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Well, I got to finally see what all the censorship clusterfuck (of which more later in case anyone hasn't heard about it) was about as my box full of [strike]tentacles[/strike] pledge reward goodness (http://girls.sodapopminiatures.com/content/fund-tentacle-bento) made it to my backwater.

I had pledged 50 bucks (fanservice level) so this is what I got:

The card game, first of all, 108 cards in total, though it only says the number of cards in the rules booklet, not on the box so I had to correctly guess I needed to buy two packs of sleeves :p

A set of holofoil extra promo cards, I think 17 to get the total to 125 (either that or I lost one in the club =/ ).

Two miniatures, the mascot duo Candy & Cola and extra tentacled Marie Claude Bourbonwhatever. Not sure what to do with them yet though they are about in scale for Anima Tactics so maybe stand-ins for some characters.

The poster which I'm not sure what to do with yet because it is not quite something I'm comfortable displaying in public (http://girls.sodapopminiatures.com/content/reiq-poster). It is however printed on rather sturdy paper which is nice (I didn't bother with extra shipping option that would send it rolled in a paper tube in extra mint condition).

The bento box which looks rather usable - I haven't had one before so I don't know what the good ones look like but it seems well designed and relatively durable.

Finally, the T-shirt (default male L option which is a tad too big for me but it's always a gamble between M and L for my tall, skinny self). It's made of good fabric and is dark grey with black printing; looks readable and pretty different from all T-shirts I have. Also, totally SFW.


To reiterate what the sane/honest minority of people on the internet was well aware of from the start: THERE IS NO RAPE IN THE GAME. It is never mentioned anywhere. Actually, the rules booklet is so small - it's more like a rules flyer - that there is very little background about the game. It does explain the rules, such as they are, pretty well although there are a couple points that will hopefully be clarified in the future.

Actually there is no nudity either. I mean much of the artwork is meant to get as close to the edge as possible but it's all clean. The game box clearly says 16 and above.

Innuendo abounds in the description quotes (one of the cards portrays a girl on the ladder next to a bookshelf, and the card quote goes "nice beaver, did you recently have it stuffed?" There's a beaver sitting on top of the shelf.) but it is mixed with other silly and whimsical stuff - one of the "smart" type girls is noted as having invented the internet, while another "breaks hearts and joysticks".

So, there are four types of students denoted with color borders - smart (grey), cute (pink), sporty (green) and sexy (purple) - and appropriate "locations" (dodgeball court - "someone is always taking one for the team") and "captures"/situations (cosplay! spontaneous dancing! oral exam - "remember to maintain eye contact") for each color.

The essence of the game is to play combinations of location/student/capture which form "scoring piles" and all captured students minus the number of cards you hold in your hand is your final score when the game inevitably ends. They can either be "sloppy" captures of nonmatching combinations, or a "noble" capture that includes up to three students or one "all star student" and an additional immediate effect such as reversing the order of play or every player passing one card to one on his left.

End of the game is random and sudden - upon drawing the fourth Event card in a row (there are four in the standard deck and 2 more among the promo cards) the game immediately ends and points are counted as above. So the game doesn't drag (our two first games took less than half an hour each), the combinations are a bit different every time and not every card shows up.

There is an element of luck but also decisions what to discard, what cards to hold on to waiting for a good combo and whether to risk picking up a lot of stuff from the discard pile - you can take as many as you want from the top instead of drawing, but you have to take all of them and immediately play the bottom one in a noble capture).

So all in all I think money well spent, not only to make fun of the haters and wannabe censors but also as a nice casual game with well drawn and, yeah, fanservice-y art. I don't know what the MSRP is going to be but if it's not that much then I can quite recommend it.

Not for the squeamish, though :)

Bento! Bento! Jesus Christ, Bento!

I'm sorry, that went over my head.

Quote from: vytzka;594529A set of holofoil extra promo cards, I think 17 to get the total to 125 (either that or I lost one in the club =/ ).

Actually, that promo pack should include 19 foil cards: 4 Cute Girls, 3 Smart Girls, 2 Sexy Girls, 1 Sporty Girl, 2 Events, 2 Characters, an All-Star for each suit, and another Candy & Cola as a "wild card" All-Star which can be captured to remove the other C&C version from the basic deck. My own copy (at the "Grabby Hands" pledge level for the game, the poster, and the promo cards) arrived yesterday.

The rules definitely need errata. Soda Pop's already confirmed that the players are meant to draw a new full hand after playing or discarding their last cards. However, that still doesn't solve the problem with being unable to build a hand over time except by hogging the field pile or by spending turn after turn doing nothing but swapping one card for another until you can actually play something.

