonus content, special collector editions with oversized tiles, and 3D wooden or resin token upgrade kits that take the place of cardboard chits. Many popular games are happy to let you spend more money to buy the biggest, most deluxe version they can come up with, so long as you have the shelf space and the willingness to sort through all the bonus content every time you want to get it to the table. And I’m usually happy to buy them.
Pencil First Games goes in a different direction with their most popular titles. They have a line of Pocket Editions, challenging themselves to shrink the game down as small as can be playable. Their Pocket Edition games still have all of the same beautiful art that the company is known for, but shrunk into the most travel-friendly dimensions. How do these editions stack up against the originals, though? To compare, let’s look at Floriferous: Pocket Edition, a card game for 1-4 players.
Gameplay Overview:
Floriferous: Pocket Edition takes everything that’s included in the original game and shrinks it down to a package only slightly larger than a standard deck of cards. The goal remains the same: proving to all of your friends that you are the gardener supreme. The player with the most points at the end of three rounds, or ‘days’ of game time, wins.
Players earn points by creating flower arrangements, keeping their garden clear of stones, placing beautiful sculptures, and completing objective cards. There are Desire cards that each player can claim, earning them points for matching colors, flower types, or other features, and there are Bounty cards that stay throughout the game, providing points to the first players that can meet their set collection goals.
On their turn, players move their pawn across the grid of cards, claiming either Garden cards or Desire cards as they progress from one side to the other. Garden cards come in several types, the most plentiful of which are flower cards. There are five types of flowers, each of which come in five different colors, and have the possibility of having five different types of bugs on them. The scoring goals laid out on the Desire and Bounty cards will guide which of these flowers will earn you the most points.
For instance, a Desire card might award you points for every pair of pink flowers you collect, and a Bounty card may earn you the most points if you’re the first player to collect a tulip, a daisy, and a butterfly in one round. If the card you claim has a stone on it, that will also earn you end-of-game points. Additionally, there are Sculpture cards and Arrangement cards, which have their own scoring rules. In gameplay, you have to decide whether it’s better for you to collect a Desire card, giving you extra scoring opportunities, or a Garden card that contributes to your existing goals.
The edition that I played was packaged with the Early Spring mini expansion included. This includes three new cards for each player, each with their own one-time effect. April Showers allows you to switch a card in the next column of the grid, You Are My Sunshine lets you switch cards in the next row, and Gentle Breeze lets you look at a facedown card in the next column. One card can be used per round, and each can only be used once.
Game Experience:
Floriferous is a gentle, well-balanced card game. It requires thoughtful strategy, weighing each card you take and how early or late in the game you take it against scoring possibilities. You can block other players from completing high-scoring sets, but that may prevent you from picking up a bug you need that might not show up in the next round. There are opportunities for player interaction without it being too cutthroat, and there are enough paths to victory that other players can sneak up towards the win without you noticing if you’re not careful. The Early Spring expansion adds to the game without creating too much more work for the players. The included cards create a little more strategy and decision space, but not enough to weigh down gameplay.
The Pocket Edition retains all of this without losing any of the game’s charm. The cards are shrunken down beautifully. They translate well into the smaller format because they relay information through iconography instead of text. The symbols on the smaller cards are still clear and easy to read, as well as being colorblind friendly like in the original game. The watercolor art is just as enchanting in the miniature size, with lovely definition and color saturation. The downsized wooden pawns add a luxe feel to the game, keeping it from feeling like a cheapened edition of the original.
The place where some players may not enjoy the Pocket Edition experience is in the rulebook. The game is packaged with an extra card right on top with instructions for accessing a full-sized digital version rulebook, as the pocket-sized one included in the game may be difficult to read without perfect vision. It’s the same booklet included in the original, miniaturized. While I was fine reading the smaller text, the symbols on the cards in the gameplay examples were just too tiny to parse. If I didn’t already know how to play, I would have struggled by just going off of the included pocket-sized booklet.
The player aid cards were also a bit too small to be useful. Having four mini reference cards in my playfield, more if we play with the Early Spring cards, adds a cluttered feel to the smaller game’s setup. While these cards aren’t strictly necessary, the text on them is small enough that some players won’t find them useful anyhow.
Final Thoughts:
I’m a fan of the original Floriferous, and the Pocket Edition doesn’t disappoint. One of the best selling points of the original game is that it’s compact and easy to get to the table, and the smaller version only enhances this feature. While the miniature size doesn’t add anything new to gameplay, it also doesn’t detract anything from the original or lose any of its charm. Pocket-size games, beyond their novelty, are simply more convenient to take around with you, and I’m more likely to toss them in my purse to bring to a game night or get-together. Given the choice, the Pocket Edition of Floriferous is the one I’d keep in my own collection and gift to friends.
Final Score: 4 Stars – It’s still a calming and inviting filler game that is well put together, only more portable now!
Hits:
• Retains the beauty of the original art
• Easy to learn and teach, and convenient to carry around with you everywhere you go
• Symbol coding is colorblind friendly and easy to interpret in miniature format
Misses:
• Some players may need to rely on the digital rulebook, as the size of the one included is very small
• Text on the reference cards is also very condensed
