Have you checked out FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE -BOARD GAME- MATERIA HUNTER yet? It’s an FFVII REMAKE board game, so we bet it’s caught a lot of people’s attention!
In this article, we’ll be talking about what makes the game so appealing as one of our Portal Site staff members shares her first impressions over a friendly game.
A Competitive Game Featuring Characters from FFVII REMAKE
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE -BOARD GAME- MATERIA HUNTER is a competitive game where players fight for materia using cards featuring characters from FFVII REMAKE.
These are the contents of the game, including pieces such as character and materia cards. One of the main draws is of course the character cards—a lineup of twenty faces from FFVII REMAKE!
▲Includes party members like Cloud and Barret as well as members of Shinra and more
The character cards are bigger than I expected!
▲The materia card (right) is the size of a standard playing card
But this shouldn’t come as a surprise as the concept of the game was “to create content FFVII fans would enjoy,” so they made sure the FFVII REMAKE characters were the stars of the show.
Each character has different abilities that the players use to battle their opponents. They also have special actions with powerful effects that have the potential to be game changers, which is reminiscent of the gameplay in FFVII REMAKE itself!
Game Flow
Now let’s get started! The game can be played between two players or two teams of two, but this time we’ll be playing one-on-one.
The pieces are set up with the materia tiles in the center, your field in the front, and your opponent’s in the back.
At the end of the game, if you have more materia of a certain color on your field than your opponent does on theirs, you obtain the materia tile of the matching color, and the player with the most materia tiles wins. Since there are five materia tiles, it takes three or more to win.
One of the main ways to place materia on the field involves character cards. Each player will use four of these cards in a single game.
▲I’ve chosen these character cards.
They’ll be placed face down at the start of the game.
Let’s Begin!
It’s time to take our turns! The flow is simple: draw a materia card → select a character → perform an action (place materia cards onto the field).
First, I draw a materia card. I can select one that’s face up, or I can draw from the deck instead.
▲The face-up cards are in the “display.” When a card is drawn, the display is immediately refilled back to five cards.
When you’re starting out, you might not know which card to draw. If you’re unsure, take a closer look at your character cards.
Each character card has its own unique abilities. First, let’s take a look at a character’s “bonus action.”
The yellow mark signifies that playing a yellow materia card triggers this ability. It can’t be triggered by any other color, so you’ll want to choose a yellow materia card if you can.
Which is of course what I did!
And with that, I use Tifa’s card to perform an action! A ”normal action” consists of taking two cards from your hand and placing them face up on your field.
I played yellow materia cards to trigger Tifa’s bonus action and place a card from the deck face up on my field.
▲Instead of the usual two cards, I was able to place three.
Use bonus actions when you can!
And that’s the end of my turn. In the pre-intermission, you and your opponent will each take three turns. This is followed by the intermission, and then the post-intermission in which you’ll each take three turns again.
▲Flow of the Game
Post-intermission
Now it’s time for the post-intermission. With all these materia cards on the field, the battle’s heating up!
Some characters have effects that can flip materia cards on the field face down. Any cards facing down at the end of the game will be excluded from the total materia count.
▲Reno’s bonus action effect: Flip 1 face-up card in your opponent’s field face down.
“It’s nothing personal.”
The game’s almost over as the materia cards stack up. (I might be able to win this... Yes!)
And this is when my opponent decides to use Sephiroth’s special action.
Each character has a special action that can be performed in place of a normal action (that is, placing two materia cards on your field) if you meet the requirement and pay the cost.
For example, Sephiroth’s special action can be performed if you have any combination of at least six purple or blue materia cards on your field, and you pay the cost of flipping three face-up materia cards on your field face down. The action then triggers the following effects...
“Place 3 cards from the deck onto your field face up.” “Flip 2 face-up cards in your opponent’s field face down.”
...!?!?!?
Wait, isn’t that a little overpowered? [cries]
I thought I could win a minute ago, but now there’s no chance of that happening.
Even though there’s a cost of flipping three materia cards face down, since you only need three materia tiles to win, you won’t lose out on anything if you flip the cards of tiles you had no chance of winning in the first place! A pretty brutal move when the game’s almost over...
But I fought back with a special action, and that was the end of the post-intermission. Now it’s time for the end game “judgement.”
▲Add up the materia in each materia tile row, and the player with the higher count wins the materia tile of the respective color.
I was crushed by my opponent four to one. If it weren’t for that last special action...
My Impressions of the Game
At first the rules seemed complicated, but I got the hang of it after one game, and I even managed to come up with my own strategy the second time around.
When the game begins, you don’t know which cards your opponent’s playing with, so most players will likely use the pre-intermission to determine each other’s cards, and the post-intermission to use special actions.
Speaking of special actions, it’s an amazing feeling when they work exactly as planned! When you’re choosing your character cards, try deciding which characters’ special actions you want to use in the post-intermission, and prepare a strategy to make that happen.
With twenty character cards, there’s a possibility of all kinds of different strategies. And if you want to play without worrying too much about the rules, try having everyone choose the cards of their four favorite characters instead!
The two-on-two team matches are also really fun, and discussing strategies with your teammate gives it a real party game vibe! This is definitely a must-play for fans of the FFVII universe.
