Dark Souls The Board Game

Product Description

Dark Souls: The Board Game is a cooperative dungeon crawl board game for 1-4 players. To win the game, players must work together tactically to learn how to defeat enemies before finally confronting the boss. Players will find specific attack patterns and weaknesses of the enemies, but they will have to be careful. If a player's character dies, the game does not end, but starting over comes at a cost. Each time a character falls in combat, the whole party must return to the bonfire, and all enemies reset. Use your resources sparingly, learn quickly, and prepare to die.

Features

• Enter The Dark Souls Universe: Take On A Tabletop Reimagining Of One Of The Most Challenging Video Games Ever Made. The Gripping Battles And Brutal Difficulty Of The Acclaimed Dark Souls Video Games Come To Your Tabletop In An Action-Packed Cooperative Dungeon Crawl Roleplaying Board Game
• Challenges Ahead: Dark Souls: The Board Game Is About Fast Setup And Long Reveal. True To The Video Game, You'Ll Need To Be Strategic And Cleverly Manage Your Stamina To Survive. Learn When To Be Bold And When To Hold Back. And Prepare To Die
• Play As Iconic Characters: Take On A Role As A Knight, Warrior, Assassin, Or Herald And Figure Out How To Defeat The Undead Legions Before Confronting The Final Boss—Or Bosses. Prepare For A Fully Immersive Rpg
• What’S Included: 27 Finely Detailed World-Class Miniatures (Including Enemies, Mini Bosses And Main Bosses), 47 Tiles & Terrain, 75 Tokens & Dials, 250 Cards. This Game Delivers An Experience That Captures The Very Essence Of The Original Video Games

Top Reviews

If you like the video games then you will love the board game
by Fuzzy Llama Reviews (4 out of 5 stars)
December 15, 2017

If you love the Dark Souls series then you will love this game. Some how the makers of the board game really caught the feel of the video game. It is a very difficult game just like it's video game counterpart. For 1 to 4 players I can say that the difficulty ramps up substantially for each player that plays over the first. You pick your class out of the 4 that are available with the base game and you get a really cool board to use to keep track of your equipment and health. The board is modular so you place down new tiles for each room you venture into which then opens up a random selection of which enemies are in the room and where they are located. So basically you go in blind and have to learn your enemies attacks and movements just like the video game. You will die and when you do you start all over back at the campfire with all the enemies reset. The good news is that now you now where the enemies will be and how they will attack. And of course you gain a certain amount of souls (resources) after you clear a room that you can use to spend on new weapons or armor or spells. These come from a VAST selection of treasure cards that you also have to spend souls on to draw. Another aspect of this is that you also have to spend souls to upgrade your character's abilities to be able to use most of this new gear. The bosses you fight are very unique as they work totally different than fighting normal enemies. They each have their own batch of cards that you draw from that shows what their attack or movement would be. This is a revolving deck so over the course of the battle you can essentially learn the bosses movements and attacks and prepare for them. Once you get the boss down to a certain amount of health he will "enrage" which basically means that you have to add another even stronger attack card to the batch of cards you draw from for his attacks. Also you shuffle them all so you have to relearn his rotation. I can say though learning how to properly fight the bosses is rather confusing and can take many trial and error battles before you get it down. So beyond the fighting, what makes this game difficult? Well the reason it gets harder the more people play is because if even 1 person in your party dies, you all die. Everyone in the party goes back to the bonfire. Now that doesn't seem too terribly bad.....however there is another aspect to this that really ramps up the difficulty. Every time you die and have to return to the bonfire, the bonfire lose's
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If you like the video games then you will love the board game
by Fuzzy Llama Reviews,Top Contributor: Board Games (4 out of 5 stars)
December 15, 2017

If you love the Dark Souls series then you will love this game. Some how the makers of the board game really caught the feel of the video game. It is a very difficult game just like it's video game counterpart. For 1 to 4 players I can say that the difficulty ramps up substantially for each player that plays over the first. You pick your class out of the 4 that are available with the base game and you get a really cool board to use to keep track of your equipment and health.

