Beast is a hidden movement game, designed by Aron Midhall, Elon Midhall, and Assar Pettersson, and published by Studio Midhall. As many Kickstarter darlings are, it’s an absolutely gorgeous production. The box art depicts a massive hydra before a lone warrior, weapon drawn. The scene promises an epic encounter with a mystical beast, a foe that needs to be overcome in the depths of the forest. The characters are lovely acrylic standees, and the board is littered with gold highlighted screen printed critter meeples (sheep, boars, and bears). The art on the cards is dark and mysterious, and each beast feels like it has an entire mythos behind them. A fable, passed down in whispers around campfires from generation to generation, which is exactly the feeling you want from this game.
The gameplay, on the other hand, is plodding at best. Beast is all about a hidden movement dance. You’ve got these hunters, dreaming of glory, and a beast, sneaking around like a Predator. In its mind, you’re already dead, you just haven’t realized it yet. But wait, it’s not all excitement and epic clashes. You know that feeling when you’re stuck in traffic, and it’s like the universe is conspiring against your progress? That’s how Beast makes me feel. It’s slower than a molasses, drafting cards and deciding on which top and bottom actions to use takes longer than trying to start a fire with nothing but a stick and string. You saw it work in a movie once, right?
Beast should be simple and straightforward. Players draft a hand of action cards, add them to their hand of personal cards, then, on their turn, play one or two cards and execute the actions on the cards. But Hunters need to confer with each other on what each player can do, and what they think the beast can do, all while be beast player sits by, smirking, or, bored out of their skull waiting for their turn to do anything. Then, when all the hunters have finally executed their turns, it’s finally the beast players turn to make the table wait while they consider every possibility. After every beast turn, the hunters need to re-confer with each other, as each action they take is precious. There’s a lot of time just spent considering everything that you as a player can do, and trying to guess at what your partners and opponents can accomplish on their turns.
The dance between the beast and the hunters is exciting at first. As the beast slinks in the shadows, circling its prey, the hunters take their first tentative steps out of their villages, moving in the direction they think the beast has moved to. Very quickly, it becomes clear that this dance is actually a frustrating game of cat and mouse. Each of the hunters can move one or maybe two steps with each of their cards, while the beast seems to get 2 to 4 movement on average. On the face of it, that doesn’t seem that bad, but at the end of the day, the hunters can move 10ish spaces between them, while the beast player can move like 12 spaces all on their own. Ideally, the hunters are spread out to cover more ground, but this leaves at least one hunter removed from the action, taking an entire day to cross the map only to have the beast slip by them going in the other direction.
I was endlessly frustrated by the hide and seek mechanics. There were scenarios where I had 100% logically deduced where the beast was, and was standing on that same spot, and had attack cards in my hand, but because I didn’t hold a card with the ‘seek’ keyword in my hand, I couldn’t reveal the beast to attack it. In contrast to that, the only thing the Beast needs to do to attack is to play one of those attack cards. Doing so, reveals their location, but to become hidden again, all they have to do is simply move again. It feels unfair for the hunters to require a keyword to find the beast when the beast doesn’t need a keyword to hide again. Coupled with my criticism above where the beast generally has so much more movement options than the players, it makes for a slippery and frustrating experience.
Beast gives both the hunters and the beast player plenty of tools to cut their own path. For every strategy, there’s a counter. For every boon one side gets, there’s a way for the other side to mitigate it. For the beast, it’s not terribly difficult to accrue enough grudge to be fully evolved and have all their skills unlocked by the final night. With all of your skills at your disposal, the beast is exponentially stronger than it was at the start of the game. The hunters, on the other hand, struggle to gain enough grudges to unlock any of their abilities. Add to that, the grudges are used to activate most of the items that are needed to counter the beastly talents. And yes, many of the beastly talents also cost grudges, but the Beast has so many more options to earn grudges over the course of a single day. The opportunity cost for using a grudge for the hunters is significantly higher doing similar things as the beast player.
