Bloodborne: The Board Game is NOT Genius 

As a longtime fan/player of the video game, and a longtime boardgame player, I would say this is one of the finer adaptations of a videogame to boardgame that exists. What it does right is it's a boardgame first. The hunter track is the biggest difference to the actual videogame and while I hated it at first, it gave the game the needed pressure on the player that keeps this from being a terrible slog that is the dark souls board game. While I disagree with your review, you are entertaining to watch. Good job.

I was actually surprised at how good this game is. First play is like, ok, it's fine, but it almost feels bland. But then you start seeing how much depth there is in such a light, easy to setup system, and even things some reviewers complained (like the randomness of the tiles) is baked in as part of the mechanisms you have to learn to manipulate in order to win a scenario.

I'm still unclear, is this game officially licensed?

I like the way you present your feelings on it, but my game group loves it. We've already played 42 scenarios and are still actively enjoying it. We are about to start the last campaign box this Saturday.

I was half expecting for boss music to kick in and Hbomber guy entering through a wall... but death by rats also is a fitting ending

If you ever want to offload all that plastic and cardboard to someone who paints minis professionally. I'm right over here!

After Efka's 3rd "its tricky", I expected him to do the Run D.M.C. rap song.

"I bought all of these.." - Also me trying to hide all the boxes like Ed trying to cover up in the show.

If you feel the game is too easy (because of reasons you mentioned, like upgrade cards being strong, for example): * play with 4 players, no player ever has a full deck of 12 upgraded cards by the end of a campaign, there's simply not enough time to do so, the time tracker will end your run before you Bosses are not a long drawn out fight, on my first playthrough we killed the cleric beast in the last turn, which was a blood moon(reset), meaning we had to deal 24 damage that round, and we did, with the help of some consumables and rewards. What to do before the blood moon so that your damage on the boss isn't wasted? Kill other enemies for blood echoes and cash them in the dream, complete other insight missions for more rewards, get consumables. There are even some insight missions that directly affect boss mechanics and makes them easier. If you're only planning bossfights one or two rounds prior to a blood moon, you're doing it wrong. As to RNG, you have it in literally every board game, and I'd argue that bloodborne is on the fewer side of dice rolls throughout a campaign. As to narrative, I totally disagree. Soulsborne games are made so that environment and gameplay tell a large portion of the story. Obviously in a board game adaptation you're not going to have the same level of environment building, that would destroy replayability altogether, not to mention too many different and non reusable tiles. The fact that you can mix and match from any expansion and still get a cohesive experience is what makes it great. I think they did a pretty good job with what they had, although I agree that some more work could've been done in the tile system not to be so linear. (perhaps implement verticality and such)

Honestly, as much as I love Bloodborne: The Board Game, I'd be remiss if I didn't tell people that 1: I'm a miniature painter, so the minis alone were what I was after; 2: I'm a huge Bloodborne videogame stan so I'm really biased and no one is less of a fan of the franchise for not liking the board game; and 3: When you buy the massive Kickstarter like this, you're pretty much automatically defensive of it. You had to justify it to yourself first, so when someone comes around and criticizes it, that can immediately put you on the defensive even when they're making really salient points. That's kind of how I feel here, even if he's repeating my own thoughts about the game back at me, I have to fight that primal urge to be like "B-but I love this thing, I spent all this money! It can't be *bad*, and I don't make *mistakes*!" even though he alleges neither of those things and I don't believe them either. This video is spot-on. This is a game I'd love to bring around to your house and play with you, dear reader. I'll show you what I painted, gush about the mechanics, we can laugh and strategize about what we're doing or what happens to us in the game. I.... just wouldn't recommend that you buy it for yourself at retail, though. The core box is really good, but it's like playing the very first section of the game, ending just *after* all the stuff everyone remembers and just *before* all the stuff that makes Bloodborne so captivating and unique. You could be playing a Van Helsing simulator, for all it matters to Bloodborne in the core box. If you've never played the video game, you might get a completely different impression of what Bloodborne *is* and what it covers from the core board game box. But then, the rest of the game being added on really *does* feel like it's added on; you're playing much shorter add-on scenarios to existing campaigns, or in the really big boxes one or two parallel campaigns that switch which line of quests you go on based on your choices. It's cool, but it feels like venturing into a DLC area rather than playing the next segment of a larger story (even though it *is* the next leg of the overall story). This is one of those All-Or-Nothing purchases, where you need to absolve yourself of any FOMO. The minis are fine, as an experienced modeler, but if you're not doing the cleanup and paint work, this product isn't really worth the exorbitant cost. This is the kind of thing you get if you're right in the middle of a *very* specific venn diagram of painting, bloodborne fandom, board game fan, and Lots of Disposable Income To Burn On Board Games.

