DA VINCI Bang Samurai Sword Card Game

My friends and I have become avid players of Bang!, and when we heard that Samurai Sword was getting made, we knew that it was going to be an instant buy. If you have played Bang! before, than many of the rules will be very similar, multiple characters with different abilities, secret roles, and "Bang!" and "Missed!" (in this game instead just being regular weapon cards and "Parry"). However, there are a number of additions to the game that help to make this feel like a full game and Bang! just feel like a beta.:The biggest addition is "Honor Points". The Shogun (Sheriff) and Samurai (Vice) are united in a team against the Ninjas (Outlaws) and Ronin (Renegade, sorta...). The game ends when a player has lost all their honor points, which happens either through being killed (when you give one to your killer), or when the discard pile gets shuffled back into the deck (everyone loses one honor point, giving the game a time limit). At this point, you count up all the points your team has and whichever team has the most at the end wins. (The Ronin doubles or triples his score depending on how many players are playing, making it easier for him to win than in Bang!):Characters are never eliminated from the game. Instead, if you have lost all your life, all that happens is you lose one honor point and you reenter the game with all your health next turn. This helps to keep everyone interested and no one has to sit out waiting for the game to end if they are killed turn 1.:Instead of "Bang!" cards, each weapon card has it's own range (called Difficulty) and strength (amount of damage).:Players who have no cards in their hand are considered "Harmless" and are unable to be targeted by cards that would damage them. Thankfully, this can be countered with cards that force other people to draw cards.:Starting Hand Size isn't determined by max health. Instead, the player who goes first starts with 4 cards (not counting their opening draw), the players who go second and third start with 5 cards, fourth and fifth start with 6 cards, and sixth and seventh start with 7 cards. In addition, no matter how much health you have, the max hand size is 7.All in all, Samurai Sword improves on Bang!, taking the best elements and fixing some of the biggest problems with the original game, while still maintaining the Bang! feel. If you have played Bang!, it would almost be a crime to not get Samurai Sword. And if you haven't played Bang!, I would recommend Samurai Sword due to it being less chaotic, and more fun overall for all players.

Samurai Sword is a really fun game! It is possibly my favorite, along with Avalon (The Resistance). I think it is slightly superior to Bang! and my quick review would assume that you know the rules and are somewhat familiar with Bang!.I love Bang! and still play it regularly with my friends, but I think Samurai Sword fixed a few issues that Bang! contained. A lot wouldn't bother most people, but I think this is a little more polished version of Bang!-Having players continue playing until the very end is a big bonus that Samurai Sword has dealt with. Instead of death, a player would lose an 'Honor Point' to the person that dealt the last blow to their health (Resilience Points), and the player would regain his health at the start of his next turn. the game then continues until any player runs out of 'Honor Points'. Honor points are then tallied up and multiplied depending on how many players were in the game (Such as the only Ronin in the game getting 3x multiplier for each "Honor Point" he possessed at the end of the game, compared to the Ninjas that might only get 1x or 2x for each of theirs.)-Weapons have a certain amount of 'Range' (Difficulty) and damage BOTH written on their card such as one weapon being able to attack at 3 range and dealing 2 damage while others can only attack at 1 range while dealing 3 points of damage.-Players can refrain from being a target to all other players by playing every card in their hand and becoming "Harmless", making other players have to either ignore them completely, or force them to draw cards by playing certain "Action Cards" of their own and taking that immunity away.-The deck itself becomes a sort of timer to the game by making ALL players remove 1 honor point completely out of the game, every time the deck is reshuffled, making someone come that much closer to death and ending the game.As I said, this is a really great game, and everyone that I've played with and taught it to has loved it and wanted to buy a copy for themselves.For the best experience, this game should be played with no less than 5 people.One thing I highly recommend to those purchasing this game, is to buy the "Samurai Sword: Rising Sun" expansion along with this base game. This game alone is good, but for some reason felt as if it was just short of being a perfect game. The expansion fixes that and makes this game feel complete, with the added cards that help balance out combat as well as make the deck feel the right size. If you're still not sure if you like this game as much as you' should, the expansion WILL convince you. You won't regret it.

I bought this game because of the apparent similarities to Bang! (my family really enjoys playing Bang!).The construction quality of this game is great. The box itself is quite sturdy and will be able to take a beating (for example: repeatedly pulling it off the game shelf, bringing it on vacation, etc.). The cards are also strong and the artwork is appealing. The resilience (hearts) and honor (star flower) chips are cardboard cutouts and are probably the weakest piece of construction in the game. We actually had a few minor tears in the chips while popping them out of the larger piece of cardboard they are packed in. These chips are not handled enough during the game to cause worry for further damage, but it is still one of my lone gripes with the game.The instruction manual is easy to read and understand. If you are completely new to this type of game, then it will only take a few turns before everyone has a strong grasp of it. If you are familiar with Bang!, then you should be able to jump in easily (although there are some major differences between the two games).Many other excellent reviews for this game explain in much better terms than I ever could the differences between Samurai Sword and Bang!, so i will keep this short. The main difference being, Samurai Sword ends when the first player is knocked out. This eliminates the awful experience of sitting around and watching while everyone is having fun for players who are eliminated early in Bang!.For this reason, my family will continue to play Samurai Sword while Bang! will collect dust on the shelf.I highly recommend you pick this game up, you will not regret it.*Please click "Yes" if you found this review helpful. It would be appreciated. Thank you.