Kiri-ai: The Duel
review by Brendan
Do you like dueling games where the majority of the game is a mental struggle of anticipating every possible move and weighing your options? Where a single mistake can end in your death, but a successful gamble can steal the match from the jaws of defeat? Barely avoiding an opponent's strike and knowing that you can jump in on them for their mistake! Also knowing that your opponent knows this and that you may jump into your opponent's own sword! Knowing that your opponent knows that you know this and that they may instead bluff you out to replenish their options while you grant them a reprieve out of cowardice! If this mental mayhem is what you enjoy, then Kiri-ai: The Duel is the game for you!
Kiri-ai: The Duel is a game about two samurai dueling to the death. The objective is simple: successfully hit your opponent with two slashes! This is done through a very Rock Paper Scissors-ish hand of cards, but with a few twists! First off, you and your opponent will share the same basic hand of cards. There are generally two major types of cards! Cards with a big yellow slash on them are attack cards, and they'll indicate how many spaces away that they strike through white diamonds highlighted in red and blue to show where you and your opponent need to be standing for it to be successful. Cards without a yellow slash are movement or stance cards, and these will either move you the indicated number of spaces or change your stance (more on that later). There are five basic cards total, which means options aren't too crazy, and predictive analysis is where the bulk of complexity occurs.
Now how does it all work? First off, you and your opponent will both be placed on the field (there are two different fields you can select) with an appropriate starting distance. On each turn, you and your opponent must play two cards, with the card closest to the opponent being activated first, and the second one last. You will flip over both of the first cards at the same time, generally you will simultaneously activate them (more on this later!), then do the same for the remaining cards. At the end of the turn, if neither player is dead, you will return the first card to your hand, and the second card will be spent. At the end of each turn, the previous turn's second card is returned to the hand and replaced by the current turn's second card, allowing you to replenish your hand. Turns proceed in similar fashion until one player dies, with the remaining player being the victor.
The complexity here-in relies on knowing how and when to budget your cards. If you attack on your second card and miss, you will have less offensive options next turn since you'll have to wait until the end of the next turn to replenish it, allowing your opponent to be more aggressive with their approach. This can be used to your advantage though, as you can intentionally bait an opponent into adjusting their movement based on your restricted actions and lure them into a trap! This is the fundamental core strategy of Kiri-ai, manipulating movement and attack ranges to best exploit your opponent's gaps and kill them!
Now that the basics are out of the way though, there are a few more important details to bring up! First off, stances! There are two stances; Heaven (High Stance) and Earth (Low Stance). Each player will start in Heaven stance, which favors long range attacks and has priority on movement actions. Certain attacks can only be performed in specific stances however! If you try to use an Earth stance attack while in Heaven stance, you will simply whiff the attack. This can be done intentionally however, such as intentionally pitching an off-stance attack on your second card to keep your threat up for your next turn. Alternatively, you can use a card that swaps stances to change between the two stances if you want to change up your preferred range, but this will take an action. There are three basic attacks, with one being possible in either stance, one being possible in Heaven, and one being possible in Earth.
Next up, multi-sided cards! Your attack cards are simple, with each performing only one action, but movement/stance cards are different! There are four total movement/stance options, but only two cards for these! This is possible because each of these cards shares two actions, and you must preemptively select one of the sides to use before you place the card down. One of them, Approach/Retreat, will allow you to move one space backwards or forwards depending on the chosen side. The other, Charge/Change Stance, will allow you to either move two spaces forward or change your stance, again depending on which side you selected. Because of the more evasive actions sharing cards, using these as a second action for a turn and losing access to them next turn can heavily telegraph your possible range for the next turn. If your opponent exhausts their stance swap at the end of a turn, you have drastically narrowed down their possible attack range for the next turn, meaning it's much easier to make an approach or attack yourself!
Lastly, special attack cards! There are three special attack cards, with one being a counterattack, and the remaining two favoring either the Heaven or Earth stance. At the start of the game, you and your opponent will each draw one of these, and the last one will be discarded face down. This is the final element that throws the wrench in the mental struggle, as while you and your opponent share the same basic cards, this is a mystery element that you must constantly guess at until it is revealed. The special attack card can only be used once, it will not be returned to your hand, so choosing when to use it is important as well. If you waste your special attack early, there are no mysteries to your opponent, and they can easily predict and exploit your openings. Keeping it up until the very end can drastically keep your opponent guessing and unable to know if they are ever truly safe. The counterattack is a special attack that deals no damage on its own, but if played at the same time as an opponent's successful attack, you will instead prevent the damage to yourself and deal damage to them. The special Heaven and special Earth attacks have unique attack ranges that can strike outside of the normal boundaries of their respective stances, but they also swap stances afterwards, allowing you to combo attacks in unique ways and potentially finish off an unaware foe in a single turn if used wisely. Because you will only carry one of these cards and the third is discarded face down, you must guess at which of the remaining two cards your opponent has and fear it until it is exposed!
All of these components combine to create a constant back and forth of mental deductions and gambles as you and your opponent each do your best to try and bluff, bait, and butcher one another! The game itself is also extremely portable, coming in a stylish little pouch that holds the cards, and the art is very simple and easy to read. While it is definitely a game that involves a lot of thinking, the design of the game having you and your opponent share the majority of the cards means that you're only ever really considering four or five different cards at a time, so it's very easy to read and comprehend things without one getting lost looking all over the different things in play. If you want a super Rock Paper Scissors with card management and bluffing, I highly recommend giving Kiri-ai: The Duel a shot!
Kiri-ai: The Duel is available now from our webstore.
