Designer: Geonil

Artist: BIJOU

Publisher: Schemers

Players: 2

Time: 15 min

The Phantom of the Opera is based on the novel and in the game, one player takes on the role of the Phantom (Erik) and the other Christine.The Phantom of the Opera is the latest game from designer Geonil, who also designed Jekyll vs Hyde from 2021. Like the first design, Phantom is a 2 player trick taking game. The goal of the Phantom is to complete a sheet of music  by placing tokens on each note while Christine’s goal is to prevent this. 

The game components consist of a deck of cards of 4 suits, a game board or sheet of music (3 different boards are included), 12 markers for the sheet music and 1 die.

Players are dealt their hands and they must each exchange one card. The lead player for the round (the Phantom starts the first round and Christine the second) chooses one of the numbers of the 2 exchanged cards as special and uses the die to note the number. 

Players will then play their hand out in a series of tricks. It is a must follow game and there are a few twists in regards to trump. The mask suit is always trump but there may also be super trump which depends on the last trick taken and marked on the music sheet. Above each bar is an icon for one of the 4 suits and if the last trick was taken in that bar then the corresponding icon becomes super trump.

The sheet music has 12 notes, some of which are on or below the middle line and some of which are above. The notes on the music sheet that are on the middle or lower half of the staff and those tricks must be won by the Phantom who places a token over the note. Notes on the upper half of the staff must be won by Christine in order for the Phantom to place a token on the note. 

If a special number card is played during a trick, the players must immediately trade cards from their hand. In addition if the trick is correctly won corresponding to the music sheet, an extra token is placed on the music. If the trick is incorrectly won, then the last 2 tokens placed are removed from the sheet music.

After the first is played the cards are collected and shuffled. Tokens are left covering the music. Christine starts the second round. If the Phantom covers all 12 notes they win immediately. If Christine is able to prevent this until the end of the round they win.

Final thoughts: Trick taking games that can be played with 2 players are rare and finding an interesting one is even more rare. I’m glad I found this one!

The Phantom of the Opera is nicely thematic following the tale we all know so well. The art is well done with the suits corresponding to key points of the story.

I really enjoy the little twists to the game play. Deciding when to play a special number and what cards to exchange provides lots of crunch decisions in a short time. The challenge of needing to win or lose certain tricks in a set order makes it a bit more interesting than just trying to win X amount of tricks such as in Fox in the Forest. The asymmetric winning conditions make it an interesting game where playing both sides is fun like in Jekyll vs. Hyde.