I found the asymmetry of the beast and the hunters to be odd and frustrating. The beast gets grudges for killing the critters on the board, but the humans don’t get grudges for hitting the beast or killing its summons. If the beast kills one of the players, the beast gets to take one of their cards, and that player has to sit out for the rest of the round, but if the players hit the beast, then hitting the beast is the reward in itself. A lot of “I can do this, but you can’t” when explaining the rules continued to sow discord in my heart.
Speaking of dying, while there isn’t true player elimination in Beast, it’s possible for players to be knocked out of a whole day. In our most recent game, Bigfoot died on the third day, and was forced to just sit, and spectate. Maybe they can make suggestions for what the remaining two hunters should do, but still. Relegated to the sidelines, no agency of their own. Defeated hunters do recover at the dawn of the next day, but when each day takes at least 30 – 45 minutes to play through, that’s a lot of time to wait around with nothing to do.
One time, near the end of a round, I played the last card of my hand, and ended my turn on a town. Then the beast moved two spaces with their last card, ending their turn on my spot, revealing themselves, but with no one with any cards remaining, the round came to an end. As an upgrade, the beast spent their grudges to improve their damage, and then in the following day, the beast (who always gets the first action), used their first action to attack me, and consumed one of their ancient power to increase their attack, dealing a whopping 3 damage to me, knocking me out for the entirety of the final day. Not only did the beast get to steal one of my cards as a reward for killing me, but now the beast had 6 less hunter actions to worry about. I honestly stepped away from the table at that point, as I was done and out for the rest of the game. I had no investment to watch the song and dance of the beast and the remaining two hunters for the next hour. When a game has players disengaged and walking away from the table, that’s trouble.
I understand why all of these aspects exist, and for those who love the game, I fully understand why. For every complaint about a mechanic I have, there’s a good reason for that mechanic to exist. There’s always a strategy that I could pursue to face my struggles, and these problems I have with Beast will probably fade away with experience. I appreciate games that reward repeat plays, but I really struggle when my first impression of a game is so sour. It’s got such potential buried under layers of frustration, an the uneven playing field is rife with leaving first time players with a bad impression. For those who love Beast, I’m so glad you found your joy, but personally, it’s a game that I’m moving on from, and won’t be looking back.
As a kid, I absolutely loved the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, or more specifically, the “Give Yourself Goosebumps” game book series, which were billed as a ‘choose your own horror adventure’ novel series by R. L. Stine. If you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing these books, the basic premise is that you read a few pages, then you’re presented with a choice. Each choice will take you down the path of a branching narrative, and eventually, reach a conclusion. The Goosebumps books featured around 20 endings per book, and part of the fun was holding your fingers in your last place like a save point, only to flip back if your choice ended up with the protagonist’s untimely demise.
I spent hours flipping through every Give Yourself Goosebumps book that my local library would get in. luckily, I was on good terms with the librarian, and she seemed to always make there were one or two new books for me each semester.
Spires End, authored by Greg Favro and published by Favro Ventures through a highly successful crowdfunding campaign in 2019, presents an intriguing card game experience wherein players are able to shape their own destinies amidst a setting of intense suspense and horror. Boasting captivating artwork by Benjamin Wiesman, an array of six playable characters, and fifteen unique endings spread across seven chapters, Spires End aims to captivate and immerse players within its intricate and suspenseful narrative.
How to Play
Spires End starts with a deck of cards outlining all the rules, then, and eases you into your first combat. Every card will tell you how to engage with your encounter, but the core of the game comes from combat. In combat, you need to risk your life to be successful. Each character has a certain number of hit points, and armour points. On your turn, you can spend a number of hit points to preform an attack. Each character’s attacks are different, like Millicent’s level 2 attack hits on a roll of 4 and up. A 4 or a 5 will yield 3 damage, a 6-7 will deal 4, and an 8 will deal 4 damage and stun your enemy. Once you’ve cast your attack, you have the opportunity to recoup. Roll another dice, apply the effects (generally healing between 0 and 3 hit points), then the opponents have an opportunity to hit you back.
Each enemy have their own attacks and challenges to overcome. From a pair of twins who hit you twice, to a blob that splits, to a horde of angry mushroom men, every enemy offers a unique challenge.