The combat in sleeping gods is very nice. Feels like an elegant system that (with some evolutions) could be used effectively in these IP games that are supposed to have difficult but rewarding combat encounters

For anyone coming to this now or in the future and you really dislike the hunt track, I'll tell you what my group did to make it less of a pain, but still a challenge. The only thing you change is you do not advance the track at the end of a round. Going to the hunter's dream for whatever reason will still move it but we found that little change has made it significantly better. Try it out if you like.

Hmm, I've only done two campaigns so far and only one of them had you fight the boss in chapter 2. The other one mixed up chapter 2 by including a psuedo-boss fight against another hunter including a choose-your-own adventure decision on which side to side with. I personally disagree that the game becomes a pushover by chapter 2 and 3. Sure, I felt stronger by the end, but not so much so that I could fight easily. Especially when I know there's a race against time and with later chapters including extra fights or bosses. Maybe I'm just trying to justify spending $300 on bits of plastic but I think I like it as a whole. My biggest agreement is that the boss fights aren't quite as good as I'd hope, especially as mentioned with the "make them weaker" thing being a bit of a trap. I still think they're fairly serviceable though, and definitely can be tough at times.

The gameplay footage in the credits was way more engaging than I expected. The review was good, too. :)

A good game that takes up half of your Kallax and cost over $300. Think I will pass. Wish Kickstarter would stop with the endless expansions during the first run. Just do the core with maybe 1 expansion instead.

One cannot survive on Glommhaven alone. Any other dungeon crawlers you would suggest? A medium weight one is something I would like to add to my collection.

I bought the core box and played the first 3 chapters with my girlfriend. it's our first English language board game and second kickstarter after Tainted grail. Mechanical tinkering is really fun, but don't play with more than 2 people - it's better to think together and treat each task as a cooperative solitaire, instead of scrolling social media waiting for your own turn. I haven't played the original Bloodborn but compared to the previously mentioned tainted grail BBBG narratively disappoints expectations. Sure, an elaborate multithreaded storyline wasn't the designers' goal, but you could expect more. Finally, I would like to add that KS plastic is dusty on Kallax and it makes me sick just from the hassle of folding it. If you bought it, you probably will not regret it. If you are thinking about buying it, get the core box. Is a good, competent game of its kind.

With the POK expansion the Winnu are great to play in TI4 :)

Certainly remember Blood! "I live... again!"

"I LIVE, AGAAAAAIN!" (Nice "blood"borne die, rinse, repeat crossover there)

What I hate most is that they made so much of it kickstarter exclusive, so if you think you might want to have everything eventually, the only thing you can do is pre-order/kickstart everything. Else you'll miss out of multiple playable characters and campaigns. That is also the main reason I didn't get anything, I didn't want just a part and not being able to get more if I wanted to and I also didn't want to spend so much money on a game I wasn't sure I'd like or not.

The thing I love about this channel is the reviews that start with something that seems completely unrelated to a board game but ties it all together

Now this is a nice video, the pacing, the delivery, holy. And i am not familiar with the sous franchise, just knowing then by watching the essays. Also the blood reference is the cherry on top. I dont know why, but this is my favorite new video of yours. Excelent job. PS: Mathew Lee made a essay on dark souls? Where? I Need it

I hate the hunt track as a solo player. Thought it was choking me the entire time when the game could have just been a fun dungeon crawler. There should have been a better alternative than "run really fast through the tiles and ignore the combat otherwise everything resets including the boss as your in the middle of fighting it." If I wanted to Speedrun a game, I'd load up the video game and do an all bosses run in under four hours without the threat of a guillotine hanging over my neck. I LOVE Bloodborne. I love Eric Lang's work. The way the hunt track is implemented does not spark joy.

