How I played Final Girl

This is a very modular experience, where you get a core set, then combine it with a feature film box. So, I ended up buying the Starter Set (core set + 1 feature film), and 2 feature films.

12 plays total:

Camp Happy Trails (comes with Starter Set)

- [ ] 3x Laurie

- [ ] 2x Reiko

Frightmare on Maple Lane

- [ ] 2x Sherry

- [ ] 1x Reiko

Panic at Station 2891

- [ ] 1x Kate

- [ ] 2x Uki

- [ ] 1x Uki (against Dr. Fright)

Need to learn how to play? Or want more reasoning for our points? Our review video’s got you!

Component Pros

• VHS lookalikes come apart with magnets that are location & killer boards

• Core set and feature films all have great insert, some plastic bags

• Big chunky dice to roll

• Great wooden pieces for meeples, health, time

Art Pros

• e.g. Muted Camp Happy Trails vs. Vivid Frightmare box

• e.g. Dr. Fright’s cards are gorgeous

• Full art killer boards

• Tons of items, full art locations

Symbology Pros - Everything makes immediate sense!

• Partial success to discard 2 cards literally depicts it

• Targeting you = picture of a girl

• Cards are color coded well

• Easy to keep track of things given there’s multiple boards and cards

Rulebook Pros - Super clear

• Plenty of visuals, examples, index

• Quick reference on back

Modularity Pros - Easy to divide

• Separate rulebooks for killers and maps to easily mix rulesets

• Cards clearly labeled for their set, easy to separate

• Flavor Text Pros - Get that campiness goodness going!

• Brief backstory on every rulebook

• Most cards have flavor text (that’s a lot of cards!)

• Basic actions

• Events

• Terror cards

Gameplay Pros - Hand management & building

• Have to plan what cards you need for future turns constantly

  • Can’t move without movement cards, make sure you don’t get trapped!

• Worth discarding cards you paid for to succeed a partial success?

• Ditching cards for +1 time is great buying flexibility

• Only 1 copy of the strongest cards (e.g. attacks), so have to cycle them repeatedly to win

• 11 unique cards to buy with their own merit

  • Boost next roll, re-roll, discard fodder

  • Maps have their own cards for more interactions

Gameplay Pros — All the tracks flow into each other well

• Keep horror low to keep dice rolling up

  • If can get it to stay at 1, roll 3 dice every check

  • Good time management lets you play more actions to decrease terror

• Staying at 1 HP gives additional dice rolling, which promotes risky play

  • Need to carefully manage positioning, healing, and blocks if play this well

• Find a way to have time high (buy more cards), terror low (roll more dice), and health high or at 1 (roll +!)

Gameplay Pros - The panicking victims

• Give game more flavor than just you and the killer

• Have to manage well: saving is nice benefits, them dying buffs killer, if no victims on map can get punished

• Event cards make victims NPCs

  • Perks for interacting with them

  • Punishing you harder if they die

• PANIC mechanic- victims run around randomly if anyone died

  • Hilarious to see what game states happen from this, add lots of flavor

    • Can panic into killer, or into safety

Gameplay Pros - Progression in a sub hour!

• Start with nothing or little to nothing, have to prepare for final showdown

• Balance getting weapons with saving victims

• Try to get victim benefits on girl card before killer’s final form

  • Benefits giving free things on turns make certain turns have great forward momentum feeling

    • Getting to move for free in a game where it’s a check is awesome

• Find ways to roll more dice

  • If done correctly can get 4 or 5 end game

  • Not common, but if killer is at 1 HP, roll +1 for final satisfying momentum to win

• Want to try to get better attacks paired with having more cards that modify other cards

• Killer final form removes all terror flips for no-nonsense man hunt

  • Can completely predict his moves in climatic end game

  • Still has cool twist where if you die, you’re necessarily dead (possibly 1-3 more HP after last HP)

Gameplay Pros - Locations have so much character

• Camp Happy trails (summer camp)

  • Get keys to the boat to sail across the lake to save victims

  • Find archery bows or bear traps

  • Teenagers sometime resist rescue

• Maple Lane (quiet midwestern suburb)

  • Have to “convince” (action card) people to let you into their homes

  • Houses can only be searched once

  • Boyfriend house who can save your life

  • House fire possibilities

• Station 2891 (freezing area in the middle of nowhere)