My tentative idea for a quick fix is that at the end of the turn players may discard one card when they have seven or less, and must discard down to seven if they have more.

Yep, I just counted 19 promo cards so all is well. I was a bit baffled by the differing numbers of promo girls.

There were definitely episodes of a player waiting with two cards in their hand to get a drop in the field pile for a card that would complete a noble capture for them. I thought it was intended to encourage dumpster diving in the field pile but I guess is a little grating and it will be interesting to see fixes (such as one you suggested).

Adding the two promo events actually makes the game shorter. Do you think that's intended? Though I guess playing to 3/4/5/6 events are easy house rules for adjusting play time.

Quote from: vytzka;594557Adding the two promo events actually makes the game shorter. Do you think that's intended? Though I guess playing to 3/4/5/6 events are easy house rules for adjusting play time.

That could well work, but personally I'll probably go with the four basic Events (Culture Festival, Final Exam, Sports Fest, and Talent Show) as the "timer" for ending the game and not count the promo cards for that purpose. The reshuffling if any player ends up with an Event in their initial hand feels a little clumsy, too. I might instead use a slightly different set-up which also spreads them more evenly:

1. Separate the Events and shuffle the rest of the deck.
2. Deal the initial hands to each player and flip one card into the field.
3. Divide the deck into five piles and mix an Event into each except one.
4. Stack the piles back together, leaving the one without an Event on top.

Quote from: vytzka;594550I'm sorry, that went over my head.

it's a youtube meme. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GRSbr0EYYU)

Couldn't care less about the subject matter, but from what's being said here it doesn't sound like a very good game.

Quote from: chaosvoyager;594804Couldn't care less about the subject matter, but from what's being said here it doesn't sound like a very good game.

Well, it's intended to be an ultralight party game, perhaps comparable to the likes of Kittens in a Blender. Unfortunately, the rules as written do suffer from a couple of potentially crippling mechanical issues, which weirdly enough would have been rather easy to fix but still require some more work. Not enough rigorous playtesting by neutral parties?

Quote from: chaosvoyager;594804Couldn't care less about the subject matter, but from what's being said here it doesn't sound like a very good game.

I've thought that about everything I have seen from Soda Pop. Pretty but vacuous.

OMG.

I just noticed one of the promo cards is named Sgt. Richard Wulf.

Referred to as Sgt. D. Wulf in the card text for the especially slow.

BWAHAHA :D

Quote from: vytzka;595085OMG.

I just noticed one of the promo cards is named Sgt. Richard Wulf.

Referred to as Sgt. D. Wulf in the card text for the especially slow.

BWAHAHA :D

Yeah, that one's a very obvious Penny Arcade reference, especially when you consider the flavour text and that the effect only lets you remove a single student from a capture. ("Sorry ladies, I only have one shoulder... don't make this weird.")

Another promo card which riffs on the earlier controversy is Milk & Cookies. ("What did you think they were doing?")

Quote from: Ladybird;594832I've thought that about everything I have seen from Soda Pop. Pretty but vacuous.

To be fair, Soda Pop hasn't really published enough games to compare them properly, only miniatures. Since Relic Knights is still at the beta stage and won't be out for quite a while (despite the exceedingly successful Kickstarter), negative comparisons will pretty much have to boil down to "Yeah, I wasn't keen on Super Dungeon Explore, either".

Quote from: vytzka;594529To reiterate what the sane/honest minority of people on the internet was well aware of from the start: THERE IS NO RAPE IN THE GAME. It is never mentioned anywhere. Actually, the rules booklet is so small - it's more like a rules flyer - that there is very little background about the game. It does explain the rules, such as they are, pretty well although there are a couple points that will hopefully be clarified in the future.

Actually there is no nudity either. I mean much of the artwork is meant to get as close to the edge as possible but it's all clean.

So some questions.  What is the action of the game actually supposed to represent?  You don't seem to mention this at all in your description other than the reference to "capture".  Who is capturing and why?  Are there tentacles at all other than on the Marie Claude Bourbonwhatever miniature?

Quote from: jhkim;631012So some questions.  What is the action of the game actually supposed to represent?  You don't seem to mention this at all in your description other than the reference to "capture".  Who is capturing and why?  Are there tentacles at all other than on the Marie Claude Bourbonwhatever miniature?

From the back cover: "It is your first day of school. A Tokyo spring warms the sunny grounds at Takoashi University for Girls. Your clever disguise won't hold out for long, you flex your tentacles in anticipation for the mayhem to come! The invasion is coming, and you need to snatch up as many school girls as you possibly can."

