Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls

• Designer: Pam Walls
• Publisher: Ravensburger
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 45-60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls (Disney Edition), players work together to form dynamic alliances of Disney and Pixar heroines, including Moana (Moana), Violet (The Incredibles), Maid Marian (Robin Hood) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast).

Materializing as radiant crystal versions summoned into the realm, the heroines drive back shadows of infamous Disney villains and restore the Realm of Light. Along the way, the team explores a brand-new illustrated world and encounters familiar characters, items, and creatures on their quests. The game’s diverse missions and modular board generate new adventures every time it’s played.

To get started, each player chooses their Hero and takes the colored bag with all their pieces.  The player board is put in front of them with the four unlocked Action tokens placed on it – the final action is placed locked side up.  The board is then constructed; the Crystal Castle is always placed first and then each Hero has two specific tiles that they add.  The additional tiles are shuffled and then the board is built so that the edges match on the tiles.  There is no restriction on the shape of the board or the direction in which it is built.  All players start at the Crystal Castle.  

Players now each choose one of the quests for their Hero (out of four possible) and get out the related Quest tokens from their supply. The shadow tokens corresponding to the Heroes in the game are placed in a bag and then tokens are placed on the board on the mask icons.  The Darkness deck is likewise constructed and a number of cards is drawn from this based on the player count.  Flip over the first Darkness card and follow the directions on it.

Once the game is started, the group will play cooperatively; unlike many other games, there are no turns!  The group will decide what six actions their Heroes will take during the day, and then afterwards, the next Darkness card will be revealed. There is a Leader player designated for each round that can make a final decision if the group is unable to come up with consensus on which actions to take.  The team will win if they are able to complete all their personal quests, defeat all the Shadows and destroy the Vortex.  The team loses if there are no more Darkness cards remaining or the Team Health reaches zero.

At the start of the first day, the players should each read their Quests aloud so that everyone knows what needs to be accomplished.   Players can now discuss which action tokens should be used.  Each Hero has their own set of actions (which are remarkably thematic).  If an Action token is used, it is placed on the central Action board.   At the start of the game, players have two more generic (heal/move) actions, a unique movement action and then a special action that tends to be useful to help someone else accomplish something.

There are plenty of different things that need to be accomplished, and the team will have to choose the best way to do these things.  Each player must finish their Quest, and the Quest card will outline the steps that must be completed in order.  Players can pick up Quest tokens as they move around the board and then share them with other players when they are in the same space.  Once a quest is completed, you flip the Quest card over – and you also get to flip your fifth action tile over; thus granting you an additional option for the rest of the game.

Over the course of the game Shadow tokens will be distributed on the board; their strength is seen on the bottom of their tile. When Heroes share a space with a Shadow, they can choose to battle – all Heroes in the same space roll all their dice.  Each hero can also choose to re-roll any or all of their dice once.  After the possible re-roll, the hits are counted (dice can have 1, 2 or 3 hits on each).  Additionally, the dice can cause damage to the hero – this is marked on the personal Hero board.  If the Hero reaches zero, the Team Health token on the central board is reduced by one, and the Hero must heal themselves before doing pretty much anything else.  A defeated Shadow is removed from the board.  Otherwise, it remains on the board and has full strength whenever the next battle is begun.

When the team has finished their six actions, the day ends.  All of the used action tiles are returned to their owner.  The next Darkness card is revealed and the instructions are followed.  The Vortex will more around the board and spawn more shadows.  There are two sets of instructions depending on the strength of the Vortex.

At the end of the game, all of the Heroes must be in the Vortex’ space and then 6 hits must be rolled in order to destroy it.  It is possible to weaken the Vortex earlier in the game which renders it immobile and lowers its strength to 4 hit points.  Again the team wins if they can defeat the Vortex (along with all the Shadows and completing all their Quests), and they lose if the Darkness deck runs out or if the Team Health is reduced to zero.

