Geoffrey Chia's Katana Spirits, Good Spirit Games, How To Play & Review
Transcript
The training is over. It's time to strike. Sharpen your katana. Prepare for battle and get ready to take down some enemies. Katana Spirits is a puzzle and strategy game featuring mechanics such as contracts, grid coverage, grid movement, and set collection designed and illustrated by Joffrey Chia. The game is published by Good Spirit Games in 2026. It accommodates two to five players, takes around 40 minutes to play, and is recommended for ages 14 and up. In Katana Spirits, players take on the role of K9 swordsmen who train their elemental katana skills using polyono tiles and defeat various enemies to earn points. The play area consists of three main areas. the training grounds, the enemy grounds, and each player's individual play area, which consists of their player card and action card.
Players will alternate between training and combat. During the training, the active player moves the training token within the training area and then takes a polyono katana tile and places it onto their player card. Alternatively, they may choose to rest to recover health. When the active player is ready to engage in combat, they may flip their action card to the combat side and engage an enemy. During combat, the active player gathers all the katana tiles they have collected on their player card and uses them to defeat an enemy by meeting or exceeding the enemy's combat requirements. There are three types of enemies to engage. Minions, lieutenants, and bosses. Players must initially defeat minions.
Once a player has defeated two minions, they may defeat a lieutenant. For every two minions defeated, a player may defeat another lieutenant. Once a player has defeated two lieutenants, they may defeat all bosses. The game end is triggered when the minion card deck is exhausted or when two bosses have been defeated. Players then finish the current round so that everyone takes the same number of turns before proceeding to final scoring. To calculate their final score, players add up points from their collected enemy cards shown at the bottom left of each card along with any endgame bonuses from the enemy cards they have collected. Players may also lose points based on how much health they have remaining on the health card. If playing with the full training bonus variant, players can score additional points from the training bonuses. The player with the highest combined score wins the game.
Let's see how the game is played and I'll give you my final thoughts afterward. Tutorial setup. Table setup. One, randomly place the six training cards number two to four to form a 2x3 grid. This is known as the training area. Two, place the purple number five training card beside the training area. This card may be swapped into the training area during the game. Three, place the training token on the top left card of the training area. Four, gather all the katana tiles and place them beside the training area. Create the three enemy rows. Five, the top row consists of bosses. Randomly choose two of the three available boss cards and place them in the upper row, returning the remaining boss card to the box. Six. The second row consists of lieutenants. Sort the lieutenant cards into their three types and then remove cards so that each stack contains a number of cards equal to the number of players. Seven. The third row consists of minions. Prepare the minion card deck according to the number of players. With two to three players, remove all cards with the four and five player icons.
With four players, add the cards with the four player icon. With five players, add the cards with the four and five player icons. Shuffle the minion cards, then reveal three cards to form a row. Keep the remaining deck beside the row. Eight. Place all player tokens on the top heart slot on the health card. Player setup. Each player takes the following cards according to their chosen player cutter. One player card and one action card. Turn the action card to the training side at the start of the game. Determine the player order, then in clockwise order. The first and second players each take a size two katana tile. The third player takes any single three katana tile. The fourth and fifth players each take any single size four katana tile.
The starting katana tile must be placed within the 3x5 grid on the player card. How to play. On each player's turn, they must perform either one training action or one combat action. The active player flips their action card to match the action they are performing. After completing the action, the next player in clockwise order takes their turn. Now, let's take a closer look at each action. Starting with the training action. Training action. Players train their elemental katana techniques in the form of polyonos to prepare for combat. When selecting the training action, the player must perform the following two steps in sequence. Step one, move the training token. Step two, take one katana tile or rest.
Step one, move the training token, which is mandatory. Take the training token and move it to an orthogonally adjacent training card within the 2x3 training area. The player may choose not to move the training token, but doing so costs one health. The seventh training card, which is placed beside the training area, does not come into play until the corresponding minion is defeated. Step two, take one katana tile or rest. Take one katana tile. After moving the training token, the player may take the katana tile shown on the training card where the training token landed. A katana tile cannot be taken if there are no available tiles of that type. Place a selected tile within the 3x5 grid on the player card. Tiles can be flipped and rotated. Tiles do not need to be connected to previously placed tiles as long as they are contained within the 3x5 grid. Players are not allowed to rearrange the tiles once they have been placed.
Layers may also choose to place a maximum of one katana tile outside the grid at a cost of one health. A katana tile placed outside the grid cannot be removed or replaced until a combat action is performed. Rest. The health card represents each player's health track, which consists of five slots. Players move their player token one step down the health track whenever they lose one health. If a player is on a lower health slot, as indicated by the position of their player token, they may choose to move their player token up one step on the health track as their rest action. Players cannot take a katana tile if they choose to rest and vice versa. Players will lose points at the end of the game based on the position of their player token on the health card.
Combat action. Players fight enemies with their newly trained katana techniques, represented by their katana tiles when they are ready. When selecting the combat action, the player first gathers all the katana tiles they have collected. There are three types of enemies arranged in three rows: boss heads, lieutenants, and minions. Whenever a minion card is defeated, replenish that card's space by drawing a new card from the minion card deck. Each kitana has a combat strength while each enemy card has a combat requirement shown at the top left of the card. To defeat an enemy, the player must use their katana tiles combined combat strength to meet or exceed the enemy's combat requirement.
