Elden Ring: Board Game Review
Blog Andrew Joseph 06 Mar , 2025 0
In the past decade, not many games have produced the same buzz in Times as FromSoftware's Elden Ring. exist Board games based on video games Becoming commonplace, it's just a matter of time when Frofsoftware's behemoth comes to the desktop. Steamforged Games – creator of other major video game adaptations resident EvilMonster Hunter World and Dark Souls from Fromsoftware – Pick up the flask to do it. Now, after a very successful crowdfunding campaign in 2022, Elden Ring: Board Games (known as Elden Ring’s Forward) are almost in the hands of supporters Available for booking For everyone else. Rise, lose its luster. Now it's time to fight again.
Elden Ring: Board Game
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Elden ring is a Campaign board gamewhich means you and your companions improve in a series of scenes, upgrading and improving characters as you play stories. Steamforged Games created three of the “sports” to choose the potential risks to choose from – Grafted Kings, Crying Peninsula and Stormveil Castle (Grafted Kings) are used as the larger “base game”, while the other two are independent extensions. These extensions can be resolved on their own or played after the grafted king, allowing you to play the role and continue to take risks, becoming increasingly powerful in the process. Depending on the box you purchased, you will have access to different categories including Vagabond, Samurai, Astrologer and Prophet in the Grafted King (Basic Game) box; Heroes, Prophets, Astrologers and Bandits in the Crying Peninsula; and Regrets, Prisoners, Samurais, and Vagabond in the Stormveil Castle Box.
This game is an incredible thing to arrive at a big box filled with frightening monster microcosm, hundreds of cards, cardboard tokens, ceramic tiles and a large collection of books containing rules, battle maps and scene guides. It's one of the most intimidating games in my collection, made even more terrifying by the fact that I only own one of the campaigns – I have yet to get the other two boxes or any of the bonus boss sets that can be added in. For such a large game, Steamforged has knocked Elden Ring out of the park in terms of production value, featuring some of the most detailed miniatures I've seen, along with great-feeling cards and struggle cardboard components.
There are a few varieties in the scene that do a great job of keeping fresh, so you won't do the same back to back. However, not every scene type is the same as other scenes. The narrative scene requires you to read the paragraphs of the story, select the different actions you want to take (possibly skill checks), and then draw the appropriate cards to see what is going on. While these are well written and I appreciate what includes skill checking, this type of scenario isn't much for me – if I want to do a bunch of reading or storytelling, I'd just read one book or play one book or play Dungeons & Dragons.
My favorite so far is the exploration scene, which captures the spirit of discovery well and the feeling of never knowing what is on the next mountain, which almost defines the source. In these cases, you and other players explore areas of the map, flipping and placing random tiles as you work to complete various tasks. Tiles can contain enemies, items, grace periods, or other surprises for you to discover and exploit. I am a big fan of the “carrying growth” approach, drawing creations in board games House on the mountain betrayal Or clank! Catacombs – It enhances the sense of discovery and the repeatability of the game due to the random nature of the tile placement. These scenes offer a balanced combination of everything Elden Ring offers (battle, story and exploration) without feeling overwhelming.
The other three scenario types focus strictly on combat: Gauntlet, Dungeon and Boss schemes. Gloves put you into extremely difficult encounters with the enemy's mob and the special rules of scattering. The dungeon is similar, but eventually reaches its peak in a strong boss. Finally, the boss scene – you and your friends are engaging with the real threat of the game – is the ultimate test of your build and teamwork. Between these scenes and encounters that you stumble upon while exploring, Elden Ring is a heavy combat experience, and it's not a bad thing considering the battle is really solid.
The battle takes place on a grid formed on the notebook on the ring contained in the game. Some battles require multiple books to be laid out in multi-page spread, creating a battlefield where players and enemies strategically defeat each other. Specify the range with spells and weapons attacks, but depending on the row you stand, the player can get more gifts – such as dealing additional damage, modifying turn orders, or blocking more effectively. My friends and I often find ourselves in deep deliberations on location, trying to survive the attack. Alas, even our best plan often leads to our destruction – because the enemy in this game is Tough.
Basic enemies each have a card showing their movements, with symbols indicating attack position, movement and other mechanics. It takes some time to get used to the meaning of all symbols, but it can be managed. Once the enemy has taken the listed action, or if all steps are not possible, it is passed. This is simple and relatively easy to manage. But the boss is horrible. They have the entire action deck, each action has its own place under active command. Sometimes, you will be lucky that their attacks continue. At other times, they slam your party before it reacts. It's cruel and ruthless, but the battle never feels unfair due to the expandable health pool based on the number of players. Every boss fight is exciting and full of tense moments, and we want to hold our breath and stagger the boss or avoid devastating attacks. Although only a microcosm of moving on the grid, the battle provides surprising depth and strategy to make it shine.
One aspect that might surprise players is that Elden Ring gave up on the dice altogether and chose the card drive instead Deck construction experience. Players play cards from decks equipped with weapons, skills and equipment decisions. However, the damage and mitigation caused – as well as special effects such as bleeding – are determined by the separate attribute deck. Different attribute cards contain symbols representing strength, agility, and other statistics, and attack and defense decks prefer certain symbols over others.
Character progress is a core component of the campaign board game, and Elden Ring is no exception. Similar to video games, you can not only improve your course’s new abilities, but also customize your characters by exchanging weapons, armor, accessories, and attribute cards, and add overall statistics through trait cards. All of this is managed through a rune system, which can be used as device load limit. As you progress in your campaign, your total runes increase, allowing for more customization. However, there is a lack of tracking methods – Steamforged provides small rune cards to track your total, but they are inadequate for each player and are added to the clutter. A simple tracker, such as a tracker for health, would have been more effective. For now, the best way to do this is to track the runes on paper, which feels clumsy. Hopefully, better solutions emerge from the community or thrives on their own.
Despite the advantages of Elden Ring, my initial experience was frustrating – not because of the game itself, but because I started with Stormveil Castle, which was the third campaign. While technically an independent extension, it assumes that your character has completed an earlier task and starts with adjustments to gears, runes, and decks. This makes it an overwhelming thing for fresh players. I strongly urge anyone interested in this game to start starting from the realm of the grafted king.
