Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest Review

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Review of Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest, my favourite game of the year so far.
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[@HeyThereSully]

as someone with no attachment to the original I actually find the art very appealing! I'm definitely looking for this to be restocked because the gameplay and artwork are exactly what I want! I do definitely understand others' sentiments, if you like that grungy, dirty aesthetic this kind of rebrand would seem unappealing

[@jsaarijarvi]

Great review! I feel like this is a hot take but I just can't get with the generic pirates of the caribbean rip-off art in the original, and although the new theme isn't perfect, I vastly prefer it. Certainly easier to get to the table too.

[@dougiehockeym8071]

Great! I love your taste in games and I have been eyeing this one up for now! You can really articulate what make a game great!

[@RebeccaAlis]

I second this whole comment!

[@rolling.reggie]

Lol that booty metaphor. I always love your videos and this one is right on time because I knew nothing about this game or the original. But, I love Stonemaier production so I definitely want this

[@MuttonIsland]

Great video! @11:00 made me genuinely laugh out loud.

[@jiritsu0]

4:36-4:50 Horror film for control freaks - a bit spicy evaluation, but, oh, so sweet and correct. I love it. That whole part with the line alone is worthy of some award or cookie at least.

[@actualol]

Cookie please! 😊

[@PythosianMan]

@@actualol Come on, Jon, it's a biscuit, don't pander to your audience when it comes to our beloved yanks and sweet treats ;D

[@actualol]

@@PythosianMan Nationality be damned! I prefer a soft American style cookie to a pathetic British biscuit any day of the week.

[@PythosianMan]

@@actualol I cannot believe this, Jon; soon you'll be saying patriotism is a farce... then what's the madness that follows? That TimTams are better than Jaffa Cakes? ... ... ... Well... they are ;P

[@sporknaut]

Wow, those were some insightful thoughts on the game aesthetics. I'm glad you included that part. Thanks Sky Jon!

[@GettinJiggly]

We really enjoyed playing this on a live stream, nice how it was changed to work at 2 players, loved the art and theme as well

[@contrariangrin]

This is by far the best written board game review I’ve seen. Excellent review, very well said, and funny 😂

[@utubingit357]

Agree a million percent- hate the new art and theme but love the gameplay. You really need to put out more videos - there is no one better! :)

[@spol]

Hate seems a bit strong…

[@jameystegmaier]

I typically don't consume reviews of our games, but this one had me quite curious, so I went ahead and broke my rule. I'm glad I did, as there are actually specific answers (found in my design diary posts) about the branding of the game. First, the box art. In the original Libertalia, why were up to 6 identical crews all on the same ship? We tweaked this a little bit: Each player has their own ship in a pirate fleet, and every day the ships land on an island, with players sending 1 crew member to collect their share of the loot. The feel of the box is calm because of an important new feature in Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest: The original Libertalia has a sharp edge to it-it can be a bit cutthroat. We wanted to give players the opportunity to release the amount of inner pirate that’s best for them and their group. We accomplished this through a new component called loot tiles. Each tile defines the ability for the corresponding loot tokens for the current game. You can choose to play in “calm” mode for a more peaceful game than the original, “stormy” mode for an even more devious game than the original, or “uncharted” mode for a mix of both calm and stormy abilities. I think the realistic art in the original Libertalia is was well done, and it was perfect for the heyday of Pirates of the Caribbean. But for Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest, we thought it would be best to start fresh, visit a new world, and add quite a bit of brightness and joy to the art. In my search for various artists who might be a good fit, one stood out: Lamaro Smith. Lamaro is originally from the Bahamas, it’s reflected in the many colorful islands in his art. I can understand the criticism about sky pirates, the name "Winds of Galecrest," and animals as characters. While all of those were intentional decisions I made to differentiate this game from the original--a game I know very well and adore--I get that those choices may not resonate with everyone. At the same time, I hope that they also don't detract from the joy of playing the game and that those thematic choices invite more people into the game (in particular, invite a greater diversity of people into the game, something I think the original game--with a character breakdown of 25 men, 3 women, and 2 animal characters--failed to do). It's a great honor for me to work with Paolo in creating this new version of Libertalia, and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on some of the changes we implemented.

