The first official board game based on Kentaro Miura’s legendary dark fantasy manga, Berserk, will soon launch a crowdfunding campaign, bringing the brutal world of the Black Swordsman to the tabletop. Publisher Monolith Edition has opted for Gamefound to fund Berserk: The Board Game, a cooperative miniatures game that notably carries an 18+ rating.
The game is designed for one to five players, who will take on the roles of iconic characters from the series, including the tormented protagonist, Guts. According to Monolith, players will relive key moments from the manga, travelling through emblematic locations and confronting the demonic Apostles that plague the world. The trailer for the game has already amassed nearly a quarter of a million views in just a few days, signalling a huge appetite for the project.
Gameplay in Berserk: The Board Game is built around a card-based system. Each hero has a unique deck of action cards used for movement, attacks, and defence. A fatigue mechanic adds a layer of tactical depth; the more cards a hero plays in a single turn, the more exhausted they become, reflecting the desperate and attritional nature of combat in the Berserk universe.
The 18+ rating is a rare sight in the board game industry and speaks to the publisher’s commitment to an authentic adaptation. Berserk is renowned for its mature themes, unflinching violence, and exploration of human nature’s darkest corners. The story, set in a bleak medieval-inspired world, follows Guts on his quest for revenge against his former friend and leader, Griffith, who sacrificed his comrades to achieve demonic power.
Created by the late Kentaro Miura, Berserk began serialisation in 1989 and has become one of the best-selling and most influential manga series of all time, with over 70 million copies in circulation. Following Miura’s tragic death in 2021, the series has been continued by his childhood friend and fellow manga artist, Kouji Mori, based on Miura’s detailed plans for the story’s conclusion.
Berserk: The Board Game promises to immerse players in this twisted world where, as the publisher notes, “hope is scarce, and death is sometimes welcome.” The crowdfunding campaign will soon be live on Gamefound.
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