Daniel (@dungeondive) reviews the Founders Edition of Leviathan Wilds from Moon Crab Games, a one-to-four player co-op boss climber he describes as Shadow of the Colossus on the table. Seventeen leviathans fill a spiral-bound book, their bodies the map, corruption crystals marked by dice you must strike down before a climber dies; teal blighted crystals inflict blight that eats your health from below. Eight climbers combine with eight classes (Gadgeteer, a coin-flipping Gambler, a Magus with spendable stones, Roughneck, Free Climber) into a shared deck where every card is either action points or a skill, and the cards left in your grip pile are your stamina. Run out and you fall to the next ledge. Kestrel’s Twin Talons strike and secure, the pickaxe anchors mid-fall, and Ride the Wind flings him across white spaces. Each leviathan reveals its threat card before your turn so you can scramble out of the blast ring, and rising rage flips its attack cards to nastier sides. Daniel finds it stressful because every turn demands real decisions, which is not his usual comfort zone, yet he loves the variety, the marriage of climbing theme and mechanism, and a medium box that fits a small table. He flags a colour-blindness issue with the purple and teal dice, wants player aids, and notes a second printing is already announced.
Daniel prefers “move, draw a card, have an encounter” to constant hard decisions. Where on that spectrum do you want a solo game to sit?