My mum doesn’t like card games or board games. I know this because I’ve tried to introduce her to many, to no avail. When I asked her to help me test out Disney Lorcana Gateway, she was more than happy to agree – but I did get a funny face as an added bonus.
As we played, thankfully, that face wore off. Because while Disney Lorcana is a relatively complex game for a newcomer, Disney Lorcana Gateway served as a brilliant step-by-step introduction that had my mum questing and challenging in the space of about ten minutes. Even as a non-tabletop gamer, she was able to well-understand the rules and how to play cards near-instantly, thanks to the structure of Gateway.
I will preface this by saying I already know how to play Disney Lorcana, but my verbal explanation followed the rules laid out in the Gateway booklet near-exactly. I went through each line of text, explaining the parts of each card, and how to play characters by placing and exhausting ink. Five minutes later, we were slowly working our way through our first rounds of the game.
What was lovely to see was that my mum’s confidence grew with each turn. On the first turn, as I explained the rules of placing ink and exhausting it to play characters, there was some confusion around card values and which characters could be put into the inkwell. By the third turn, she was questing before I was telling her what she could do. By the fourth turn, she was challenging my characters to stop them earning lore.
Read: Disney Lorcana is designed to spark joy – Interview
In the end, I won our first game – but she was only trailing a little bit behind, with 14 lore to my 20 lore. And I should stress I’ve played many games of Disney Lorcana, I’m an avid Magic: The Gathering player (frequent loser), and this was her very first attempt at playing a TCG.
It solidified, in my mind, what a good introduction Disney Lorcana Gateway really is, regardless of player experience level. It’s a very clever addition to the Lorcana lineup that creates an approachable entry point by simplifying the game down to its core.
At first, you only have Character and Action cards to understand, with these being fairly easy to grasp. While the parts of the card are complex, with lots of information for newcomers, Gateway slows down the pace of learning, to provide time to absorb every detail.
Once you’ve grasped Character and Action cards, the game instructs you to open other packets introducing new mechanics – Songs, Items, and Floodborn Characters. Each step of the way, you can tick off a list of lessons, or even watch a video to learn more about these card types, and what they do. While this isn’t comprehensive (locations aren’t dwelt on here), the lessons provide a basis for nearly every part of Disney Lorcana, and pave the way for future games.
Beyond its step-by-step process, what is most compelling about Disney Lorcana Gateway is its primary board. I love a good tabletop game, particularly when it’s got a nice map or playing space to illuminate gameplay. It’s a nice, visual way to enthral players, and to make gameplay seem more special.
Disney Lorcana Gateway introduces a premium-looking mat that is a fantastic playing companion, regardless of whether you’re learning to play or not. It’s big enough that it can fit across a table, and both players can lean over it as they plot their victory. There’s spaces for the inkwell and your played cards, spaces for a deck and discard piles, and there’s also premium damage tokens that come along with this board.
I’m somebody who loves structure, so having set spaces laid out like this tickled my brain. I’m also very glad to see the back of the wax paper fold-out lore metres, which I usually use to track progress in Disney Lorcana. Having a standee and a set board makes it make easier to watch your lore, and figure out when you should attack your opponents.
It’s in all these elements that Disney Lorcana Gateway impresses. For those who haven’t played the game before, it’s a very handy introduction – and for those that have, it’s a great little box to bring around and induct your friends with. While there’s not much “new” in this set if you’re already playing Lorcana, I’m very glad it exists, and that I was able to use it introduce my mum to TCGs.
I don’t think it’s made a board gamer of her yet, but based on the gleam in her eyes as she defeated my questing Mickey Mouse, there’s now clear potential for change.
Five stars: ★★★★★
Disney Lorcana Gateway
Designers: Ryan Miller, Steve Warner
Publisher: Ravensburger
A copy of Disney Lorcana Gateway was sent to GamesHub for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews are rated on a ten-point scale.
