At first glance the game seems pretty simple… you place tiles of various types and values on a board shaped like Japan (a board that expands with the number of people playing) to try and capture pieces representing the three houses – High Hats (ruling), Buddha (religion), and Rice (peasant). It looks like survive in reverse, how hard can it be?

Once you start playing you realize that it isn’t as straightforward as you thought. Almost every tile played impacts 2 pieces at the same time, and with limited real estate mistakes can be costly. You can only change out one tile (using the swap tile) in the entire game…and some pieces can’t be changed at all once they are played. Opposing players can mess with your perfectly laid plan and swap out the game piece at the last second, leaving you wondering why you didn’t act sooner to capture what may turn out to be that all important piece. Pieces that wind up being tied don’t count towards the end result.
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