Final Titan is the latest game from Richard Garfield and Christian Kudahl. These two game designers previously collaborated on Mindbug, a fast-paced card game that requires only a small deck of cards. You undoubtedly know Richard Garfield from King of Tokyo, and you might see some similarities with Final Titan. In both games, iconic figures and characters are placed in an arena for a battle to the death. The thematic feel of King of Tokyo, which borders on parody, also returns in Final Titan.
Enter the arena of legends with Final Titan – a card and dice game where the greatest heroes of all time compete against each other. Who will prove to be the “Greatest of All Time” and claim the title of champion?
In this game, players take turns recruiting legendary champions from all times, myths, and fantasies, each with unique abilities, stats, and powers. Once recruited, your champions are thrown into the arena, where they face off in intense dice duels. Choose your matchups wisely, support your heroes with power-up cards, and outsmart your opponents. The last champion standing is crowned the final titan, and the player controlling them wins!
Final Titan is somewhat of an auto-battler in board game form. An auto-battler is a strategic video game genre where players assemble teams of units to compete in automated battles. While the battles are handled by the game (and thus without physical input from the players), the core of the game revolves around strategic decision-making, including drafting units, managing resources, and optimizing team compositions.
In Final Titan, this is also the case. Players draft units from the central market and deploy them to fight. Each unit has specific traits, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Some units are better suited for certain opponents and situations than others. Players choose their units and when to deploy them, but the actual battle is decided by dice rolls, over which players initially have little control. However, players can choose to play cards to influence the battle.
After players have gathered their forces, a player enters the arena with a chosen character. If you do not want to enter the arena, you must place one of the action cards face-up on the table. You lose this card, and if someone does enter the arena, that player gets the card. If someone is in the arena, other players can challenge them during their turn. Again, if you do not want to fight, you must discard a card.
Players choose their forces based on the situation, secretly play cards to influence the battle, roll dice to determine which attacks or actions are performed, possibly activate special abilities, and thus settle a battle. But wait! This is not even my ultimate form! Just like in video game bosses, you might activate your final form through the luck of the roll to pose an extra threat. The winner stays in the arena, and the loser retreats until only one player with living titans remains.
In Final Titan, players recruit a number of forces to challenge other players’ fighters to win in this arena. Players draft their characters, challenge each other, influence battles by playing cards, but ultimately the dice determine which titan is the titan of titans. Players may feel that the game somewhat plays itself, but this is no different from the aforementioned auto-battlers. The actual game is selecting forces, influencing powers, playing cards, and entering the arena at the right moments.
