Horizons of Spirit Island Review - Do You Need This Spirit Island Stand Alone Game?

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Horizons of Spirit Island features the core mechanisms of Spirit Island, but features a new double-sided game board with a streamlined set-up, punchboard components, and five new Spirits designed to be ideal for those playing a Spirit Island game for the first time. These new Spirits are compatible with all existing Spirit Island components, but to play with expansions like Jagged Earth, you would need a copy of Spirit Island itself.
BGG Link - boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/367498/horizons-spirit-island
TimeStamps:
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:00:40 - What Is This Version?
0:01:25 - Overview
0:06:43 - What's Different From Spirit Island?
0:08:52 - Should A Spirit Island Fan Get This?
0:09:55 - Should You Get This If You Haven't Gotten Spirit Island?
0:13:52 - Final Thoughts
5.0 - My absolutely favorite games. You can pry them out of my cold dead hands.
4.5 - Love this game! At the same time missing something that would make it a 5. Could be hard to table, lacking variability, a little light, etc.
4.0 - Really great game, almost always keeping, although has meaningful complaints as to what takes away from the experience.
3.5 - Really enjoyed, don't love it, may lose out to better games but the idea of never playing again is a bit sad.
3.0 - A good game, would play and suggest with the right people, if I never played it again wouldn't lose any sleep.
2.5 - A game I'd play again , but will never suggest it myself
2.0 - A game I don't want to play again
1.5 - A game I can't find any reason to recommend
1.0 - A game that is just bad.
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[@Reverie42]

A few other less obvious reasons that an invested spirit island player may want this version aside from the spirits: 1. The power card decks have all of the latest rules text. 2. The power cards do not have the power progression color indicators 3. There is new art on the invader cards, which I personally think is much nicer 4. There are new presence colors (although there are no Isolate markers for these new presence colors) None of these are really major things, but as someone who had a few marked base game major power cards, it was a nice fringe benefit to be able to get replacements. Also worth noting that if you want all cardstock panels, you can buy foil cardstock versions of all of the existing spirits from GTG's web store. I got them so that I could fit everything in one box and am reasonably happy with them, but not everyone likes the foil look. Hopefully we'll get non-foil versions some day.

[@adamwaggenspack7156]

Great analysis. Spirit Island is my favorite game, and also a top game for my wife and friends. Horizons was a no brainer for me as it was worth it just for the new Spirits. More Low Complexity options is great for introducing new players or if someone just wants to have a lighter experience playing, and I enjoy the new Spirits as much or more than the Low Complexity Spirits of the base game. I doubt any will become one of my go to favorites, but they will definitely see enough play to justify the cost. I agree with you that the new Spirits are about the same Complexity as those in the base game, and in many ways are more interactive as they include many powers that are usually best used targetting other Spirits.

[@HellPet]

I hope they do bring out one big box where I can stack all my Spirit Island components, including all expansions. I don't like walking around with three 3 boxes.

[@BoardGameCo]

Completely agreed

[@TheRealSwiggy]

They'll probably do one when that have more expansions out. (At least, one more is coming after this expansion and the one and backerkit)

[@G0F15H]

There is a campaign going now for Nature Incarnate expansion and they said in the first update that there are plans for even more content, and eventually, there should be a Complete Edition / Big Box solution

[@maxf.7262]

Ty for the video!

[@BoardGameCo]

Anytime

[@peterlyons5355]

As a huge fan of the game I was always going to buy this anyway, but I think it will fit a nice niche as a portable version of the game I can take round to friends to introduce them to spirit Island

[@Listan1]

This can be easily had at Target sales for $18-$20, so that may change the equation.

[@BoardGameCo]

Absolutely would

[@aSyphodias]

Hopefully they do a promo pack with the spirits in cardboard stock. I do not want mismatched components :p

[@BoardGameCo]

Yep, accidentally hoping as well

[@derekrogozin3829]

Christopher Badell already confirmed that they will be making them.

[@ashenfang]

15$ right now on Amazon, normally I would say to support your LFGS, but as a target exclusive, and the big discount right now, hard to pass up

[@Paul-ro6py]

Might tip me over the edge to try Spirit Island. Thr full version I fi d intimidating.

[@BoardGameCo]

Good, I hope you enjoy it

[@marktibbs6546]

Thanks for showcasing this game! I bought Horizons at Target on Thursday. Today is Saturday and I've played it 3 times already! It's great! For context, I had little interest in Spirit Island - I figured another Pandemic - no thank you. So, $30 to try out this popular game was a risk I was willing to take. So happy I did!! So, for me (favorite games Brass: Birmingham, Inis, Pax Pamir) Horizons fulfilled its purpose: give a gateway price point to a full, rich, stressful, and satisfying experience! Bravo. Only problem, I must now buy the real Spirit Island!! 😂

[@greglevy4770]

This was largely my same experience. Like you, I'd had little interest in Spirit Island initially (nothing against coop or theme, I just had plenty of other options that were higher priority at the time). However, it's highly rated and has a lot of fans, so the Target exclusive at the lower price piqued my interest. What finally pushed me over the edge was a combination of a promo price (15% discount) with an added Target Circle 10% discount on any Toy/Game and my 5% Red Card discount (loving the fact that Target allows all those things to "stack" together). I had a $5 gift card for getting my flu shot at the instore CVS, so the game wound up being well under $20. tl:dr - what a bargain!! And I was instantly hooked after playing a few games such that I've already added the base game, Jagged Earth, and Branch and Claw to the collection. I think it's a great entry point into the franchise and at a very reasonable price.

[@shamikamitchell4848]

Can the expansions be used with Horizons? Can any parts of Horizons be combined with the original full version? Which playmat / board is better? Thanks for this comprehensive review.

[@gamedev251]

the difference in price is more than 15 .. more like 45, at that difference i think it pays of to buy and try

[@morpheus587]

Hi, thanks for the review. If you play this solo, do you control 2 spirits?

[@QBG]

You can! Or you can play "true solo" with only one spirit and one island board, or burn your brain and try playing three at once on the big island! That's one of Spirit Island's best features-you can really tailor the experience to get what you want out of it, especially if you decide to get the base game and expansions later on.

[@tiredguy2753]

You certainly can play solo with 2 or all 3 spirits but the game becomes much harder. I prefer true solo , maybe one day build my way up to controlling more spirits.

[@tiredguy2753]

Dumping 60-80$ can be daunting for a new player, worst comes to worst and horizon is not for you then you are out only out 30$. So I think for the new player it is good .

[@Daniellarsoncolorado2024]

😊

[@BoardGameCo]

Hey there :)

[@itsGabrielaCristina]

Spirit Island is one of my top 3 games of all time. I do not think this game in either version will be suitable for newcomers, but rather appeal to those who have been already interested in getting Spirit Island, but couldn't afford or justify the cost of the original game. Honestly, it's not like the component quality of the original game was superb, so if I was starting out, this would be the way I would go. That being said, I decided not to get this game because I still have so much left to explore in just the base game that I feel this to be unnecessary for me, even as a huge fan of the game

[@BoardGameCo]

Totally makes sense

[@CutronaSalvatore]

Could speak any faster?!

[@BoardGameCo]

I'll try.

[@brkus2665]

I usually watch videos at x1.25 speed, so this guy is just my tempo at x1. You could try the other way around at x0.75.