I would love a word on the chalice dungeon mode...I enjoy skimming through campaigns but after the first 3 there is really few differences between them...but chalice dungeons feel always like a challenge, tried it with 5 different gaming group, won only once but every time was a success

Well done, this video made me want to play this game and also never touch this game, at the same time. My head hurts now. I’m glad I have Dark Souls: The Card Game, because it has similar goals as this game, but I know I actually like playing it.

First play of this game was such a slog trying to figure out all the edge cases that weren't properly discussed in the manual.

Another great Video! and don't forget about the Guns Akimbo power up on top of that first mausoleum. firing off that many flares is great fun!

Efka, ačiū. I always enjoyed your reviews for not only evaluating the game's design, but also considering the context of its production and cultural impact (especially looking at the Colonialism video). Thank you for constantly offering an insight into the process of designing and producing board games and how they impact the final version, consumer behaviour, and the industry as a whole. It helps me appreciate this medium even more. On a personal note: How did you stick to making board game reviews over all those years? Did you always had a community backing you up? I'm trying to slowly steer my career into something that is worth the struggle and stress of being self-employed. However, staying motivated and believing it will turn out fine in the end and one will find a supporting community, while trying to juggle the expectations of people in one's current job and everyday human issues, is extremely exhausting. Sometimes to the point, where one just slips into auto-pilot mode and doesn't progress for weeks. TL;DR: How did you continue following your path while the rest of the world tries to swallow your time and energy? I'm looking forward to many years of your work, thank you again.

I'm just concerned about the shockingly low number of expansions for it. Are we sure CMON put enough components in this line?

Great analysis. This video summed up why this game was played every weekend for a month and then has been sitting on my shelf untouched for the last year. Love the theme and nostalgia of it all the same. Would kickstart again.

I backed the whole shebang, played the first mission, got intimidated by it all, and sold it for exactly the same amount I spent + Shipping. I hope the next guy who got it off me had a lot of fun with it and didn't just sell it for scalper prices. PS: I am an enormous fan of the videogame and have finished it with a bunch of different builds. One of the easiest playthroughs was with the Axe hunter :D

Great fair review. I feel you. It's so much stuff and it really could have used some more fine tuning. I feel like I take a bit of a cop out justifying my silly all in pledge, but I enjoy painting minis and getting 200+ minis of fairly good quality it's worth it. I also understand you guys review board games and not minis. Excellent review as always. Thanks!

I just got this for my birthday and played through the first chapter of the long hunt. SO MUCH FUN

Blood! Yes! "I live...agaaiiiiin...." Mad game.

The nature of the bosses are their attacks are meant to be memorized and deal with later, i.e. you'll probably never win the first time you encounter a boss (because of the new sets of attack cards it brings with) except you are very lucky with the card draw. Personally I'm okay with that. However there is a big bummer: when you lose a scenario you have to repeat THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN AND STARTING FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.

Personally, the whole thing about you becoming stronger while the enemies stay the same was the biggest thing i noticed. They even had ways to fix this, but oddly were only used to make the early game harder. A few insight quests spawn enemies and have extra cards that give them extra moves and more hp. The NPC fights are also good at this, shame there's only 1 of them in long hunt chapter 3, and it's the objectively wrong choice to do

It’s depressing. There is so much potential here. Worst, because of the KS model, it is unlikely flaws will be corrected in further expansions. I have this massive mountain of cardboard and plastic, and I just wish I had a bit less and some post-production support and tweaking instead. .

Expensive, overproduced, convoluted, tons of minis - that sums up CMON correctly. Still buying it.

I don't play the video game. I don't care about lavish kickstarters. But I always love to hear your thoughts and watch your visuals. Thank you, Efka and Elaine, for another great video. And since you mentioned getting into art a bit, and I've started my art journey several years ago, also from nothing, I will share fun tips in my comments. Have you discovered Drawfee yet? They do amazing videos where they combine drawing and improv comedy. I think you'd like them. Not only are they very funny and talented, but they're also a great bunch of sweet people. Good places to start are their playlists Most Popular and Speed Draws.

So... still not sure if I should open up my KS all-in or not ;)

I missed backing it, but I am buying some of them as I find them because... I really want to paint those minis! The game is also good, so, that's a bonus for me. I am glad I didn't go all in, but I do wish I had supported the base game and at least Hunter's Dream and Upper Cathedral. Because. Minis!

