Mice & Mystics comes back and gets better again (so to speak because practically nothing has changed compared to the first edition) after the first release in 2012. Thanks to Asmodee we managed to get a copy and test it, and today it's time to tell you about one of the most beautiful narrative Dungeon Crawlers published to date. For those who don't know, Mice & Mystics has been a truly worldwide success, selling many copies around the globe. This success is due to the fact that once you manage to abandon yourself to your imagination, the title transports us to a masterpiece of fiction with a bewitching and eventful story, which makes the gaming experience unforgettable.
The designer has certainly succeeded in creating a story, as well as a game, where players will go against the most disparate situations, such as tragic and other hilarious events. The title of Jerry Hawthorne it is really suitable for all types of players: it can represent a challenge for veteran gaming groups (although not the best), and it can instead be chosen to introduce your children and family to the world of board games. This last situation in our opinion is the most ideal, because young people will be able to immerse themselves in the adventure with much more ease and with fewer "walls of conscience" to climb over.
The game begins with a father who decides to tell a fairy tale to his son to put him to sleep: In a far-away territory, there was a very sick King who, due to force majeure, had to hand over power to his second wife, a stepmother who is looking for all ways of ousting the Prince, legitimate heir to the throne. After this incipit the attention shifts to Collin and his gang of friends Topi. The game begins when he and his gang find themselves locked in a cell guilty of high treason. To be able to escape, a friend of Collin manages to cast a powerful magic, which turns all the inhabitants of the kingdom into mice. From this moment on, the players will have to impersonate Collin and his gang of friends. The first of the 8 adventures within the game will take us to the sewers of the kingdom, from which we will have to escape and live this sweet and fascinating experience.
What we find inside the box
The content of this new edition of Mice & Mystics it is all of the highest quality and quality, the miniatures representing the characters of the game are truly fantastic, the modular map is shiny and resistant to the right point, capable of being used and reused over time, each card has an attractive design and the manuals are written in a very clear and easy to understand way.
Once the cellophane has been removed, we will find inside the box:
- The manual
- The modular map (8 pieces)
- The Book of Stories
- 5 beautifully crafted dice
- Lots of assorted pieces to keep the many aspects of the game under control
- A miniature for each character in the game
- Cards with character abilities, items, and spells
But how do you play with the Mice?
As we told you earlier, Mice & Mystics it does not shine for originality in the gameplay, but what makes it beautiful is the narrative part. This is why the gameplay sessions bring us ever closer to the world of fairy tales, where everything is so soft and not very edgy. As in any self-respecting dungeon crawler, all characters or groups of in-game characters have their own tab where 4 values are reported: attack, defense, hit points e special skill. All the cards will then be mixed with the characters' tiles, once revealed they will indicate the order of the game turn, which however will be marked by the phases of the story.
The players to progress and get to the end of the fairy tale will have a predetermined time and only a few actions to be performed: you can fight, run fast, recover e cercare.
For fight the dice made available come into play, adding that pinch of randomness that never hurts (I said pinch, because many dice will be thrown and having bad evenings will be difficult). The phases of the attack are very simple: the attacker will roll a number of dice equal to those of the characteristic described on the card (if equipped, you can choose whether to throw or hit in close combat). Who will have to stick up for he will throw a number of dai peers to his "defense" plus the bonuses received from various armor. The difference between the two rolls will tell us how much damage will be assigned or not assigned to the chosen target.
The fighting system is very basic, what really makes the difference between our mice and enemies is certainly the amount of power-ups and special abilities we have. As good mice as we are, however, we will have a very low injury score, which is why we will soon fall into the trap (either for strategy, or for a pinch of bad luck). Once our HP is exhausted, we will find ourselves captured by the enemies, but once the fight is resolved, our allies will be able to free us, with the only penalty of losing part of our equipment.
In each turn, our characters will be able to move around the environment and perform only one action. The movement capacity is calculated from time to time by adding the roll of a die to the basic characteristic. This particular randomness of the movement makes everything more fun, because lucky throws will be needed to be able to climb on particular objects. But we can move and take advantage of the action Fast run, which will allow us to double the movement. This is a very convenient action if we want to travel for long distances and achieve goals that are important to us. The other two actions, "Recovery"And"Research", One serves to recover from altered statuses (such as when you are stunned, hypnotized or trapped; very often, you will need to roll a die to try to recover), while the other applies inside the room in which the character is. : also in this case a die must be rolled which will determine the success of the action. The objects found, are drawn from a well-defined deck of cards: we can find weaponry, unexpected events, armature e powerful artifacts. But if we don't want to tempt fate, we can choose to take one "cheese" pawn, tokens that, if spent, allow mice to cast spells or take advantage of their special abilities.
The explore action can only be activated if there are no more enemies in the box and in certain boxes on the map, it will be possible to move to an adjacent tile only if the 2 are linked together and especially if they are on the same floor (underground or first floor). Otherwise it will always be possible to explore the other level of the tile. Precisely this possibility manages to open the exploration of the adjacent tiles. During the gameplay, players will have a limited time available to complete the missions, this makes the adventure a little more engaging, because to move from box to box, we will have to defeat every enemy that comes in front of us (you cannot do otherwise ). 
For this reason, you will need to know your enemies very well, which may be small and almost harmless "warrior mice", but also "cockroaches", treacherous bastards who do not harm us physically but steal our beloved and precious cheese. The hardest part obviously comes with the higher-lineage characters like the wizard, the head guard or the huge centipede. Fortunately, there are no specific rules on exchanging equipment between the company of the anus… no sorry for the Mice. Players will be able to pass the right items to each other at the right times, so as to stem even the most difficult stages of fights.
Pope! Will you tell me the story of the Mice again ?!
If you have read this far you are surely wondering if the title can be replayed, in the end the story is always the same! Clearly the narrative accompanies us along a story that is always the same, but the pinch of randomness and the gameplay solutions that can be chosen game after game, make Mice & Mystics is a game that can be played and replayed safely. Players will be able to decide whether to face the adventure trying to enhance certain aspects much more or whether to do a real campaign with additional rules to the basic ones.
Each gameplay session can be different from the previous one, it will certainly depend on the degree of involvement that the players will be able to obtain, who will not have to focus on some issues related more to "hardcore" games than this one. There are many small chapters to live and the fights can also be difficult to face, with the clock on the board that will always be there to make us hear its inexorable ticking. Once the “Cheese” pawn is scanned in the clock, various events will occur and the chapter will end. At this moment a large opponent will enter the playing field, an encounter card will be revealed that will determine who our enemies will be and a new game turn is determined, during which the characters' cards will be reshuffled.
Precisely in this case, we will understand in which order our characters will attack or will be attacked, another random aspect that can increase the difficulty of the game. Regardless of our skill, once all the chapters of the adventure are finished, if we fail to reach the victory condition, the game (and time) is considered lost.
The End
There is little to do or say, Mice & Mystics it always remains a truly fascinating and addicting game. Despite the simplicity of the gameplay, we don't feel like telling all lovers of the most difficult games not to try this title. If every player manages to be captured by this beautiful narrative adventure, even the most brutal or cold players will be able to truly appreciate it.
After all there is a story to hear and a game set of considerable thickness, every card, every design, and ultimately every detail, is cared for and has a truly captivating design, albeit calibrated to a very young audience. . The actions of the characters are very original, and even more original is the management of accessible spaces, because the areas have very different dimensions. A mouse (good or bad) can enter a certain zone only if the base of its miniature can be contained within the area of the zone it wants to access. If the "base space" allows access to up to 4 characters or a large monster, the objects depicted take on different values.
In short, in Mice & Mystics there is a world to discover and an adventure to live, although very sweet in its complex it is not without dramatic moments that represent the harshness of life.