From the rules leaflet: "Take on the role of a squiggly alien disguised as a new student, doing what aliens do best, collecting pretty school girls! (This is Tokyo after all.) The alien who captures the most students before the end of the school year, wins!"

Tentacles appear in some of the card illustrations, mostly sneaking up behind unsuspecting students, but at least as often the invaders show up in their human disguises, mingling with everyone else. The box art (http://boardgamegeek.com/image/1325282/tentacle-bento) presents the aliens on the left and the all-star students on the right. From top to bottom, the pairs represent the Smart, Cute, Sporty, and Sexy "essence types" or suits of cards. Note that the "sporty alien" is modelled after Marie-Claude Bourbonnais (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Claude_Bourbonnais), and the all-stars (Fin, Nixxie, Mylphee, and Kitti Von Braune) are based on various "Soda Pop Girls" (http://girls.sodapopminiatures.com/content/meet-girls).

The original Kickstarter project implied that the aliens capture the students for their "girlish essence", but the game unfortunately doesn't elaborate on it at all. Personally, I'm fond of the idea that the harvested essence is needed to fuel the disguises for the invasion, which would also explain why the aliens seem to go after their own type in the artwork. I even based a house rule on that: whenever an Event card turns up, each player must discard a capture or else lose the next turn (as the alien has to go into hiding while scrounging up enough essence to pass for human again). That gives the players a reason to make disposable sloppy captures in addition to the mechanically superior noble captures.

Quote from: Anon Adderlan;594804Couldn't care less about the subject matter, but from what's being said here it doesn't sound like a very good game.

Dull game.

Amazing rorschach test.

Quote from: Zak S;631060Dull game.

Amazing rorschach test.

You've had a chance to play it?

Quote from: Crabbyapples;631081You've had a chance to play it?

The rorschach test is how people respond to it without playing it.

Quote from: Zak S;631092The rorschach test is how people respond to it without playing it.

So your reaction is to say that it's dull without having played it?

Quote from: jhkim;631099So your reaction is to say that it's dull without having played it?

Zak's saying that the public reaction to the game is more interesting than the game itself, I think.

I went to Soda Pop's site yesterday because apparently they're involved in the Robotech/Macross tactical game and I wanted to see if they had more info about it.
They did not.
So I took a look at all their products. The Dungeon game looked kinda interesting. Expensive, but interesting. I thought Tentacle Bento had some nifty gimmicks. One of my dudes collects simple card games like this, though I don't think he's heard of Tentacle Bento yet. We sometimes play a bunch of different mini games like this if a couple people can't make a game session.
Weird that this thread popped up first on my dashboard today.

Quote from: GrimGent;631105Zak's saying that the public reaction to the game is more interesting than the game itself, I think.

Right, I got that, but it sounds like he's saying that without having played the game - which makes it sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy... or something similar.


Anyone, it sounds like Tentacle Bento is about kidnapping underage girls surrounded by lots of sexual innuendo, which isn't explicitly rape the way that Hentacle is explicitly about rape, but it certainly sounds to me like rape is implied.  

One could try to argue for this as dark humor.  I personally enjoy Cards Against Humanity, for example, which as a "Surprise Sex" card - but I think I would have a problem if they went much further along those lines.  However, Hentacle definitely crosses a line for me that goes way past "not for kids" or "naughty" or "not my cup of tea" - and it isn't because of the nudity and sexual acts.

Quote from: jhkim;631132Anyone, it sounds like Tentacle Bento is about kidnapping underage girls surrounded by lots of sexual innuendo, which isn't explicitly rape the way that Hentacle is explicitly about rape, but it certainly sounds to me like rape is implied.

I'm fairly certain that Tentacle Bento takes place at a private university specifically so that the students wouldn't be considered underage. Alien abductions are, obviously, somewhat different from regular kidnappings. And none of the cards (or any other aspects of the game for that matter) actually deal with what happens after a capture: they set up an opportunity for snatching people away, nothing more.

Y'know I haven't played it.

Maybe it's the greatest card game in history. Point is: how people react to the game's existence, sight unseen, pretty much tells you everything you need to know about them.

Quote from: Zak S;631175Y'know I haven't played it.

Maybe it's the greatest card game in history. Point is: how people react to the game's existence, sight unseen, pretty much tells you everything you need to know about them.

This.

Quote from: Zak S;631175Y'know I haven't played it.

Maybe it's the greatest card game in history. Point is: how people react to the game's existence, sight unseen, pretty much tells you everything you need to know about them.

