Bôken

Bôken aims to faithfully recreate the experience of console JRPGs from the 80s and 90s in a board game. It is a cooperative or solo adventure game for 1 to 2 players, who must help each other to win the game.

If you play solo, you can control a single hero or play both heroes as you would in a two-player game. A complete scenario lasts between 15 and 30 hours, so you will need several sessions to complete it.

The game features a unique save system with Hero cards and a magnetic board, as well as removable card organizers. These elements have been designed so that the game can be set up and put away in 1 to 2 minutes flat, just like a video game!

The game system has also been designed with this in mind: there are no cards to shuffle or sort, in order to automate the gameplay as much as possible and encourage immersion in the game. The game uses the mechanics of console JRPGs.

You will move around the world map in an open world, using a movement die or Exploration cards (depending on your choice). A more or less random battle (depending on the terrain you are on) will start as soon as you stop on a Terrain square.

Conversely, if you end up on a Location tile, you can reveal mini-maps corresponding to your location. These allow you to zoom in on the location and continue exploring. Mini-maps can be peaceful (village, temple, castle, etc.) or hostile (dungeons).

In these locations, you will encounter NPCs (non-player characters) as well as other interactive objects, which will give you Quest cards, allowing you to progress through the storyline. Combat is turn-based, as in video games. Bosses use the same system, but generally have 3 phases, unlike classic combat.

When you defeat enemies, they give you experience points that allow you to level up and gain new powers. They may also drop items that you can sometimes craft to make more powerful ones.

Other mechanics can be unlocked during the adventure by completing quests.

As the game is scripted, you will replay the same scenario if you start the adventure again. However, a scoring system encourages you to replay by optimizing the choices you make regarding your characters' development, your items and equipment, and your trajectory in order to achieve a better result.

In addition, replaying the game with one hero, the other, or both simultaneously also changes the combat strategies, which are often quite challenging. Several difficulty settings are also available at the start of the game.

The Quest card system also allows for future scenario expansions and even the creation of homemade scenarios.

Bôken is not an “expert” level game. To put it in context, it's more like an old-school JRPG on a console. Bôken is roughly on the same level: easy to learn, with simple rules, but not simplistic.

On the other hand, the difficulty of the battles, especially the bosses, is deliberately high in order to offer players a real challenge.

Contents:

• 1 magnetic game board (world map)
• 2 magnetic hero cards
• 28 item tokens
• 2 magnetic hero tokens
• 2 magnetic group tokens
• 1 Acolyte card (double-sided)
• 10 exploration cards
• 1 monster display with life counter
• 1 defeated enemy card
• 2 encounter cards
• 2 combat dice
• 1 movement die
• 1 mount die
• 2 point dice
• 110 item cards
• 15 Game Over cards
• 83 double-sided quest cards
• 31 talent cards
• 18 location cards
• 21 encounter and boss cards
• 10 thumbtack magnets
• 1 removable storage box
• 1 removable card organizer
• 1 rulebook (56 pages)
• card sleeves for small and standard cards