After a combat encounter, you’ll be directed to flip cards and read more story. Sometimes, you’ll find yourself thrust back into combat, and other times, you’ll have simple choices. If you’re holding a specific item, go to this card, otherwise, go to this other card. Choose to follow the light to the left, or descend a dark stairwell. Either way, your fate is in your own hands.
Review
There’s a lot to love in Spires End, especially if you have an affinity for the dark and brooding theme. The art is absolutely stellar, with its rough lines and black and white and red colour scheme. Having the bright red on the black and white images is great, from highlighting a plaid shirt, to blood splattered against a shield, it draws your eyes in and highlights the danger.
Every card in Spires End is huge, and features gorgeous artwork. I cannot overstate how much I enjoy the style, and how that helped pull me into the experience. The large format Black cards with mysterious red glyphs are imposing and yet, intriguing. I’m excited every time I flip over a card.
The combat mechanism at the core of the game is all about sacrifice and playing with fire. To preform an attack, you need to sacrifice some of your life. You’ll constantly be tempted to go all in and blast the monsters into next week, but also, whittling their health down point by point feels like the safe and reasonable thing to do.
It’s absolutely brutal when you commit 4 of your 5 hit points, then miss the attack entirely, whiff the recoup roll, then get murdered by the opponent. But that’s what you get when a combat mechanism is entirely based on dice. The result is a combat that feels tactical and dangerous. You’ll lose a war of attrition, but a well-timed hit or a lucky miss will sing the pendulum of fate and create exciting moments that will have you fist pumping with elation, or mourning as Rulf succumbs to his injuries. The luck can be really frustrating at times; if you already don’t like rolling dice, Spires End isn’t going to change your mind.
Each character has a unique flavour to them, like Leofrick who can pierce enemies and will hit on a 2 or higher, or Hildegard, who can heal her partner, allowing them to be more risky in their attacks. How you approach each encounter will change depending on what character combination you have, as you’ll always and only have 2 characters in play at any time. Should one of them die, they’ll unleash a final effect, then be replaced by the next character from the deck. Spires End is a dangerous place, be prepared to lose some friends.
The narrative is well crafted, better than most narrative board games that I’ve experienced. The ebb and flow of story between encounters gives flavour and context to the world, and forcing the player to make choices gives a great feeling of agency. I particularly enjoyed the moments where I had to choose a branching path, then had to skip several cards, getting only glimpses of what adventures I could have taken. It’s tantalizing, making me want to return to Spires End again and again to specifically seek out the paths I missed.
Spires End is advertised as a 1 or 2 player game, but really, this is a solo experience. Having full control over both characters isn’t onerous, and having the freedom to pick the choices you want without another player pulling you in a different direction is pretty important. Even if you’re ‘not a solo gamer’, I would highly recommend playing Spires End on your own. The asymmetry in the characters and the branching narrative are the hooks that keep dragging you back for more. Spires End is full of character and style, and if you’re into these kinds of narrative solo games that demand multiple plays, then Spire End is sure to be a home run.
That’s right, I’m using its full, Klaus Teuber-given name, ‘The Settlers of Catan‘. Not this hip and trendy shortened name that everyone was using already. I’m just holding out for people to just start calling it C, as if it’s the only game that ever existed.
I find it hard to imagine anyone finding their way to a hobby board game review website without already having a fully formed opinion on Catan, so, this post isn’t going to be serious. This is an exercise in stress relief. Speaking personally, I think Catan is a just fine game. But hey, we’re both here, let’s have some fun.
Alright, so when you start playing a game of The Settlers of Catan, you’ll be all hopeful, imagining yourself as some master settler, forging roads and building settlements like you’re a grand architect. But guess what? The game’s like, “Oh, you want wood? Well, too bad, you’re getting sheep.” Seriously, it’s like the game goes out of its way to make you suffer. “You want some bricks? Nope, here’s more sheep! Good luck building a city out of that, genius”.
Now, let’s talk about trading. At its best, trading in Catan is like trying to barter with your buddies in real life, but with more yelling and frustrations. It’s like, “Hey, I’ll give you two sheep for that wheat,” and they’re all like, “Only if you throw in a brick, buddy.” “But I’m fresh out of brick” “Too bad, no brick, no trade” “Brick hasn’t been rolled in 6 rounds!” It’s like that American Chopper meme of red-faced men shouting and pointing fingers and flipping tables. At it’s worst, you’re negotiating with a brick wall. You offer the world and they give you nothing. They want for nothing, and nothing you can do will change their cross-armed stance.
