The Village Must Survive! Ghost Stories Game Review

GHOST STORIES GAME REVIEW

 Ghost Stories is a co-op horror game where you work together with your teammates to defeat one or more incarnations of Wu-Feng and the many ghosts that come before him. Each player takes on the role of a Taoist monk who must stop the wave of evil ghosts and save the village.

 Ghost Stories is developed by Antoine Bosa and published by Repos Production .

GAME PROCESS

 Ghost Stories is a game about battles. You want to clear as many ghosts as possible each turn to avoid being destroyed. Whenever it's a player's turn, he or she can move one square around the village to perform an action. You can do two things:

 Ask the villagers for help. All village tiles give you benefits such as removing ghosts and moving ghosts to better positions.

 Try to exorcise the ghosts by rolling the dice. You are trying to match the colors/icons on the ghost card. You can also use Tao Tokens to help yourself if you have a bad roll or if you need more successes.

 You can also use your monk's special ability each turn, which can allow you to move in a special way or maybe even give you an extra die to use when fighting ghosts. You also get a Yin-Yang token, which allows you to use a village tile without being on it, or to return a village tile that was previously destroyed.

 At the start of your turn, each ghost on the field is activated, and then a new ghost appears. That's why it's so important to get ghosts off the field as quickly as possible each turn. Ghosts can have abilities that activate immediately when they appear, abilities that activate when your turn begins, and some even have abilities that activate when you banish them.

 You win if you can deal with Wu Feng, who is near the bottom of the ghost deck. You lose if all priests die, if three village tiles become destroyed, or if the last ghost card in the deck is put into play.

PROS OF THE GAME

 Ghost Stories has some great components, especially the ghost cards. Each card is rich in detail and they blend in very well with the player boards and village tiles. The monk figures look fantastic too! Almost everyone in my company believes that Ghost Stories has one of the best designs in the world of board games.

 There have been several board games that have tried to cover this theme, but I don't think any of them have done it as well as Ghost Stories. Designer Antoine Bosa deserves a lot of credit for making the horror theme popular in this game. Everything from the villagers to the ghosts themselves give this game the feel of an authentic Chinese ghost story.

 Ghost Stories have insane replayability. The village field is placed randomly at the beginning of the game, and now you never know which ghosts will appear during each game.

 The relatively short game length makes Ghost Stories a great addition to any type of board game night. It's also great for those who like a high-energy game that seems to just fly by rather than crawl.

 Ghost Stories plays surprisingly well as a two-player game. It's great for any number of players, but it's one of those rare co-op games that plays just as well with two players as it does with a full complement of players. You can use only two characters and get help from the other two, or you can take two characters each.

CONS

 One thing that might put people off Ghost Stories at first is how difficult it is. Even on the "easiest" level, it's quite possible to lose five out of six games. With each turn, new  ghosts appear, defeating them can be extremely difficult, and it can be a little frustrating. That being said, when you get those rare wins, it just... feels... AWESOME!

 You can definitely get unlucky with the dice and ghosts that drop every turn. Some ghosts are much harder to deal with than others, so if you encounter a couple of them early or at the wrong time, your chances of victory will be greatly reduced.

CONCLUSIONS

 Ghost Stories really stands out with its vibrant theme, amazing map art, and challenging co-op gameplay. If you're into the horror genre—or even if you're not—this co-op game is a must-buy for any board game fan. Even if you keep losing, you'll keep coming back to try and save this village! This is still one of my group's favorite co-op board games, even after many, many times.

 If you enjoy the base game, I highly recommend checking out the Ghost Stories: White Moon expansion. This gives Ghost Stories even more replayability as you now have to save the villagers while dealing with all those ghosts.