Yokohama – A Eurogame Classic That Still Holds Up

Yokohama used to be just a small fishing village. Quiet, local, nothing too fancy. But things started to change when the locals began trading copper and raw silk with foreign countries. In return, they brought back technology, new ideas, and a taste of different cultures. That’s when things really started to take off. Thanks to a few sharp merchants, Yokohama grew into Japan’s most important trade hub.

In the board game Yokohama, you step into the role of one of those merchants, trying to make a name for yourself and prove you’re the most successful trader around. What might sound like a bit of historical flavour actually sits at the heart of the game. Designed by Hisashi Hayashi, Yokohama has grown from a small indie title into a solid eurogame classic. Since its original release in 2016 by OKAZU Brand, it’s seen quite a few versions, including a deluxe edition and this fresh new second edition in 2024. Despite all the changes over the years, the core gameplay hasn’t lost its edge.

👥 2-4 players, ages 14+
⌛ Playing time: 90 minutes
📝 Designer: Hisashi Hayashi
🎨 Artwork: The Creation Studio

🏢 Publisher: Synapses Games (review copy provided)

Gameplay Overview

The game is played in turns, clockwise, and continues until one of the end-game conditions is met. Then everyone gets one final round before the game wraps up.

Each turn starts with placing assistants. You either place two in the same location, or three in different ones. After that, you move your president pawn. You can either move it from your hand to the board, or from the space it occupied last turn to a new one, as long as you follow a path through spaces where you’ve already placed assistants.

Now, planning this movement is important. If you move through or place assistants on the same location as an opponent’s president, it’ll cost you money. And if you want a fresh start next round, you can simply take your president back into your hand, though that means skipping the rest of your turn. It’s not something you’ll do often in a well-planned game. In our plays, it never really came up unless someone had boxed themselves in with some less-than-ideal decisions.

Once your president reaches their destination, you carry out the location’s action. How strong that action is depends on how many of your own tokens are present. That includes your assistants, your president, and any shop or station tokens you’ve placed there before. The highest strength you can reach is five.

Every location gives different rewards depending on the strength of your action. You might collect trade goods or money, pick up order or technology cards, unlock more assistants, or free up shop and trading houses from your player board for later use. You can also send assistants to the church or customs boards. If you reach 5 strength, you can take the location’s special action token. It’s only available to the first player who gets there with enough strength, so getting in early can really pay off.

If you activated a space with at least four power, you also get the option to build a shop or trading house there. That gives you an immediate bonus and boosts your future actions at that spot. At the end of your turn, you collect your used assistants back into your hand.

On top of your main action, you can do a couple of smaller ones before or after it. You can complete an achievement by placing an assistant on one of the achievement tiles, or fulfill an order card from your hand by paying the required trade goods and claiming the reward.

Technology and order cards each show flags from foreign countries, and if you collect a matching pair, you’ll earn a foreign mercenary. These one-time bonuses let you perform an additional location action at a spot where your president isn’t present.

The game ends when one of a few things happens. If someone builds all four of their trading houses, or all eight of their shops, that’ll do it. If the order card deck runs out, or there are too many assistants on the church or customs boards, that’ll also trigger the end. The exact threshold for those depends on how many players are at the table.

After that, everyone gets one more turn and then it’s time for final scoring.

The church and customs boards score based on majority, so having more assistants there pays off. Technology cards have points printed on them, and there’s a bonus for the player with the highest total. And finally, you score points for your collected flag sets.

Whoever has the most points at the end of all that is the winner.

A Bit of Background

When a game has been around for nearly a decade and still keeps popping up on people’s tables, it’s usually doing something right. Yokohama first appeared in 2016, self-published by Japanese designer Hisashi Hayashi through his own small label, OKAZU Brand. That first version looked fairly minimal, with no frills, but it already packed a lot of clever strategy into a modest package.

Word got around quickly, especially among eurogame fans who liked its unique movement system and the satisfying puzzle of collecting resources and converting them into points. In 2017, it received a wider release from Tasty Minstrel Games, which also brought out a deluxe edition with metal coins, custom wooden pieces, and an overall nicer table presence. It turned what was originally a bit of a hidden gem into something you’d proudly leave on your shelf.

Fast forward to 2024 and Yokohama has been given a new edition by Synapses Games. This version keeps the core gameplay intact but gives everything a fresh coat of paint. The artwork is new, the player boards are now dual-layered (which we’re always happy about), and the box insert actually keeps everything in place for once. It’s clearly been updated with modern players in mind, but without messing with what made it good in the first place. The game plays with two to four people, is best for players aged 14 and up, and usually lasts around 90 minutes, give or take.

