Disclaimer: A copy of Re;Act: The Arts of War was provided by publisher BrotherMing Games for the purposes of review

I didn’t have a lot of friends, growing up. I lived in a village with ~500 people, and with such a scant population, the amount of people my age who were interested in the same nerdy things that I was into were diminishingly rare. to compound the issue, even just getting the nerdy products was a challenge.

But, a determined nerd can surmount all problems. We had a teacher come to my town for a year when I was 10, and while he was there, he taught me how to play Magic: The Gathering. It wasn’t long after that, that Pokémon cards found their way into my home. Shortly after that, I had enough terrible cards to make a couple Yu-Gi-Oh decks. I spent a lot of time playing duels on my own, two-handed. I tried to teach my mom, but she immediately dismissed it as too confusing. Eventually, I convinced two of my friends to get on the cardboard bandwagon, and we immediately started pouring what little money we could earn raking leaves and shovelling snow to augment our meagre collections.

So why am I telling you all this? Because the reaction chain in Yu-Gi-Oh has heavily influenced the core of Re;Act: The Arts of War by designers Chris Lin, MingYang Lu, and Eric Zeringue, and published by Brother Ming Games in 2024 after a successful crowdfunding campaign, but they’ve added a grid based movement and asymmetric characters to spice up the game.

Brother Ming games sent me the deluxe version of Re;Act. This is a bigger box that includes two neoprene mats instead of a board, and acrylic standees in place of the cardboard ones. The acrylic standees are big, colourful, and bold, creating a really eye-catching game. The incredibly stylish anime-esqe artwork is equally attractive, if you’re into the style (spoiler: I am). The deluxe edition also comes with an art book, including some background on the characters and commentary on how the developers worked on each of the characters. It’s a fantastic looking product.

Re;Act is a 1 on 1 grid combat game, managed almost entirely by cards. Each player controls an artist and is aiming to take down their rival. Re;Act comes with 8 vastly asymmetric characters to choose from, with each one lending their own flavour and flare to the combat. Understanding the core of the game is simple. Players start with a hand of cards, drawing one more on each turn (even on your opponents turns), then the active player plays one of their intent cards. The opportunity to play then passes to your opponent, who can play a reaction card. Opportunity passes back and forth with players either playing reactions or passing until both players pass in succession, then the reaction chain resolves, starting with the most recent played card, and working toward the oldest.

The intentions and reaction cards control everything in the game. If you aren’t holding a card that says you can move, you cannot move. Some characters have incredible movement, like the Tagger or Dancer, who hop all over the board, ducking and diving into and out of harms way. Other characters, like the Calligrapher have terrible movement, but instead they can control and influence every other unit’s movements. That dancer who had planned to step in, attack, then duck out of range, may suddenly find himself pulled in, overcommitted, and surrounded by the Calligrapher’s minions. Card management is critically important, and may be what catches you off guard in your first few games. That said, it’s not terribly difficult to learn a character. Each character’s deck only has 4 or 5 different cards to learn and remember, plus a few extra persistent abilities that you can use round after round. The first time you play, you’ll quickly find the boundaries of a character, then within those boundaries you’ll be able to play and stretch what they can really do.

Re;Act is a high-stakes duel. No action itself is difficult or complex, but the ramifications of each action is consequential. The duel ends when one of the two artists take just 3 hits. Being one square too far in any direction can make or break all of your plans, and when you’re trying to plan your turn 4 reactions in advance, suddenly the simple system becomes a complex web of decisions.

Duels should be, and could be, short. 20 to 30 minutes per encounter, with most of my games only really lasting 4 rounds. But Re;Act is a tough game to get into. First, both players need to understand the core game. Then, each player needs to understand the nuance of the character they’re playing. And finally, to do well, both players need to understand the limits of what the opposing character can do. Re;Act is a game that demands mastery from its players. It’s not the kind of game that instantly shines from the first play. Re;Act wants you to pick a character and really get to know their abilities and tricks. It wants you to pick a ‘main’, and develop tactics and strategies for each of the opposing matchups. In some of our first games, turns were excruciatingly long, mainly because any action had long reaching consequences that needed to be well-thought-out before committing to them, and the trying to understand the risk of the reaction chain was a bit hard to wrap our minds around.

I’ve long held the opinion that duel games are at their best when you have a partner to play with who is equally enthusiastic and invested as you are. Re;Act falls into that same camp, if you can find a group or community who wants to dive into this system with you, I have no doubt that you’ll have a ball. The more you play, the more you’ll understand the strengths and shortcomings of each character, which in turn should make the game move faster.

Most of my battles consisted of players trying to manoeuvre themselves into a favourable position, and waiting until your opponent couldn’t react before striking. Not quite the build up of tension and sudden bombastic explosion of consequences all at once that you’ll find in some other games, such as Neuroshima Hex. Re;Act can often see players chip away at each other, a tit-for-tat battle until one person manages a skilful riposte. As I said before, it’s a game that rewards mastery.

One of the benefits of a simple system, at the core, is that the asymmetric characters matchups create a new experience each time you play. And looking into the future, plugging in new characters is a fast and easy way to increase the variability of Re;Act, and looking at the community on BrotherMing Games discord channel, if you’re willing and wanting to go deep, there’s a community ready to welcome you with open arms. They even have templates for creating custom characters if that strikes your fancy. I suspect there will be a season 2 soon, which, another half dozen characters, would just send Re;Act‘s replayability to the moon.

I don’t often get the chance to play head-to-head duel games anymore, but Re;Act: The Arts of War reminded me of why I love them. It’s got that same spark that first hooked me into Magic, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Tight turns, tactical tension, and the exhilaration of a well-timed counter.

Re;Act isn’t for everyone. It asks a lot from its players. Time, patience, and a willingness to dig deep into asymmetry and matchup knowledge. But if you’ve got a sparring partner and a shared desire to master a system, this game delivers a unique and rewarding battlefield experience. It doesn’t ask you to spend hundreds on booster packs. Instead, it asks you for something much more. It asks you to learn, adapt, and grow.

For those looking to fill a Magic-shaped hole on their shelf, or for a anime-flavoured combat game with teeth, Re;Act is absolutely worth the dive. Beautifully produced, deceptively simple, and rich with potential, it’s a modern dueling gem.