Elden Ring The Board Game: What’s In The Box?
The miniatures are packed in and seem pretty safe, although a few fell over in transit.
In fact, the only thing stopping me is the strength of the game itself.
Exploring Elden Ring
That open-world freedom I was worried about?
This ensures that every game is different, and that every new area of Limgrave you explore is exciting.
Everything in this game is deck-based.
I’d suggest alternating so that nobody’s voice gets too worn out.
Grid Combat
Elden Rings combat is not as similar to Dark Souls as Id imagined.
Firstly, when you enter combat with an opponent, you turn to their page in the encounter book.
Move your character from the tiled overworld to this grid, place the enemies as shown, et voila.
Combat is, like Dark Souls, card-based.
However, it functions quite differently.
Firstly, you place your Tarnished miniatures on the grid and place the enemies as instructed.
Then you grab an initiative card (or two) for each combatant and shuffle them together.
Youll also be told what cards to add to each monsters deck.
Draw from these in initiative order each turn to fight each other.
Its remarkably simple once you get the hang of it, but complex enough to feel like Soulsborne combat.
However, the most important part of combat isnt the decks, but the grid.
The grids have lateral movement for dictating who can attack who and medial movement to represent changing your stance.
Combat feels fluid and suitably Soulslike.
Its slightly different for bosses.
You place these four ring-bound booklets in a square to form a battle grid.
This is the inelegant solution I alluded to earlier.
But I cant think of a better option.
Printing them any smaller would render them unusable for the enormous boss miniatures.
Its not perfect, but it works.
Again, much like Elden Ring, which has the slow, clunky combat that pervades through FromSoftwares games.
Thankfully, Elden Ring allows for that.
Solo play feels as balanced and competent as playing in a group, which I really appreciate.
I’ve never enjoyed a Soulslike game the way I enjoy Elden Ring Nightreign.
