Essen 2025 provided us with three fun new card games for two players. Unsurprisingly, they are all designed by Geonil and it seems to have become his specialty. I love trick takers and as I usually play with my partner, it’s fantastic to have trick takers designed specifically for that number.
First up is Faust vs Mephisto.published by Mandoo game, it is the next in line of the successful story based series with Jekyll vs Hyde etc. Like the other, this trick taker is asymmetric, where each player has different winning conditions. As Mephisto, your goal is to gather Faust’s soul by either taking all cards in play of any two of the four suits or take no cards in any two suits and as Faust you must avoid this.
Each player takes a role and tries to win or lose tricks to meet their goal over two rounds. The cards are suit based and have a different number of cards in each suit. There are four suits: red which represents love, blue – knowledge, yellow – power and green – youth. Red cannot be led until played but is not necessarily trump. The strength of the suits are dependent on card play. Tokens are placed Faust side up next to the board and each player is dealt their hand and they receive two coins.
The gameboard and suit tokens will show the relative strength of the suits. When the first card of a suit is played it determines the relative strength of the suit. The second player must follow suit if possible. If both cards are the same suit the higher number wins. If they are different suits, the stronger suit wins. Suite strength is determined by the order of card play and the yellow power suit has a bit of an exception to keep it fresh.
The other interesting part of game play is that you may use one of your coins to force your opponent to play a card for you in your place. You may specify the suit and either their highest or lowest rank but if they don’t have that suit they may choose which suit to play but still adhere to the highest or lowest rank request..They may in response play one of their coins to force you to play a card for them (in fact they must play a coin sometime before the round ends to keep the number of tricks played even.)
After the round ends if one player has won all the cards played of one suit The suit token is flipped to the Mephisto side. If 2 tokens are flipped, Mephisto wins immediately. If three tokens remain unflipped a second round is played. The suite tokens are reset except the knowledge token remains in its place from the first round and players start with 2 coins again. Faust wins if three tokens remain unflipped at the end of the round.
Like in his previous game Jekyll vs Hyde, you must be careful when to assign suits, balancing out waiting for a favorable move and perhaps letting your opponent get the advantage. The really devilish part of this game involves the coin play, as 2 cards are left out each round so information is not perfect, also keeping in mind that the suits have varying ranks and number of cards. Lots of good decision making going on in this game.
Phantom of the Opera is a reprint of Geonil’s game of the same name, originally released by Schemers. I wrote about the original game here https://opinionatedgamers.com/2024/04/27/review-the-phantom-of-the-opera/ The new edition from Korea Boardgames has smoothed out the rules and the production is very nice. Cloth boards are used and the tokens are the shape of the head of a note. One player assumes the role of the Phantom and the other, Christine. The players play tricks over a small game board made up of a stanza of notes. If the notes are black or filled the Phantom will get to cover the note with a token if the Phantom wins and the game progresses to the next note. If Christine wins the note will remain uncovered and the next hand will be played for the same note. With the white or hollow notes The Phantom tries to lose the trick to earn a token. Like Faust vs Mephisto, each player in this game has a different winning condition.
The Phantom wins if they manage to cover all 12 notes by the end of the second round. Christine wins if she thwarts this.
The trick taking is also influenced by trump and super trump determined by the suit above the section of the stanza being played. In addition there is a special number each round chosen first by the phantom and in the second round by Christine. When a card of that special number is played, players must immediately exchange 2 cards, even if it is then happening in the middle of a trick. The back and forth play is reminiscent of the chase in the story. I love the way the theme is worked into this one and the game play is challenging.
Orbita from Korea Boardgames seems to have taken its inspiration from 2 of Geonil’s earlier games Ptolemy and Hipparchus. This is a nice production with sparkles! on the board and box. There are 4 suits in this one but no ranks. Like several of the other games the strength of a suit is determined by the cards played.
One of the things I love in Orbita is that you are not allowed to rearrange your cards. This is such a great mechanism, from Bohnanza to this game, it makes card play so much more interesting. You may play 1 to 3 cards of the same suit as long as they are adjacent in your hand. You place a token or planet on the board, if not already present, and move it in the orbit or move an existing token if already on the board. Spaces withother tokens present are skipped. The number of spaces moved is equivalent to the number of cards played. The winner of the trick is the player who played the highest ranked planet’s cards. The puzzly part is that the value of the spaces decreases after reaching the apex. The other tricky part is that it is possible for one color to be left behind if the other colors advance to far ahead.
The winner collects all the cords of the trick and keeps them in columns separated by suit. After the hand has been played the cards are scored. Each suit is evaluated. The player with the most cards in one suit warns points equal to the number of cards in that suit taken by their opponent. The winner is the person with the most points.
Orbita is a much smoother design than either of the earlier two games Ptolemy or Hipparchus. It’s got relatively simple rules and winning conditions but it can be much trickier to play than you first think. You have to pick when to time peak strength for a suit and when to lose strength to balance out controlling a suit with making sure your opponent takes some of the cards so you can have points. It’s a very cozy game with challenging play.