[@actualol]

Thanks for your comment, and for sharing your reasoning. Ultimately, it doesn't detract from me enjoying the game, and I hope that's clear from the video. Thanks for bringing Libertalia back and making the improvements you did.

[@jameystegmaier]

@@actualol Thanks! Yes, I think that's clear--you say that at the end. And I think you're far from alone in being baffled by some of the thematic choices I made for this new version; I just want to bring joy to tabletops, and I feel bad if any of these choices got in the way of anyone's joy (especially if they don't even give the game a chance because of them). I'm glad I watched your video, and I hope to grow as a result of your commentary. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[@coobeBGG]

I hope you also hear the voices (like mine) that are in Love with the Artwork and pass the praise to the Artist 🙂. Overall great game imo, in every aspect

[@jameystegmaier]

@@coobeBGG Thank you! I hear you, and I'm glad you like Lamaro's art. I do too. :)

[@coobeBGG]

@@jameystegmaier I hope the World of Galecrest will be explored more in future games :)

[@EyeInSky2000]

Terrific job! Love this review!

[@mafogo]

8:00 the Hook: the character stays in the ship. It is NOT returned to your hand! So you can‘t play it again. But you can reuse night-/anchor-abilities.

[@chimster1234]

Perfect review imho. Smart, witty, hilarious, and, most importantly, helpful. The new look was a major roadblock for me until this review. Now I gotta have it!

[@actualol]

Thanks Brian! 🙂

[@SamHoughton]

Awesome! Thanks Jon 😍

[@Leron...]

I enjoy Bohnanza, a game with hideous artwork... And yet I just can't get past the Libertaria retheme. Everything about it bugs me. The booty tiles look like Starburst candy, the Anthropomorphic Animals just don't feel like pirates, and the logo on the box looking like it says 2ibertalia all rub me the wrong way. I want to look past it because none of it matters mechanically and I love the gameplay, but ugh, it just feels so wrong to me.

[@sammiller9517]

Bohnanza's beans are beautiful and I won't hear otherwise

[@grog3514]

I agree, I can usually look past theme, but this one is just so off putting. I think it's actually more than just dislike. I think it's firmly in the hate category which is very rare for me. Not sure why I have such a strong negative reaction to cartoon animals...

[@andrecarvalho6691]

On the same boat. I dig Bohnanza's aesthetic (feels retro-ish and I like that), but this one... Why? Having pirates in there was awesome, and the illustration work is gorgeous, even if somewhat generic.

[@PythosianMan]

Insightful, trenchant, laced with sublime comedy - brilliant stuff, thank you for this review; I had the exact same thoughts regarding the aesthetic presentation and conceit. For me, unfortunately, despite the superior taste, I can't disentangle the visuals from them... Who knew Elisha Cuthbert was turned into a board game character! Lucky lass! Great comparative discovery!

[@graemek7658]

Great review of a bizarre reprint! The new one is a great game but not enough to ditch the older one, even though the original sometimes outstays its welcome. There's been a fair few plays of the original I've not finished. However, the extra cards has led to a couple of games with not enough mean characters. Is the extreme solution of binning cards 31-40 then cut and pasting the art across worth it for the shiny, shiny loot tokens? :)

[@mattkutrik]

Great review and good criticisms on the re-branding! I have to say that I'm really offended though. I like staring at my reheated week-old chili, bite-by-bite.

[@actualol]

😆

[@BenBroomfield]

Ahahahahahaha "Leftovers: Cringe of Galecrest" fuckin' brilliant 🤣

[@JIPunisherIL]

Going with a sky pirates theme and not putting it in the Skies of Arcadia universe, is a missed opportunity tbh. Great review!

