It started with players assuming the roles of classic Disney characters in Villainous, then Marvel’s biggest baddies joined the fun in Infinite Power. Now the other jewel in the Disney crown is getting its own RPG board game in Star Wars Villainous: Power Of The Dark Side.
Just like the previous games, you’ll play as one of five nefarious characters from a beloved franchise (Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, Moff Gideon, General Grievous, and Asajj Ventress ). Villainous games combine the heft of Dungeons & Dragons with the strategy of a Monopoly. You’ll move characters to different sectors of your board based on fan favorite locations from the films, Disney+ series, and comics in order to take strategic actions that allow you to complete your objective or hinder other players from achieving theirs. To win the game, you’ll need to complete your selected character’s ultimate goal. Vader must defeat Luke Skywalker, Grievous needs to defeat eight Jedi and collect their lightsabers, etc.
With this being the third main volume of the Villainous game series, it’s fair to compare how this entry ranks alongside Disney Villainous and Marvel Villainous. In short, this is the best these games have been.
Quality art design is a staple of the series. These titles are as much a bookshelf showpiece as they are a good time board game. Star Wars Villainous has the level of meticulous detail you’d expect from the art on the cards and character boards down to the figurine villain movers. The way these characters have their unique lightsabers etched into the figure is such a great fan touch. Even Moff Gideon has the Dark Saber as part of his figurine.
What makes it the best of the Villainous series is the improvements in gameplay mechanics. If you’ve played Villainous games, this will all be familiar. For those jumping into these games because of the Star Wars license, Ravensburger has made the required level of strategy more easily digestible without sacrificing much of the complexity that makes it challenging. Beginning with character win objectives, this time around each of their goals is easy to comprehend a path to victory. Vader needs to amass enough power to defeat Luke Skywalker. Gideon needs to capture Grogu and have the required characters in his space with him to win the game. Unlike some of the characters in the other games, none of the steps you need to take in order to win feel tedious or grindy.
In Marvel Villainous, Ravensburger tried to use the fate deck, cards which allow you to interrupt other player’s quests, as a way to create big group interruptions but the cards ended up being harder to comprehend their effects on the game. For Star Wars Villainous, developers have brought this back to basics. During a fate action, you’ll pick a player to draw a card from their fate deck, it makes it feel more targeted and easy to implement in-game. You’ll get to pick one of the cards to use against them by either playing a hero that blocks actions on a villain’s section or in their vehicle space reducing the number of cards a player can hold.
One of the other touches added to this game that improves the series is the empty space on the far side of your villain board does more than just hold your discards. The addition of Star Wars vehicles means certain fate cards and playing villain cards now adds a new section with actions and abilities to the previously empty space of the villain boards. This adds a new layer of strategy and prevents other players from completely ganging up on someone and leaving them without options.
I love the new sectioned cauldron to hold the ambition tokes, republic credits, and character power additions. No more digging through a small soup of random tokens to find one you need. You’ll be needing it as the game adds two ways to play game cards, republic credits or ambition tokens representing a power level needed for the cards.
While the game is simple enough to learn there are a lot of odds and ends to remember from the rule book. Such as when playing a hero vehicle in an opposing player’s space reduces their hand. Fine print such as that is only found in the rule book and nowhere else. These small rules details can quickly be forgotten and need to be printed on cards or utilized in a bigger reference card. Hell, the villain’s ultimate objective is printed in like five places maybe take one of those spots for smaller rules.
You’ll notice some glaring omissions to the lineup of playable characters in terms of Star Wars popularity, namely Darth Maul and Palpatine. As with other Villainous games, there are sure to be expansions that add more iconic franchise villains later on so if your favorite isn’t here yet then just give it some time.
Overall, Star Wars Villainous feels like Ravensburger got the balance between challenge and fun completely right on this one. For those looking for a multilayered game experience that’s easy to comprehend, this is it. Star Wars fans will love how collectible this box is.
Star Wars Villainous: Power Of The Dark Side will be available this August with pre-orders going live at Target online today.
