Floriferous: Pocket Edition Review

boardgamequest.com:

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.

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