Disney Sorcerer’s Arena has made the leap from the world of mobile gaming to the world of tabletop thanks to The Op, and the new game is titled Disney’s Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances. It is inspired by the original game as it features two teams of Disney characters, drawn from their extensive movie catalog, who compete against each other in turn-based battles. The roster is where the true power of the game lies, with skills that feel satisfying but are also authentic to the characters, all built on an immersive team-based foundation, and no Disney fan will want to miss out on all the fun.
Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances brings two to four players together to compete for victory points, and the first to reach the VP goal with their composite team wins. The end goal is simple and played in a similarly streamlined way. Teams take turns and turns are split into three phases, but those phases thankfully keep the turns moving quickly without sacrificing any kind of complexity. Even the tutorial of the game is split into four chapters that allow you to launch a game with different levels of complexity to speed up the start of a game.
The crux of Epic Alliances is the characters. Each has its own basic factors such as health, movement, attack and hand limit, but they also have at least one special ability that is completely unique to them, as well as the ability to upgrade them to get a different special ability that a game has. changer if applied in the right conditions. These skills all feel natural to who they are and vary in complexity and usefulness, and each character lends itself to an overall playstyle that’s fun to learn and experiment with as you learn the ins and outs of the game.
The core set roster is strong right out of the box, combining iconic heroes and villains with gameplay-changing fan favorites including Maleficent, Ariel, Aladdin, Sully, Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey, Demona, Dr. Facilier and Gaston. Sully, Gaston and Demona are all powerhouses but offer different approaches as Gaston hits hard but also has cards that move opponents to other spaces while Demona is an attacking juggernaut who can hit adjacent opponents with attacks and use her victories to move to other spaces on the plate.
Mickey’s attacks and abilities can be enhanced using Magic Broom, which you can build up over time, while Dr. Facilier is to hit others with status effects that can affect your current turn and future turns and throw a key in your strategy. Ariel has a solid mix of range and melee, but also has the ability to remove status effects and heal health, while Maleficent specializes in range and attacks which also provide benefits to her. Finally, you have Aladdin, which is all about speed and combos, as you can attack and move with several of his cards with the same card, or if he doesn’t, he can attack someone and leave a status effect.
Changing things further is that your hand of cards will apply to all of your chosen characters during a round, so if you have a team of three, your hand will be used for all three characters, and your options will depend on which cards you have. pulled from your deck. You can only play cards on a turn that matches the character you’re playing that turn, so for example if you only drew 1 Sully card (which I did multiple times in a row in one game) your options for him are quite limited . You can use your basic attack and move on your character map, so you can still do things, but you’ll have to adapt to the options your hand currently offers. This also really means you have to shuffle for a while before your first deck or else you’ll get 5 Ariel cards in a row and 1 for everyone else like I did. Don’t repeat my mistakes!
All of this makes for an ever-changing experience in each game, and I loved experimenting with different character combinations to find that ultimate Disney team. Everyone will likely find a mix that suits them best, and a personal favorite was Demona, Maleficent, and Aladdin, and they’re beautifully represented on the board with slick standees that tie into a base with their health and character-specific design.
Now the game isn’t perfect, mind you, with two elements coming to the surface the most. They’re beautiful on those stands, and it’s great to have the team colors, health and character in the same place. That said, a few of the standees didn’t have a solid fit in their bases after just a few matches, and because you have to lift the color ring to adjust their health, this led to standees falling out of their bases more often than expected, which gives the overall experience a certain awkwardness.
The other major issue concerns status effects. The game explains what each status effect does on the back of the rulebook, so what they actually do is pretty clear. That said, aside from one or two effects, it doesn’t feel like they really change the gameplay that much unless you can stack them in a significant way during a given turn. That could be purposeful, but more often than not, they didn’t play a part in the game that often, which is a shame as several characters rely on it as part of their overall skill pack.
Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances has even more characters on the way and will only continue to add new skills and winkles to its already impressive base, but even taking the core set into account, Epic Alliances has quite a bit to offer any fan of team-based gameplay. Disney fans will love the lineup of their favorites and how authentic they feel to the characters they love, and there’s plenty of strategy to keep experienced players engaged without relegating newer players to the table genre. The Disney magic abounds in Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances and the future is bright indeed. — Matthew Aguilar
Rating: 4 out of 5
Published by: The Op
Designed by: Sean Fletcher
Disney Sorcerer’s Arena: Epic Alliances is now available online and at your local game store.
Review copy provided by The Op
0 Comments