Liar Game, a manga by Shinobu Kaitani serialized in Young Jump, depicts a battle to determine who is the liar. Liar Game features a variety of different games, and one of the attractions of the series is discovering winning strategies and using unexpected strategies to achieve victory. This time, we'll introduce the games featured in Liar Game in order.
Round 1: Money Grab Game
The first Liar Game we played was the Money Grab Game. This is a very simple game: you win by stealing 100 million yen from your opponent by any means within one month. While taking by force or other means is generally prohibited, anything goes. This highly open-ended game is important for introducing the Liar Game. As it's the first match, the difficulty level is low. Many players don't steal the full amount, only tens of thousands or even millions at most. However, winning this match can be seen as a test of whether or not they can survive the Liar Game.
Round 2: Minority Decision Game
As the name suggests, the minority decision game is a game in which the minority wins. The game is played by players who survived the first round, and continues until one or two winners emerge. While the game is simple—players simply vote yes or no on a given topic within a time limit—the key is deceiving their opponents and making themselves the only one in the minority. In the series, players form teams, split into two halves, and survive by covering both yes and no votes. This strategy allows players to win.
Consolation Match #1: Restructuring Game
Liar Game occasionally features a consolation match. Consolation matches are often bonus games that offer the player a chance to win money to pay off debts, but if they win, they must advance to the main event. Restructuring Game is one such example. In Restructuring Game, only one player from a large group can be the loser. Every hour, players vote for the appearance of five people they want to win, excluding themselves. The person with the fewest votes loses. The Restructuring Game also features another point: an M-Ticket, a check worth 100 million yen. In the series, players use this to buy votes for the next round and secure their own votes.
Round 3: Smuggling Game
Round 3 is the first team competition. This is the Smuggling Game, in which players compete to see who can smuggle the most amount of cash from an enemy country in an attaché case while deceiving inspectors. This game alternates between players acting as inspectors and smugglers. Yokoya, Liar Game's greatest enemy, first appeared in this game. The strategy revolves around creating spies and allies within the enemy's territory in order to learn how much money will be smuggled next, giving Akiyama and his team a tough fight. Since this smuggling game uses cards like ATMs to withdraw money, bold strategies are employed, such as tampering with cards to deceive the enemy or having a spy from the enemy country transport the money all at once.
Consolation Match Part 2
The second consolation match is also a team match, with three players—the vanguard, second vanguard, and captain—each competing in a different game. The first game was 24-shot Russian Roulette, in which players bet chips on a 24-shot pistol and compete to see who will pull the trigger. In this game, players determine the location of three bullets by matching three in a row, or predict where the bullets are at the bottom based on the weight of the bullets when shuffled. The key to victory is the exchange of passes. Next was 17 Poker, a poker game played with jokers, aces, and picture cards. While the opponent uses dynamic vision to determine the location of the joker and gain an advantage, Akiyama wins by deciphering the placement of all the cards and controlling the shuffle. The final game was non-spinning roulette. In this game, players first decide where to drop the ball in a quarter-sized area. Their opponent then predicts and bets on where the ball will land. The enemy is able to determine the location of the bullet by figuring out Nao Kanzaki's quirk, but it turns out to be a lie, and Nao Kanzaki wins.
Round 4 Preliminary: Pandemic Game
The Pandemic Game will be a solo game for the first time in a while. However, as in previous games, cooperation with others is also important. In the Pandemic Game, players are randomly assigned as infected or normal, and those who end up infected lose. Normal players can create a vaccine by touching the device attached to their arm, and players with four or more of these vaccines are declared winners. However, there is help for infected players, as they can return to normal using the vaccine. Therefore, infected people are at a great disadvantage, and healthy people must interact with other healthy people. In the story, Yokoya's group and Akiyama's group are in conflict, competing for other players' attention.
Round 4: Main Event - Musical Chairs
Musical Chairs is another game where cooperation and alliances lead to victory. As the name suggests, musical chairs is a game in which players compete to capture chairs, but the game takes place over a vast area—the entire island. Players must find chairs hidden throughout the game and play within a time limit, with the rule that they cannot sit in the same chair each time. In this game of musical chairs, players vote to determine the parent, and the parent can choose the number of the next chair to be eliminated. By doing so, players aim to win by eliminating all chairs except their own. The game also has political overtones, and the key is making allies while eliminating the opposing group's chairs. Furthermore, since the ultimate prize money can only be won by the person holding the winner's medal, tactics such as handing over medals to gain allies are also an important factor.
Consolation Round #3: Bidding Poker
The final consolation round is Bidding Poker. Bidding Poker is a game in which players place bids using a digital pad, similar to the poker game. First, the poker hand is revealed, and the key is to bid as low as possible. However, in this game, a religious leader named Harimoto, using his subordinates and psychic powers as an excuse, skillfully manipulates the poker cards, causing difficulties.
Finals: Shikokushi Game
The last Liar Game we'll introduce is the Shikokushi Game. In this game, players are divided into teams based on a pre-determined human auction. Players designate their attack and defense each turn, battling each other across four nations to reduce each other's 100 life points. While the battle continues until one country is crowned the winner, the original story deliberately calls it a draw, throwing the Liar Game secretariat into disarray. Since even actions cost points, this strategy also exploits the flaws of a stalemate where each country is unable to act if they are reduced to 1 life point.
[Liar Game] Introducing All Games at Once! What's the Guaranteed Winning Strategy?! Summary
This article introduces all the games featured in Liar Game. While the original story features the games introduced here, the TV and movie versions also feature original games. Each game has an unexpected loophole, and one of the charms of Liar Game is that it is not won by conventional means. Also, even though it is called a Liar Game, in the end, almost none of the games can be won by one person alone, and victory is achieved through cooperation. Therefore, while lies are important in Liar Game, it can also be seen as a work that teaches the importance of trust, paradoxically. It is a very deep and interesting work that can be said to be a representative psychological warfare manga, so why not give it a read?
