Lost Legends is a fantasy card game by Mike Elliott that combines a streamlined Euro game design and card drafting with an interesting fantasy theme and battle mechanic. Players take on the role of heroes trying to assemble an arsenal of equipment in order to vanquish a series of monsters that they will encounter.
The game begins with all players choosing one of five heroes each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Each player fights their own monster; this is not a cooperative game. The monster each hero will likely face is revealed to them before players draft cards for their equipment. An interesting aspect in this game is you may, if the conditions are right, evade a monster in front of you, and pass it to the hero next to you. But be aware if you do this you have to fight the monster you draw next!
Players then select an equipment card drafted from a hand of cards, and pass the remainder of the hand to your left to prepare for battle with the monster in front of them. The equipment draft continues in this manner until only one card is left in each hand, which is discarded. Players then compare their drafted equipment to their monster to determine the result of the battle! The game consists of 3 levels filled with monsters to slay and new equipment to pick up.
Players need Legend Points to win the game! These come in the form of trophies awarded for most monsters as well as sets of monsters slain. Can you defeat the monsters thrown in your path to glory and become the most Legendary?
- Great artwork and components
- Clear card design and slot mechanics that convey where cards go on the hero board
- Solid drafting and strategic depth from card selection and level progression
- Hero variety adds to replay value
- Not enough cards to sustain long-term replay value without expansion
- Punishing elements like the loser penalty and a 'runaway loser' mechanic
- Rules could use clarifications and tweaks for balance
- Downtime can be noticeable, especially when players are scoring while others are knocked out
- Heroic legend accumulation through combat and exploration
- Fantasy adventuring party exploring dungeon-like levels
- Light-hearted, strategic competition with a humorous tone
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- drafting — Equipment cards are drafted from level decks and placed on hero boards, forming a customizable loadout.
- Level-based progression — Each level consists of a Gear Up phase and a Combat phase with escalating difficulty.
- Monster deck progression — Three level-specific monster decks (ruins, caves, demon fortress) drive the combat phase.
- Resource management — Players manage gold, life, and mana tokens to equip cards and power skills.
- Trophy and Legend system — Trophies and Legend points track progress and determine end-game scoring and rewards.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- great artwork and components
- not a bad game but a little more play testing on rules change would have made it a really good one
- the different Heroes does add to replay value
- unlucky with the monsters
- there is two levels to go
- it's tactical as to when you want to use a card as a skill enhancement to gain gold
- Lost Legends get six Legend points out of 10