New Game Market Round-up: Reliving Your Life, Revisiting Yokohama, and Resisting the Urge to Stack Ducks on a Cat

You are dead. You must remember good deeds you have made during your previous life and appeal to the judge for a better life next time.

In the dexterity game of Last Judgement (閻魔裁判, pronounced "Enma Saiban"), players try to gather fragments of their memory. When you have gathered enough memory, you remember a good deed and score points.

During your turn, you try to stack a number of wooden blocks. If you fail to stack them, your turn ends immediately; if you succeed, for each block you stacked, your pawn advances one square or you gain a fragment. Depending on the square where your pawn lands, you gain additional fragments or convert fragments into a fragment of better quality, or you may spend fragments to regain the full memory of your deed, earning several points. Turns go clockwise, and the next player begins their turn by stacking a number of blocks on top of the existing stack.

At the end of a round, if any player has scored 40 or more points, the game ends. Players score their end-of-game bonuses, and the highest scorer wins the game and enjoys a good start for their next life.

Tricks and the Phantom is a simple deduction game using only ten (or eleven) cards with a little bluffing element. Deduce the culprit from among the four persons. However, there may be a "phantom" who attempts to confuse you.

In the base game, ten cards are dealt to four players, so players have hands of only two or three cards. As in a trick-taking game, each player plays one card face down in turn order. While doing this, each player forecasts who has the highest card (that is, the culprit). Each card has a color (suit), and you have to show that color when you play the card; this allows opponents to narrow down the number of your card, but some cards have a special effect, so big numbers don't win automatically. Points are awarded to whoever played the highest card (the culprit) and to whoever correctly forecasted that player winning.

Tricks and the Phantom is not just card luck. It is a strategy inference game that requires you to read each other's psychology.

Kobayakawa is a game of bluffing and deduction. In each of the six rounds, players each start with a random card in hand, and the rest are placed in a pile at the center of the table with the first card flipped face up. (This card is called the "Kobayakawa".)

In turn, each player either discards their card face up in front of them and takes a new one from the deck, or turns a card from the deck to replace the current Kobayakawa. After each player has taken a turn, they each decide if they want to compete for this round by putting a crest token on their card. Players that decided to compete then all reveal their card at once and compare their number. The player with the highest number wins, but the player that has the smallest numbered card also adds the number of the current Kobayakawa on top of it.

After six rounds, whoever has the most crest tokens wins.

しぇすた・で・しゃ is a press-your-luck dexterity game in which players gently place (plastic) ducks one by one on a cat's tummy while the cat's taking a nap.

After placing a duck at rest, draw a card to see where and how the cat twitches in its sleep, trying to ensure that the ducks won't fall.

You and your opponent are merchants in Yokohama, trying to succeed in your business ventures to gain prestige to win the game. In order to gain prestige, you need to fulfill various goals, which involving amassing copper, silk, tea and seafood, mastering foreign technology, and building shop houses and trading houses. To achieve these goals, you need to run around the streets of Yokohama and gain benefits from the various districts. Also, it may be a wise strategy to employ foreign mercenaries to your side to aid your cause. Which player can deploy their subordinates the most successfully to become the best merchant in Yokohama?

Yokohama Duel is a two-player worker-placement game that lasts four rounds, with each player taking four turns in each round. The game includes ten areas, and each area can be used only once each round. Workers have power, but they can be used only by people with low power. To gain victory points, players must complete the order form, build shops and trading houses, clear custom goods, and dedicate the church. At the end of the game, whichever player has more points wins.