Solo only, right there on the box, and I want to get that out of the way because I know some people see that and check out immediately. Don’t. This is a compact, self contained reimagining of Gloomhaven’s combat puzzle, and the setup takes maybe five minutes instead of the twenty I remember dreading with the original. The insert alone almost sells it, everything has a place, no baggie lifestyle required, which after years of Gloomhaven’s box chaos felt like a genuine mercy.

The miniatures are tiny and honestly kind of fantastic for their size, and the A/B card mechanic is the real hook here, a puzzle nested inside the larger scenario puzzle that made me sit and stare at my hand longer than I expected on more than one turn. Two scenarios into my first run, I already liked it better than base Gloomhaven, same roguelike bones, same trimmed-down upkeep, and the pacing moves the story along without dragging.

The tradeoffs are real though. Character customization is way down, the big picture stuff, secret envelopes, retirement arcs, all of that’s gone. And a few people I’ve seen discuss it are right that removing the cooperative and campaign scaffolding exposes how much of Gloomhaven’s appeal was always about those things rather than the combat puzzle by itself, so if you were mostly there for the campaign feeling, this might read thinner than you want. The artwork also turns the cuteness dial up pretty hard, which isn’t my taste exactly, but it doesn’t get in the way.

For what it is, a true solo combat puzzle with almost no downtime between turns since there’s no one else at the table to wait on, it delivers exactly what it promises. Not a replacement for the full campaign experience. A genuinely great compact answer to “I want the puzzle without the four hour setup.”