Hunter x Hunter: The 287th Exams

To become a Hunter is to become one of an elite few with the ability to seek hidden and rare treasures, to defeat monsters, and to access places no others can go. Can you join the ranks of the Hunters? Hunter x Hunter: The 287th Exams is a cooperative game with asymmetric player powers for 1-4 players ages 13+ that takes 60+ minutes. It is designed by Alex Kessler and Michael Grothe, and it is published by KessCo.

Setup

Players take on the role of one of five characters from the Hunter x Hunter anime: Gon, Killua, Kurapika, Leorio, and Hisoka. Once players choose their roles, they will take the matching player dashboard, skill deck, player standee, and specified dice.

Each player may take one of their dice and place it on an ability slot of their dashboard.

Then create the Enemy reserve deck, with four color-coded sets of cards in ascending difficulty. Deal out the pink (easiest) Enemy cards: one for each player, plus one more. Shuffle the Examiner cards as well, and flip one out for all players to see.

The youngest player takes the Hunter’s Mark, and play starts.

How To Play

The youngest player places their character standee on the enemy card they wish to challenge. The rest of the players do the same in clockwise order. Then simultaneously, each player will choose some of their dice to roll.

Players also use reflex tokens matching the color of the dice they rolled to boost the results.

If the die rolls were really bad, use one re-roll token per die to try for a better result.

Players should also check if they can boost any player’s results with skills on their dashboard or unlocked skill cards. Remember to consult the face-up Examiner card to see how it modifies your dice roll.

Compare each player’s final results against their chosen enemy card. If they have successfully completed any challenges, take the listed rewards. If the card is eliminated, the player takes the card to track their experience points.

Gain enough experience points, and players can unlock Skill Cards that give them extra powers or one-time bonuses, like extra dice and tokens.

If the Enemy card wasn’t eliminated, put it in the discard pile. Place all rolled dice to the side to create the damaged dice pool.

Then draw new enemy cards equal to the number of players plus one, pass the Hunter’s Mark to the next player, and start again.

No More Dice

Once you have damaged all your dice, you need to refresh them so you can use them again. This requires you to take a Wound. At the bottom of the player dashboard are four spots with a negative result. If possible, you have to take a Wound in a spot where you can pay the penalty.

If you take four wounds over the course of the game, your character is too injured to continue in the Exam, and you are out of the game.

Some Enemy card challenges have hearts as part of their rewards, so keep an eye out for chances to defeat them and heal your Strength and Insight dice.

The Deck Is Empty

After three rounds, the enemy draw deck will be empty. Count the number of cards in the enemy discard pile and add cards as needed from the enemy reserve deck. Then shuffle the cards together and deal out new enemy cards. Pass the Hunter’s Mark to the next player and start again.

The Final Exam

Once there are fewer than 10 enemy cards left between the deck and the discard area, the Final Exam begins.

First, shuffle the remaining enemy cards and deal one to each player. Each enemy card has a yellow area marked with an icon depicting a negative effect for the duration of the Final Exam.

Then shuffle the Final Exam deck and deal each player one card face-up. There are two challenges on each Exam card. Players roll to complete one of the two challenges. If a player fails to complete either challenge, they take another Wound.

Players will compete against five Final Exam cards. The goal is to be still standing at the end. If more than half the players complete the Final Exam successfully, the group wins and gets their Hunter Licenses! For an even more difficult game, all players need to survive and get their Hunter Licenses to win.

Impressions

When I set out to review Hunter x Hunter: The 287th Exams, I had a specific approach in mind. I’ve watched a number of anime over the years, but I had never watched Hunter x Hunter.

The board game is based on the first season of the show. So I wanted to try the game before I watched the show and then again after. Which is what I did.

First off, you do not need to have watched the anime to play this board game. If you like rolling dice and a tough challenge, you will probably like this game.