Since I'm not very creative almost every game I've started was based on a video-game (and one was based on star trek, which has video-games)... but that's the thing, while playing about with a system you start to see it's flaws and strengths until you realise that it doesn't match whatever you started with... yeah, I may have made a race game with items and drifting, but ultimately projectiles are less fun for this game than traps, and mario really only has banana peels and the timed bob-omb, so I need to change the game to have more and more interesting traps (which to be fair with Mario is a bit easier because there's a lot of games to pull from, so this is a bad example, but I'm sticking with it!). I know these people have contracts, but if they could take something as a jumping off point and then re-themed it to their own world it would have almost certainly made a game that's more cohesive and plays into the strengths of the system better. And yes, I know it's rich coming from someone who hasn't finished a game, and only has four he even thinks are good enough to continue working on, but 1. time and trust that it's ready for play testing are hard to come by, and 2. I can tell when most of my games aren't going to work out, and know not to make it and 20 expansions for a kick starter campaign as a result.

Hey, there's the script. Now you have me looking for those little table shelves...

I honestly regret pledging for more than just the base game. I like the game but it's not worth taking 2 kallax square.

I love Blood! I just played it again recently after raising the difficulty slightly higher! Still not that far up yet, it's not an easy game.

What specifically was it you were not impressed about in the first scenario?

Can I just say that "Blade Runner of Excel sheets" is what I want on my future business cards?

I'm curious if Efka played the Bloodborne card game? Also designed by Eric Lang.

Shocked that Hbomb didn't make some kind of physical cameo. Lot of references to the video though.

I was crazy enought to scan my tiles, photoshop them to remove the printing mesh and laminate them once they were 100% aligned recto verso. With an all-in pledge. So yeah, I'm invested in it, but I see the flaws. Good thing is, they do not impede my enjoyment of it so I'm happy about it (the components were my biggest gripe and removed the flimsy tiles and replaces the tokens with arbitrary metal ones with a fitting theme. But, there is so much room for improvement on that part. The game's great, but I ain't backing cmon again. First and final of them. Anyways I have enought solo gameplay for well over a year. Not counting my mini painting time which I will enjoy. Then again basing will take forever. Such a great mixed bag of feeling! I feel like a picked a party mix. Great chips but there's always those darn pretzels that take the fun away haha. edit for typo

Excellent review, thank you!

You’ve clearly never had Winnu warsuns on Mecatol Rex

Brilliant thoughtful review.

Great video ! Myazaki and all the people at From Software created those franchises...just clarifying ;)

I guess for a lot of video game fans the card game (especially with the expansion) would be just the right amount of recognizable stuff? Eric M. Lang did solid work on that one as well.

Please make a review of Massive Darkness!

First of all, I love your thoughts, even if I do not always agree. I found Bloodborne much more engaging than Shloomhaven (Snorehaven). I love how streamlined and slick the game is. I have just a few more boxes apart from the core game (enough to not get bored with playing the same hunters). I always play two players so the "going back to Hunter's Dream" never felt like an issue for me. I do agree that scenarios are a bit repetitive, bosses are a bit too unpredictable and the power/difficulty curve is not great. I do agree that graphic design is disappointing. Even with that I still can't wait for another game (we still have two campaigns to go, and I'm a bit worried about what will come after that). As for the "it could be better outside the KS" argument - it's a big "maybe". No game is "perfect" and no game is ever "finished", all games are released when they're "good enough", and some of them turn out to be "great, actually". I feel this game is better than "good enough". Also I'm the third person who knows the "Blood" game :)

A good board game idea, with a lot of time invested on how many plastic toys can we they fit on the KS campaing. Should be painfull to fell a good game mechanic be unecesary expanded until it feels repetitive.

One thing they did get right is that this board game is not for casual players. My board game group hates the hunter track with a passion because someone dies at least once every round and we always run out of track before we can finish a single mission. That combined with our terrible luck with drawing good tiles or upgrades means playing this game feels like pulling teeth. I just adapted the setting to a role playing game so I can use the minis but I don't think we'll ever play the base game again.

Gloomhaven? A 10 card puzzle game with a 45min setup and a Dc skin...

Am i the only one exited about the Blood reference?? It was a amazing wacky FPS.

15:58 did I just trip balls?

I am one of the three people that remembers Blood the video game. Along with many of it's build engine cousins.