The board is modular so you place down new tiles for each room you venture into which then opens up a random selection of which enemies are in the room and where they are located. So basically you go in blind and have to learn your enemies attacks and movements just like the video game. You will die and when you do you start all over back at the campfire with all the enemies reset. The good news is that now you now where the enemies will be and how they will attack. And of course you gain a certain amount of souls (resources) after you clear a room that you can use to spend on new weapons or armor or spells. These come from a VAST selection of treasure cards that you also have to spend souls on to draw. Another aspect of this is that you also have to spend souls to upgrade your character's abilities to be able to use most of this new gear.

The bosses you fight are very unique as they work totally different than fighting normal enemies. They each have their own batch of cards that you draw from that shows what their attack or movement would be. This is a revolving deck so over the course of the battle you can essentially learn the bosses movements and attacks and prepare for them. Once you get the boss down to a certain amount of health he will "enrage" which basically means that you have to add another even stronger attack card to the batch of cards you draw from for his attacks. Also you shuffle them all so you have to relearn his rotation. I can say though learning how to properly fight the bosses is rather confusing and can take many trial and error battles before you get it down.

So beyond the fighting, what makes this game difficult? Well the reason it gets harder the more people play is because if even 1 person in your party dies, you all die. Everyone in the party goes back to the bonfire. Now that doesn't seem too terribly bad.....however there is another aspect to this that really ramps up the difficulty. Every time you die and have to return to the bonfire, the bonfire lose's a "spark". You only get 2 sparks for a 4 player game. Once you lose all the sparks for that bonfire, the game is over. You need to be realllllly careful on how you proceed in the game and be sure not to just blaze through it or you will lose very quickly.

During a typical game you will go through 3 or 4 tiles (rooms) clearing out enemies collecting souls and then fight a mini boss. The mini boss is basically just a regular boss but it represents the halfway mark through the full game. After you beat that mini boss you will unlock legendary gear to be added to the treasure cards. After that you venture through 3 or 4 more tiles fighting enemies and then finally battle a final boss. At the start of the game you choose which of the 2 bosses you fight out of 5. So the game does offer some replayability in that respect.

The box packaging is so-so. They have really nice plastic holders for the minis, however the bosses holders leave no indication of where or how they fit in......so beware not to just eagerly remove the boss minis right as you open the game as you will end up spending a good amount of time trying to figure out how to put them back in. Everything else fits in the box nicely though including the regular enemy minis. Speaking of the minis, they are extremely details and look JUST like their video game counterparts.

The length of the game usually runs to right around 2 and a half hours. Your first game will always take much longer just because you are still learning all the mechanics.
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Good Game; Slight Imperfections
by Brandon N. (4 out of 5 stars)
September 3, 2017

Arrived in pretty good condition. Other than some of the figures' weapons being bent (Silver Knight Bowmen w/ bent arrows & Smough's bent hammer), everything was accounted for. Played at least four different games with different friends and had a lot of fun.

The expansions for this game can't come out soon enough.

Buyers, keep in mind that you really need to keep track of how things are packed in the box upon opening it. For example, putting all of the boss figurines away is a hell of a logistical bitch with their unique forms and poses and the equally unique and wonky plastic that covers them,, so take a picture of it before taking out the boss figurines.
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Game Based more on RNG than Skill
by Ace (1 out of 5 stars)
October 17, 2018

First off, the designers of this game don't know how to write rulebooks. I've played over 20 different types of board games and when I read a rulebook, I generally know how to play the game. I mean, that's what rulebooks are for, right? I also took offense when I saw the designers' official response to rules questions since they acted all arrogant and even said "If we didn't put that in the rulebook, you should automatically assume it was something else." That's not how rulebooks work.

So this game will take 8+ hours if you play it by the official rules. The best part of the game is the boss fights which are well designed. However, the game itself is more reliant on RNG than skill. In the Dark Souls games, you get better at fighting enemies because you memorize their movement. In this game, you can memorize the patterns, but whether you hit or not will depend always on dice and thus you're not truly rewarded for your skill, but rather by increasing your probability for success with better equipment. Another thing that makes the game a huge headache is that everything on the cards is symbols. This wouldn't be a problem if the rulebook was straightforward.