However, you might get more enjoyment out of this game if you have already watched and enjoyed Hunter x Hunter. Not only will you recognize the five playable characters from the show, but you will recognize characters from both the Enemy and Examiner decks.

This Game Is Tough

While Hunter x Hunter is a cooperative game, most of the cooperation comes in deciding which Enemy card each player should challenge. Some characters have more Insight dice, some have more Strength dice. Communication is vital to make sure a player isn’t stuck fighting an enemy they can’t beat, even for the lowest-level challenge.

There is also some level of cooperation based on player powers, with unlocked Skill Cards or even on player dashboards. These are handy for when a player is really close to completing a challenge but might be one or two numbers away.

But it’s hard to find the right balance when allocating dice. The more dice you place in the dashboard to unlock abilities, the fewer dice you can roll. And that means you’re taking Wounds more often. And only four Wounds puts you out of the game.

This is a very tight game. Each decision can feel like agony. Do you want to use an extra die in hopes of securing that challenge result you really want? Do you allocate dice to your dashboard to unlock abilities? What about figuring out which challenges to attack? Do you want to eliminate Enemy cards to unlock new Skill cards or gain Reflex tokens to boost die rolls (or even purchase more dice when the opportunity comes up)?

These are the questions that make Hunter x Hunter so difficult and so intriguing at the same time.

And most of the time, I felt like we were making the wrong choices. You see, we lost almost every game we’ve played of Hunter x Hunter: The 287th Exams. That’s quite frustrating. But we weren’t losing early. It always came down to trying to survive those five Final Exam cards.

Issues With The Rulebook/Game Text

Unfortunately, the rulebook also adds some difficulty to the game. At first glance, the rulebook is easy to read and even has pictures. However, there are points where it contradicts itself. At one point, it says to add a card from the Enemy Reserve deck to the Enemy discard pile whenever you eliminate an Enemy. However, there is another spot in the rulebook that covers what players do when the round ends and you run out of cards in the Enemy deck. At that point, it says to count the number of cards in the discard deck and add cards from the Enemy Reserve deck until back to the required number of cards. But if you’re adding cards every time you eliminate an Enemy, that step isn’t needed.

The rulebook also helpfully explains what each Examiner card does, but it doesn’t break down all of the Enemy card effects if you get dealt that Enemy card in the Final Exam. Most of the effects are there, but a couple left us guessing.

And then there is the matter of the player dashboard. Most of the dice abilities are easy to understand. However, I learned that we were using one of Gon’s abilities wrong by watching a playthrough video done by Alex Kessler himself. We interpreted the “when you roll this die…” to mean taking that specific die off the dashboard and rolling it. However, in Kessler’s playthrough, he played it as applying that power every time he rolled a die matching the placed die’s color. That would make it a much more powerful ability, rather than a “break glass in an emergency” type of power.

Now, most of the abilities are clear. But we thought this one was, too. The rulebook doesn’t help with misunderstandings like this.

Final Thoughts

Hunter x Hunter: The 287th Exams is ultimately a fun, if frustrating, game. I’m a big fan of dice chucking games, and this scratches that itch. But you must try to make your dice pool last as long as possible.

The timing aspect of this game is interesting. You can keep the game going longer simply by not eliminating enemies. This could allow you to stockpile Reflex and Re-roll tokens and potentially heal dice and even purchase new dice. But doing this keeps you from unlocking your Skill Cards.

And the longer the game goes, the more potential there is for taking Wounds prior to the Final Exam. That puts you in jeopardy of losing the game.

So how do you balance that? That’s up to you, and that’s part of passing the Hunter Exam.

Overall, Hunter x Hunter: The 287th Exams is a tough, fun game. But it needs some additional explanations to just help make things clearer. It’s a great choice if you love the anime and are ready to learn from your failure to pass the Final Exam.

You can try your hand at Hunter x Hunter: The 287th Exams by picking up the game at Barnes & Noble or your friendly local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Hunter x Hunter: The 287th Exams from KessCo for this review.