In Yokai Septet, your goal is to capture high scoring Boss Yokai by strategically playing cards from your hand. Each turn, players play a card from their hand following the rules of the trick taking games. After everyone has played a card, the player who played the strongest card matching the lead suit takes all the cards played this turn. A new turn continues until one of the round's end condition is met. At the end of the round, the winner of that round is determined.

In a 4-player game, the game is played as a team battle of two players versus two players, whereas in a 3-player game, all players play individually competing. The winner of the round is the team that captured four or more Boss Yokai in a 4-player game, and three or more Boss Yokai in a 3-player game. The winner of the round scores points based on the Boss Yokai they captured. New rounds are played until the game's end condition is met, which can be either 2 points for a basic game, or 7 points for an advanced game.