TOKYO TSUKIJI MARKET

TOKYO TSUKIJI MARKET has the full Japanese strangeness of the Draper series: a hard, no-luck economic game that behaves very differently from what its production-and-markets premise seems to promise. Tokyo Metro made minimalism charming; here, the same instinct conceals the vital information, leaving the table to work out what has shifted in the fish markets and why.

Production and markets are the framework, but this is not a tidy loop of produce, sell, profit. Players themselves shape commodity prices through their actions, so every move alters the balance and asks everyone to read the market again.

The interaction is therefore direct, though economic rather than theatrical: you are not merely responding to a system, but to the decisions of the other players. In one play, markets appearing early tipped the position sharply in one direction, while the other players' reluctance to speculate more or less sealed the result well before the end. The interesting decision is when to force a price, and when to accept that nobody else intends to give you an opening.

That does not make it a bad game. It makes it peculiar, and demanding to parse. Its relatively accessible end conditions stop a losing position becoming an endless ordeal, while the requirement to meet at least one end-game condition and not be worst at the other is a neat safety valve. With a conventional production, this could readily have become a respectable hit; as it stands, it is essential play for economic-game enthusiasts, provided they give it two or three plays before passing judgement.

Updated session

The later play confirmed rather than revised the first impression: the game remains highly sensitive to how markets emerge and to how willing players are to speculate. The brisk ending again worked in its favour, but the session made it even clearer that repeat plays are needed before one can separate a plan from the initial fog.