Component Cons:

Bad Book Usage:

• Book binding falling apart, pages falling out

• Sometimes adventures do pointless jumps between different sections, why not only when choices are made? (No, these aren’t funnel points from multiple paths, sometimes they happen before a choice was even made)

• Storybook doesn’t randomize verses well, extremely easy to see other story options an inch away

• Tiny text in general (story cards, books, etc)

• Annoying to read text that’s near the book binding, nearly cutoff

• Monster art cut off in storybook across 2 pages, pages weren’t printed with blank margins near the binding

• Tons of shared art between cards and book, or double sided doom cards, even though game has a lot of art, it’s still not enough

Random stuff that doesn’t physically work well:

• Weak player aids, constant referral to rulebook, flipping sheets over

• Forgets to mention autobreak on back of dreamwalker player aid

• Boss sheets have relevant info on each side, pain in the ass to flip over constantly on top of when there’s an ability that needs to put tokens on the sheet, just have two sheets and make their backside contain: more art and flavor text, general tips, the crafting costs for their gear tech, the info for their battle that’s in the books, anything really

• Board doesn’t have letters and numbers on all edges, hard to quickly know coordinates at higher numbers/letters

• Dull brown board blends with tiles, tiles are also less saturated compared to their card art

• Board could really use more distinguished grid lines dividing columns/rows, or alternating colored lines to stand out easily

• Kratos tokens would benefit from different colors, didn’t really have this issue in cycle 1, but in cycle 2 you get more types and this gets annoying because the icons aren’t simplistic enough to be immediately discernible, they have a lot of detail but at a glance look like dark blobs

• Condition, despair, ambrosia tokens should be different colors to make it more obvious they aren’t all condition tokens

• D10 and d6 share colors, we all at some point grabbed wrong dice, why not just color code the dice like the cycles, super intuitive

• Pattern cards aren’t obvious enough to know what cycle they’re from since they’re really red, which is Cycle 2’s color

• Why don’t ALL the components have the cycle color coding? Make the boat brown/red/purple for exploration cards, mnemos could have a brown/red/purple color under the cycle number, or put the cycle’s color as a banner, etc.

• So many tech cards to keep track of, highly recommend binder, but also, they should’ve just made the visual design color coded to make text extremely distinguishable, like red boxes for saves, green for negotiation, etc. so you can cleanly organize and consider your options at a glance

• Common to shuffle really small deck counts of cards, cant really randomize 2 obols or like 2 boss AI cards

• Constantly shuffling cards: exploration every day, all the decks in fights, on top of escalation

• Genuinely can greatly benefit from a companion app that automates combat not just bookkeeping so you don’t have all these pauses that happen from escalation and gashes, then you can clear away literally all the boss components and trauma, moiros, kratos, trait cards, single/double wound decks, triskelions with tiny numbers, condition tokens, and get to easily see your teammates health

• Also would love to automate the exploration deck, fiddly to always shuffle and acclimate

• Oversized tech cards super pointless and needlessly confusing at first setup, and their art is entirely blocked by text anyways making them look really noisy, not good use of big size

• They also have different names on different sides, different game sources ask for different names, at best confusing, at worst causes errors

• Trade Fleet Dock checks for Argo Works for some reason instead of Grand Agora, Titan Hunting needs Titanogenesis instead of Titan Stoa, but then rhetoric needs last academy which is the unlock side, cycle 2 asks for Last tome and Primordial dawn, LTP asks for Bridge Tholos

• What is the point of oversized story cards? Could’ve just been in the book, or just tarot sized text one side art on other, which is better use of duplicate art on cards anyways

• Titan armory sabotage card cycle 2 is terrible design, randomly selects from your armory, which you’ll probably organize, so have fun shuffling it then immediately sorting

• Single/double wound looks like prototype component

• Story 1b art looks like random photoshop assets plastered over pics of a mountain, uneasy rests the head, rnr adventures, and trade fleet dock art in cycle2 book all have this uncanny look like it’s a real picture that’s been blurred to look like art and then buildings haphazardly photoshopped in

