RYU GA GOTOKU KENZAN: HANAFUDA, THE CARDS AND RULES

RYU GA GOTOKU KENZAN: HANAFUDA, THE CARDS AND RULES Kenzan's Hanafuda game is Koi-Koi. Two players capture matching flower cards, build scoring combinations and decide whether to bank their score or keep playing. Here is how to read the table before tackling the completion targets. Where to play Gion's gambling den opens from 5-1. Enter through the gap in the red torii corridor between Komaki's dojo and Gion Inari Shrine. Walk past the reception desks and turtle betting. Hanafuda is the two-player table on the left of the back room; Cee-Lo is in the middle and Cho-Han is on the right. Rakugai's Hanafuda stall opens from 5-6. Go to the western part of Nagaya Street, the second east-west road down from the top of the map. It is beside the Cee-Lo stall. The middle man sells wooden tags, the left man exchanges them and the right man starts Hanafuda. Wooden tags cost 1 Mon each and come in purchases of 1,000 or 10,000. These are shared with the other gambling-den games and turtle betting, but are separate from mahjong chips. Check the black wooden-tag item under Valuables for your balance. Setting up a match Choose Play, an opponent, whether to allow the two sake-viewing hands, the match length and the stake per point. The rule menu lets you choose 3, 6, 9 or 12 rounds. Opponent tiers and maximum rates: - Easy: 200 tags per point, available immediately. - Intermediate: 400, available immediately. - Advanced: 600, after 10 wins on Easy or Intermediate. - Expert: 1,000, after five wins on Advanced. Draws count toward these opponent-unlock totals. Your actual betting limit also depends on your available tags. The minimum rate is 100. The sake option enables Moon Viewing and Flower Viewing. Each needs only two specific cards and pays five points, so turning it on gives both players a quick way to score. Leaving it on is useful when chasing the completion targets. The final payment is the difference between the two players' scores multiplied by the selected rate. Winning 24 to 9 at a rate of 100 earns 1,500 tags. Losing by the same margin costs the same amount. A higher rate changes the money at risk, not the points needed for completion. Reading all 48 cards There are 12 suits, one for each month, with four cards per suit. Match the plant, not the color of a ribbon. The game highlights matching table cards when you select a card from your hand. The four card groups are lights, animals, ribbons and plain cards. Some animal cards show objects instead. Here is the whole deck by month: 1. January, pine: crane light, written red ribbon, two plain cards. 2. February, plum: bush warbler animal, written red ribbon, two plains. 3. March, cherry blossom: curtain light, written red ribbon, two plains. 4. April, wisteria: cuckoo animal, plain red ribbon, two plains. 5. May, iris: bridge animal, plain red ribbon, two plains. 6. June, peony: butterflies animal, blue/purple ribbon, two plains. 7. July, bush clover: boar animal, plain red ribbon, two plains. 8. August, pampas grass: full-moon light, geese animal, two plains. There is no ribbon. 9. September, chrysanthemum: sake-cup animal, blue/purple ribbon, two plains. 10. October, maple: deer animal, blue/purple ribbon, two plains. 11. November, willow: rain-man light, swallow animal, plain red ribbon, one plain card. 12. December, paulownia: phoenix light and three plains. There is no animal or ribbon. That is five lights, nine animals, ten ribbons and 24 plains. Do not add the traditional printed values sometimes used to describe Hanafuda cards. Koi-Koi scores combinations, not individual card values. Playing a round At the start, pick one of two face-down cards. The earlier month becomes dealer and acts first. Each player receives eight cards, and eight more lie face-up in the middle. Every turn has two parts: 1. Play one card from your hand. If it matches the suit of a table card, capture both. If there are two possible matches, choose which to take. If there is no match, your card stays on the table. 2. Reveal the top card of the draw pile. Match and capture in the same way, or leave it on the table if it has no match. If three cards of one suit were dealt onto the table, they are stacked. Playing the fourth card captures that entire stack. Captured cards move into four groups on the right: plains, ribbons, animals and lights. Your hand is at the bottom and the opponent's hidden hand is at the top. The round-number card is only a display marker, not a card removed from the deck. When your captured cards form a scoring combination, choose whether to stop or call koi-koi. Stop banks your current score and ends the round. Continuing lets you try for another combination or an improvement, but the current points are not safe. If the opponent scores and stops first, you receive nothing for that round. If play runs out before you can score again, the unbanked points are lost. The scoring prompt's left option continues; the right option stops. Check the on-screen controls for confirm and cancel, which can swap with console-region settings. Triangle opens the scoring-hand reference. The round winner deals next. After a scoreless draw, the same dealer stays. A new round means new cards, while points already banked remain on the match scoreboard. The next guide lists every scoring hand, the two opening-hand wins, and the four completion targets. Learn the sake cup, moon, curtain and three written red ribbons first. Those are easier to recognize than trying to memorize every flower at once.