  • Indoor is safe from the outside frostbite

  • Killer can get affected by frostbite

  • Only way to escape is through the helicopter, which needs an action card to move faster

  • Flamethrower does INSANE damage to killer

  • Helpful dogs can perform self-defense

Gameplay Pros - Killer flavor (won’t talk much about Hans in starter set because he’s vanilla)

• Dr. Fright: all about sleep

  • Literally haunts you in your dreams- put you in the boiler room if you fall asleep through him or by resting. Once per round mini-game to maybe get hit again

  • Victims will not follow you if asleep

  • You and Dr. Fright cannot attack each other unless asleep, so need to play game with 2 stages in mind

  • Can voluntarily move cards in boiler room to try to wake up faster for more control

  • Be wary about being put permanently to sleep late game

• Organism: Maybe 3 killers!?

  • 3 victims on the board are infected, you have to test them, 1/3 chance of infected

  • Feel paranoia from escorting around victims who may actually be killers

Gameplay Pros - Insane modular replayability

• Killers: 3 final forms, 3 dark powers (passives), 2-3 minor dark powers

• Locations: 5 Setup cards, 16-18 items (5-6 are unique), 10 events

• Girls: 2 in each box

  • Unique fronts and backs, takes some time to get used to how to sequence the front

  • e.g. free guards, moves, healing, retaliates

  • e.g. Reiko can jump to the killer after hitting final form

• Included 2 secret unlockables in each box for each girl, make at least 1 more playthrough different

• If want to churn through content, at least 4 plays in each box (2 plays a girl)

• Game is really easy to run back by refreshing events, items, and girl which all drastically change openings.

• Can use Extreme Horror mode for more difficulty

Gameplay Pros - Runs very true to 20-60 minutes

• Once killer reaches final form the game is super close to finishing

• Only 10 terror cards (10 turns), some terror cards flip more, so more like 7-9 turns

• First games will run a little bit over an hour

Final Pro - Really great campy playground of theme meeting gameplay

• Killer can stand in place and mutilate themselves to raise horror (you can panic too)

• Walking is safer than sprinting with less upside

• Landing a stronger attack reduces horror as you feel good/safer

  • Failing a stronger attacking raises horror

• Story: There was a July 4th party on Maple Lane to literally watch the fireworks, so there was a HUGE crowd of victims all leaving their houses. I was concerned that Dr. Fright would easily kill them all, but then Officer Kopf arrived on the scene to escort them all to the exit with his squad car

Component Cons

• Little wooden markers for items are way too small

  • Couldn’t they be at least taller?

• Boards do not stay flat, making it weirdly stick out in front of your item area

  • YMMV, reports that some people don’t have as much issue

• VHS look-alike is inefficient for setup/takedown

  • Turn it over while setting up

  • This slowness matters more because playtime is so short

Gameplay Cons - Randomness Struggles in many areas

Disclaimer: We understand that Final Girl is not meant to be taken very seriously, as it is a horror movie simulator. But some of the randomness struggles are so laughably punishing for bad game states.

• Event flip during setup can make game SO much easier/harder

  • Good: Friendly NPC next to you, or permanent buff

  • Bad: Star Crossed Lovers who throw themself at the killer if their partner dies (2x amount of deaths sometimes)

  • Bad: TONS of victims suddenly drowning in a lake, also opens a new area that victims to panic into and die

• Do NOT want to be stuck in a “downward death spiral” because game is snowball-y if tracks get out of control

  • Think about combining poor initial dice rolling with bad events

  • 2x blanks in a row (11% probability) on first rolls means you basically surrender

  • Buying re-rolls later is spending time to do so, where ALREADY punished on time for failing roll

• Concerned about newcomer experience where people just get bad openings, then are steamrolled

  • Camp Happy Trails (starter set) suffers more, with Hans 12 HP, and no inherent ways on map to slow him down

  • Need a good weapon, sometimes don’t find it

  • Dr. Fright has minor dark power that puts you to sleep that is super annoying dealt early

  • Station 2891 can get heavy snowstorm that randomizes movement outside so can’t really save victims

• If feel like insanely behind early or mid-game, can just restart

  • Ways to increase win rate (close-call or inspiration before big checks), but sometimes you’re so far behind

• Con isn’t weighted too hard because it’s VERY, if not impossible to balance a system with so many items, events, killers, locations, etc.

  • Could allow players to have once per game re-roll, or discarding any 2 cards to re-roll