Bushido – First Impressions
Review copy provided by the publisher
Some games stumble in the execution. Whether it’s an inscrutable rulebook, glaring production issues, or a core gameplay loop that disappoints, there are board games out there that just don’t make it all coalesce for the player in front of them.
Thankfully, Bushido isn’t one of them. When I first started sifting through the rulebook, though, I was concerned as to what would happen. It clearly defines what the disparate parts of the game involved, but it didn’t seem to fully represent the main loop of play with a clear example.
However, after parsing through the rules a few more times, determining the most logical order, and reassuring myself through the BGG community, I uncovered the right way to play and the game started to open up.
And that’s when the fun started!
Bushido is a two-player dueling game from designer Pedro Mendoza and publisher Grey Fox Games. It finished its Kickstarter campaign in December 2017 and then made it to backers in the winter of 2018/2019. Now, two and a half years later, it shows a little bit of age when pulling the box off of the shelf, but the blade edges are still sharp and it still hits hard.
Players operate as dueling martial artists and they employ techniques and weapons in a combat frenzy until one of them loses the sparring session. It can be a brutal game with one-round KOs or devastating attacks, so players must learn how to control the momentum of the fight, change guards at the right time, and best their opponent in a flurry of attacks and feints.
Will you be the master of Bushido?
What It Does
Bushido positions players into a training session of violent proportions. Each player will spar against the other, deflecting or evading hits while trying to land their own.
It’s not really round-based play. The game alternates between players as they take their turn playing cards or changing guards. Playing one of their five Technique cards allows them to unleash an offensive or defensive maneuver and hopefully outclass the efforts of their opponent. Changing guard from High Guard, Mid Guard, or Low Guard to one of the other stances allows players to retrieve all of their used Technique cards and restock on the potential for big combos or attacks.
Deciding when to do what is part of the strategy in Bushido.
The hits scored on an opponent will either slowly whittle down their health or savage their remaining stamina—all depending on how many hits land and how many of them are blocked or dodged on the other player’s turn.
Technique cards lead the charge in figuring out what players will do. But the dice are the end result. Depending on what’s rolled, players will resolve hits against their opponent, gain Armor or Torii tokens, and potentially evade hits that were going to damage them.
Think of it as an asynchronous deconstruction of a real fight. As one person is executing an attack, the other participant in the fight will be deploying their own defensive maneuvers or offensive strikes. The gameplay in Bushido pulls the two fighters apart like a big cosmic hand and forces them to take these actions in an alternating fashion.
It’s not simultaneous play, but just because a player rolls some hits with the dice doesn’t mean they’ll land. The opponent gets a rebuttal.
Play continues until one person is left standing. Or jumping, ducking, kneeling, or whatever stance you prefer when you’re in the middle of a heated fight.
How It Does It
Here’s how the jigsaw pieces of Bushido come together and make a martial arts mural:
Players draft their Technique cards.
Whoever drafts second will be the first player to attack once the game starts.
One at a time, players draw Technique cards (which usually reflect different Elemental Schools of fighting styles) until they have five of them in hand.
There is a normal drafting variant and an advanced one for more experienced players.
Players select their Weapons.
Different Weapons offer unique advantages depending on the Guard in which they’re held.
Weapons also possess token limits that players will need to consider as these maximums will determine how many Armor or Torii tokens can be held at one time.
Players decide what Guard to start in.
High, Mid, and Low Guards all have unique die roll bonuses and Weapon-specific abilities.
Starting with the player who drafted Technique cards second, the two fighters take turns playing Technique cards, rolling dice, resolving them, and passing play to the opponent.
Whenever a player ends a turn without any health remaining, they lose and the other player is declared the winning martial artist.
Dice offer combat results on each of their faces. It will either be a hit, an evasion, an Armor token, a Torii token, or a miss.
Tokens aren’t collected until after the dice are resolved and unblocked damage has been suffered by the player. Armor tokens, when used, block a hit. Torii tokens allow for re-rolls. Rage tokens, gained whenever a player changes their Guard, grant an extra Attack die.
Technique cards can be boosted by other cards from the same Elemental School or by Rage tokens.
And that’s about all you need to know to play! There are a few moving parts, but they blend together quite seamlessly once you get the hang of things.
Bushido does itself a small disservice by not clarifying the turn structure and flow of the game as well as it could, but the core gameplay that shines at the center is exciting and it makes up for the hiccups in the rulebook. It’s intriguing enough that I want to check out the expansion and I want to get more games in to see how the experience evolves with new opponents.
Why You Might Like It
The tactical decisions and damage-dealing finality of gameplay in Bushido don’t wear thin due to fast-paced games. Players can finish these martial bouts in 15 minutes or less for the most part. Sometimes a fight can stagger into a slower pace, but that’s the exception.
Debating when to strike back at your opponent versus when to change your guard and recover your cards is a tense decision that never gets old. There’s a sense of trepidation lingering in the air when you’re being hit and determining if you should take the blow so that you can get your cards back for next time.
Why You Might Not
The rulebook does not do a superb job of giving players a simple demonstration of how the turn-based gameplay functions. One player acts, performing a Technique card and trying to mitigate the damage from the opponent’s previous turn while also scoring hits of their own. Then the other player does the same until one player suffers enough hits to lose the remainder of their health.
The recommended Starter Deck card combos are not great and players would likely enjoy their first play of the game more if they went through the card drafting process.
Final Thoughts
Bushido weaves a wicked web of martial arts warfare. It teaches you the way of the warrior with unforgiving hits, quick combat encounters, and fast gameplay.
I get the feeling that it doesn't fully know how to present itself, though. It’s not really a card-drafting game. You just draft five Technique cards at the beginning of the game. It’s not really a deck-builder. I’m not even sure how that descriptor fits with Bushido. It’s a card-based, dice-driven combat game for two players. That’s all it is and the simplicity of that is the best part of the game. It doesn’t need any other mechanical buzzwords or design elements.
There is quite a bit of delight in figuring out which cards to pair together, what weapon to wield against your opponent, and how to balance the need for Armor, the benefit of Torii, and the strength of Rage. It’s all spins up into a giddy ball of martial arts fervor that will have you whacking the person across the table while trying to make their whacking hurt a little bit less.
Time will tell if the long-term viability of the game persists, but my first few games of Bushido left me pleasantly surprised. I like the tough choices. I appreciate the interplay of Weapons, Technique cards, Guard positions, and the luck of the dice rolls. The game plays fast. A match can be over quickly. And the way that a match finishes in either inch-by-inch attrition or stunning KO encourages players to sit down and try again. That’s the hallmark of a good game.
Train wisely. Arm yourself effectively. And get to fighting!
If you want to check out Bushido, you can learn more about Grey Fox Games or read what the community thinks on BoardGameGeek.
Bushido breaks free of its limitations and starts to play to its strengths once players understand the flow of the game and get past the starter decks suggested in the rulebook. Have you played this game?
Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.