Malhya: Lands of Legends - Let's Look Inside!

It has been three years almost four years since we originally covered Malia on the channel. In fact, we both just took a look at our original video uh which hap it says YouTube says three years ago, but it was March. >> Yeah. So, >> almost four years ago. >> Four whole years ago. >> Almost four whole years ago.

>> A lot has changed. >> A lot has changed in the world. Uh but we don't know if a lot has changed with Malia. And I'm hoping it hasn't. Now, we only had a like we normally get with a prototype, very much a vertical slice experience of the game. It was very much a prototype. >> It's been that long. So, we have no idea cuz I haven't been keeping up with like >> the campaign updates or anything like that.

They may have changed. This might just be a dexterity game. >> But it is I I tell you, I wasn't expecting this. >> No, it's mammoth. I mean, what we got, like you said, like when we get the vertical slice, it comes in, you know, a normal board game size box, but I have not seen the contents of this at all.

I mean, this I remember this game being gigantic like this. Is this just the rules or is this the >> No, no, no, no, no, no. I have taken a peek in here. And we're not, by the way, we're not going to do like a full traditional unboxing. We wanted to talk a little bit today. >> I remember that I so I remember liking this game a lot.

And we did it like and we I know we talked about it a little bit before we turned the cameras on, but a lot of it's coming back to me now. There were so many different levels of mechanics to this game. >> There is a lot to this game. And I will say this, >> it's a minis heavy game. >> Yeah. As we watched the video, I thought to myself, >> gosh, >> um Whoa, this sounds way more complicated than I remember.

Um >> it was a pretty complicated game. >> It was. But I remember like we dove into it to learn it enough to do that video and with all the time between then and now I'm like there's a there's a lot of game here because there's a lot of systems. First of all, this is a big grand campaign game. There's going to be modes where you're sort of on this overworld map and then it's going to rush into sort of more of a micro level where you're in like a dungeon or something like that.

One thing I remember about it is that it wasn't it didn't feel like it was necessarily you know how Gloom Haven goes back and forth pretty systematically. This one felt like the dungeon thing could happen at any moment. >> Well, yeah. And I know you had like dun you had like combat dungeons, you had stealth dungeons, you had RPG elements with skill checks, and all of these were kind of handled by different systems.

>> And this game is literally stacked. Uh >> yeah, that's our second try so far. This box is nothing but tray. Like this after Trey after tray. >> I want to see that. The adventure book >> is Oh, no. Wait, wait until you see this one is >> Yeah. >> into >> Nash's Inferno. >> Nash's Inferno, which >> Oh, that's the story book.

>> Well, it is a story book because when you see what we get down to the bottom, this also has a bunch of the miniatures. Here's the other cool thing. Be careful because those are not taped. >> This one's a pretty thick tray. These also had these player boards where this is half of the playerboard. The other half kind of like connected to it, which is where you kept all your cubes uh for a lot of items and things that you're holding.

But it opens up like this. >> All the components are really nice. >> The miniatures feel very nice. The miniatures all feel like pretty heavy duty plastic and not like >> um >> That's neat. So you may It's all going to be dual layered once once you punch out >> punching the game, Ryan. I punched out one little piece to for an example.

I can slide it back in. Oh, here's the exploration booklets. And oh my goodness. >> No, wait. There's more. What is >> I'm telling you, there's so much more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Look how many is in this. How many dungeons is in this? >> Check this out. This tray here. >> I didn't punch this. >> It came pre- punched.

>> All of the tiles were pre- punched and sorted into these different sections of this. I also want to point out too, uh, I like to point these sorts of things out because not every game maker does it. You see what this does they did on the trays here >> with the little with the little hole with the little pulls.

>> So, when you have this many trays stacked in here and you have to like put your hands down in the sides and there's a little indent on the side so you can actually grab the tray. That's a nice thing. But yeah, there's a ton of different tiles mostly for all the dungeonyy type experiences that you're going to go on.

>> Do you know how many of those dungey type experiences they have in this one exploration booklet? How many? >> 172. >> Well, wait. >> That's a lot. >> Wait, there's more. >> This is just the exploration booklet. >> This is >> I think this is like the little side stuff that you do. >> I'm going to save the one thing to the last because I think it's going to surprise Ryan.

Oo, this one's heavy. >> Are these the other pieces to the character cards right here that slot in double-sided the dice? >> Here's the other side to the player boards. >> Um, and this is interesting because where's this looks like maybe it's even three parts. Well, I think you had something. I don't remember.

>> Something that just sat on the side. >> What were And these are the enemies. These are the enemies you fight. >> Yeah, those kind of laid up above the board. I mean, just like many cards. >> Now, here's the thing I wanted to show Ryan and then we'll start talking a little. >> Gosh, that's cool. Let's Let me Can I move this out the way?

See that better? >> So, there's this thing in the bottom of the box. >> Super cool. >> And it has this, which is And I'm going to have to dump these out. It has >> That is insane. This as a RPG gamer, this appeals to me. >> Oh, >> this is an event book, which >> so that is in addition to the exploration booklet, which is just the side exploration stuff.

>> I guess >> there's like I saw at least this goes up to 900. >> It is a massive book. >> This This is like a novel. I would be curious. >> Now, check this out. >> Oh, yeah. >> Look at all of these books. Uh, introduction booklet, the awakening adventure booklet for glory. I assume these feel like the chapters of the experience.

>> These are the chapters. A rumor from the north. Oh, these are definitely This is where you're going to have a lot of text, a lot of your skill checks. >> I don't know if these are chapters because as I look at these, they almost feel like in and of themselves campaigns. >> I bet they are. I bet you >> you know what I mean?

Like we could play this one or that one and maybe you could play them all in order. Well, I think it says that you choose one, right? >> Maybe we didn't have all of this when we played the prototype, of course. You know what? My guess is this introduction book is what we did, right? >> I Yeah, I don't even know if we had that whole adventure book.

I think maybe I remember uh we played through one scenario basically. >> So, one of the things that uh I wanted to touch on is when we played the game originally, one of the things that really stuck out to me personally was the stealth mechanics. Now, >> I have since in the last four years played other games with pretty interesting stealth mechanics that had a noise and things like that.

>> But I will say after I reminded myself after watching our video, the stealth here when you play this, the system is really robust because you could enter a scenario in stealth or depending on what took place, you might be entering that scenario in combat. When you're in combat, the way you're spending your action points, because it's kind of an action pointbased system, is completely different.

It feels like a completely different system than if you're in stealth. When you're in stealth, there's this whole stealth track that kind of tracks. I remember the enemies feeling a little like, if you're familiar with the video game Metal Gear Solid >> of people sort of on these routes and you >> they would turn and look at you.

One of the things we mentioned in our video that was really fun was like you could spend some of your action points, but then you could delay and save some of your action points. So, you could be sitting in the shadows hoping that this guy was going to walk by you and if you had action points out out of turn, you could spend some of those to interrupt, come out and, you know, shank a guy and kill him like that.

Like it was in stealth, you were spending like two action points to immediately kill someone, >> which makes sense. >> Yes, it was very cool. It made the missions feel like a puzzle where it was like, "Okay, let's take out as many of these guys as we can using our action points before we start combat because once combat starts, things get a little rough." And also, there's a lot of different paths through every area.

Again, we didn't get to play through as many areas as this, but even what we did play through felt varied and it felt like it gave you a lot of options. >> Yeah. Now, here's my question for you, Ryan. Will we play through this? >> I mean, we made it halfway through Old Probably not. We made it h I've never made it all the way through any campaign like that.

>> Look at their warning in the rule book. This campaign is very long. >> Does it really say that? >> It says that >> uh please take the time to prepare. It says we recommend you take the time to prepare for it. Read the rules and understand them before you start playing basically. >> And my memory is that that is true.

Like again I look back at our video and think oo this maybe is this too much? Is are the systems too much? And and the thing is with games, the more complicated a system, the cooler generally it is. Now, it may not be the most elegantly designed thing because there's so many little fiddly things that you have to remember.

And I do think that's probably the case. Not to suggest that the game is fiddly, but any game like this with a robust set, kind of like Stalker from Awaken Realms, there's a lot to remember when you're playing a game like that. >> I think that's still the case here as well. Um, but I think once once you get going and once you play through like, you know, maybe the intro chapter, you'll probably be good to go.

>> They also say, and I don't I don't know exactly where they are, but in this events booklet, they have like little mini condensed versions of this that are just like one session, one night, you play for about three hours. So, if you don't want to play through the entire campaign, yeah, it says that within the events booklet, there are many uh uh many different missions in the events booklet, ranging between 1 to three hours in length that give you a condensed experience over the course of an evening.

>> Gosh, >> that's a different booklet. That's the >> Yeah, this is this is the booklet I remember. I don't think we had a booklet, but we >> No, we just have like cards. We did have cards that like alluded to the fact that it was going to basically be setup cards for the sort of micro scenarios where you dive into a dungeon.

Now, my memory was also such that we won't play through all of these. >> No, I don't think >> because there's a lot of decision points and you're like, "Oh, we didn't even do that." >> Yeah. It goes that way or that way or that way. >> Drastically drastically different. And I I don't know how that affects your movement from one book to the other, but it definitely affects your movement through that book.

And also, I mean, this is a fairly complicated game. I don't know that we want to scare anyone away because I think it's definitely worth your experience. >> I I think and this is going to be >> for people that like this kind of thing. Man, there are icons upon icons and rules upon >> Oh, wait. Where's Where is >> This is the rule book.

>> Yeah. Look at the the back page. >> Icon glossery. >> I'll put up photos of this. The icon glossery starts on page 70. >> Oh, and it's pretty full, too. >> Yeah. And and what page does the icon glossery end on? uh >> 707 >> 77 is the last page of icons >> and it starts on 70. Now with that said, it's not like all the icons you always need to know.

What they did here is they broke down effectively each uh >> I see all your talent icons, your icons, >> each one is like what you might find on a specific card. >> That makes sense. If it's an enemy, so it's pretty well organized. So that is well organized. You know, if you're like asking about a weapon, you can come to the weapons section and look up the icon.

>> But our point being, I don't think Malia is a game for the No, you're not going to like >> uh play just one and go, "What do you want to play next? Let's try Mullia." No. >> Like, you're going to have to prepare for this game. Someone's going to have to really >> Haven level experience. >> Yes. >> Yeah.

>> Uh not for the faint of heart, for sure. Um and we will dip into it because I do want to find out. >> I definitely want to play as far as we can play. I want I want to find how it compares to my memory of how I felt cuz I was pretty high on our preview. >> Like I remember playing it and thinking this is cool.

I want to play more of this experience and see where it goes. >> Kind of sad because I think it did kind of fly under the radar a little bit more than I thought it would. >> It is weird. So that's one of the things I wanted to point out too. A game like this, you know, like the next Whatever Haven, you know, when Frost Haven came out, everyone knows what to expect.

Everyone was hyped for that game. No matter how long it took from when the campaign ran to when it delivered, >> it was fine. This one, I think I think this is going to be showing up on a lot of people's doorsteps right now because we just got this today. >> Uh as will a lot of you out there. >> It's going to be showing up on some doorsteps.

Guaranteed there's going to be some people who go, "Oh, yeah, >> Malia. >> That's right. >> I forgot about that." because it's from Labo Deju and was it four universe. >> Four universe. Yeah. >> Um lab du is not typically known for this type of game. >> No, not at all. This giant game. >> Um but uh we're looking forward to dipping our toes into it and see what it's like.

>> Does it fit pretty easily back in there? >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All these books. Yeah. You like a slip case? >> I do. I love a I love a good slip case >> from your uh here. I'm having troubles with it, but it really if you went them in one by one, the slip case will go on nicely. And it fit.

It holds that big book, too. >> Oh, the event booklet. >> This is really satisfying. >> You do like a sleeve, don't you? >> I do like a nice And this is super heavy. >> It is nice that they put that in there. When I saw that in the bottom of the box, I was like, >> that's my favorite thing. >> That is I mean, for it to be in the bottom of the box, too, after your tray after tray, and you're like, "Oh, this >> Well, I would keep this on my bookshelf.

Honestly, I wouldn't even put this back in the box. I would just put this in in its own space. >> It definitely feels like a nod to the RPG. >> Yeah, it's a cool uh art piece. >> Anyway, that is our kind of like sort of semi unboxing of Malia. Uh we're going to try to get it played and if we if and when we do, we'll at least come back with you uh to give you our first impressions Sans preview.

You know, that was a paid content. Now, we're going to dig into the actual game >> and we'll tell you what it turned out to be and what we think of it. Uh, but if you have any questions right now about it, if you've never heard of it, you're probably not alone. Uh, but let us know in the comments below.

We'll get down there and answer whatever we can. Until next time, make sure everyone has fun at the table and we'll see you then.