Far to the south of The Last Ruin lies a cliffside village called The Monument. For generations, it protected an ancient shrine until the day a crystal meteorite descended. The meteor's denizens slowly crept out into the world—bizarre monstrosities from nightmare, attacking all in their path. As they spread across the land, there was no intelligent malice nor grand invasion strategy; the creatures acted like a fungus—spreading into new territory sporadically. After many fruitless attempts to expel the monsters, the people of The Monument fled as their village crumbled, exiled to distant lands, resigned to a nomadic existence.
Twenty years later, there are rumors that the bizarre monsters are growing weak. They’re slower, less impervious to attack, some undergoing a gradual petrification until they crumble to dust. Is it the atmosphere? Are they dying of old age? Do they suffer from a strange disease? No one is certain, but as the news spreads, various factions set their eyes on the vacant, ruined village of The Monument. The original villagers, now refugees, are desperate to return and rebuild. But they must do it quickly, before someone else claims their home. This is their chance. It’s now or never.
In Now or Never, you and up to three friends compete to best rebuild your ancestral village and guide the rest of the villagers on their journey home. Although the creatures of the meteorite have lost much of their strength, many of them remain, and you must fight them off to protect traveling villagers. Now or Never is the third game in the Arzium storybook series that includes Above and Below and Near and Far.
Now or Never is a competitive strategy game that allows you to:
Choose one of four asymmetrical characters to play.
Rebuild the village so that returning villagers have a place to live. You must carefully choose what and where to build to maintain an advantage, earning the biggest rewards for long-term planning.
Interact with other players by hiring their specialists to perform special actions.
Combat dangerous creatures to rescue villagers.
Explore a fantasy landscape filled with bizarre places, technology, and peoples.
Now or Never includes two modes of play: standard and story. When playing in story mode, you read from a storybook when you explore, making choices and learning more about the characters and the world. Each character has their own set of stories, unique to the locations they explore and diverse in plot, perspective, and motive, allowing you to choose what direction your own story will take.
Journey to The Monument and help rebuild your ancient home!
-description from publisher
- Deep, narrative-driven gameplay with strong campaign integration
- Excellent production and depth; Amber Minds expansion adds value
- Engaging writing and story integration
- Very long playtime and complex setup
- Not ideal for newcomers or casual gamers
- epic questing with city management
- Arzium world; adventuring and town-building
- campaign-driven multi-book quest
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- adventuring and town-building integration — Move a character around the map, complete quests, and build in your town
- end-game scoring engine — Final income turn to determine who has created the best engine
- large campaign structure with multiple booklets — Six booklets; long, involved campaign with narrative arcs
- leveling and skill learning — Level up your character and learn new skills
- Resource management — Gather resources and funds to hire craftspeople who aid construction
- resource management and hiring craftspeople — Gather resources and funds to hire craftspeople who aid construction
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- near and far in particular shines here with its map book and its character standees
- it's got a bit of worker placement a bit of racing and some pusher luck quests
- we actively enjoy the writing and getting into the story
- near and far is by far our consensus favorite
References (from this video)
- large-scale, epic feel without being unwieldy in shorter play
- fun to customize experiences via shorter play versions
- officially long plays in the full version can be lengthy
- epic questing, village building, monster hunting
- fantasy/adventure world
- story-driven with modular scope
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice-driven exploration — move around a board, fight monsters, and complete quests.
- Dungeon Crawl — move around a board, fight monsters, and complete quests.
- village-building and economy — developing your village and managing resources for progression.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's such a good Gateway game
- the art on the cards looks fantastic
- it's one of those simple flip and write games that you just want to play again and again
- the lazy Susan is genius
- Planet Unknown just knocks our socks off
References (from this video)
- large, immersive solo experience with a campaign feel
- two solo modes (standard and story mode) add variety
- learning curve and potential need for re-learning rules on replays
- ancient/heroic survival with a legacy-style progression
- epic engine-building and village rebuilding theme; part of a trilogy
- story-driven campaign through episodes
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- engine building — players build an engine over multiple episodes; includes branching story elements and storybooks
- engine-building / episode-based progression — players build an engine over multiple episodes; includes branching story elements and storybooks
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I really really enjoyed it
- I absolutely love this one I love the art of this one too and this one will definitely be one that I choose to bring traveling and stuff in the future. I really really like it
- I freaking loved it. I am so, so happy that I have it in the collection
- I absolutely love it and I'm excited to hop into those
- I love engine-building games
- I absolutely love the solo I've heard a ton of good things about the solo from a few of the people in the board game Garden solo community
- I think it's very cool that you can name the baby too; it just makes me very happy
References (from this video)
- Diverse design philosophy