• Counting total map tiles out for certain tech cards unlock is tedious

• Being told to swap map tiles sucks, cant see numbers easily since front side font is tiny and backside is covered

• Argo blocks map tile info so I instead just kept the tile in front of me and only put it with the rest of the map for step 9 of voyage phase, also makes it way easier to distinguish that it’s unexplored

• Why are exploration numbers so out of order for acclimations

• Interchangeable parts for minis needs a diagram for what goes into what, it’s easy to figure out yourself, and obvious once you’re into cycle 2, but initially was a lot of trial and error

• Chimera VP always on early in fight, what is the point of the normal changeable pieces

• Moving chimera around with titans on top is so precarious especially when tilting the mini and having to balance it on uneven tiles

• Terrain tiles shift around super easily, especially with the 3x3 minis

• Some parts of the minis are insanely stiff and light, feels very brittle and legitimately concerned if I were to knock them over they’d snap, not slightly bendy or super thick like other big minis i have

• A number of our minis came in with broken parts, a friend’s had broken temenos pillar, apparently a common occurrence online

• Giant priority target mini I sometimes bumped into when reaching over table, really doesn’t need to so tall

• Insert is bad, doesn’t have set slots for everything

• Has enough space, but you have to finesse it and do unnatural splits of cards instead of clean piles of each cycle

• The only stuff in here that works great is the explored map cards space, and the slot for big cards (not very impressive since those are the smallest slots)

• If they can’t be bothered to make good slots in the insert, at least provide divider cards

• You NEED to follow the official unbox guide, which isn’t included in the box (like seriously, there’s secret decks packaged with other cards and split decks)

• Progress and doom tokens needlessly fiddly, app literally has numbers for them, and could’ve just been written down on sheet like everything else

• Nymph tokens don’t need to exist, just use generic or green charge tokens, or just write it down, you already have to in the first place, can easily also write down CHARGED with the name

• Campaign and argonaut sheets have to be printed out from their website, rulebook should really make their website more loud and clear and mention the app, which is far superior for bookkeeping anyways

• Paper choice matrix doesn’t track what the letter/number choice combo even meant, more reason to use app over paper

• App rules button not working, would be EXTREMELY useful to have keyword player aid on phone

• App is missing dreams of pharos, r&r adventures, and random fated boxes in adventure hubs

• Scribe unofficial app is way better for having more features, though I didn’t switch because im in too deep and too lazy to transfer, but I would’ve in a heartbeat if scribe had the exploration deck automated so i didn’t have to shuffle it constantly

Learn to Play:

• Reiterating that you NEED the unbox guide on their website, tutorial setup a complete mess otherwise, could’ve incorporated an unbox guide into the learn to play

• Tutorial keeps bringing up random jargon you dont understand yet and dont need to know:

• Pg 26 not counting fated mnemos means nothing, fated mnemos wasn’t explained yet 

• Crit miss is explained yet you don’t start with anything that triggers this

• Critical wounds leads to explaining modifier tokens being needed in the off chance you get the rare occurrence of randomly critting a specifically random body part

• Generally brings up stuff, explains it vaguely or without example via info dump, and then doesnt even use it, like the first ability window

• Either dont mention these aspects at all and then later on explain with example that uses it, or layout the full attack sequence upfront and briefly explain what will be used and what’s skipped so you know what to refer to later

• Sometimes leaves out actual important nuances, so if you learn it that way by ignoring something, you have to relearn it correctly anyways later on

• Example: friendly warning on lvl 0 hekaton is overridden by true knockback, which happens if hekaton ends move on you, playing by tutorial it doesn’t mention this yet rulebook does

• Forgoing certain mechanics and then teaching later is fine if it’s established well (Jaws of the Lion is excellent example of a good tutorial), but making player have to unlearn something is awful and introduces so many more issues than layering on more and more information

• Similar sounding terms bad for quick comprehension like knockback, pushback, and knockdown, just use way different sounding terms like launch/shove,

• Merchant ship maps adventure causing you to lose 1 argo fate is a bad tutorial reward, cant even gain argo fate cause no argo tests are allowed at that point so it’s a useless reward which can be confusing

