The first thing that truly catches your attention with Arydia – The Paths we Dare Tread is not the size of the box, which is not to say it is not impressively scaled, but the sheer weight of it. This game is quite literally trying to burst out of its box.
When you open it, you are presented with a number of smaller boxes, envelopes, plastic containers and several instruction books.
The instructions are particularly well written, clearly guiding you through the process of properly organising the three boxes that contain all of the game’s cards and your choice of which of the six paths (character classes) you will play as (the game is perfectly playable solo as well as in groups).
Once that is done, next comes the tutorial booklet, which I can comfortably say is by far the best I have ever seen in a board game (I would go as far as to say it is even better than most video game tutorials).
Each of the game’s six classes then has a dedicated booklet covering combat, which is another superb touch, since it is by far and away the best combat system I have ever seen in a board game. It is quick, tactical and puts all agency into the player’s hands. Whether you succeed or fail is down to you and you alone, rather than luck or anything of that nature.
With the tutorial completed, the game opens up to an almost overwhelming degree. Arydia is an open-world, rpg / dungeon crawler where you will find quests as you explore the map, grow and level up your character, learn new skills for both in and out of combat scenarios. Both the way the map is uncovered and changes over time and the method of developing your character and equipping them proved to be another highlight.
To give an idea of the game’s scale, there are 3 sub boxes containing the games cards, which easily number in the hundreds, four boxes containing the map tiles of sizes ranging from small to very large, two boxes containing pre-painted miniatures, multiple boxes relating to each character class, a number of ‘treasure chests’ containing class specific and general items, an overworked map which can be modified via the contents of another box (whose additional contents relates to characters, but I will avoid spoiling it) and assorted other containers for dice, tokens etc.
As far as the scale of the game goes, it will take a first time player well over fifteen hours (at least in my case) of solid play before you near the end of the map and the thought that you might be nearing the end, only to find that there are two additional, sizeable boxes still unopened and a lot more game to go.
Having made numerous mentions of the combat system in this game, I feel it deserves further explanation as to why I feel it ranks so highly. Each character has a number of options when it comes to skills that either act independently or in conjunction with the weapons they carry. Each weapon has a particular attack pattern, with better dice rolls causing the attack to progress further along that pattern. Each enemy has a card which shows where hits points are located, with the attack pattern causing wounds in the relevant location. To defeat the enemy, all hit points must be marked and, if an attack pattern crosses certain marking on the card, additional effects can occur.
Although this sounds complicated, it really is quite usable and streamlined in practice and, like everything in this game, it grows and becomes more in depth as you make progress.
The vast majority of the artwork in the game is of a high quality, with my highest praise going to the game tiles. The only element in this regard that I feel is something of a letdown is the pre-painted miniatures, which appear very toy-like, but considering they come pre-painted with the game, heavy criticism for this one point does feel overly harsh.
Although vappears at first glance to be very complicated game, once you have completed the tutorial, its systems are very logical and it reveals itself to be anything but. However, its very size can be intimidating and potentially off-putting to some.
As far as replayability goes, I struggle to think of a single game of this style that matches Arydia . Six different classes which can each be built a number of different ways with a huge open world mean you can play the game repeatedly and have a completely different experience each time.
As far as player interaction is concerned, Arydia impresses in this regard too. When playing you have the option to treat encounters with non-player characters as a full ‘role playing experience’, with one person using prompts on the npc’s card to voice their side of the encounter. Combat and exploration involves all players too. Quite frankly, I can’t see a single moment when all players are not fully involved in what is taking place.
The components in Arydia are of a fantastic quality, with particular mention going to the player boards and world map. Once again, however, those pre-painted miniatures do not match everything else in quality.
The only other negatives I can think of for Arydia are the sheer amount of size it takes up and the price. It quite easily fills a full 6’ by 4’ table, could be playable on a smaller one, but things will need to be moved around a lot more than most may be comfortable with. The price however, is the true elephant in the room for this game. It is very expensive, but personally, the amount of enjoyment I have gotten from it so far has made me think it is well worth the money.
At this point, it should come as no surprise when I say that Arydia – The Paths we Dare Tread is by far and away the best board game I have played this year and one I cannot ever see myself letting leave my collection.