The games official rules are so bad that the community has come up with better houserules for the game itself. Even with these houserules, it takes my group of four 6 hours just for one session. The other thing that's great about this game is the minatures which are finely crafted.
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... could use a revised rulebook but otherwise is an awesome game. Thematically
by D. Pool (5 out of 5 stars)
July 24, 2018

This game could use a revised rulebook but otherwise is an awesome game. Thematically, it feels like the video games. It really encapsulates the dungeon crawler experience. I've brought to table a couple of times and it felt very different each time. It is a little more advanced for some casual get togethers but it is a lot of fun with the right group.

My only big gripe is that the book needs a little more work. It's really bad about referencing something on a different page that then, in turn, references something on a different page from there. On top of that, it feels like it leaves out some crucial information about the boss stages. I had to watch a bunch of videos about it to figure out what was going on before we could play the first time. It could really use a quick reference as well.

Otherwise, awesome build quality on the minis, the board pieces are great, and I have a lot of fun with it.
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This is for the Dark Souls geek like my son :)
by Dragonia (4 out of 5 stars)
January 27, 2018

I bought this as a xmas present for my son. Its a little pricey but the game is worth it. Lots of figurines and beautiful game tiles. Instructions are a little hard to understand at first but it made him a very happy camper. We have played it a few times now and yes you will die.... a lot. We had 3 people playing, the game play has taken us HOURS and we still have not finished one game all the way through. 4 stars because it needs a better way to store all the pieces and there are a lot.
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A great game marred by a poor KS rollout and needing the expansions
by kevin bg (5 out of 5 stars)
December 3, 2018

Let me start off by saying that I don't blame the people who backed this game and are understandably angry about an incompetent roll out for a project they were passionate about and supported from the beginning. I personally cringed when I had all the expansions painted and ready to play before people who actually backed it got their product.

That being said I definitely feel like that anger has partially infiltrated the reviews and general reception of the game.

I will also say that the base game alone is a pretty hollow(no pun intended) experience. With only two main bosses to look forward to taking on, and no variety to the classes each run if you're playing with four players, the experience for me was playing one game to learn the rules, then playing it twice and having fun, but having little motivation to jump into it again.

This gets into what is both a big pro and a con. Once you get the Darkroot expansion, and print out the sorcerer/dragonslayer mini boss, and add some mega bosses the experience is elevated immensely. The variety of enemies, additional class and items, in addition to a new final climactic challenge adds a lot more incentive for busting out the game as opposed to fighting identical encounters to fight either the dancer or O/S every time. Naturally the con here is that it requires purchasing additional product, but these are, for the most part, very reasonably priced right now.

While my experience is limited with all these incorporated, I will say the mega boss we've fought was an awesome experience. The Stray Demon was a great translation of the in game fight, and its also great that SF made it a mini boss in the form of the asylum Demon as well. I will say is unfortunate the level four encounters incorporate a lot of the currently unreleased expansions, and the one that we could use from Demon was painfully easy with an endgame team as opposed to the massive and chaotic brawl I expected. It is great to be able to use some of the cool main boss items for these though.

One thing that I think can be universally agreed that needs improvement is that the items have weird and often not thematic stat requirements- With many players you are able to dig enough to get to good stuff and jack characters up, but with smaller teams it can be an exercise in frustration.

The grind I find to be a smaller issue. Once you are familiar with the rules you and your friends can breeze through trivial encounters easily.

TLDR: The game is great and very thematic, especially when it comes to bosses, however you will need the expansions to have a reason to dust it off more than a few times.
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Figurines are wonderful, gameplay is meh
by Alex (3 out of 5 stars)
April 4, 2019

I really wanted to like this, being a long-time Dark Souls fan, but there are some issues. The presentation is great (although some of the figurines have slightly bent weapons), the models are very detailed, it's really nice to see all those iconic enemies outside of the digital world.