• Gives you tech that unlocks argo abilities, doesnt give an Argo Ability to use as example

• Weird order of info, tells you to fix the trauma decks in setup instead of the end, where you’ll probably forget after doing the tutorial battle and learning a bunch of rules

• Learn to play mistakingly says crew and hull at 5/5, while also saying it’s at 5/4, and tells you to gain 2 permanent techs, but only the excursion tech is a permanent 

• Erroneously tells you to get the anti indoctrination philosophy tech when you don’t meet the requirements 

• Lighthouse art should be (I think?) in cycle 1 main story for a secret code that mentions it, why is it in the learn to play?

Rulebook cons:

Things in the wrong sections/bad organization:

• Determine facing direction of the boss rules refers you to wrong place, nowhere to be found in the Primordial or Battle section (it’s in the Hekaton boss setup)

• Facing direction boss setup in storybook should use wording “randomly determine” to prime people to look up random in index if it’s like this

• Retreat timing found in Hekaton battle, not rulebook

• Crit evade fail listed with crit chance instead of crit evade section

• Sometimes examples note something not mentioned in correct rulebook text section like knockback titans into other titans (knockback into other titans is in involuntary movement instead of just knockback section), ideally everything should just be in involuntary movement instead of cross-repeated in knockback pushback, etc.

• Bad bullet points structure is a result, pg48 involuntary move the first point has two different points in it, pushback bullet points is good with clearly different circumstances, yet knockback isn’t

• Movement p47 doesn’t need “you cannot move” 3 times, LoS p38 not sorted by is/isn’t so it’s just a mess of parameters

• Don’t need unlocking awakening rules p59, it’s on the unlock story stuff

• Doesn’t say what your starting exploration deck is, must check learn to play or story card, not an issue in later cycles cause you know, but shouldn’t be designed like that

• Rules should say to expect this since it’s a good source of new player confusion online

• In general having some stuff instructed to setup and others not causes later confusion, cause in cycle 2 I didn’t grab the inward odyssey card for a while cause I thought rulebook said to get it ready for when story introduces it not to just set it up immediately

• Index lacks complicated action, and instinct

• Why are base keywords in index if they’re all listed in the keywords section anyways

• Don’t think i ever used the symbols reference in back of rules because no explanations or pg numbers for each icon

• Triskelion icons are literally on your dials

• Do we really need the icons for red die/black die here? They don’t even look different for colorblind people

• Keywords split across different storybooks instead of all being in the rulebook

• Cycle 2 new movement types isnt even all new, Labyrinthauros and Pursuer had move unlimited and Pursuer had move to x, plus move to center,

• New keywords section has armor reroll which is old, makes referring keywords even more confusing

• Replace/destroy destructible terrain poorly worded in different places (labyrinth says destroy or replace depending on where you look, matters for terrain that have triggers on being destroyed)

Vague Wording or Leaving Questions:

• Return to the adventure/return to voyage mean the same thing, why word differently?

• Doesnt say what to do with triskelion when getting a new argonaut

• New mnemos for new argonaut not clear if it’s random or not from your vault? 

• Inward odyssey conflicts p27 says resolve at end of current step, but big card says story step

• Doesn’t mention what happens If you fuse a named titan with a core, does it keep its old traits like its pattern?

• This adventure takes a summon charge for unclear reason https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3014956/summon-nymph-next-battle

• Also not a good sign for the general rules clarity if someone literally explains their issue, and people in comments are misinterpreting it constantly

• Prototype logic breaker vs logic breaker, alpha temenos vs temenos, why are the names randomly slightly different with no discernible effect?

• Judgement in general a source of confusion online since it’s not an attack but uses attack layout, for how flavorful the game is there’s weird bits like judgement doesnt make boss turn since it’s not attack yet almost all of them is a gaze/pointing at a titan

• Pursuer toying not the most clear when it comes to its cross slash and pincer pierce attacks

• No mention of pushback while on VP, can titan “steer” the primordial since you’re adjacent and can declare whatever direction?