Yes, I understood you to mean that.  You first reacted to the game's existence, sight unseen, by declaring "dull game".  Now you've apparently changed your mind and said "Maybe it's the greatest card game in history."  

I'm still analyzing that.  Or did you mean that other people's reactions let you know about them, but that we can't know everything about you based on what you say about it sight unseen?  

But seriously, I think the only sensible reaction is to not make judgments without some information.  Making the snap judgment of "dull game" with no information makes no more sense than making a snap judgment of "offensive shit" with no information.

Quote from: jhkim;631212Yes, I understood you to mean that.  You first reacted to the game's existence, sight unseen, by declaring "dull game".  Now you've apparently changed your mind and said "Maybe it's the greatest card game in history."  

I'm still analyzing that.  Or did you mean that other people's reactions let you know about them, but that we can't know everything about you based on what you say about it sight unseen?  

But seriously, I think the only sensible reaction is to not make judgments without some information.  Making the snap judgment of "dull game" with no information makes no more sense than making a snap judgment of "offensive shit" with no information.

I said "dull game" mostly 'cause it just looks dull, but there's no way in hell I'd double down on that or stand behind it or argue for it, 'cause I haven't played it.

It's the doubling down and standing behind it and arguing that tells you stuff--and I've seen alotta people do that with this game.

Quote from: Zak S;631175Y'know I haven't played it.

Maybe it's the greatest card game in history. Point is: how people react to the game's existence, sight unseen, pretty much tells you everything you need to know about them.

really?

There seems to be something rather obvious about the subject matter even if the R word isn't mentioned. Seems a little disingenuous to criticise those that call out the game for the subject matter.

Quote from: Zak S;631175Maybe it's the greatest card game in history.

Nope, it's not. The mechanics seem to ignore some obvious but easily fixable problems that should have come to light during playtesting, the flavour text can be a bit hit-or-miss, and I've certainly noticed complaints about the lack of unique artwork for every student card. No doubt the game would benefit from at least a new printing with incorporated errata for the rules, if not a mini-expansion for additional all-star and character cards because currently there are so few of those, especially in the basic deck, that they don't matter all that much in play.

But on the other hand, it's not terrible either. It just needs more work for improvement.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;631245There seems to be something rather obvious about the subject matter even if the R word isn't mentioned. Seems a little disingenuous to criticise those that call out the game for the subject matter.

Tentacle Bento is a spoof of tentacle monsters and school girls with cheesecake artwork and mildly naughty jokes. Of course, even that's going to be objectionable to a fair number of people, and there's no arguing over taste. However, what it's not is the "fetish porn rape simulator" or "full-blown hentai game where every card is a different way of raping someone" which some of the game's detractors so readily leaped to condemn. Honestly, even a little research should have made that clear from the start.

QuoteInnuendo abounds in the description quotes (one of the cards portrays a girl on the ladder next to a bookshelf, and the card quote goes "nice beaver, did you recently have it stuffed?" There's a beaver sitting on top of the shelf.

The Zucker Brothers would be charmed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWfbIe4X_4

Quote from: GrimGent;631248Nope, it's not. The mechanics seem to ignore some obvious but easily fixable problems that should have come to light during playtesting, the flavour text can be a bit hit-or-miss, and I've certainly noticed complaints about the lack of unique artwork for every student card. No doubt the game would benefit from at least a new printing with incorporated errata for the rules, if not a mini-expansion for additional all-star and character cards because currently there are so few of those, especially in the basic deck, that they don't matter all that much in play.

But on the other hand, it's not terrible either. It just needs more work for improvement.


Tentacle Bento is a spoof of tentacle monsters and school girls with cheesecake artwork and mildly naughty jokes. Of course, even that's going to be objectionable to a fair number of people, and there's no arguing over taste. However, what it's not is the "fetish porn rape simulator" or "full-blown hentai game where every card is a different way of raping someone" which some of the game's detractors so readily leaped to condemn. Honestly, even a little research should have made that clear from the start.

That may be true, but the satire looks a little too real...

There's parody and there's parody...and then there's Ricky Gervais.

Quote from: Zak S;631060Dull game.

Amazing rorschach test.

Having played it more than once, in public in an FLGS of course, this is perfectly on the money.

Mechanics are hopelessly scewed, possibly broken; the game thus results in an excruciatingly one-sided version of gin rummy. But the point is the double entendre art and flavor text, which is supposed to elicit a counter-culture cache. Place everything in excellent packaging, with sparse rule leaflet, and you got yourself an entertaining Rorschach test -- that plays like bad gin rummy on the side.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;631271That may be true, but the satire looks a little too real...

There's parody and there's parody...and then there's Ricky Gervais.

