Elden Ring took the video game world by storm. It was a “soulsborne” game (difficult game with easy deaths and plenty of grinding) that went mainstream. Given the number of video games that have been converted to a tabletop format, it was only a matter of time before Elden Ring was picked up by a publisher. Unsurprisingly, that publisher is Steamforged Games (SFG).
Why unsurprisingly? SFG’s first crowdfunded game was Dark Souls, a game that is similar to Elden Ring. SFG also has several other celebrated video game brands that they have published as board games, such as Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Horizon: Zero Dawn.
Dark Souls has a history of its own, but the first version was a HUGE crowdfunding success in terms of pledged dollars, but it missed the mark with gamers. In fact, SFG later published new rules and content to address backers’ concerns. On the flip side, its Resident Evil series has garnered better reviews with each release, with Resident Evil being their most recent published title.
So is Elden Ring like Dark Souls, like Resident Evil, or somewhere in between?
Gameplay Overview:
Elden Ring is a cooperative fantasy adventure game (it is not a dungeon crawler) for one to four players. It is a campaign game, so the time to play is long, but each session breaks down into 90 – 120 minute chunks.
A campaign is made up of five different types of scenarios:
- Narrative – players read through an adventure, making choices that impact their characters and inventory, as well as potential future encounters. Think “Choose Your Own Adventure” with skill checks.
• Exploration – players explore the overworld by placing hex tiles and encountering their discoveries.
• Dungeon – players fight through enemies to face an end boss.
• Gauntlet – players fight multiple waves of enemies
• Boss – players confront a boss
If you fail a scenario, it does not mean the campaign is over. Just like Elden Ring, “YOU DIED,” but you can replay the scenario. Essentially, you can replay failed scenarios until completed, until you successfully complete the last scenario of a campaign.
Game Experience:
What made me want to make sure Elden Ring was on my table:
The highlight of this game, similar to the video game, is the character progression. There are many levers to pull in building your character. You can improve their three main stats (HP, FP, and hand size), their equipment, as well as their combat, attribute, and trait cards. The sources of these upgrades are varied as well. You can complete class quests (think Gloomhaven) to improve your stats and class feature, a unique ability for your chosen class. You can earn equipment and attribute cards as you progress through the campaign. New weapons impact the combat card that can be included in your combat deck.
But what ties these improvements together is the rune cost system. Every card has a cost to be equipped. There are only two rules: first, you must always have an attribute deck of ten cards. Second, the cards in your combat deck must be available to the weapon cards that are equipped. From there, you can build your character how you see fit. Wear less armor so you have runes to equip better weapons? Do it. Change the weapon you are using, or improve the weapon you already have, increasing its rune cost? It is up to you and how you want your character to play.
The other aspect I enjoyed is the design of the combat system. It is a unique mechanism that simulates the ebb and flow of a battlefield. Columns (lanes) are used to indicate adjacency. Rows determine your stance and what bonuses they convey, from extra damage to manipulating the marching order (initiative track). This means that two minis in the same column are adjacent to each other, regardless of adjacency on the board. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, it is really a simple but deep system.
The marching order will impact who goes first. Each player can take three actions on their turn—move one orthogonal space (change stance or lane), draw cards back to their hand size, play a combat card, discard a card to restore 1 FP or perform a light attack, use a flask (restore HP or FP), or summon spirit ashes. Of course, you should probably keep some cards in your hand at the end of your turn because combat cards can also have defend values. These cards can be discarded to prevent damage when you are attacked. The puzzle of balancing when to play multiple attacks in a row to do big damage vs. holding cards in your hand is the standout mechanism in Elden Ring.
