I was sent Onitama for free to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I will not let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review. If you enjoy my reviews, please leave a like, comment, follow, or share this with your friends. You can also always buy me coffee.
Onitama is a two-player strategy board game where players face off against each other as masters of a dojo. There are two ways to win in Onitama:
- Capture your opponent’s master
- Moving your master into your opponent’s shrine.
The game offers a simple setup, easy-to-learn gameplay, and an interesting loop if you enjoy chess.
Quality
The map, while beautifully printed, feels like a cheap playmat. My copy looked like the printing was already pealing, which has me doubt its longevity. You’ll get your money’s worth out of this mat, but don’t expect it to be part of the inheritance.
The game pieces are made from nice sturdy plastic. The pawn designs are cute and simple, but they do have visible injection points. You can probably sand them down, but it’s not a huge issue. The cards are big and easy to read and made on nice card stock. Mine came bent, but it made them easier to pick up.
Overall, the game comes in a decent quality. Sturdy enough to get your money’s worth, and unique enough to stand out against your collection.
How to Play
This game is the quickest game you can set up at your table, and one of the easiest to learn. Each player picks a color, sets up their meeples, and gets two cards. The game plays like chess, except game pieces move based on the cards each player has available. The cards rotate each turn, turning Onitama into a unique strategy experience. Watch It Played has a great tutorial on YouTube:
Gameplay
Matches of Onitama take about 10 minutes, which makes it ideal for people who want to play a strategy game but not spend hours on setup and gameplay. I enjoyed the spontaneity of each turn, and the limitations of the small board space make for a unique strategy experience. Onitama is a cute and light strategy game, but it isn’t for everyone. You don’t want to pull this for anyone who doesn’t like strategy or chess. Even though my wife understood how to play the game, she had a terrible time.
Conclusion
If you like strategy games but don’t want to commit to something bigger, Onitama is an excellent choice. It is a nice quality board game with a creative design and gameplay loop. Most importantly, it is a game you can pull out without investing too much time on teaching, setup, or game time.
I enjoyed it for the novelty and casual experience it offered, but it isn’t something I could pull regularly because people I know don’t like strategy games. The strategy involved isn’t intense, but the game feels enough like a strategy game to turn off the more casual players.
Pick up Onitama at your LGS, or order it off Amazon for $29.99.