And then there’s the dice, doling out resources like a cruel god. The most common number in the game is a 7, which summons that thieving robber, who snatches your hard-earned resources. What’s worse is when you have finally amassed resources, that bastard shows up and cuts your hand in half. I’m so glad that I spent turn after turn getting resources, only to have the robber show up and invalidate my last 30 minutes of game play.
And don’t even get me started on the victory points. You need ten of those bastards to win, and it’s a race against time and your friends’ schemes. You’re wheeling, and dealing, and shouting, scraping resources from the land to build roads and settlements, then suddenly, your friend is all like, “Oh, I won. Oops.” And you’re just sitting there, staring at your meagre three points, wondering what you did wrong in your past life to deserve this punishment.
The Settlers of Catan is an emotional roller coaster that starts with false hope and ends with shattered dreams. You’ll pine for sheep all night, but because no one ever rolled an 8, a sheep famine sweeps across your nation. It’s the battered box that sits in the back of my closet for a reason. When I get invited to a Settlers of Catan game night, I find better friends.
Project Hail Mary begins with an amnesiac astronaut waking up in a room with two mummified bodies, and needs to remember who he is and what he’s doing. Turns out, he’s on a space station hurtling through space. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that the hero, Ryland Grace, a high school science teacher, is humanities sole hope in what is surely to be a cataclysmic event causing the end of all life on Earth.
If you’ve read Andy Weir’s previous books (The Martian and Artemis), then you’ll be acquainted with his voice. Each of the characters are plucky, pun-ridden, and sassy, no matter the situation. While Weir’s writing style offers puns, jokes, and pop-culture references that inject levity and fun, they’re shoe-horned into characters in high leadership positions facing humanity ending crises, it just feels wrong in the end.
What starts as a space flu stealing the heat from our sun, and expanding to dozens of nearby stars, Project Hail Mary establishes the science that forms the bedrock for the rest of the plot. While the mystical astrophage is fantastical, I like that Weir establishes its properties quickly, then has those properties come back again and again to create unexpected problems for the characters to solve. I also like that it feels like Weir has done his homework, just like in The Martian. The Science feels researched and real, and inspires excitement when a character can take a scientific approach and apply logical steps to their situations.
Project Hail Mary is an approachable hard Sci-Fi, first encounter tale, as it’s filled with optimism. Curiosity and excitement are the main emotions the heroes feel and display, which is great for someone like myself who doesn’t read a lot of Sci-Fi in the first place. I got caught up in the adventure and discovery that Project Hail Mary promised, and I was enraptured when Blip-A first appeared. It never got mired down in fear, war, or politics, as many Sci-Fi books do. Rocky very quickly turned into a snarky human-esqe character instead of an alien with its own personality and culture, I nevertheless enjoyed the ride.
The parts that felt contrived were Rocky’s magical material that seemed to be able to fit any situation. On the other hand, I do like that its qualities came back to bite the characters in the ass. Also, once Grace remembered enough about his missions, I felt the flashbacks became unnecessary. It was establishing some of the character qualities that Grace no longer exhibited in the present story. He’s a coward, but he preforms death-defying EVAs without a moment’s hesitation. He’s selfish, but he very quickly sacrifices himself to save his friend. I felt the flashbacks went on just a little too long and near the end, I found myself really wanting to return to the present story.
I enjoyed Project Hail Mary. It was a fun, optimistic adventure, and I recommending it despite my criticisms, especially to anyone who enjoyed the Martian. I don’t think Project Hail Mary will convert those who bounced off Weir’s previous books, but for returning fans, this adventure tickled my love of discovery and was an incredibly fun read.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never been good at fighting games. I barely competent enough to beat M. Bison on easy mode while playing Street Fighter II Turbo on my Super Nintendo back in the day, but my button mashing sister still had a decent chance to beat me. I knew how to do a hadouken, but never grasped the combos of any other characters. Try as I might, executing Mortal Combat Fatalities has always eluded me.
