What's wrong with that testimony?

This town has too many murders and too many detectives. Today several detectives have witnessed a murder. Using the information that only you are aware of, as well as considering the reasoning of the other detectives, you must carefully and skillfully try to gain the upper hand and declare which suspect is the criminal. Can you defeat your rivals and become the greatest detective this town has ever seen?

In a Grove — a.k.a. 藪の中, Yabunonaka, and Hattari — is a game of bluffing and deduction, and the player who makes too many false accusations loses the game.

The game is played in rounds with numbered 'person tiles' of silhouettes. Each round, each player receives one of the eight silhouettes, while three are placed in the center of the table as suspects and the final silhouette is dubbed the victim. You're job is which of the three suspects is the real culprit, either to accuse him or to lure the other players into accusing someone who's innocent!

All players secretly look at their silhouettes, then pass them right, then look at the new silhouette they received. Then in player order, each player secretly looks at two of the three suspects, and places a colored accusation marker below one. The next player looks at the two suspects not just marked with an accusation marker, then places a colored accusation marker of their own, covering any markers already beneath that suspect. This continues until all four players have placed an accusation marker, with each player not being allowed to look at the suspect just accused.

The round ends, and players reveal the suspects. Who's the culprit? The suspect bearing the highest number – except if the #5 is among the suspects, in which case the suspect with the lowest number is guilty. Anyone who has accused the correct suspect receives their accusation marker back. Any markers incorrectly placed are flipped colored-side down and given to the player who owns the marker on top of the stack. The first player token rotates clockwise, then a new round begins.

At the end of a turn if a player has eight or more tokens — or has no tokens — then the game ends, and that player loses.

This is a competitive game filled with reasoning, deductions, and a complex mixture of predictions. This is a new version of one of Oink Games' early works with updated rules and upgraded components. It's great for players of the previous version, too!

Contents: 9 Plastic Person Tiles / 1 First on the Scene Marker / 35 Detective Chips / 1 Unseen Marker / Game Manual (JP/EN)