[@THESP-rz3hg]

11:20 A mean cutthroat game that's been reskinned to make it look like a family fun time... Like Monopoly.

[@MortalPlague]

Libertalia is one of my favorite games. I haven't yet played this new version, but I went through a whole journey when I learned about it. "Ooh, new Libertalia? Awesome!" "...these are all animals in these cards?" "Neat new abilities... but the artwork..." As an aside, I absolutely adore the art of the original game. Everything from the ships having names, the cardboard gold and jewels, and the gritty, fierce pirates on the cards, it all just oozes theme.

[@hikki6478]

Your reviews are so clever, you're 100% right about the name being search engine optimization 😂

[@romansolar8153]

great review!

[@danielengel4593]

Love Libertalia, own both versions, and will keep them. Easily one of my favorites.

[@muskyoxes]

"You wouldn't mind being killed if you just moved in next to Charles Manson" - this review needs to be a magazine article with pull quotes

[@Reeenald]

So Libertalia mixed with Celestia, I am sold !

[@calboy2]

Great video Jon

[@petercartier0]

7:55 I thought the Hook let you keep the character in your ship, not put it back in your hand to play again.

[@ManusNoble1988]

Strange question....what have you painted your wall with? I love the look!

[@actualol]

Thanks! It is from Lick.com and the paint colour is Blue 07 Matt.

[@ManusNoble1988]

@@actualol thank you! Wonderful review, very well written!

[@Viragomp]

Am I wrong in thinking Stonemeier was inspired by Robert DeNiro's band of sky pirates from the film Stardust? Great review as always!

[@Trueflights]

From the art style, I would think that they took more inspiration from the Disney film Treasure Planet.

[@jmwytube]

Jon showing off his american accent as the creative director! Brilliant (and funny)!

[@FuncleChuck]

Hmm… But do I buy it now, or do I wait for next month when I don’t know if a good game will be available or not, or maybe this one will be gone by then. These thematic purchasing game games are tough!

[@MealsBeast]

I am very impressed with your American accent, I actually thought it was a different person!

[@mitachu]

This does look good. I was going to get Inis as my next purchase but this may replace that decision.

[@psychoticvenom]

11:12 I am so glad I'm not the only person who noticed this right away :)

[@XenithShadow]

I've heard the calm hook ability keeps the character on the ship instead of returning it to your hand.

[@KabukiKid]

Yeah, it looks like the changes they made are all great... except for that art re-theme. heh

[@Jescribano1]

Great video! Though mamma Mia, that price ain't no joke. Maybe for Christmas

[@zmollon]

It's like 50$ Canadian. That's pretty par for the course?

[@uplift-yourdailypickup6424]

$45 ish? Pretty decently priced for games these days. Do you not buy board games much?

[@Jescribano1]

It's 89 euros in Spain. That's Kemet and Rising Sun prices around here. (At least that's the price listed in the Amazon affiliate link)

[@uplift-yourdailypickup6424]

11:04 I laughed so hard

[@tuntemon]

So this is basically Libertalia 2.0. Cleaner turns, easier to read effects on cards and tokens. More varied gameplay with more cards and diffrent number of turns on each round. Also the fact that players get a more varied score at the end of each day makes a ton of diffrence. Then finally, the reputation track for tie breaker is far better than the version they had in the original game. The only thing that I miss is the scruffyness the original game had. Sky pirates are still well suppose to be pirates. I sort of wished that they went for a dirtier look, possibly a steampunk look. Sort of in the style of Treasure Planet. However, that aside. This is a great production and for those whom never did got the chance to try the original game, here comes a new version.

[@vonwoolf9963]

They did make a pirate movie long before, called Treasure Planet.

[@newmoovet]

What do you think the ideal player number would be?

[@PhantomFilmAustralia]

"It's Granny Fuckin' WAAATAAA!!"

[@fowad27]

8:00 does the hook really put the character back into your hand? I thought it was in your ship (face up in front of you, can't be played again but can activate night effects). The wording is ambiguous.

