Cardboard Corner: Review of Kira-ai: The Duel

Our board game collection consists of games big and small. On one end we have giant boxes like Tidal Blades: Rise of the Unfolders, the Ashes Reborn all-in box, and the mother of them all, old school Fireball Island. On the other end, we have Pax Transhumanity, Radlands, and Hannamikoji—games that fit snugly in a shoebox, together. But the smallest game of all, smaller than the size of a wallet, is Kira-ai: The Duel (2023). And here the adage is true: size doesn't matter.

If you enjoy games where you sit across from an opponent, trying to discern what's going through their mind as they do precisely the same to you, Kira-ai is one to check out. No fluff. No draw a card and see. No roll a die. It's mind games, only mind games, wrapped tightly around the theme of a samurai duel.

Kira-ai is advanced rock-paper-scissors with a light spatial element. The bounds are finite. The possible moves are known. There is no guaranteed strategy. Your only option is is an educated, human guess. Thankfully, you have more than three choices when slicing and dicing with your katana.

In Kira-ai, a player has eight choices, six really—no wait, five... Seven? Let's start again. Players' samurai avatars begin the duel on opposite ends of a track. In hand, they have two movement cards which allow their avatars to move forward and backwards on said track. They likewise have three attack cards. These attacks hit specific points on the track—two spots ahead, one spot ahead, etc. The remaining card is one of three special attacks drawn randomly at the start of each duel, i.e. the player knows with 50% certainty the special attack their opponent has. Let the duel begin.

Each round, each player selects two cards and plays them face down in order. Then, both players reveal their first cards. Movement takes priority, followed by attack. Second cards are revealed under the same conditions, and players move/attack accordingly. Players then set aside the second card and put the first card back in hand along with the card that was set aside the previous round. (There is always one card the opponent knows cannot be played.) Rinse, repeat. First player to score two hits, wins. Simple, yes? Not until you start trying to guess what your opponent will do...

At 5-10 minutes per game, Kira-ai is like popcorn. You can rattle off multiple games in a setting. And each generates great table chatter—friendly boasts, threats, and shouts of joy/surprise when things line up perfectly, or not. But it's not popcorn that loses its flavor. Like rock-paper-scissors or poker, there is no unstoppable strategy or most efficient path. It's all about how well you can sit inside your opponent's head. Those games never get old.

It feels strange to say considering how small the package is: the production quality of Kira-ai is phenomenal. The sixteen cards (and instructions) come in a custom clothe wallet that suits the game perfectly. Secondly, the cards are plastic. They can be played over and over and over and over and will not wear. As a whole, it travels extremely well and feels good in-hand.

In the end, Kira-ai is a bit of an anomaly. Most board games are puzzles of sorts that are fun to out-strategize or be more efficient than your opponent. They operate in the realm of IQ. Kira-ai has feet in two worlds, IQ and EQ. You need to be able to guess your opponent's thinking based on patterns of play, attitude, character, etc., all things the majority of board games do not ask you to be interested in. Add to this the pitch-perfect manner which the idea of a samurai duel overlays design and you've got a winner—a small but powerful winner if you like getting inside the head of your opponent.