If you’re in the mood for a journey of adventure full of battles against darkness, exploration of new territories, and an amazingly colorful board, intricate character pieces, and competitive/strategic gameplay, you’ve come to the right place.
This version of Talisman has a Kingdom Hearts theme with familiar and well-loved characters–Goofy, King Mickey, Aqua, Terra, Milan, and Donald–with their unique special abilities and the many worlds of Kingdom Hearts.
Turns consist of two parts:
1. Movement — Roll the die and move around the board that many spaces in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.
2. Encounters — Encounter the space landed on during the movement phase and any cards or players on that space. Depending on the space, players will need to either draw and/or resolve adventure cards or engage in combat if an enemy is encountered.
Gameplay feels just a little bit complex the first few times, which is thrilling and so much fun for young board gamers. The rules are not overly complicated, but there are several moving parts so it’s a great exercise in focusing on details, developing strategy, and analytical thinking–all the things we’re looking for in board games for #gameschooling purposes!
You may have to encounter another character if there is one on the space you land on which means you can propose a trade of Munny, Fate Counters, Objects, and Followers with that player.
Encountering spaces can be a friendly bestowal of gifts or an adversarial attack from Heartless! It’s the luck of the draw!
The space will indicate how many Adventure cards to draw and each one must be resolved in turn. When an enemy is encountered, the resolution happens in a series of steps that you’ll just have to play to find out!
An enemy encounter is not an easy battle and requires vigilant preparations and thoughtfully considered strategy. This game is for thinkers!
Players can gain objects, followers, and quests to help them on their journey through the Kingdom’s regions to fortify them against the danger they will find in the Inner Region, where each space must be successfully encountered before moving on and finally reaching the Door to Darkness, the last space on the board.
The first player to reach the Door rolls a die to seal it and gets additional Victory Points equal to the roll. When the door is successfully sealed, the game is over. Each player adds up victory points for their current location on the board, followers, spells, objects, magical objects, and Munny.
Talisman: Kingdom Hearts is a fantastic adventuring strategy game that requires players to balance the acquisition of benefits with the chance of encountering enemies. Much happens in the game that players have no control over, so they must always be fortifying themselves to withstand the surprise attacks! It’s a game of unexpected twists and turns, beautiful design, iconic characters, and unique features that fits into many different potential educational categories. Kids can develop and practice many practical math-brain skills through careful and logical decision making, analyzing movement options, and probability assessment to create a winning strategy!
Thanks to USAOpoly for sharing this excellent themed strategy game with us!