[@DrShak2009]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that card looks like Elisha Cuthbert

[@Endeva09]

Is this an expansion or standalone?

[@trickynumber7]

I don't know. Maybe because I loved the movie Treasure Planet, I really like the theme in this version.

[@denycast]

Ohhhh whatua cool theme night idea. First play Libertalia and than watch Treasure Planet

[@trickynumber7]

@@denycast yes! And you can munch of the pirate's booty snack along with rum cocktails

[@jellyfishgamestudios]

Agreed with everything in this review, except I love the artwork. Much more approachable to pull out with anyone I want to play with. But hey, take that with a grain of salt, my logo is a jellyfish :)

[@kchorst5037]

Love Elisha Cuthbert, hilarious allusion! Have you seen Happy Endings? Also hilarious! On a cynical note, I think SG were afraid of negativity over objection of women & issues of what race the Pirates be, so they went with the animal sky Pirates.

[@actualol]

Happy Endings is one of my all time favourite sitcoms!

[@shortydancer]

Wait is it weird if I never get a therapy session?

[@cwb95k]

Great review and this is in fact the first one that make me want to try the game. The colorful, cut, inane facelift doesn't bother me much and simply comes off a bit zany but honestly, Boonlake is found to be far more obscure and odd. Great review!

[@chiplundsmark5936]

Don't know what a sky pirate is? Somebody's never watched Talespin...

[@moregamesplease4536]

I would have gone with Gusts of Guffbottom. Opportunity lost.

[@actualol]

Filth

[@williamkremer7382]

Great video, although courgette spaghetti is actually pretty good

[@actualol]

😂

[@monstercookie96]

Keep the older copy!

[@tannershort]

Hmmm I kinda liked the new theme and art but I can totally understand how the whimsy style doesn't fit with the gritty gameplay. I never really thought about it that way. I passed on this when it came out but after hearing your review I might just have to give it a go at my next TTS game night.

[@christopherhealey8807]

Class script about 40 year old men!

[@Zilong09]

Something I am not a big fan of during my 5p playthrough is how Reputation can really frustrate a player at the tail end of the track.

[@looktothefuture84]

Maybe someone on the team was just a big fan of Skies of Arcadia 😅

[@Tornroot]

I watched the playthrough by No Rolls Barred and I have to admit, it didn't excite me at all. The gameplay seemed repetitive, and no plan worked as intended, but it's a game I feel like should work for me. Do you have any suggestions for similar kind of games? I like the idea of timing when to play certain powers/characters, but if everyone plays the same character each time then what's the point? Citadels is a perfect counter example of this for me, you're still deciding when to play something, but it's always unique each round.

[@Ogrecrusher]

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills with this game, everyone seems to love it, but I got rid of it after playing it once. It's so chaotic, it is "all about timing", but you have so little control over it you might as well be rolling dice. That said, I do like the changes to the rules, the old tiebreaker was super dodgy. Not that it'll get me to actually play it though.

[@denycast]

I am in the credits 👍

[@vonwoolf9963]

And Dogs of War

[@actualol]

Yeah I haven't had a chance to play that one but I really want to!

[@GeekHappiness]

So in 10 more years we’ll have Libertalia Pirates of the Solar Winds a space themed one? Which I’d totally buy.

[@Leron...]

Or you could just play Mission Red Planet but draw little eye patches and hook hands onto all the cards?

[@reign69heir]

I'm pretty sure it's Qibertalia.

[@ri.n0me217]

Honestly the art and graphics made it more approachable for me. However, I agree with the sentiment. It does not match the gameplay.

[@dangerousbeans2907]

I own the original game, being said I was fully intending on buying this copy until I saw it. Guarantee you they lost sales due to the artwork / graphic design decisions. A shame really.

