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Let’s start with the theme, because it’s a lovely one. Torii is a two-player abstract game rooted in Japanese tradition, centered around those beautiful red gates you often see leading into Shinto shrines. These gates, called torii, mark the passage from the everyday world into something more spiritual. In the game, you and your opponent play as wandering spirits, gliding across a grid in an attempt to spread your presence and either build four torii or occupy nine different spaces with your followers.
It’s a quiet kind of duel, full of movement, blocking, and a bit of elegant back-and-forth. And somehow, it manages to feel both calming and intense at the same time.
👥 2 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 20 minutes
📝 Designer: Kuan Chen
🎨 Artwork: Julia Reynaud
🏢 Publisher: EmperorS4 (Review copy provided)
How It Plays
Each player has a spirit, some followers, a few torii gates, and three action tiles numbered one, two and three. The spirit starts on the board, ready to move. Your followers and torii begin in your supply, waiting for the right moment. Those three action tiles? They’re your way of choosing how many steps your spirit takes on a turn. One, two or three, but you can only use each number once before resetting them all.
So, on your turn, you pick one of the unused tiles. Let’s say you pick ‘2’. That means your spirit has to move exactly two steps. Movement is only orthogonal, so no sneaky diagonal sliding. You’re not allowed to visit the same square twice in one turn or land back where you started. If your opponent’s spirit is in your way, you jump right over it, landing on the next square in that direction. You’re never allowed to share the same lane, which adds a nice little spatial puzzle to the whole thing.
Wherever your spirit moves, you place a follower on each square it touches, except those it jumps over. If there’s already a follower from the other player on that square, and it’s not protected by a torii, you replace it with your own. If it is protected, you just skip that space. Only one follower per square, and torii make those squares untouchable.
Now here’s the interesting part. If you manage to form a straight line of four of your own followers (vertically or horizontally), you get to place a torii on top of one of them. That one stays, while the rest of the line gets removed unless they were already protected by a torii.
Victory comes in two flavours. Either you place all four of your torii on the board, or you manage to control nine different squares with your followers. If you reach either condition, it’s game over and you win.
There’s also an advanced mode with spirit powers, which you can add once you’ve played a couple of rounds and feel comfortable. Each spirit gets a unique ability, things like diagonal movement, teleporting to a torii, or even affecting the opponent’s choices. It’s not a huge leap in complexity, but it does open up the game quite a bit and adds more variation across plays.
Our Thoughts
Visually, Torii makes a strong first impression. The board has this peaceful, spiritual vibe that feels perfectly in tune with the theme. The wooden torii gates are proper chunky, painted in vibrant red and blue, and they live in their own little tray. It’s both beautiful and surprisingly organised. Honestly, it’s one of those games where you enjoy setting it up almost as much as playing it.
The spirit tokens are equally striking. Each spirit is represented by a mythical animal like a deer, boar, or crane, and comes with a team of followers in the same color. The artwork on the components is full of personality without being too cartoony, and everything fits together nicely on the board. Even the action tiles, though simple, contribute to the rhythm of play in a satisfying way.
Now, it’s not all sunshine and sacred gates. There are a couple of small production quirks. For one, the action tiles are meant to be flipped over when used, but they’ve got the same numbers printed on both sides. So visually, there’s no difference. We just slid the used ones to the side of the board instead. Works fine, but it’s a bit of a workaround. Also, the colour scheme is slightly inconsistent. The torii and followers are red and light blue, but the spirit tiles and action tokens are more of a dark blue and brown. It’s a minor detail, but it did catch our eye a few times, especially early on.
Our Experience with the Game
We’ve played Torii quite a few times now, and it’s a game that grows on you. It’s not flashy or loud. It’s all about clean movement and clever positioning. Every decision feels deliberate. You’re constantly thinking about tempo, especially since you can only use each action tile once before resetting. Timing when to move one, two or three spaces isn’t just a mechanical choice. It’s a strategic one.
The jumping rule is a great touch. Since you can’t share a lane, you’re always considering where your spirit might end up, but also where it’s blocking the opponent. It makes you think twice about your positioning, not just for your own progress but to slow the other player down. And because there’s no luck or random elements, everything that happens feels earned. Every mistake is yours. Every clever move, too.
When we added the spirit powers, the game opened up even more. Suddenly, there were new paths to consider. Spirits teleporting to torii, skipping across diagonals, even messing with your opponent’s tempo. It never felt unbalanced, but it definitely made the experience more dynamic. Especially when both players know what they’re doing.
Of course, we still found ourselves occasionally forgetting which action tiles we’d already used, thanks to the flipping issue. Sliding them worked well enough, but it’s one of those little things you wish had been solved more cleanly. The colour mismatch also caused a few double-takes, though once you’re a few turns in, you stop noticing.
Final Thoughts
Torii is all about movement, control, and knowing when to act. There’s no filler in the design. Every move matters, and every choice can shift the balance. You’re constantly managing your action tile rhythm, choosing paths that maximise your reach while keeping your opponent in check. It’s one of those games where you start to see patterns after a few plays, and the more you play, the more interesting it becomes.
Torii-building is both a victory path and a way to lock down areas of the board. When you place one, you also remove the rest of the line, so there’s this great tension between progress and pruning. Do you go for the torii win, or aim for the steady occupation of nine spaces? Both are valid, and both require completely different approaches.
Even though there’s no direct conflict, the interaction is constant. You’re always watching what your opponent’s doing, trying to guess their next move, maybe block it just in time. It’s quiet competition at its best. And because there’s no randomness, everything feels fair. If you lose, it’s because the other player outplayed you, not because the dice were cruel.
The spirit powers keep the game fresh without overwhelming the base rules, which makes it perfect for repeated plays. Some games feel more tactical, others more puzzly, depending on which powers are in play.
To us, Torii is a lovely little abstract with strong visual identity and elegant gameplay. It’s quick to learn, satisfying to master, and just the right amount of thinky for a short session. It’s probably not for players who want lots of drama or chaos, but if you enjoy games where quiet strategy unfolds turn by turn, this one’s worth a look.
📝 We received a copy of the game from EmperorS4 to review.