What made me put the board game away and play Elden Ring on my Xbox:
My biggest issue is the lack of cohesive exploration. At its heart, the Elden Ring video game is about exploration. The game is MASSIVE. If you see something you want to investigate in the distance, you can reach it… eventually. You will not get that same feeling in the board game. My negativity is not driven using random tiles for each exploration scenario. I think random maps were a great design decision because:
- If SFG just replicated the Elden Ring world, video game veterans would simply run to their favorite locations and either a) get the loot they expected or b) complain if the loot was different and/or that their favorite location was missing
- It provides the players with an agency in exploring the world because they have no previous experience to draw from
- It allows every exploration scenario to be different, adding replay value
My complaint is that the game is not one giant exploration scenario that naturally leads to dungeons and/or bosses. The use of scenarios is jarring. The next paragraph is a spoiler:
SPOILER START
Stormveil Castle starts with a narrative scenario, followed by an exploration scenario that leads to your first combat, a boss battle. Once defeated, players experience another narrative scenario that presents their first choice—one leads directly to a dungeon scenario, and the other to another exploration scenario, but with combat included.
SPOILER COMPLETE
The game would be so much more engaging if exploration led to finding a dungeon or a boss to fight. It would feel like Elden Ring. This felt like completing scenarios in the Elden Ring universe. Other games have managed to have a large world to explore that was also easy to save (Tainted Grail, 7th Continent). While those were static worlds, you could manage the randomness by tiering the tiles, so you didn’t encounter the Grafted King on your second tile. I feel like this was a huge miss with the game.
My second issue is solo play and multiplayer cooperation. Using the prebuilt characters solo, any hardships encountered were almost impossible to pass due to the nature of the hardship tests and the composition of the attribute cards. SFG recommended I have a side deck of attribute cards to assist, but I am not sure why the game was not balanced to be soloable in the first place.
But what makes these games so enticing is the ability to play a multiplayer game with friends, when the game is mostly solo in its video game form. Unfortunately, unlike Slay the Spire or Dead Cells, recent video games given the tabletop treatment, the multiplayer is not very involved. There are no assist cards you can play to help your teammates when it is not your turn. Yes, you make decisions together and explore the board together. You can join someone’s combat if you wish; however, when it is over, you warp back to where you were when you were summoned. You can also trade, but only materials and/or consumables—no weapon or armor transfers are allowed. Given the active table discussion needed in recent multiplayer cooperative games, I found this to be a muted experience.
My third issue is the way the game content is distributed. There are three retail offerings: Weeping Peninsula (start at class quest level one, 20+ hours campaign), Realm of the Grafted King (called the core game, you can start at class quest level one and use the tutorial or play Weeping Peninsula in place of the tutorial, 50+ hours campaign), and Stormveil Castle (start at class quest level eight, 20+ hours campaign). For me, this presents two complications.
First, one of the main gameplay attractions of dungeon crawler/adventure games is seeing your character grow in power. I completely missed out on that when I reviewed this game. My characters all started at class quest eight. Also, the monsters have more health and hit harder. It reminds me of players who buy a max level token for MMORPGS, but have no clue how their class plays because they have access to all their abilities without ever using them in-game. I had to learn from trial by fire, instead of growing into my character. The other issue is that you MUST have the Grafted King box if you want to include the KS/SFG exclusive content.
Final Thoughts:
I was disappointed with Elden Ring: Stormveil Castle. Solo mode not being balanced is unfortunate. Cooperating in multiplayer is lacking, and the use of scenarios instead of exploring the Lands Between was an odd choice. I could see die hard Elden Ring fans house ruling this to their heart’s desire, but that is not why most people buy board games. You might as well just create your own RPG using the materials in the box at that point.
The game design, balance, and polish felt more like one of their first games, Dark Souls, and less like Resident Evil, one of their best games. Maybe the next core box and expansions will address some of these issues, or there will be an Elden Ring 2.0 relaunch.
As it is, I cannot recommend Stormveil Castle, especially as an entry point into Elden Ring: the Board Game. Maybe Weeping Peninsula and The Grafted King are better; however, the campaign structure across all three would be similar.
Final Score: 2 Stars – An amazing IP that deserved a more balanced and cohesive tabletop rendition
Hits:
• Character building
• Combat design
Misses:
• Lack of cohesive exploration
• Player scaling and cooperation
• Distribution of content
Source: Board Game Quest