That said, the gameplay is questionable. Seems like you are expected to farm for levels and equipment in order to get further into the game, and in a dice-based board game (where luck wins over skill) - that's just silly. If this wasn't Dark Souls-themed - i probably wouldn't even try to come back to playing this. But i guess maybe will try to revise the rules so that the game is more playable and fun, because it's a shame to let all the nice artwork go to waste.
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Beautifully Crafted Game that Is Punishing But Fun; Not a Great Choice For Casual Gamers
by clairetoldmetochangemyscreenname,Top Contributor: Batman (4 out of 5 stars)
December 28, 2017

Just like the video games this is based on this board game is brutal. Playable with one to four people, the game sees the players going up against AI controlled enemies as you grind for souls to spend on better loot before you go up against the intensely tough bosses and mini bosses. The game has a generic playthrough mode where you progress from the mini boss to the boss or you can try the two campaigns included in the rule book that mimic the plots of Dark Souls 1 and 3. The game boards are nicely detailed, but the stand out is the absolutely gorgeous character and enemy models. They are wonderfully crafted and a joy to behold (fans who like to pain their models will have a blast with this game). Enemies and Bosses are controlled by character cards that tell the players exactly how the enemies behave, how they move, and who they attack. Players can either roll dice to block enemy attacks or try their luck on an all or nothing dodge roll. Each room you enter prior to the boss fights is set up by a deck of encounter cards that tells you which enemies you'll battle and how the room is set up. Unlike most tactical games of this kind, the board isn't set up on a grid but instead uses "nodes" that all can hold up to three character models at a time.

The things I love about this game, aside from the aforementioned gorgeous models, are the level of detail the creators have included with the rules and enemy behavior design. Almost every aspect is covered and it makes gameplay quick and easy to follow. Likewise, the AI enemies allow players to attempt the game alone if they choose. The bosses alone make this game one hell of a good time as they, unlike normal enemies, have an entire deck of cards that can dictate their move sets. The boss decks not only can vary from game to game, but once the bosses take a certain amount of damage their behavior deck gains new moves to intensify the fight. Like in the games, players have to coordinate together and attempt to learn the boss' patterns in order to defeat them.

The downsides so far is that the node system of movement on the boards can be a bit sloppy especially when you use the larger boss models. Sometimes it is just too easy to lose track of which models were on which nodes. Also, the core game set only has a handful of base enemies so you will see a bit of repetition early on (thankfully Steamforged has a huge list of expansions planned for the upcoming year). Finally, the game's bonfire system is a bit too brutal for casual play. As in the video games, any time a member of your party dies or when you choose to rest at the bonfire you are able to reset your consumable items and also reset the room encounters in order to grind for more souls. However, the game's bonfire has a counter that can wind down to zero, at which point the players lose. I understand the idea of including a "game over" mechanic so that games don't drag on forever, but when you consider how much you need to grind for better loot to even have a chance against bosses or high level enemies it seems as though the bonfire counter is just too low. Remember that in the video games, death is a learning tool. Yes you die a lot in Dark Souls, but in so doing you learn what to expect from enemies and how to predict their moves. Death in the board game feels a bit more like an out and out punishment than a learning tool. For hardcore fans of the series this will probably not be much of a downside, but for casual play it can make the game intense. That intensity and difficulty makes winning that much more enjoyable, but you may decide to tweak the game with house rules just so you don't have a coronary.
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I was very happy when the game came
by Amazon Customer (4 out of 5 stars)
June 9, 2017

Overall, I was very happy when the game came. I played it for several hours, actually having to grind just to beat the first miniboss. The only reason I am giving this 4 instead of 5 stars is due to some of the bending swords on the miniatures as well as the fact that the glue holding portions of the gargoyle came apart. It's nothing glue can't fix, but still.

Worth buying! Just be warned there is the possibility of miniatures being damaged from shipping.
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Worth it
by Shane lenz (4 out of 5 stars)
July 16, 2018

This game is awesome. In its own way it does a great job of making you feel like you're playing a souls game and its so much fun even to play solo. I would have givin 5 stars but one of the larger pieces (winged knight) was broken off his base which Is really annoying considering how much I paid for it. I think all the large figures are packed together a bit to tightly and it may cause problems like this. But over all im incredibly satisfied with the game and all the figures are grey so you can paint them how you like. 100% worth the price.

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