Hako Onna

ハコオンナ (Hako Onna) is a board game with a theme of Japanese Horror. One player takes the role of Hako Onna (a ghost girl who lurks in a box in the mansion), and the others are visitors of the mansion. (Hako Onna in English would be ‘Lurking Girl’ or ‘Woman in a Box’).

Visitors win the game if one of the three victory conditions are met: escaping from the mansion, dispelling the girl, or defeating her. However, to fulfill any of them, you must open boxes scattered in the mansion to obtain key items, and when they see her in a box, they are turned into a servant, and have to work for her. This is a .

The game is a reverse hide-and-seek 1-against-all exploration game. During most of the Hako Onna’s turn, the humans payers will be asked to keep their eyes closed so they cannot see where she moves to, or what action she has done.
There is also a dexterity element to the game play: before he can play, each human player need to stack an additional small disc on top the previous one: if the tower collapses, they “made noise” and it becomes instantly the Hako Onna’s turn.

The girl can wins the game in two ways:
a) if all visitors are turned into servants
b) if she collects all her power back and it becomes ‘Despair time’

The human players side can win one of three different ways:
a) if they manage to kill the Hako Onna after finding her only weakness
b) if they find the secret exit and have the key ring hidden inside the safe (they need to successfully guess the combination to open it)
c) if they can bring peace to Hako Onna by bringing next to the remains of her body her precious doll Mary

Since it was originally published, the game has reached its third edition. The designer has made various delicate changes to the components and rules, and the box size has changed as a result.