Game Review: Onitama by Arcane Wonders

Onitama designed by Shimpei Sato and published by Arcane Wonders

Onitama is a two-player game with simple rules but a chess-like subtlety. Thematically, the players are two aspiring masters who want to demonstrate their martial arts skills at the Shrine of Onitama. I have no idea whether the place is real but the rulebook includes a lot of flavor text and great art.

Each player has five pieces, a master and four apprentices, who start on one side of a five-by-five grid. The master is in the center square, which is the Temple Arch for that player. Players move their pieces in hopes of winning by one of the two possible ways. First, a player can capture the other player's master, this is called the Way of the Stone. Second, a player can move their master onto the other player's Temple Arch Square, this is called the Way of the River.

The blue Master piece

A red Apprentice piece

At the beginning of the game, each player is dealt two cards that show how a piece can move. A black square in the center indicates the piece and lighter colored squares show where that piece can move to. If an opponent's piece is on one of those spots, it is captured by moving there. Also, the movement cannot be blocked by other pieces in the way (much like a knight in chess).

Sample cards (click to enlarge)

A fifth card is drawn to determine the first player. The move cards have a blue or red stamp in the lower right corner. This fifth card is set to the right side of the mat for the player going first.

The interesting twist is that when a player uses a card to move a piece, that card then goes over next to the other player and is replaced by the extra card. As the cards are played, the players get to use each other's cards.

A game in progress

In the picture above, once the red player uses Crab or Turtle, he will move that card over by the blue player. The Horse card replaces Red's played card. After the blue player moves, he will take the Crab or Turtle card for possible use on his next turn.

The basic mechanics are very simple but the possibilities are tremendous. Players have to think ahead to what moves their opponent can make and if a card might give them an ability to win. The game isn't as complicated as chess but does have the feel with a shorter playing time (usually around fifteen minutes). The game comes with sixteen move cards, making for lots of variety and replayability.

We've enjoyed the game a lot and highly recommended it.