We’ve been playing with the 2024 edition, which was kindly provided to us by Synapses Games to review.

Components, Art, and Table Presence

Before we dive into how it plays, let’s talk about what’s in the box. The artwork in this edition comes from The Creation Studio, and it really sets the mood nicely. It’s not flashy or overdone, but it has a calm, almost painterly style that captures the feel of a Japanese port town right on the edge of change. There’s a subtle historical atmosphere without hitting you over the head with it.

Each location tile looks different but still fits within the same visual world, which helps both visually and functionally. Even with the game spreading out across the table, it stays easy to read and never turns into a mess of icons and colours.

As for the components, they’re genuinely well done. The wooden player pieces come in bold colours like yellow, purple, pink and blue, with distinct shapes for your president, assistants, shops and trading houses. It makes it easy to tell what’s what, even when the board starts filling up. The resource tokens are sturdy cardboard, representing things like fish, silk, tea and copper. There’s a nice visual consistency here, and the yen coins come printed with floral designs that quietly reinforce the historical setting.

The dual-layered player boards are one of those upgrades you don’t realise you needed until you have them. They keep your pieces from sliding around, and they make the whole thing feel tidier. The starting player token is also worth a quick mention: it’s a chunky wooden ship that’s both functional and, well, kind of charming. A small touch, but appreciated.

Setup and teardown are helped along by the plastic insert. Everything has a spot, which is good news in a game where the component count could otherwise get a bit out of hand. It’s not the kind of insert you’ll write home about, but it does its job and saves you a bit of time.

How It Feels to Play

Yokohama falls nicely into the medium-weight eurogame category. There’s enough depth to sink your teeth into, but it doesn’t take an hour to explain the rules. If you’ve played games like Concordia or Puerto Rico, you’ll feel right at home. It’s not something I’d bring out for complete beginners, but for players with a bit of experience, it hits a very satisfying balance.

The rulebook is clear and well laid out, and once you get into the flow of the game, most of the actions start to feel intuitive. The player aids are genuinely useful too, especially in the first game when you’re still remembering which steps to follow.

At the heart of the game is a mix of movement planning, area control and set collection. You’re placing assistants across the board to create a path for your president, who then moves through those locations to activate them. Each turn becomes a bit of a puzzle, especially when your plans get disrupted by your opponents. If their president is already standing where you want to go, you’ll have to pay them. If you want to place assistants on that same location, that costs you too. It adds just the right amount of interaction to keep things interesting without turning the game into a fight over every tile.

Different players tend to take different approaches. Some go for tight, efficient movement paths that let them hit high-power actions consistently. Others focus on spreading out early, placing shops and trading houses to get more long-term bonuses. There’s also plenty of potential in the tech cards, which give you useful abilities, or the customs and church tracks, where majority control can lead to big points at the end. Orders are another path to victory, rewarding good resource management and timing.

What’s nice is that the game encourages flexibility. You can’t do everything in one game. Sometimes, even if you want to pursue a certain strategy, someone else will get there first and block the route. It forces you to adapt and rethink your plans without making it feel like you’re completely out of options. And that’s where a lot of the satisfaction comes from.

One thing worth mentioning is that later in the game, the decision space opens up quite a bit. You’ll often have several tempting options and limited time to act on them. This can slow things down a bit, especially with players who like to think through every possible outcome. It’s not a problem for everyone, but if your group is prone to overthinking, turns might start to take a little longer.

Final Thoughts

Let’s be honest: Yokohama is one of those games where you always wish you had just one more turn. There’s so much to do and not quite enough time to do it all. You’ll probably start out with big plans to focus on tech and customs and orders and shops and the church. Then, halfway through, you’ll realise you have to let go of at least half of that and just make the most of what’s still within reach.

And that’s part of what makes it so replayable. Every game feels a bit different. Sometimes you’ll be blocked out of your ideal path. Other times, you’ll surprise yourself with how well things line up. It’s not just about sticking to a plan. It’s about reacting when that plan inevitably runs into a few bumps.

It’s not a perfect game. There’s potential for slow turns, and it might be a bit much for players who prefer lighter games. But if you enjoy a good euro where you can plan ahead, shift strategies, and feel clever when things fall into place, Yokohama is a great pick. It plays well across all player counts, but we liked it best at three, where the competition feels tight enough to be exciting, but the game still moves along at a good pace.

We enjoyed our time with Yokohama, and we’re already thinking about how we’ll play it differently next time. Whether that means finally getting the most out of the tech cards or actually managing to build all our trading houses… well, we’ll see.

For a game about navigating change and seizing opportunity, Yokohama practices what it preaches.

📝 We received a review copy of the game from Synapses Games.