It’s hard to believe it’s only been a few years since Phantom Ink debuted at Gen Con 2022. It feels so much longer ago for some reason. But I fondly recall demoing it in the dealer hall as the exhibitor used a giant whiteboard to spell out clues. It was a fun game that, while I hadn’t played it since, I did enjoy my time with it.

This year, Allplay has decided to give Phantom Ink another go by giving it their small box treatment. No, not their really small boxes, but the square one. So it’s slightly tweaked and a lot more portable. Does it hold up? Let’s find out.

Gameplay Overview:

The main way to play Phantom Ink is to split into two teams. On each team, one player will be the spirit and the other player(s) are the mediums. The two spirit players will draw a message card and agree on one of the five words on the card to be the secret message.

Both spirit players will agree on which secret word to choose.

Teams then alternate taking turns. Starting with the Sun team, they hand their spirit 2 questions cards. The spirit will choose one of them and discard the other. The spirit will then use the planchette to spell out the answer to the question one letter at a time. Both teams’ mediums will write down the letters on their board. At any time, the active medium can yell Silienco! and the spirit player will stop spelling the letter. The medium redraws back up to 7 cards, and the other team gets a turn.

If a team thinks they know the secret word, instead of asking a question, they spell out the answer one letter at a time. If a letter is correct, the spirit knocks on the table; if not, they put a finger to their lips, and the turn ends.

At certain points in the game, players will get an All Seeing Eye bonus. At the start of those turns, they can ask either spirit to add one more letter to a previously provided clue.

The first team to correctly guess the secret word is the winner.

Each player will write down the letters of both teams’ clues.

Game Experience:

It’s been a minute since I’ve played Phantom Ink, but I really enjoyed diving back into it. I’ve played it with a few groups already, and people have enjoyed the limited communication nature of the game. Where it shines is that each team is trying to guess the same word, but the information provided is not equal.

That’s because only the active team knows the question the spirit is currently answering. So there is a bit of press-your-luck in that you want to make sure you know what the spirit is spelling out, but if you let them spell too many letters, there is a better chance the opposing team is going to find out the clue word.

Only the active team will know the current question being answered.

For example, say the secret word is Tree, and you hand your spirit the question “Where would you find it”? You would start to spell out Forest, one letter at a time. So you might get F-O-R, and at that point, your team can tell you to stop because they know it’s forest since they know the question. The other team doesn’t, so they might not have any idea why FOR was spelled.

That’s where the All Seeing Eye bonuses come in. On a later turn, they can ask that spirit to add another letter. So now they know FORE and, using the context of other clues they’ve been given so far, they might be able to deduce that it’s Forest.

That’s really where the interest in Phantom Ink comes from. Figuring out what questions your opponent’s spirit is answering. Sometimes you’ll even get a whole word, and you still won’t know how it relates. The downside is that sometimes you get a hand of 7 questions and none of them feel relevant to the path you’re guessing. Thankfully, the game does allow for a once per game mulligan to discard your hand and redraw. So it’s rare that you won’t have any questions to pass.

This new version ditches the dry-erase board for an Ouiji board-style mat.

Finally, I do want to mention that there is also a 2-3 cooperative version of the game you can play. It plays somewhat similarly, except that there is only 1 spirit now. On the sun turns, the players will ask a question as normal, but the spirit can only give a preset number of letters. On the moon turns, the spirit will choose a question and write the answer, again with a preset number of letters, but the mediums won’t know what the question is. Overall, this mode is fine, and it works, but it’s not the best way to play the game. For the best experience, you really want 4 players at least, but the game gets even better with more players, and teams will be whispering clues and guesses in secret to each other.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I think the Allplay version has improved over the originally published version. One of the reasons is that they replaced the spirit’s drawing pad with a cloth map and planchette (which looks like an Ouija board). This helps immensely because the spirits don’t need to try and write upside down anymore. It’s also a lot more portable. Phantom Ink is fun, easy to learn, and works excellently with a larger number of players. If you are a fan of secret word games like Codenames and Decrypto, this is definitely one to check out.

Final Score: 4 Stars – A great party game that works well with a large number of players.

Hits:
• Easy to learn
• Much more portable version
• Good variety of clue cards

Misses:
• Definitely needs 4+ to really shine
• Sometimes you get stuck with useless question cards