Love the splitscreen

24:25 Winnu is actually quite fun after the expansion

A really good one also rimes with ‘Shellboy: The Moard Mame’

This review is hilarious

I just LAUGHED with the Winnu easter egg.

ooh nice Fargo-esque split screens

I remember Blood! You're welcome Eflka.

I will never tire of hearing Efka say "oeuvre".

Fantastic review Ekfa. I'm not even interested in the game, but your review writing is so great, I can't help but watch. :)

Entered wondering what this game was. Left with wanting to play Blood

Love your videos!

Enjoy your review thanks team 😊

Never played that old doom looking game. But I played every thing back then?! How?! What kind of sorcery is this?!

Im looking at bgg for schollomhaven, im really interested now...

I keep meaning to start Fargo

Where is the 2 part of the arkham games?

22:03 Ron Perlman.

i only getting this due being huge bloodborne fan lol

Now I really want to find Blood on the internet, install and re-live my 14 year old youth again.

So, after 2 years... Have there being a "patch"?

I was on board until you smack talked the Winnu. Its a fun exercise in role playing a penguin where the penguin is an alien race and their egg is Mecatol Rex and flying is scoring more than 5 points. Maybe you have a point.

Hmmm sadly I do remember blood. Not sure why, now in confused.

That watchmen analogy is absolutely spot on lol

I wish they had the Dark Souls licence as well.

As someone who *hates* Gloomhaven, I loved this one. Gloomhaven has a ton of flaws: the fiddly, bland monster AI; scenario puzzles with half the pieces missing (if you think you’re done with a mission, open that next door); the art style is dreadful; the card system feels like complexity at the cost of depth; the legacy elements feel tacked on; the miniatures are in competition for the *worst* ever put into production. I honestly don’t get the love for it, and I’ve played the physical and digital versions. Worst of all, it suffers from a D&D approach to combat sometimes: walk up to target, hit them until they fall over. Space is never a consideration. This one on the other hand? The card system is a lot more dynamic than first meets the eye and is a breeze to explain, there are a lot of modular parts which add replayability, there are some genuinely interesting branching story paths, and the hunters feel quite unique. Best of all, it actually uses *space* in its fights. There are moves which knock you across the room, attacks you can use to throw enemies entire tiles away, and items to lure them toward you. It’s so much more vibrant and interesting than Gloomhaven’s turgid plodfests. Can’t disagree more here.

Played ~10 times and had a blast. Want to play more of it ^^ It's a perfectly valid review in my opinion. It's not the greatest game ever made, but it's good and the core of it is robust and enjoyable. I would just add a point that was not made in the video. It's "highly" replayable. (Even more so with the chalice dungeon expansion which is the only one reaaaaly useful. New interesting mode + 4 hunters) - Each mission have at least 3 side quests. You need to do at least 2 to be able to complete it. With the time limits, it's not easy to do the three. - Some of them have ramifications that extend on the other missions. Nothing much but it exist - The random tiles map make some run easy as hell, some tough as *****. (never lost a game only due to that. Tip: start by exploring and deal with the rest when you know what to expect. Don't overextend in one direction also) - Changing ennemies can really morph the mission in something else - Changing hunters switch things aside. So even if I replay the mission with other friends, it is, for now, always fresh. P.S: I had the same point of view on the hunter axe. And then, during a chalice dungeon, one of my buddy went into a freaking rampage with it. It was a sight to behold that no other weapons could have achieved.

How tf did I get a notification for this *while watching* Bloodborne is Genius and Here's Why???

Nice video I really enjoyed it!

Damn blood. It was fun game to play lol

I am still wondering whether i am more grateful that you made me get into jotl, or that you made me save time and money I would have wasted on etherfields and bloodborne. In any case, thank you!

I loved Blood back on the PC!😆

Y'all know how licensed video games based on movies are like 99% kinda pretty bad? I feel like we have something similar going on with licensed board games based on video games. it's like a licensed bad trend based on another licensed bad trend. Meta.

I played Blood at uni! "Fresh victims for the ever-growing army of the undead!"

Blood is such a fun shooter. Ps: I love the shirt.

Great stuff, that top shelf NPI continues!

They took the combat system from Magic Realm. Actually a great combat system. The farthest I'm going with Shloomhaven is JOTL.