The objective of love letter is to either eliminated all of your competitors or have the highest numbered card when the communal deck you draw cards from runs out. To start everyone draws one card from the deck and the game can begin with the starting player drawing a card. They then choose one out of their two cards to play and apply the corresponding effect which can be anything from looking at another player's hand (the priest's special ability) to secretly comparing hands with another player with the person who has the smaller value card being eliminated (the baron's ability). You must however be wary because although the princess's card has the highest value, if you discard her you are automatically out of the round, making her one of the biggest risks in the game.
The first things you notice about this game is how compact it is (it can easily fit in my blazer pocket) only needing 16 cards to play the game, meaning that you can take it anywhere with you making it the perfect game to take on holiday for example. Although if you do have a bit more space you can use the other amazing components like the bag you keep everything in which is delightfully furry.
Although there is player elimination the rounds go so quickly that you barely notice the wait before you can join in again. The fact that rounds go so quickly means that you can fit a game in any small patches of time that you have spare.
The game has the right amount of strategy to make it interesting as you figure out what card everyone else has, while trying to keep your hand secret. Although luck plays a role in this game, you can improve you chances by figuring out how many cards of a specific type have been played letting you have a better picture of what everyone could have (this is made easier by the help cards which show you how many of each card there is) but still keeping a bit of uncertainty in the game making it feel fair while still being tense.
Also, every game you play is different as before you play each round, you remove the first card from the deck face down, making every game different and putting another factor you need to add into your calculations.
I absolutely love this game, it is portable, fun and has the just right amount of strategy. The only thing that I would say is that some people might not like the suiting theme but you can just get one of the various different re-skins like the: batman, hobbit and star wars themed versions. This is a must have game for practically everyone and I would give it a 9/10!