"...but it's too late; I've already seen everything."

Quote from: everloss;631127I went to Soda Pop's site yesterday because apparently they're involved in the Robotech/Macross tactical game and I wanted to see if they had more info about it.

There doesn't seem to be much information out yet about that, although apparently the Kickstarter project will launch next month. "Ninja Division brings together the design talents of Soda Pop Miniatures and Cipher Studios, makers of Super Dungeon Explore(tm), Relic Knights(tm), Helldorado(tm) and Anima Tactics(tm), to bring you the best quality game pieces, design and rules for Robotech® RPG Tactics(tm) and all of your Robotech® adventures." That's an awful lot of tm's.

What I did learn just now while checking up on the Robotech thing is that the original update section for Soda Pop's Relic Knights Kickstarter has been receiving new entries. This (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coolminiornot/relic-knights/posts/411356) is the current state of the game. (In the cheesecake department, note the card for Cordelia Clean, the robot maid introduced near the end of the funding project.)

Quote from: thedungeondelver;631261The Zucker Brothers would be charmed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWfbIe4X_4

Which possibly leads us to another TheRPGSite Top Tip... if you want some funny and you want to play a card game, buy the Police Squad! DVD and a deck of poker cards.

Quote from: Ladybird;631357Which possibly leads us to another TheRPGSite Top Tip... if you want some funny and you want to play a card game, buy the Police Squad! DVD and a deck of poker cards.

There is everything right with that idea.

Quote from: GrimGent;631349(In the cheesecake department, note the card for Cordelia Clean, the robot maid introduced near the end of the funding project.)

whose ass is twice the size of her head.

Maybe it's just unfair, or maybe it's the porridge talking, but the fact the game is shit makes the whole thing seem even more seedy.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;631433Maybe it's just unfair, or maybe it's the porridge talking, but the fact the game is shit makes the whole thing seem even more seedy.

With Tentacle Bento, you mean? It just goes to show that the planned chief attraction for the game was never the mechanical side of things, which shouldn't be all that surprising. Granted, leaving the part about refreshing your hand out of the published instructions didn't exactly help: Soda Pop has a somewhat poor track record with explaining rules as clearly as they could be. I underestimated at first how much the gameplay is intended to revolve around watching the field pile like a hawk.

To clarify, officially the game plays out like this:

1. If you hold no cards at the beginning of your turn, draw seven of them to refresh your hand. Otherwise, draw one card from the top of either the face-down school pile or the face-up field pile, or take any card from the field pile, along with all the cards on top of it, on the condition that you must immediately afterwards include that selected card in a noble capture. If you draw any event card except the last, it instantly affects each player, one after another according to the direction of play. If you draw the last event card, its printed effect doesn't take place and the game ends: everyone scores one point for each regular girl in their capture piles and five for each all-star student, and loses points for any girls or all-stars left in their hands.

2. If the game didn't end, you may then use the cards in your hand to set aside sloppy captures (combinations of one girl, one location, and one capture, regardless of their suits) or noble captures (combinations of up to three girls, one location, and one capture, all from a single suit), or to add girls of the appropriate suit to previous noble captures which don't yet include three of them, or to play special characters. A noble capture may also include a single all-star student instead of the variable number of regular girls. Making a noble capture triggers a special effect based on either the suit in question or the specific all-star, while adding girls to them later doesn't.

3. If you have any unplayed cards left in your hand at the end of the turn, discard one of them on top of the field pile.

Ha, ha, ha!

When we played there was a lengthy discussion and scouring the rule leaflet for how to refresh one's hand. We even bust out the smart phones looking for errata, but after awhile gave up. To think they exist and were just forgotten in rule leaflet inclusion is just hilarious!

Well, not that hilarious... I have no real intentions of playing the game again. But some of the cheesy double entendre was entertaining with the right light-hearted crew who got the anime references.

Quote from: Opaopajr;631564When we played there was a lengthy discussion and scouring the rule leaflet for how to refresh one's hand. We even bust out the smart phones looking for errata, but after awhile gave up. To think they exist and were just forgotten in rule leaflet inclusion is just hilarious!

Yeah, that's one heck of a botch, because without the refresh the players are really left with no choice but to hog as much of the field pile as they possibly can in an effort to prevent their hands from bleeding dry through discards. Since gaining even one extra card from other sources than the field is supposed to be a big deal, it becomes ridiculously easy to end up stuck with an empty hand, spending your turns doing nothing more than first drawing one card that you can't play and then discarding it, again and again.

That refresh rule may not be the ideal solution, but at least it makes the game playable.