If the total combat strength exceeds the combat requirement, regardless of how much is the excess is, the player must lose one health. Players can only defeat one enemy per turn. After combat, all katana tiles used to defeat the enemy are discarded back into the pile. Katana tiles that were not used can be kept for the player's next combat action. The player then collects the defeated enemy card and places it beside their player card. Rewards for collecting an enemy card. Each enemy card contains an enemy symbol in the top left corner underneath the enemy's combat requirement, which may earn additional points at the end of the game. At the bottom left of each enemy card is a point value that is added to the player's score at the end of the game. Some enemy cards also have abilities which can be immediate, passive, or endame bonuses. These abilities are shown at the bottom right of the enemy card. Defeating enemy requirements. Players must defeat two minions in order to defeat one lieutenant. Players cannot defeat the same type of lieutenant more than once.
Players do not have to defeat a lieutenant immediately after defeating two minions. For example, a player can defeat four minions first and then defeat two lieutenants if they choose to. Two lieutenants must be defeated before a player can combat any boss. Combat to training. When a player flips their action card from combat on their previous turn to training on their current turn, they must perform both of the following actions before proceeding with the training action. Discard all unused katana tiles back into the pile and lose one health. Lowest health. When a player token reaches the lowest slot on the health card, that player cannot take any katana tiles or perform a combat action. The player must choose the training action and rest as their next action.
End game. The final round is triggered when either of the following conditions is met. All bosses have been defeated. The minion card deck is depleted. The game continues until all players have taken the same number of turns. The game then ends. Final scoring. After the game ends, players determine their final scores by adding their total points from the following points shown at the bottom left of their defeated enemy cards. If they defeated Gekkumaru, two points for each set of three symbols on their defeated enemy cards. If they defeated Undead minions, one point for every three defeated enemy cards with the same symbol. points lost based on the position of their player token on the health card at the end of the game. The player with the most points wins the game. If there's a tie, the player who defeated the most minions wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.
Katana Spirits is an absolutely fun game, striking you with excitement right from the draw like a perfect nookie. The game play is exciting from the very second you start playing. It's fast, tight, interactive, and lots of fun. And I've really enjoyed playing it at three to five players. The higher player counts have been my favorite, especially because they add even more tension and player interaction to the game. A big part of that player interaction comes from the training area where you must move the training token and where it ultimately lands can make a big difference, especially with the availability of different katana tiles. If you move the training token to a particularly useful location, you can really mess with your opponents by giving them access to tiles they may not need while potentially denying them the ones they are looking for. That interaction continues during the combat action, particularly when multiple players are preparing for combat at the same time. All of the information is public, so you can see how many katana tiles your opponents have and the combat strength of those tiles. This gives you opportunities to target enemies that another player may need, potentially leaving them with the difficult choice of forfeiting their combat, even though they still have katana tiles available.
Being able to disrupt an opponent's plans like this can be incredibly satisfying, and it's something I've really enjoyed about the game. The variety of enemy cards also adds a lot to the game play. You have minions, lieutenants, and bosses with the latter two offering different passive, immediate, or endame abilities that can really change how you approach the game. Some minions also provide endgame bonuses, which I found to be a nice way to pick up a few extra points during final scoring. Like I mentioned earlier, the game play is very exciting and you get a great adrenaline rush when switching from the training action to the combat action. It almost feels like you're participating in the tune-in exams, competing to rack up the highest score by defeating enemies and making the most of your katana techniques. I also recommend playing with the full training bonus variant. It gives the players another incentive to interfere with their opponents, especially by preventing a player from completing a fully filledin box on their player card.
Completing the grid can potentially earn additional points during final scoring. So, disrupting an opponent's katana tile placement can become another important part of the game. This adds even more player interaction and gives you another reason to carefully consider where you move the training token during the training action. Managing your health is also important. While losing health can sometimes be necessary, players need to keep an eye on their health so they don't end up losing too many points during final scoring. I really like how all of these elements work together. The training area, katana tiles, combat, enemy abilities, player interaction, and health management all fit together seamlessly, and I've enjoyed every single minute of playing Katana Spirits.
Another big plus is how easy the game is to learn and teach. Once you understand the basic flow of training and combat, everything comes together quite naturally. This makes the game very accessible and for me makes it much easier to bring back to the table time and time again. The artwork on Katana Sparis is an absolute delight. I really enjoyed all of the illustrations across the various components, and the artwork gives the game a fun and exciting personality that fits the theme perfectly. The components are fairly standard. Although I particularly enjoyed the chunky training token, it was definitely a small highlight for me and felt great to move around the training area. Overall, Katana Spirits has easily earned a spot among my favorite games of 2026. The game play is exciting, interactive, tight, and lots of fun with plenty of opportunities to disrupt your opponents and make those last minute tactical decisions. I found Katana Spirits to be quite exceptional, and I would absolutely love to see the game receive an international release so that more players can discover and enjoy this wonderful game.
Thank you so much for watching. Hope you enjoyed the video and see you next