Inoka: Review

Inoka: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Tug of War/ Area Control; Rock, Paper, Scissors

Player Age: 6+ 

Player Count: 2 - 4 Players 

Time to Play: 5 - 20 Minutes 
Designers: Noah Miller
Artists: Amy Nagi

Publisher: XYZ Game Labs
Year Published: 2018

BGG Complexity: 1.14/5

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

Inoka is an evolution of rock paper scissors mixed with a unique tug of war mechanism. The game will be played over several rounds and the first player to win three rounds overall is the winner. To win a round you must successfully attack while in possession of the leaf totem, or if the round ends while you are in possession of the leaf totem.
The leaf totem is gained by winning a turn. To win a turn, you must play the strongest tactic out of the three. There are ways to play this game with more than two players but for the bulk of this review, the two-player game will be the main focus.

Game Anatomy:

Tactic Cards:

First and foremost there are three tactics: attack, taunt and block. Attack will always beat taunt, taunt will always beat block, and block will always beat attack.

Each player will start each round with nine tactics; three of each tactic type, and each tactic type will have one card of each strength 1, 2 and 3. If two attacks are revealed on the same turn, the winner is the player with the highest strength.

Tokens:

The sacred stones are used to represent the winner of a round. Once a player has three sacred stones they will win the game.

The leaf totem will go back and forth between the winners of each turn. If a player successfully wins with an attack tactic while holding the leaf totem they will end the round and gain a sacred stone. If all the cards are played and no one has won this way, the winner of the sacred stone will be the player currently holding the leaf totem.

Set-up:

- At the start of each round, each player will be given their nine cards.
- Each player will then only choose five cards and discard the rest of the cards face down.
- Place the leaf totem and sacred stones within reach of all players.

How to Play:

In every round, there will be numerous clashes. A clash will have all the players simultaneously choosing a tactic card and playing it face down. Once every payer has done this, the tactics are revealed and the winner will gain control of the leaf totem. The cards played in this way will be discarded face up to help players guess what could be played in future clashes. This will continue until the round is over and whoever has the leaf totem at this time will gain a sacred stone. Whenever a player has threes sacred stones, they win the game.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Absolutely amazing art.
- There are modes to play with more than two players.
- Involves the interesting double bluff of trying to end a round short by winning with an attack tactic.

Cons:
- Interesting take on rock paper scissors, but not too much has changed to the formula other than the back and forth of the leaf totem.

'Inoka' works great as a family weight filler game with bluffing aspects. Players decide which five cards to bring into a round; they may go attack heavy but that may leave them weak towards taunting tactics, so a good balance of cards is necessary.
Going beyond the market of filler and family gamers, Inoka doesn't add many new things to make it a game that stands out from the crowd. That being said, the art and components are so great that I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any future projects.

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