Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Sakura Arms — known in Japanese as ???????? — is a two-player dueling game in which players first choose two of seven megami (Japanese goddesses), each of which has a different keyword that empowers some of their cards.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Action Points
Spend a limited allowance of points across several possible actions each turn.
Campaign Card Play
Play cards to command conflicts and carry consequences through a campaign.
Deck Construction
Build a deck before play by selecting cards under defined construction rules.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Relative Movement
Movement depends on orientation or position relative to another object.
Read the full game description
Sakura Arms — known in Japanese as ???????? — is a two-player dueling game in which players first choose two of seven megami (Japanese goddesses), each of which has a different keyword that empowers some of their cards. Players then see what the opponent chose before assembling a deck of ten out of 22 cards, with the players choosing cards both to take advantage of their own megami powers and to exploit their opponent's weaknesses. Players then duel to see who will be victorious. The game uses a single kind of token to represent life, distance, aura (defense), and flare (special energy) based on the zone these tokens occupy. By moving tokens between zones, you attempt to gain the ideal position and set up as many attacks as possible — or be prepared to avoid attacks. The gameplay at its core is simple, and due to its limited environment, it is relatively easy to learn the cards for a deck-building game. Building a deck and playing normally takes less then 20 minutes. This is the first release for the 2nd version of the Sakura Arms game system. A 3rd version, with system changes and balance updates, has since been released.