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Since its initial release back in 2021, Van Ryder Games has turned its Final Girl series into something of a household name in the solo gaming community, so I wanted to take a moment to have a second look at what makes this slasher-in-a-box so special to so many fans.
For full transparency, I’m relatively new to the world of solo board gaming and as a result, Final Girl was something of a revelation to me. It was the first true solo-only game I played and as a result; opened my eyes to what solo board gaming can be and the experiences they can provide. I’m still terrible at it, however, I’m still loving it. So, if you’ll spare me a few minutes, I would love to tell you why!
"You're goin' down!"
In case you haven’t had a chance to read Thom’s excellent review of the Final Girl Core Box (please do!), Final Girl is a solo only experience which has you (the Final Girl) fighting it out (often until the bloody end) against a delightfully brutal Killer. You’ll need to carefully balance Time (the games main resource) to both buy and use Actions and roll-dice to determine how powerful those actions are, all in the name of saving helpless Victims (adorable yellow meeples) and brining the Killer to their end. Thus, emerging victorious as the Final Girl!
The game is played out over a series of 4 phases Action, Planning, Killer and Upkeep. These phases will repeat themselves over and over until either you kill the Killer, or they kill you (and from my experience, often, it’s the latter!). I’ll quickly cover off each phase here before diving into what makes the Final Girl experience so special.
1. Action: This is your chance to get some hits in on that nasty killer, or just run away to rest up and potentially get some essential supplies for the fight to come. Final Girl gives you several options to choose from. These range from simple Actions such as “Walk” that will let you roam around the map rounding up victims and widening the gap between you and the Killer, all the way up to big-swinging hits like “Critical Strike” that are high-risk, high reward. Get a good roll and you can easily knock off 4 or 5 hit points from that Killer, bringing them all the closer to their demise! Keep in mind, each action you take usually costs you Time, a precious resource you need to keep track of to ensure you have enough to use in the next phase, Planning.
2. Planning: Essentially, this is shopping in hell. You’ll have a bit of downtime after the chaos of the Action phase to plan your next move and “buy’ cards from a Tableau with your remining Time. If there are any 0 cost Actions available, feel free to gobble them all up ahead of the next Action phase and if you have any Time left to spend, maybe splash out on some better Actions such as “Search” that will let you rummage around for valuable items. Just keep in mind, you can’t have more than 10 cards in your hand, and, if you used an Action in the previous Action Phase, this can’t be bought again until the next round… so use your Actions carefully.
3. Killer: Okay, this is where s*** gets real. You’ve got your hits in and planned your next move, now it’s the Killer’s turn to exact their revenge and ruin your day in a range of wonderfully wicked ways. Each Killer has a core action they will take such as attacking anyone in their space, however, it’s the Terror Deck you need to fear. Each Killer phase you will need to draw a card from this deck and resolve it (and you really won’t want to!). Every Killer and Location has their own Terror cards, and these could range from simple (yet brutal) actions like moving the Killer towards you and attacking to placing traps in the map that immediately kill any victim’s unfortunate enough to be caught up in it. It is in the Terror Deck that the genius of Final Girl lies, and, how often your best laid plans can be brought to their trembling knees at the feet of the merciless Killer.
4. Upkeep: “Congratulations. You are still alive” – great job! However, naturally you and your fellow victims are still terrified. During Upkeep, if any victims are near the Killer, they will try and run away. It also provides you with a little bit of a breather before diving right back into the Action phase and starting everything all over again!
“Do you want to play a game?”
So, you’ve had the how on Final Girl and understand how it plays, but I haven’t told you why should you play it? To put it simply; Final Girl offers tension and drama with every Action card played and every dice rolled and delivers a gaming experience unlike anything else I have played.
Whilst I touched on how the Terror Deck in Final Girl helps to provide the game an element of unpredictability and thrill with every turn the Killer takes, the truth is, this is just one of a handful of excellent, core mechanics that underpin the whole Final Girl experience.
