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.

During game play there are always opportunities to tie the contest for a piece, and that could make the difference between winning and losing. There are also instances where (if you don’t act soon enough) you can wind up with “dead” spaces… it doesn’t matter what gets played there, the outcome has already been determined by the surrounding pieces. As a result they will sit open until someone is forced to play there.

There are two different ways to end the game, and I’d say both have their advantages.

You can end the game when all of a single type are gone from the board, or “domination” rules… where every piece must be gone from the game board before it progresses to determining a winner. Playing the single type will definitely make the game quicker, but also force people to be much more aware of where they stand in terms of total pieces captured and so on. Domination is a bit more… obvious? That is as good a word as any. You know what you have in your posession (hidden from other players), and you can quickly estimate your chances at victory. Prior to games end you can also use the knowledge of what is in your hand to target what you need to get / prevent others from gathering.

Determining a winner is done as follows:

1) Did you capture the majority of one of the three types of pieces? if so, you may continue. If a type is tied that house is closed.
2) if you capture the majority in 2 (or more) of the houses, you automatically win. If you are the only person to capture a majority, you win.
3) If more than one person wins support of a house (captures the most pieces of that type), the next determining factor is how well you did in the other 2 houses.
4) If it is still tied, each player counts up the total number of pieces captured from all 3 houses and that person is the winner / new ruler of Japan.

So, it is possible to capture many pieces throughout the game and not be in contention for the win. The game rewards not only the focused approach (capturing a majority), but also promotes balance. There is just enough “screw thy neighbour” to make it fun, but not so many tiles that do this to make it so you can’t get anything done.

The game pieces are of a very good quality, and although the common complaint of having to dig up my own baggies for pieces is here… it is a small price to pay for what I am hoping will be a staple in our gaming nights to come.

For pictures, rules and better reviews than mine, go here.