My thoughts on the game

Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls is a nice open cooperative game.  Players are encouraged to discuss possible plans and strategies each day as the lack of turn order forces discussion. If you never speak out about what you need to happen, you’ll never get a chance to do those things!  The game also gives plenty of tools to the players to encourage cooperation.  Many of the non-generic actions affect other players or allow other players to piggyback on the action.  Thus, when all the Heroes discuss what they want to do, the team can often find an efficient solution that allows multiple things to happen with a single action.  That being said, this arrangement also leads to the spectre of quarterbacking.  As there are no turns, a very aggressive or vociferous player can end up making most of the decisions in the game.  The game tries to get around this by designating someone as the Leader for each day.

Each of the heroes has a distinct feel – Violet provides protection from damage, Maid Marian has ranged attacks and can move heroes long distances, and Belle can weaken foes and deal extra damage. You can choose your favorite character, or if playing with fewer than four players, you can choose which action themes you want to combine.  Each Hero also has four different quests which means that each game likely plays out differently given those permutations.

This is important because the total number of actions in the game is somewhat limited. In a 4p game, there are 7 Darkness cards in the game – this means that the team only has 7 days (42 actions) in which to complete all their quests, defeat all the Shadows and then take down the Vortex.  With fewer players, you have fewer Darkness cards – and this makes sense as there will be correspondingly fewer Quests to accomplish. 

The artwork is really well done (as you would expect from the combination of Disney and Ravensburger).  I like the gem / stained glass theme that is used here, and this motif is continued throughout the whole game.  Everything is color coded per Hero – even the storage bag! – though I would quibble a bit with the actual color choices as I’d prefer a little bit more contrast than you get with red, orange, yellow and light purple.  You’ll have to be careful with all the bits because there are lots of chits in the game which could be easily lost if you play with young or inexperienced gamers. 

Of course, given that this is Ravensburger/Disney, the possibility for expansion Heroes is high – and maybe the other colors in the blue and green family are awaiting future releases.  There are certainly plenty of other heroines in the Disney universe that would make great additions to this game.  As everything is segregated by Hero, and you can mix/match them as you wish – this game is rife with expansion possibilities!

The rules are fairly simple as players are allowed to use whichever action tokens they want – but I did find them a bit unpolished  It appears that the final act of the win is to defeat the vortex.  I have found out that you must destroy all the Shadows on the board first before defeating the Vortex (clarification from the designer online) – however, nothing is said about this in the rules (that I could find – it could be user error).  Unfortunately, the mass market audience likely doesn’t know that a site like Boardgamegeek exists, so they would have no idea there is an online resource to check.  The win conditions simply say that all three things must be accomplished – nothing about the order in which they must happen.  

The rules also don’t really tell you how to pick up Quest tokens – though we figured out that you just have to be in the same space as them (and that there is no Shadow there).  There is a QR code that leads to a rules video – but as you surely know, I’m not a watcher of those videos, and there is not really a good excuse for those rules to be in the video and not in the actual rules.  Players with questions are not likely to try to look thru a 25 minute video when there is a rulebook right there.

Most of the game seems to be pointed towards the beginning gamer, but the modular board and setup appear to provide something for people who want diversity in repeated plays.  The game would have most definitely been easier to set up without multiple quests per hero and with a fixed layout on a solid board, but the players are given components to make each game slightly different.  Be forewarned that this means there is maybe a five to ten minute setup process which might be an obstacle to some when planning to play this. 

Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls is a great entry point to cooperative games.  There aren’t many games that feature an all-female cast of Heroes (as well as a female designer!), and that should be celebrated.  The rules are simple to learn, and since it is a cooperative game, a single person who knows the rules could really help get an entire group through the game.  Even if the smallest gamer can’t fully understand the strategy, they can still participate and do their fair share of die rolling!  This makes it perfect for children and families (well, you know, the Disney target audience).  The game is a great fit for mass market sales, and I expect that it will do well with that demographic.  It’s probably a bit too Light for my regular game group – but the variability included in the game makes it a great stepping stone for families and beginners.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor