Even though they are supposedly "forbidden," there's no taboo against their ownership or use. You can purchase and play Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert without enduring stares or having an old Russian woman hiss and/or shield the eyes of her children. I always find out just how hardcore I am not when I go to Board Game Geek, but I always thought that Forbidden Island was a stripped down version of Pandemic, also by the same designer, and if we make a line between these two games that charts their relative complexity, there is a point on this line marked Forbidden Desert right between them. But it's not Pandemic Junior; I would say that it's more like Forbidden Island 2XX Hyper Gear Mega rev2.Y.

The satellite view of the game involves a groups of incredibly thirsty people trying to rebuild a quasi-mystical skyship while the desert tries to bury them in sand. The board itself shifts and shimmies based on the wind, and seems to have a preternatural awareness of what would please you, and then configures itself in such a way as to deny you that thing. I have been one turn away from victory on many, many occasions - you will probably hear the same story from others who have played it. Deserts! Avoid them if you can.

But what if you have no table? What if you are sitting in the middle of a sterile room, with only a 3DS? How will you amuse yourself under these trying circumstances? Well, technically, you could just play that game on the floor. But roll with me: the Bravely Default Demo is out, at least for those of you geosituated near me, as opposed to the rest of the Goddamned globe who are already ass-deep in it and probably have all kinds of levels and equipment. You have probably completely rebuilt Norende, with all the villagers you gained from Streetpass! Wouldn't it be nice to understand the sentence I just wrote? Grab the demo, and see what it looks like when they try to make a new Final Fantasy from the ground up, in a genre more or less defined by Final Fantasy. It's very, very interesting.

(CW)TB out.