Devil May Cry: The Bloody Palace Board Game Review

Readers of this blog will remember I very much liked Steamforged Games’ Resident Evil 2 board game. I think it was very true to the license and I love all the little details it was crammed with while still being a fun board game in its own right. Since then I also got the Survival Horror Expansion, which adds even more detail and some PVP modes based on plot points only mentioned in files and flashbacks. Interestingly, those PVP modes play sort of like precursors to the multiplayer game Resident Evil: Resistance over a year before that game was made. I regretted missing its Kickstarter by a mere week.

I did not make that mistake again with their Devil May Cry board game, nor their RE3 one, for that matter. After several delays due to the pandemic, Devil May Cry: The Bloody Palace and all its expansions came into my possession. Unfortunately, also due to the pandemic, I couldn’t find people to play it with to write this review sooner. It has a solo mode, but I don’t consider it a thorough review without knowing how it plays with others. Having now played with some others and by myself, I can confidently give my full thoughts.

But does it feature Dante from the Devil May Cry series?

Resident Evil 2: The Board Game Review

Video games making a transition to tabletop games is as old as the games themselves, dating all the way back to the Pac Man board game.  With enough effort into the design, some of them work really well, like the Doom board game (both the old one and the one based on the remake from Fantasy Flight Games) or the Exceed system putting Street Fighter and Shovel Knight characters in the game.

Being a Resident Evil fan, I’m fond of the Resident Evil Deck Building Game, a highly customizable card game about inventory management featuring screenshots, characters and monsters spanning all the Resident Evil games up to 5.  I have 4 of the 5 sets available and it’s a great game I never run out of new ways to play with.

After seeing how well Resident Evil could be made into a deck builder, I was really intrigued about the Resident Evil 2 board game by Steamforged Games, who previously made the Dark Souls board game.  I haven’t played that one, in fact I haven’t played any of the Dark Souls video games either, but from what I can tell audience reactions were mixed.  Looking past that, the developer’s blog detailing the way the RE2 board game translates the video game as well as how they balanced and tested it really drew me in with the level of detail and thought they were putting into the board game.

I wanted to contribute to the Kickstarter, but was only one week late for the deadline by the time I even found out it existed so I ended up getting the core game and the “B-files” expansion at retail prices online because it doesn’t seem like any game stores are selling it yet.  Being a highly detailed board game, it costs a premium.  In total those two boxes cost me $130 dollars and that was after I found lower prices and got some shipping and tax off.  How much it’s really worth will vary from person to person, but even if it’s a bad game, it might be worth it for the collector’s value.  It’s a good thing then that it’s a great game as well.

Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers Review

This won't be nearly as long or as detailed as my other reviews, but I feel that this is a game worth sharing.  Like most stereotypical nerd types, my interests in games cover both video games and tabletop games.  I’m not a big fan of resource management games like Scythe, Settlers of Katan or Terraforming Mars.  I favor the direct approach, with games all about taking your skills directly to the other players in games of wit and excitement.  Games like Arcadia Quest, Zombicide, the Resident Evil Deck Building Game, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards and Tragedy Looper.  Among all the board games I play, one that is consistently my favorite is Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers.