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Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Episodes 1 & 2 Deep Dive
What the Community Thinks About Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Episodes 1 & 2
Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles, Episodes 1 & 2 is a big, heavy dice drafting Euro from Mindclash Games, set among survivors stranded in a land full of dinosaurs, and the creators who actually played it are split between admiration for its ambition and frustration with how it plays. 3 Minute Board Games called it really disappointing: a beautiful, high-effort production that nonetheless failed to be fun, interesting or thought provoking across several different groups. The Broken Meeple, looking back on its review of these two episodes, found them too overcomplicated, too fiddly and problematic in solo, and judged them impractical games. Meeple University, having played only Episode 1, saw it as a heavy Euro rather than an ultra-heavy one. Other channels mostly discuss the game from a distance. Totally Tabled missed these first two episodes and admits that two heavy Mindclash games at once may simply have felt too overwhelming, and Nights Around a Table, which Mindclash offered to send a copy of the game, confessed it was not convinced by the episodic concept. The overall picture is a handsome, demanding design that the reviewers who played it struggled to enjoy.
Core Mechanics That Define Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Episodes 1 & 2
Dice Drafting and Placement
Every source that describes the rules lands on the same core: Perseverance is a dice drafting and dice placement game. Totally Tabled sums up what it knows of these episodes as heavy Euro games with dice drafting and dice placement of some sort, a mechanism that channel says it really loves. Meeple University calls it essentially a dice action drafting game, and adds that Episode 1 includes area control elements and dinosaur attacks that the players have to deal with. Meeple University also relays a comparison from designer David Turczi during a live play: where Anachrony is really two mechanisms folded together, Perseverance has four major mechanisms all working together. That density is exactly what divides opinion later on.
Two Standalone Episodes in One Box
The box holds two separate games rather than one campaign. Matthew, speaking on Game Night Picks, notes that the story unfolds across a four episode saga, but each episode is played as a standalone game with no legacy elements, and he relays the publisher's claim that each chapter is a fully developed game and not just a scenario. Totally Tabled outlines the difference in theme between the two: in Episode 1 the survivors defend their town against dinosaur attacks, while in Episode 2 the town is safe and the players explore the wilderness and expand the village. Nights Around a Table describes the setup as survivors of a shipwreck on an island full of dinosaurs, with the first episode about setting up camp as a whole board game unto itself and the second going deeper into the island.
The Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Episodes 1 & 2 Experience
Heavy, and Dry for Some
The experience that 3 Minute Board Games describes is the sharpest criticism in the coverage. The premise of landing on an alien world full of dinosaurs is exciting on paper, yet the reviewer felt the game managed to suck all the fun out of it, calling it cumbersome, a bit of a joyless experience and really, really dry. The reviewer's most memorable complaint is that the dinosaurs could have just been any kind of wooden cube, meaning the theme never came alive at the table. After trying it with a bunch of different groups, the reviewer called it a bit of a damp squib. Meeple University's weight assessment is milder: a heavy Euro, not an ultra, though only Episode 1 was played there.
Two Heavy Games at Once
Packaging two full heavy games together shapes how people approach Perseverance. 3 Minute Board Games pointed out that it was two heavy games in one, which only added to the burden. The Broken Meeple disliked selling two games in one box and hoping buyers like both. Totally Tabled suspects that the thought of two heavy Mindclash games at once was what kept it away. Nights Around a Table found the episodic structure itself strange, asking why anyone who had played the second episode would go back in time in the story to play the first one where the survivors set up camp, while still calling it a really unique concept.
What Makes Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Episodes 1 & 2 Stand Out
Production Values
Even the harshest critic credits the presentation. 3 Minute Board Games describes Perseverance as beautiful looking, with fantastic production values and a lot of effort poured into it. The complaint is that the effort did not translate into fun, but no one disputes that the physical product is impressive. For players who value a striking table presence and a strong dinosaur survival theme, that is a real draw.
Episodes With Different Goals
The two episodes are not simple variations. Totally Tabled's summary of defending the town in Episode 1 and exploring and expanding in Episode 2 shows two distinct objectives, and the Broken Meeple judged that mechanically Episode 2 was better than Episode 1, which it found lacking, even though Episode 2 was also more complicated and fiddly. The standalone structure described by Game Night Picks means a group can pick whichever episode suits its taste without committing to a campaign.
Potential Drawbacks
Fiddly, Overcomplicated and Uneven Actions
The Broken Meeple offers the most detailed mechanical criticism. Beyond calling both episodes overcomplicated, fiddly and problematic in solo, the channel remembers the action design as badly uneven: some actions take ages and produce cool combos, while others among the roughly 16 available simply take two resources. That imbalance makes turns feel lopsided and adds to the sense of an impractical game. Solo players in particular should note the Broken Meeple's reservations.
A Theme That Does Not Come Through
For 3 Minute Board Games, the core problem was not rules weight but joylessness. The dinosaur theme, the main hook, felt like it could have been swapped for wooden cubes. Players who choose Perseverance for its setting may find that the systems overshadow the story. The reviewer's standard, that a game should be fun, interesting or thought provoking, is exactly the test it felt Perseverance failed.
If You Enjoy Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Episodes 1 & 2
The one game the coverage repeatedly measures Perseverance against is Anachrony, Mindclash's earlier heavy Euro. 3 Minute Board Games calls Anachrony probably its favorite worker placement game, which made the letdown with Perseverance sting more. Meeple University's account of David Turczi's comparison, two mechanisms folded together in Anachrony against four working together in Perseverance, suggests that players who love Anachrony and want something even denser may want to try Perseverance, while those who value Anachrony's focus may prefer to stay with it.
What Reviewers Are Saying
"which is really sad because it's it's beautiful looking uh it's got fantastic production values a lot of effort went into this game but the effort didn't necessarily make it that fun first and foremost I think a game should be fun it should be fun or it should be interesting or it should be thought provoking and I didn't find perseverance to be any of those"
— 3 Minute Board Games
"The thing is, I did a review on episode one and two, and found that they were too overcomplicated, too fiddly, too problematic in solo and stuff, and they were just impractical games. And even then, mechanically, episode two was better than episode one."
— The Broken Meeple
"even though the narrative unfolds through story driven elements each episode we played as a standalone game and there's no legacy elements the publisher claims that the whole storyline is infinitely replayable and each chapter is in fact a fully developed game and not just a scenario which I have to admit does sound kind of cool"
— Game Night Picks