• Escalation says search for card, doesnt specify if random, and learn to play says use first card found

• Using kratos table MANDATORY even if dead from attacking, not clear in rulebook

• Knockdown effect different in rulebook vs cards

• Knockback in specific direction doesnt say if from primordial’s orientation or the cardinal directions of the board, examples shown confirm both

• Unsolved Enigma wording is poor, looking up intended effect is disappointing due to it being underpowered for a final adventure reward

• Morpheus Module unclear, was erroneously ignoring despair or fear/dread instead of despair and fear/dread

• Ambush Labyrintharos gaze of temenos not mentioned, some people online have started with it in deck when it’s only supposed to go in deck during battle from a rare trigger

• Start battle 2 spaces further from primordial due to adventure p103 what to do with Labyrinthauros who has 2 spots since titans setup first?

• Not clear if labyrinth 2+ all the same tile or does it rotate to next tile type each time?

• RAW temenos maze reconfiguration technically never activates since you can’t place labyrinth tiles on existing labyrinth tiles, I played by designer’s intent: if temenos uses labyrinth while the targeted titan on a labyrinth, obol draw

• Cycle 1 Story 3a says resolve clues but doesnt say to discard, does it go back in deck?

• Minotaur temple symbol different on map vs story 3a card

• Story intro cycle 2 new argonaut RAW starts with vaulted mnemos and castoff? Doesn’t say the gained mnemos is a replacement or additional

• Chimera rewards doesn’t mention level scaling, and in general an inelegant loot solution for the boss’s gimmick

• Also weird formatting sometimes, like there’s a chimera fate trigger on ai card where the effect is on a different line than the fate trigger banner so it’s unclear what text is part of this trigger or the base attack effect, or how pg79 Cycle 1 pretty sure the lose 1 hull is a mistake cause it’s not by the argo fate 7+ trigger which doesn’t even have a negative effect

Mistakes:

• Temenos zone attack that’s a line through its middle doesnt work RAW, faq battle question 10 doesnt even answer it, but then a designer comment on a bgg thread does

• Temenos VP says ignore responses, even critical? Labyrinthauros mentions this

• Also typo cause VP point means vantage point point

• Rulebook p52 example says bp deck when it means ai deck

• Crafting gear p19 lies when it says costs on back of gear cards

• Some cards say knockback then knockdown? Wouldn’t you then be out of range for the knockdown?

• Skyseer says survive major or grave wound? Does that mean trauma and it’s a mistake or literally just whenever you survive danger

• Mnemos cards 3rd tier only has 8 & 9 nodes, no 10th node

• Cycle 1 0056 adds a temenos battle but doesnt say what battle aftermath to use

• Tears of minotaur 0036 forgets to note maze, had to look at 0038

• Story 4a minoan princess ally can leave you, but that passage doesn’t actually make you lose her card? I picked it out of curiosity cause I was far enough in her tally marks and had an effect saying she cant leave you so I wanted to see what happens, but mechanically, she doesnt leave you despite story text saying she does

• Whole bgg thread on this, basically can’t get the full context without checking here and designer response https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3027604/princess-acacallis-question-end-story-3b

• Lackluster answer, still ultimately mechanically confusing, and also the story text doesn’t convey this intention at all

• Mistake in a few map card icons, only 1 of them is caught in faq

• Getting doom before getting doom card start of cycle 2 RAW wouldn’t do anything since it describes what happens with excess doom only while you have a doom card

• Mark B9 choice matrix in Cycle1 and Cycle2, definitely mistake these are 2 entirely different choices

• Missing cycle 2 recruitment drive exploration card

• Cycle 2 says to replace a bunch of tech, seems to have gotten names wrong? Says to get rid of excursion propylon instead of titan stoa2?

• Why is anti indoctrination philosophy not cycle 1 only when it affects despair and mazetouch?

