Designer: Frederick Condette (Guardians’ Chronicles, Okko Chronicles aka Okko Chronicles: Cycle of Water – Quest Into Darkness)

Artist: Hub (Okko Chronicles aka Okko Chronicles: Cycle of Water – Quest Into Darkness, Okko: Era of the Asagiri, Queen’s Necklace)

Publisher: The Red Joker (Guardians’ Chronicles, Okko Chronicles aka Okko Chronicles: Cycle of Water – Quest Into Darkness, Tara Wolf in Valley of the Kings)

Genre/Mechanisms: dice rolling, miniatures, modular board, role playing, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Okko Chronicles – Beyond the Gates of the Jogoku is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total almost 13x the initial funding goal, with 2 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-high

What It’s About:  An expansion to Okko Chronicles with new scenarios, a solitaire mode, and a cooperative mode.

How It Works: Okko Chronicles is essentially a dungeon crawl, but one in which players have different missions from scenario to scenario, and the game and its expansions present quite a number of different scenarios. And it can be played solo, co-op, 1 Vs. 1, or 1 Vs. Many, with several players controlling different heroes while one player controls the Oni. It’s also based off of the Okko comic book “that chronicles the adventures of a ronin and his companions as they hunt demons and other evil creatures across the continent of the Pajan.” The cycle is divided into 5 cycles: The Cycle of Water, The Cycle of Earth, The Cycle of Air, the Cycle of Fire, and The Cycle of Emptiness. Gates of the Jogoku is the first expansion of the Cycle of Water – Quest Into Darkness base game. The comic book is written and illustrated by French artist Humbert Chabuel, aka Hub, and all of the game’s art has been illustrated by Hub as well.

Comparisons:  Any of the Monolith games– Batman: Gotham City Chronicles, Claustrophobia 1643, and Conan– make for a fair comparison. 1 Vs. 1 or 1 Vs. Many games with a bevy of scenarios, varying win conditions, and a slew of miniatures.

What Should I Pledge?:
$51 Hunter: includes the new Beyond the Gates of Jigoku and Oni Hunters Expansions, a Storage Box that holds both, and all applicable stretch goals.
$90 Ronin: just includes the base game, called Okko Chronicles: Cycle of Water – Quest Into Darkness.
$129 Early Oni Hunter (still 50/200 left): includes everything from both the Hunter and Ronin pledge levels.
$140 Oni Hunter: includes everything from both the Hunter and Ronin pledge levels.
$191 Little Shogun: everything in the Hunter pledge level, plus a Bunraku miniature, the Artbook, an additional set of dice, and 6 more expansions: Monastry of the Silver Plum, Heroes of the People, The Palace of the Puppets, Den of the Pennagolan, House of Jade Pleasure, and Legends of Pajan.
$281 Shogun: everything in the Little Shogun pledge level, plus a copy of the base game, Okko Chronicles: Cycle of Water – Quest Into Darkness.

Add-Ons:
$20 The Monastery of the Silver Plum Expansion
$30 Heroes of the People Expansion
$30 The Palace of the Puppets Expansion
$30 Den of the Pennagolan Expansion
$30 House of Jade Pleasure Expansion
$17 Legends of Pajan Expansion
$21 Hub’s Artbook
$11 Bunraku miniature
$34 Bunraku Bundle, includes both the Bunraku miniature and The Palace of the Puppets Expansion
$14 extra dice set
$14 Storage Box

KS Exclusives:
None listed.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $281 for the Shogun pledge plus $20 in shipping for a total of $301.

Okko Chronicles – Beyond the Gates of the Jogoku completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, July 18th and tentatively ships in February 2020.