Character Expansion: Dark Souls The Board Game

What Is It?

Dark Souls is originally known as a very popular video game made by FromSoftware Inc which was then given a board game adaptation which in turn also became just as popular. This expansion (Character expansion) is one of many that go with Dark Souls: The Board Game, and each adds its own certain unique aspect to the game which this expansion is no different. This expansion specifically focuses on adding new characters to the game which the players can play as, giving them a new and refreshing experience when playing Dark Souls.

Characters Galore!

The main components that come along with this expansion that add to the game are the character boards. There are 6 new boards in total giving the player a new total of 10 characters to pick from when choosing who they want to play as at the start of the game. Now this may not be too crazy of a change for people who play at lower player counts but when you have a full party of 4 players at the table, this vast selection of characters adds so much variety and difference with every playthrough! The games go from “Oh yeah i guess I’ll play the Knight again.” to “OMG who the heck do I play now!?”. The choices can effect the gameplay massivley as each character has their own special ability that they can use, just as do the original characters, but in combination with some of the other characters, your pick of character could be the difference betwee winning and losing a game. The range in choice also adds the ability to have games where you experiment in the way you play. One game you could play all very tanky characters who just eat a load of damage the entire game, or maybe another game you want to mix it up and go for a more ranged play style and add more risk in multiple different ways. Its definite improvement to the game in my opinion and adds so much new stuff to the base game.

More! …Galore!

Along with the new characters to play as in this expansion, there are also new armour sets and item cards too. Some of these item cards are just more weapons, scrolls, armour and various other cards to add easily to the pre-exisiting cards without any issue. Now if youre like me and want to make sure that all my expansion pieces are all packed back in their own box by the end of using them then you might be panicking about how the heck you’re going to find all of these random cards thatve been shuffled in as there are so many item cards for Dark Souls. Well luckily all of the cards for the expansions are marked with a symbol on them to specify what expansion theyre from to make it easier to find. Just a minor bonus but thank god they have those icons! Back to the additional components though!…

With some of the armour cards within the expansion, there are miniatures to represent these. These certain armour sets are included with miniatures so that you can switch out the way your actual character in play looks at any point depending on what you wear. I love this addition so much! It adds a new level of immersion that most rpg based board games overlook and it makes you feel like there’s an extra reward when you find these cards as most of the miniatures have a cool design to them making you feel super badass being able to play as these new miniatures. These miniatures aren’t all just some random outfits too. Most of them are iconic armour sets that have been shown off and seen within the Dark Souls video games! There are some really cool ones that make you want to have them even more just to feel like you’re in the actual video game again.

My Final Thoughts

To keep my summary of this new Character expansion short, I feel like this is a great little addition to the Dark Souls Board Game. It’s nice and compact which comes all nicely packed with new content to add to the base game and is easily integrated and combined with any of the other expansions too. This definitely isn’t a needed addition to the game as it mostly adds more items and overall has more variation to the players themselves but if you want to keep playing the game but don’t have the cash to pay out on one of the bigger campaign-based expansions then this is perfect for you to have plenty of new content added and a load more replayability to the game in general, no matter if you’re playing solo, with a full party or anything in between.