• Cant find what river keyword terrain means

• Krypteia outpost crit RAW would place an opening that then gets removed immediately

• They do this correctly for hekaton’s runt bp 1 btw

• Argo onboarding error had different answers in the faq and designer comment online

• Overall high amount of errors and typos

• Only a small fraction of issues caught in faq, if you want to be adhering to designer intent you have to scour the web for comments instead of a singular ez to parse place

• While most of these are minor errors, there’s still quite a bit of major things issues, either way still had to constantly stop playing to check something

Designed With Tons of Rules Exceptions to Remember:

• With a game this complex, the issue is exacerbated because you can’t quickly confirm if something was an actual error, poorly worded, or you misunderstood it

• Design contains too many “gamey” exceptions, just a few examples:

• Dont crash if primordial sequence attacks while moving, crash with all other movement though

• Bonus attack does not resolve attack response, but does resolve all other responses

• Bonus attack CAN chain break to interrupt all effects and after attacks

• Meanwhile mercy rule skip only stuff affecting target so it’s an incomplete interrupt unlike chain break

• Double wound on bp3’s, and it doesn’t go into wound stack unless it crit

• Sequential attack can be interrupted but not simultaneous attack

• Everything is moving/counted orthogonally but then zone attacks are diagonal for some reason

• Trauma on attacks only, except obol trauma

• Too many things to remember outside of the game’s components like:

• Total titan deaths,

• Written argonaut abilities

• Unique effects triggered from story

• Mnemos level (I put generic tokens on my mnemos cards for faster reference during combat)

• Unique effects from crits

• Why design like this? Much more accessible to constrain effects to common conditions and keywords instead of highly unique and contextual one-time effects

• Doesn’t need to be so particular with timings and phases, like while voyaging the timeline step should just have everything written resolve then and there in player’s choice of order instead of delaying a bunch of it to a later step

• It can be tough to differentiate which things you aren't supposed to know yet and which things you've managed to overlook

• This when combined with really complex sequences that can be interrupted with new sequences on top of delayed effects you have to remember to do later causes a lot of unnecessary bookkeeping and fiddliness

• Very common sentiment on bgg to see players reminisce over random rulings they always forget to trigger in rulings threads

• On top of all this, there’s plenty of rules/mechanics that came into play very rarely

• Like in Cycle 1 I’ve never used a Nymph or Awakening, and I still haven’t drawn a single moiros card, or completed a fated mnemos

• The fiddlyness and complexity usually makes little difference to the overall experience if you're playing it the right way vs wrong, a good number of people online don’t seem to care that much about stopping over everything to make sure they’re playing RAW, but as a result a lot of people are playing the game differently from each other, each personally tailored for their own enjoyment

• Yet, some might be playing significantly altered difficulties with common mistakes like:

• Bonus attacks ignoring all responses instead of just attack responses

• Discarding despair tokens when discarding conditions

• Using 2 active shields on their tank for the same attack

• Attacking bosses that are standing on top of labyrinth tiles, disregarding the red lines

• Using free abilities after 2 main actions, your turn is supposed to immediately end after move and attack

• Looking at what cards to escalate out due to rulebook “search” wording

• If the complexity isn’t adding much to the game and tons of people disregard it, I’d argue it didn’t need to be designed that way

Rulebook isn’t the Main Issue:

• Rulebook does a good overview of the game and its phases, otherwise very mid

• Not a bad rulebook by most board game standards, more like the game’s design is incredibly convoluted so as a result an average rulebook doesn’t cut it when the game is this big, needs to be mostly clear and rarely vague

• Some stuff is described well and others aren’t, which is a very common thing for most rulebooks but isn’t felt as hard with smaller games

• Like involuntary movement section is a slam dunk, it sets up the definition, lists the common sources, and then bullet points case by case what happens depending on what you’re moved into

• Keywords with and without numbers to indicate if they’re stackable is a great distinction

• But then the game throws something in later on that muddies it because for some reason combo breaker x isn’t stackable

• This game has convinced me that you should never ever put flavor text directly into rulings text especially at this scale, harder to reference and parse, ideally put it into boxes on the side

• I’d assess the problem as the conjunction of the game’s convoluted design and an ok rulebook not being good enough to carry this game’s weight