As a teenager, my friends and I got heavily invested in some anime focused fighting games, like Naruto: Ultimate Ninja,Naruto: Clash of Ninja, or Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and Budokai 2. Fun fact, I’ve never watched or read the Dragon Ball series, but I have a pretty good grasp on the story, just from playing the myriad of video games. As an adult, my fighting game of choice has always been Super Smash Brothers. As for skill at these games, I exist in a weird state, where I’m better than my friends, but the few times I seek out other enthusiasts, I get utterly crushed.
All of this to say, I have enthusiasm for fighting games, but no expertise. It’s a genre of game that I’ve dabbled in, but never submerged myself in.
How to Play
Guilty Gear -Strive- is a two player, head-to-head fighting game featuring characters from the titular video game. Each character has their own persistent ability, and a set of 10 unique cards that are combined with 30 base cards, that makes each character deck unique.
The game board has a main track in the centre, and each player places their character card in one of the specially marked slots. During the game, players can choose to move forward and backward along the X axis, putting space between themselves and their opponent, or, closing the gap for hand-to-hand combat. That character card also shows what ability that character has, and if they move into Exceed mode, the card is flipped over showing a more powerful effect for the rest of the game.
Each basic card in the deck has two parts, an attack, and a boost. If the attack is used, the stats down the left side of the card dictate how the attack can be used (range, damage, etc). The boost prepares the card to be used on future attacks.
The game begins with the randomly determined first player drawing 5 cards, and the second player drawing 6. Then the game is ready to start. On a turn, a player takes one action, then ends their turn. If a player did not strike for any reason, they also get to draw a card. So let’s talk about what actions are available.
As a basic action, a player can choose to move any number of slots on the board. If they do, they need to generate force for every spot they wish to move. Force is generated by discarding cards from your hand, or from the gauge area. Each basic card is worth 1 force, while ultra attacks (denoted by the red banners) are worth 2 force. You also need to pay an extra force if you choose to move through your opponent. Many of the cards also have movement as part of their effect. Advance and retreat keywords will have to move toward or away from your opponent, pushing and pulling will move your opponent away from or toward you.
Striking is how you deal damage to your opponent, and ultimately, win the game. When you strike, you choose one of your cards, and place it face down. Your opponent must respond, by playing an attack of their hand, or, by choosing to ‘wild swing’, places the top card of their deck face down in response. Both players then reveal their attacks. The faster attack (higher speed) is resolved first (ties go to the attacker). Determine how much damage is being dealt (attacker’s power vs. defender’s armour), and adjust the health gauge accordingly. When any damage is dealt, you check to see if the damage done is higher than the opponent’s guard, and if it is, the opponent is stunned. A stunned character doesn’t get to counter-attack.
Any successful strike card gets placed into the gauge area, building up towards ultimate attacks. In addition to normal strikes, you can also choose to use an EX Attack, which has you play two cards of the same name face down. After the reveal, one of the cards is immediately discarded, and the remaining card gets a +1 to all its stats (except range).
Another basic action is Boosting, which allows you to play a card from your hand, to your Boost area. Boosts with lighting bolts are instant effects and are consumed immediately. Otherwise, the boost is considered ‘continuous’, and the effects of the card will buff your next attack. After the next strike where the boost is used, it’s discarded from your play area. It’s important to note that whether you hit or not, used boosts are discarded. Make your shots count!
Some boosts also give you the option to ‘cancel’, which lets you spend one card from your gauge area to take another action instead of ending your turn. You play multiple cancels in a single turn, if you have the gauge to pay for it.
All the actions I’ve talked about up to now will drain cards from your hand. The Change Cards action allows you to spend force to draw new cards. Discarding ultimate abilities, or cards from your gauge area are great ways to restock your hand. Alternatively, you can simply Prepare, which allows you to draw a card. In case you forgot, this would end your turn without striking, giving you a second card as well.
LET’S ROCK!
Review
Guilty Gear (the video game) has been slick as hell for the better part of two decades. With game after game of iconic characters, tight gameplay, and the slick visuals of the 2D/3D style, it’s the kind of game that grabbed onto a fanatical fan base and never let go.
