Torii

• Designer: Kuan Chen
• Publisher: EmperorS4
• Players: 2
• Age: 10+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

From time to time, sprightly spirits are seen jumping around. When these playful beings appear, miracles occur, and the village often flourishes from their harmless pranks. Over time, the villagers become followers, and magnificent Torii gates are erected, allowing people to worship the spirits and express their gratitude.

In Torii, players become two playful spirits. On their turn, they choose an action tile to move 1, 2, or 3 steps and spread their followers. When the followers form a line, a Torii is built. What’s tricky is that the two spirits will never see each other; they must always jump over the line where the other spirit is present.

Plan your moves ahead to block the opponent spirit from going where they want. Or, simply move and see how the other spirit reacts!

• A breezily fresh yet challenging abstract game. Play in 10-20 minutes.
• Features a dual-layer board and wooden Torii gates. Six spirits per player provide a unique experience each game.

Players sit on opposite sides of the board.  Each player places their 9 Followers in the supply area on the board, their 4 Torii on the provided tray, and their Spirit figure on the appointed starting space of the board.  Each of the spirits has their own unique special ability.  

Each player also has three numbered Action tiles; they are placed on the matching numbered spaces on the board.  A starting player is chosen, and that player flips their “2” Action tile over.

Players will alternate turns until someone has met one of the win conditions: building all 4 of their Torii or having 9 squares occupied with their followers.  On a turn, these three phases happen:

1] Jump Around – Choose and flip an unused Action tile and then move your Spirit that many orthogonal spaces on the board.  You can never enter the row/column where an opponent Spirit is present; you will simply jump over that row/column.  Also, you can never land on the same square twice in a turn nor can you land on the starting square.

2] Spread Followers – place a follower on each square that you landed on this turn that does not already have one of your Followers. If there is an opponent follower in that space, remove it and replace with yours.  You do not place nor replace Followers on a space with a Torii.

3] Build Torii – If you have formed a line of four spaces occupied with your Followers, build a Torii on any space in that line that does not already have a Torii. For the rest of the game, that follower is protected and cannot be removed.  Now remove any unprotected Followers in the line that you used to construct the Torii.

At the end of your turn, if all your tiles are flipped over, you reset them all.

When you are comfortable with the basic game, you can add in the unique Spirit abilities; each player chooses one ability to use in the game:

• Boar – When using your “1” Action tile, you first move one of your Torii and its follower one step in any direction; if it lands on an opponent Follower, that opponent piece is removed.  You cannot move onto a space with another Torii
• Crane – At the start of your turn, you may teleport to any Torii before starting your move
• Deer – one of your moves each turn may be diagonal
• Kitsune – when using the “1” Action tile, you may first move your opponent one space in any orthogonal direction
• Monkey – When either player builds a Torii, you may flip either player’s “1” tile to the opposite side
• Tatsu – When you build a Torii, remove all opponent’s unprotected Followers from the row/column where you built your Torii

My thoughts on the game

Torii is a nice back and forth 2 player game – moving their Spirit around the board, leaving a trial of Followers behind them.  As each player must use the same set of number tiles, the winner will be the one who is able to get the most out of their plays, especially the low numbered tiles.  Additionally, as each of the six Spirits has a unique ability associated with it; you will want to leverage that into your overall strategy.

As there are only two players, there is an obvious and tight back-and-forth tension to the game.  Just as you make a nice play to put a lot of Followers on the board, your opponent then gets a chance to erase your progress.  Once you get a line in place and you get to put a Torii on the board – then you get some permanent progress as your follower on that space is now protected for the rest of the game. 

While most of our games have ended with the “primary” win condition of getting all your Torii on the board, players should not forget the other win condition of getting nine of your followers on the board.   Games are tight but quick – usually fifteen minutes is enough to determine a victor in Torii.  If you are in the mood for a new 2p experience, I would highly recommend this.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale 
• Neutral.
• Not for me…