Here at gamesGRABR, it’s no secret that we’re fans of Dark Souls. Actually, we’re massive fans of Dark Souls and we even wrote a post about why the game is a true fans game, which you can check out and read here. We’re also fans of games being converted into other mediums, like films or television series, for example. However, it’s not often that a game is turned into an actual physical Board Game that you can sit around and play with your mates and not look at a screen at all. So when we found out that over $5million was raised to make Dark Souls into a board game, we simply couldn’t wait to see what the outcome would be and the verdict is finally in.

The game has been designed by Steamforged board games and this is the statement they released on their website when they announced they were making the game:

“Designed from the ground up, the Dark Souls board game is a brutally hard exploration miniatures game for 1-4 players. Prepare to die. Because this will be the hardest board game you have ever played.

Featuring an exciting “fast setup, long reveal” mechanic that gets you into the game faster and builds the location as you explore. The sense of danger is palpable as you discover new locations and the monsters that inhabit these dark places. The core combat mechanic and enemy behavior system forces deep strategic play and clever management of stamina to survive.

The game will ship with numerous boss and mini-boss encounters, and as mentioned above, will utilize an innovative behavior mechanic that will mean no two encounters are ever the same, thus giving the game near infinite replayability.

Using our advanced miniatures pipeline and working with one of the finest board game manufacturers in the world, the quality and detail in the miniatures will be world class. As Dark Souls fans, and with the entirety of the Dark Souls universe available to us, one of the hardest decision has been to narrow down which enemies and bosses to include in the core game. We wanted to be sure to use both old favorites as well as new enemies from Dark Souls 3.

We are pleased to reveal that one of the boss fights included in the core game will be the Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough.

From the start of this project, Steamforged Games has worked closely with the team at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment; Dark Souls fans can be sure that this board game will give an experience that captures the very essence of the original video games.”

Excited yet?

Since that statement, as mentioned above, over $5million was pledged through kickstarter hopefully since then, the game has gone into production and some beta versions have been released. Firstly, we’re wondering if they game is going to be as difficult as the video  game. This would definitely coincide with the video game as we all know how difficult that is and how many controllers we’ve had to replace because of it. Sam Barkaway from the GamesGRABR office said, “It is the hardest game I have ever played, nothing has tested me more and actually drawn me into the game as much as Dark Souls, ever.”

In the statement, the guys over at Steamforged mentioned that the game practically has infinite playability, this is especially true as there is a huge choice of armour, spells and weapons to give the player their set up preference. This means that each time you play, you could alter your player slightly, which could give a completely different experience. Honestly, the possibilities with this converted board game are endless, it’s great!

The one trouble that we think the board game may come across is the fact that the Dark Souls world is so immersive, the graphics in the game make it so beautiful and extremely aesthetically pleasing. This may be something that can be difficult to recreate in the board game as most of it will be left to the imagination, if you’ve already played the game then this may not be as hard as those who have never had the pleasure of watching Dark Souls and admiring its beauty, the open world game will have to be cut down to fit on one game board, we hope they’ve chosen the most beautiful scenes, and if they’re working with Namco then we think it’ll be just fine.

One of the best things in Dark Souls is how rewarding it feels to kill one of the bosses, or one of the harder monsters throughout the game. For example, each enemy type has a different play and different load out, making it harder to kill multiple enemies at the same time and means that you have to be pretty strategic throughout the game. We wonder if the board game will have the same kind of rewarding feeling when you defeat one of the bosses that have been incorporated into it.

There are tons and tons of things to do in Dark Souls, loads of mini-quests and lots of different storylines on the side, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any extra things to do in the board game or if you’ll have to literally follow one storyline. To be fair though, even if you follow the minimal storyline throughout the game, it’s still really enjoyable and you can get so much out of the game. The one thing we’ll be wondering though is how epic the big battles are without the music, having the music playing is definitely one of the things that makes the game so special and exhilarating, so maybe we’ll all have to put the radio on just for those scenes…maybe the creators should make a Spotify playlist to go along with the game, that would be awesome.

There are so many questions about this board game and we’re so excited to see how this board game is going to turn out. I think we’ll still be waiting a little while for it but it’s definitely a step forward and one that needs to be looked at more in the gaming world. Board games are still so much fun and imagine having a Fallout board game, or a Call of Duty board game, it’s definitely a bridge that needs to be made and we’re excited to see what the future will bring us!

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