If you’re not in the know, Guilty Gear -Strive- The Board Game is powered by Level99Games Exceed system, making this the 7th season of Exceed. I have no prior experience playing Exceed, but now that I’ve had a taste, I’m thirsting for more.
While the past seasons have adapted other fighting game staples, such as BlazBlu and the king of them all, Street Fighter, among other, less expected properties, like Shovel Knight. One thing to say for sure, if you’re a video game and anime fanatic, Level 99 Games is making products just for you.
If you’re like me and look at ‘7 seasons’ and feel a pit in your stomach, fearful of the investment that it would take to get ‘caught up’, there’s no need to fret. Cross-season play is fully compatible, and while the graphic design of each of the cards is tailor-made for the set it belongs to, they all conform to the same system. Curious if Shovel Knight could beat up Chun-Li? This is the way to find out! I don’t know if I would recommend mixing all the seasons together, however, as each season features its own twist, and the disjointed graphic design of the cards can be a bit jarring. But still, it’s nice to know that the option to do so exists.
I want to get my complaints out of the way first, which mainly have to do with the art on the cards. The portraits on the cards look like blurry screen-grabs from the video game, which don’t translate well to the printed media. The wide sweeping visual effects make sense and look slick when they’re paired with actual movement on a screen and timely sound effects, but when a wide green arc is static on a card, it just looks unimpressive. Some of the caracter models on the cards look like a blurry, muddled mess, and I feel like this is an aspect that could have really been improved on. To compare it to a completely different game, Disney’s Villainous feature cards with scenes right out of the films that those characters come from, but the art has been recreated in a dynamic style and framed appropriately for the medium of a playing card. The lacklustre character art is particularly frustrating, considering the source material is well-known for a stunning visual style.
That’s pretty much my only critique, because this game SLAPS! I’ve heard praise for the Exceed fighting system before, but I regret not getting into this game earlier. If you have a gaming partner who likes head-to-head combat games, pick up Exceed!
I wish I had a deeper knowledge of what came before Guilty Gear -Strive-, but from what I can tell this season’s twist is the cancelling, which is a mechanic I have a hard time imagining living without. The excitement of chaining actions together to do something wildly unexpected, at the expense of your gauge, is delicious. It’s exciting and visceral, harkening back to the adrenaline fuelled video game. I don’t know how Sol and Ky play on the screen, but on the table, Sol cancels into bone shattering powerful attacks, while Ky excels at dancing around his opponent. I can’t wait to explore how all the other characters interact with each other!
The gameplay of Guilty Gear -Strive- is fast and tactical. On your turn, take an action, then play passes over to the other player. Your hand will dwindle as your gauge grows, then, after a flurry of activity, players are depleted, and need to refresh their battle plans. Rarely does everything go according to plan, but when you manage to land a strong blow because your opponent was caught flat-footed with no armour cards, it feels utterly satisfying. A poorly planned Strike turns into an opportunity to punish your opponent, and stunning or taking the advantage does a lot to make you feel like you’re in control of duel of fates.
If you’re coming from the video game world, obviously some things had to be stripped out. There is no mechanic for smashing your opponents out of the ring, and air juggling is (thankfully) absent. Reducing the mechanics makes for a easier and faster game to play, one that is inviting for those who are used to only pushing buttons and letting the computer work out the timings. Level 99 Games’ Exceed system is a natural fit and has been adaped well to Guilty Gear -Strive-.
As I said above, if you have a gaming partner who enjoys head-to-head games, Guilty Gear -Strive- raises the bar for dueling games. Doubly so if you have any love or history with 2D fighting games, or the Guilty Gear franchise itself. The demo box is available for free (plus shipping) from Level 99 Games website if you want a taste of the action. I can’t wait to see what surprises each of the upcoming characters holds. Level 99 Games excels at making fun games (like Bullet❤️ or Millennium Blades), and with just this demo deck, they’ve converted me into a believer of the Exceed system. When Guilty Gear -Strive- hits my table, I put on the electric heavy rock soundtrack my hear immedately begins pumping. Win or lose, I’m always clammoring for a rematch!