[@TheSludgeMan]

I wish I could get past the art but its too anodyne for me

[@dago6410]

Question. Is this version really thst much better? The original is way prettier xd

[@Bleuchz]

Comment for the Algorithm. That is all :)

[@BenBroomfield]

Like and reply for the Algorithm🤙

[@drakelx]

I’m honestly confused about the proportion of hate regarding the new theme. I agree that it doesn’t come across as a mean game as much, but neither does most of the take-that party games. IMO, it’s just that it’s different from the original, which isn’t bad or good. Just different. Also, I assumed most of the hate was regarding the almost furry-esque anthropomorphic characters, but the sky pirate thing is new to me lol. It’s like hating on Skyrise for being buildings but in the sky. Furry things aside, I like the new theme better. The cleaner look will make it easier to get non-gamers to consider it.

[@BenBroomfield]

For me it’s the totally unnecessary fantasy retheme. It’s harder to bring new players into the hobby when it’s a theme they can’t associate with. What’s wrong with just simple pirates? Why does fantasy have to be shoehorned in everything?

[@drakelx]

@@BenBroomfield if you wanna say it’s unnecessary, I can’t fault you for that since the original game had a good enough theme already. But my point isn’t that it’s unnecessary. I just find the “outrage” oddly loud. If it’s regarding the fact that the theme was changed, I wasn’t into the hobby back then, but eg the Century Golem trilogy didn’t receive this much flack for its retheming. In fact, I feel like most people I know prefer it over the original Silk Road theme, cos they find it ugly and boring. To a smaller extent, the same could be said about Liberatalia’s first edition. Say what you want about the Disneyfication of stuff, but it’s a fact that this sort of stuff has a broader general appeal, from a sales perspective. And of course, artistically it’s a preference thing. Also, talking about “harder to bring new players into the hobby”, sky pirates isn’t that foreign a theme lol. Like what’s wrong with sky pirates? Is the concept of pirates in the sky so hard to fathom that it impedes on understanding the pirate plundering mechanics? Compared to Liberatalia, I’d say Century Golem Edition’s theme requires more explanation than sky pirates, since the gems -> golems transaction isn’t that intuitive. The backlash regarding the fantasy shoehorning itself is a little more warranted, despite what my own opinions are. Maybe it’s just the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Though if we wanna go into why the designers could’ve went with this retheming, it’s probably to help with distinguishing their product from the out-of-print one, as pointed out in the video (the “Gales” subtext discussion).

[@whostolecookiesfromthejar]

You manage to still look very apealing even though you ve got some grey hair. The skin shiny as always… i would recommend a good nurishing conditioner with honey or olive oil.

[@saxonjf]

Impressive American accent.

[@helxis]

This softening of the game's theme is a direct response to the overly offended (and loud) demographic within the board gaming community. Dropping anthromorphic animals in a game means that no one can create reviews shaming you for not including characters of every possible race, gender, sexuality, etc. Same for the "problematic" theme of pirates. Check out NPI's latest on Vagrantsong to see just how far people will go to needlessly vilify a board game or its designers. Expect this type of thing to become more and more prevalent as publishers do their best to avoid being publicly lambasted by those that will do their best to find something wrong their games. I'm glad the game is good, though! Would love to check it out sometime. What are you doing with your now redundant copy?

[@Osstap]

Thank you for review! Hope, this game will be in Ukrainian after our win in the war. And thanks to Great Britain and British pepople for support!

[@actualol]

You're welcome! Best of luck, we are rooting for you 💛💙

[@AED365]

The original artwork was way better

[@eighty6d233]

I can't stand the artwork of the reprint.

[@eopatcjo]

This game is awful* *Rather the hype got my hopes to high, and the game didn't remotely live up. I'm perfectly happy to never play again

[@Bad_Wolf788]

Just re-release the original game

[@deusex3124]

The aesthetics and presentation of this game are terrible. They're bland and completely devoid of colour. They could've gone in a Pirates of Darkwater direction if they didn't want a gritty and more realistic vibe, that would've been far better than this.