Take dice-rolling for example. Fundamentally, introducing dice-rolling mechanics into any game inherently introduces an element of randomness. However, where most games often put the player at the mercy of the dice entirely, Final Girl’s core system offers players the chance to tip the scales in their favour, whilst still maintaining an element of chance with every roll.
Within Final Girl, 5s and 6s constitute a success (depicted by a star on the dice), however, if you were to roll a 3 or a 4, instead of failing the check in a traditional manner, you can sacrifice 2 cards to turn your measly 3 into a flaming hot 6! This introduces a really engaging balance and forces players to make in the moment decisions with almost every Action card they play. Do you sacrifice 2 cards now to smack the Killer? Or, do you take the loss and hold onto those cards and Time for future rounds where you may need them even more!? And as Final Girl is built around these dice, the game is constantly posing this question. It all ties together to make every Action you make meaningful and tense, whilst not feeling excessively punishing and mean.
On top of the Terror Deck and the dice mechanics, the game also has valuable Items for you to collect over the course of a game that range from Axes that pack an extra punch with every hit to cans of Pepper Spray that help your chosen Final Girl to get out of some sticky situations. As well as this, there are event Events that often add fun and brutal horror-movie-inspired scenarios for you to play out and resolve. Both Items and Events take direct inspiration from popular horror-tropes and will have you excited to uncover each one and if you’re anything like me, will have you laughing over their flavour text!
When everything is put together, what you end up with is a tense game of cat and mouse between the Final Girl and the Killer, each one plotting their next steps and enacting their brutal plans whilst hoping they will survive just long enough to get that killing blow and emerge victorious. Final Girl really offers a rush like no other; when you and the Killer both have 1HP left and it’s all to play for, the final roll of the dice is both terrifying and electric in equal measure and I for one, just can’t get enough!
“What’s in the box!?”
You’ll notice I have referred to the “core” mechanics or systems a couple of times over this review. This is because if you purchase the Final Girl Core box, you won’t yet be able to play the game. Final Girl’s Core Box must be combined with a “Feature”. These are essentially expansions to Final Girl that each have their own unique theme, Location, Killer and Final Girls.
The Core Box itself provides you everything you need to play with any of the Feature’s currently available, however, it must be combined with a Feature. What is included in the Core Box however, is very high quality. Included are all core action cards, health tokens, wooden Final Girl, Victim and Killer meeples, 6 dice, the Final Girl score board and various markers for tracking specific mechanics. For a full list, be sure to check out the Zatu listing.
As of the time of writing (July ’24), there are currently 11 Features available, each one containing a Killer, 2 Final Girls, a Location and their respective Items, Events and Terror Decks. Most features take direct inspiration from popular horror flicks like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien and Friday the 13th and are all packed with references and easter eggs paying homage to their inspiration. They can also all be combined with each other to make an almost endless list of scenarios for you to play out. Do you have a favourite Final Girl you like playing as? Awesome, use her in every feature! How about putting Hans (essentially Jason Vorhees) in a spaceship? Go for it. The choice is yours!
Whilst I won’t be talking about any specific Feature sets here, some of my favourites include a carnival haunted by an evil puppeteer and a summer camp that has fallen victim to an evil serial killer! And, of course, my Final Girl of choice, Reiko; a badass axe wielder who will rush towards any killer throwing caution to the wind!
With 5 more expansions announced, it seems Van Ryder Games don’t have any plans of slowing down in their development of Final Girl. I’m excited for these to hit shelves later in the year and to see what further havoc I can cause in my journey to save the world, one Killer at a time to become the Final Girl.
Final (Girl’s) Thoughts
Final Girl is thrilling and exciting solo-only game that offers a tough challenge, whilst still managing to feel fair by offering the players agency in their choices and the ability to somewhat manipulate their luck. Some Features are more balanced than others, however, the core mechanics of the game are a rock-solid foundation to a franchise that will have you wincing with every dice roll as you attempt to survive “just one more round”.
Even if you aren’t the biggest horror buff (like myself), Final Girl is still an engaging and tense solo experience that I would recommend to almost anyone…provided you are happy to lose more than you win!
