During my travels in Japan, I picked up some Japanese boardgames, including Eat Me, If You Can, designed by Jun'ichi Sato. While an English version was published by Iello in 2014, I picked up the 2015 Japanese edition, shown in the picture above.
The Game
Eat Me, If You Can is a very simple bluffing/deduction game for 3-6 players. At the start of each round, one player distributes the character cards to everyone, including themselves, as they wish. One player will be the Wolf, while the others will be Pigs or Red Riding Hood.
All the players other than the Wolf can secretly decide to take one of two actions:
The Wolf then chooses a character to eat and that player reveals their choice. If they were sleeping, the Wolf takes points from that player. If they laid a trap, then the character takes points from the Wolf. Players not chosen only gain points if they chose to sleep.
The player whose character was chosen by the Wolf will then distribute the cards for the next round. The first player to 10 points wins!
All the players other than the Wolf can secretly decide to take one of two actions:
- Sleep restfully that night and gain points depending on their character.
- Lay a trap for the wolf, who they think is going to eat them.
The Wolf then chooses a character to eat and that player reveals their choice. If they were sleeping, the Wolf takes points from that player. If they laid a trap, then the character takes points from the Wolf. Players not chosen only gain points if they chose to sleep.
The player whose character was chosen by the Wolf will then distribute the cards for the next round. The first player to 10 points wins!
Aesthetic
Across all the Japanese-designed games that I have purchased, there is a tendency towards minimalism and this is reflected in the production of the 2015 Japanese edition of this game.
The original (Japanese) game had two tiles per player, of which one would be placed facedown to decide whether a character was going to sleep or lay a trap. The newer edition, reduced the number of tiles by printing the two actions on opposite sides of the same tile.
The Purple Brain edition of the game has these great little punchboard housefronts placed into plastic stands for each player to hide their decisions. The 2015 Japanese edition uses the backs of the character cards, showing the houses the character's live in, to cover the tiles. Compared to the Purple Brain version of the game, where each of the little punchboard houses has a dial on the back that is used to select the character's action, this edition does seem to lose some of the tactility of decision making.
While the punchboard housefronts certainly elevates the physicality of the game, I don't feel that the minimalism in the 2015 Japanese edition detracts from the experience. It works well for the market that it is aimed at, especially with many Japanese tabletop gamers already immersed in collectable/trading card games.
The original (Japanese) game had two tiles per player, of which one would be placed facedown to decide whether a character was going to sleep or lay a trap. The newer edition, reduced the number of tiles by printing the two actions on opposite sides of the same tile.
The Purple Brain edition of the game has these great little punchboard housefronts placed into plastic stands for each player to hide their decisions. The 2015 Japanese edition uses the backs of the character cards, showing the houses the character's live in, to cover the tiles. Compared to the Purple Brain version of the game, where each of the little punchboard houses has a dial on the back that is used to select the character's action, this edition does seem to lose some of the tactility of decision making.
While the punchboard housefronts certainly elevates the physicality of the game, I don't feel that the minimalism in the 2015 Japanese edition detracts from the experience. It works well for the market that it is aimed at, especially with many Japanese tabletop gamers already immersed in collectable/trading card games.
Experience
My biggest takeaway from trying to play this with only the paragraph of rules I found on boardgamegeek.com was that you should always translate the rules yourself first.
In our first playthrough of the game we fumbled through the game, trying to make sense of the minimal rules we were working with, we got a number of things wrong, which broke the endgame for us and made it not worth playing all that much.
In my second playthrough, with a newly translated set of rules, the game was faster, more ruthless and much more enjoyable, with no game-breaking flaws present.
While minimalism in production aesthetics can help to make a game elegant, the same cannot be said for rules explanations.
In our first playthrough of the game we fumbled through the game, trying to make sense of the minimal rules we were working with, we got a number of things wrong, which broke the endgame for us and made it not worth playing all that much.
In my second playthrough, with a newly translated set of rules, the game was faster, more ruthless and much more enjoyable, with no game-breaking flaws present.
While minimalism in production aesthetics can help to make a game elegant, the same cannot be said for rules explanations.
Rules
While there are many translations available for the other editions of the game, I did not find one for this particular edition. Below is my copy of the rules, translated from Japanese, with the addition that all players start with three points from the beginning, making it more interesting for the Wolf, who can actually take points from the other players.

Eat me, If You Can (2015 Japanese Edition) Translated Rules - A4 |

Eat me, If You Can (2015 Japanese Edition) Translated Rules - A5 |

Eat me, If You Can (2015 Japanese Edition) Translated Rules - US Letter |