Find Your Best Friend in Party Game Soulmates

Who at the table knows you best? Who do you share the most in common with? Answer some thoughtful scenarios and predict others' answers to find out.

Published by Chili Island, Soulmates is a party game for 2-5 players that plays in roughly 30 minutes and is all about finding your best friend and sharing a vibe.

Gameplay

Each pair of players has a tile associated with them. Each player also has a hand of cards marked A through D and four discs marked A through D. Each round, the role of start player shifts. The start player draws two scenario cards, reads them, and chooses which one to play, discarding the other to the box. These will be questions such as “Your soulmate has a week off, which destination will it be?” followed by four possible answers of destinations, each one associated with a letter A, B, C, or D. Each player then secretly uses their discs to select one of the answers for themselves.

Next, you guess what other players selected. Starting with the first player, everyone chooses a card with the letter indicating which answer they believe the player chose. The cards are revealed simultaneously. Each person that guessed correctly places a friend chip on the tile they have with that player. You may have some discussion as to why people chose things, but you need to be careful as you don’t want to give away your own answer to the question if it hasn’t been revealed yet.

Players will go around following the same steps until everyone’s answer has been revealed. Each pair of players who gave the same answer to the question gets to place a friend chip on their shared tile. You are then ready to start a new round.

The game ends after a set number of scenarios have been read and the two players with the most friend chips on their shared tile are the soulmates of the game.

Review

Soulmates is a very mellow, relaxed game. It is clearly designed to inspire stories and conversation and be more about getting to know everyone at the table better, rather than playing it competitively as a game. Even the rulebook doesn’t say that the players with the most friend chips are the winners, simply that they are the soulmates.

The artwork is quite nice and fun, bright and colorful with a little bit of a hippie vibe, which in turn takes the soulmate idea of the game more out of the romantic realm and into a more general platonic category. This is key to making the game feel more general, although we still found the use of this word a little uncomfortable for our group. This might vary, though, depending on your associations with it.

There’s a little awkward timing in the game, as you can’t really go much into your reasons for picking certain answers for other players if you haven’t revealed your own choice yet, as it can potentially give things away, but there is space to chat and talk about reasons after a round ends. It’s a shame there is not a way to have all players make their guesses for each other at the same time.

Soulmates is a nicely put-together, getting-to-know-your-friends party game, with good production quality, and it is fun to watch the pile of chips grow on the tiles (although we found it more satisfying to win them from guessing answers correctly rather than matching). This is a light, mellow party game that can lead to some fun conversation, but not for people who are looking for more game or a clear winner.

Pros: Artwork and component quality, it’s fun to watch the piles of chips grow, interesting scenarios

Cons: Some players might find the use of the word soulmate a bit strange or awkward, not for people who like a game with a winner

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.