Time Travelling Murder – Final Girl – The Killer From Tomorrow

The Terminator movies were such memorable movies, helped by Arnold Schwarzenegger as the very memorable terminator himself but also by the wonderful Linda Hamilton, scared shitless but tough as nails in the first one, and just a badass in the second one (we don’t talk about the rest of them).

While the movies don’t really fit the Final Girl trope, you knew that something as iconic as these movies would make for a killer feature film.

It only took them until Series 3 to do it, too!

The Killer From Tomorrow feature film was designed by Evan Derrick with artwork by Tyler Johnson. It was published in 2025 by Van Ryder Games.

I’m kind of torn on this one, because part of me thinks that there is just a bit too much going on and to keep track of when playing this one, at least together. I’ll have to see how the individual parts play with other feature films.

However, on my third play of it, I had multiple cinematic moments that just made me go “oh wow” (I literally did, though nobody was here to hear me do it) and cemented this one in the positive column.

I still think it’s more work than I sometimes want, so keep that in mind when you’re choosing it.

If you want something straightforward, this ain’t it.

But if you want those awe-inspiring moments that Final Girl can give you, this one will give them to you in spades.

How?

Let’s get into that.

As always, I’ll talk about the killer first, as this is the first one in my experience that comes in two stages.

The Hunter starts out in robotic Mark V form and you can’t win the game by killing it.

Instead, you have to do damage to shave off cybernetic parts (that stack of tokens on the Finale card).

Two points of damage in one round will knock one off, and there are three.

The other two tokens are “Countdown” tokens. When you’ve knocked three sets of parts off the Mark V, it goes dormant in the space where it is.

The next two turns, you ignore the Killer turn and just remove a Countdown token.

After that happens, the Mark X shows up in a different space (you draw another Setup card and place the Mark X where the Killer would set up on that card).

The Mark V is still sitting there, and that brings up the other really interesting part of this film.

Remember how, in Terminator 2, Arnie played a terminator from the future who came back to protect John Connor?

Yes, that’s right. The Mark V can help you against the Mark X.

But you have to help it first.

You can collect those cybernetic parts that you knocked off when attacking it. You can then spend time healing the Mark V, as each part (except one, which I unfortunately threw away when punching all the tokens, not realizing it was important, so I’ve had to improvise) has a number of hearts on it.

Fixing it with those parts gives the Mark V that many hearts.

Not to mention, the Dark Power you revealed for it applies to the Mark V, not the Mark X!

She’s badass enough, with 15 health. She doesn’t need an extra power, though she does inherit any Minor Dark Powers that the Mark V had when it died.

Thus, you can control the Mark V as an Ally once you’ve fixed it, hopefully having it help you take down this new, brutal killer.

You make it take actions with action cubes, with each action only useable every other turn (other than one movement action, which is available every turn).

I really enjoyed this aspect of it, though this does add to how busy this film feels.

Part of that might be combined with having to do a similar thing with the Savior in SunnyDaze Mall (more on that below), so it would be interesting to see if just having one thing to control helps with that.

The other thing about the Hunter is that he (and then she) is totally focused on the Final Girl (or the Savior followed by the Final Girl, if you’re playing in the Mall).

While they won’t waste knife actions if they’re in a space with a victim, they’re not interested in the victims.

They’re just annoyances that get in the way.

Thus, bloodlust does not go up when a victim dies.

Which can be a godsend.

However, bloodlust goes up whenever either the Hunter is damaged or if the Hunter damages either the Final Girl or an Ally.

Thankfully only once per turn, no matter how many times damage is done.

The Dark Powers are pretty fitting, and again, the Mark V will inherit these so you won’t be dealing with them for the Mark X.

The Titanium-Laced Bio Tissue can make the Mark V harder to kill, but it also gives him one more heart per part that you heal him with, so that’s a bonus!

There are numerous ways in SunnyDaze Mall for everybody (including killers) to just lose a health, rather than just taking damage.

Reinforced Endoskeleton prevents all of that.

Cybernetic Agility makes it move a lot faster.

All of them very useful when he’s your ally!

Not so much when you’re facing him.

The finales can also be pretty grim, but they are a bit confusing at times.

I spent a few minutes in the Van Ryder Discord wondering about the “increase bloodlust” as the first action for two of the finales, until I finally understood it.

It is possible to not have bloodlust maxed out when you reveal the finale, so this just makes sure the Mark X gets stronger and faster relentlessly.

There have been films where, if you’re really efficient, by the time you get to the Finale, bloodlust isn’t very high at all.

They want to make sure that doesn’t happen with the Mark X.

Or, if you get Relentless Pursuit, it doesn’t matter how tough it is. It will just keep healing itself.

The Terror cards are really interesting too, and the setup is done in a unique way that actually gives you 11 cards, not 10.

There is a card that’s shuffled into the bottom 3 cards of the Terror deck that essentially brings you to the Finale.

If the Mark V is still in play, it shuts down immediately and the Mark X shows up.

You can still collect parts and get the Mark V on your side, but now you’re doing it while you’re being hunted.

Bloodlust becomes maxed out and all Terror cards are discarded and the finale is revealed.

It’s time to tussle!!!!

The Minor Dark Powers are really annoying, whether they’re on the Mark V or the Mark X.

But aren’t they always annoying?

The last thing they need is more health, but bloodlust going up twice when you take damage is just adding insult to injury.

The Terror cards also emphasize how focused the killer is on you.

Move or Be Eliminated just shows how the victims are collateral damage in all this stuff, and this time it does increase bloodlust (though only twice at most).

Have You Seen This Person can be brutal if there’s a grouping of victims. That much Horror gain is not good!

Eliminate All Obstacles is also pretty brutal for bloodlust.

Finally, there are multiple cards that increase the Horror, though one of them can decrease it if you’re really lucky.

Overall, I really like the Hunter.

Yes, it does take a bit more time and energy to get things ready, like the cybernetic parts and the Mark V ally (when that happens).

But it really does give you the feel of the old Terminator movies and I really enjoy that.

It will be interesting to try them in a different setting than SunnyDaze Mall.

Speaking of which…

The Mall has an interesting layout that really can add to the cinematic aspects of the game.

There’s the central food court, but all of the blue rooms around it are balconies.

You can jump over the balconies and into the Food Court, but you take a damage when you do so.

Enemies won’t willingly do that, but there are ways you can make them do it.

Victims?

They’re stupid, so if they panic and roll badly, they’ll jump over the balcony and die like lemmings.

If anybody takes damage in a balcony space, they get thrown over the ledge, taking that extra damage from the fall as well.

The outside ring of the mall is all stores, with three of them (one on each edge) being your search locations.

If an attack is made in a store, that will blow a hole in the wall to an adjacent store, making it possible to go directly from one store to another.

There’s also a motorcycle in the atrium, if the keys are one of the Items available in the game.

That can be fun.

The conceit with SunnyDaze Mall is that whichever killer you’re using (super-thematic when playing with the Hunter, of course) is solely focused on the Savior, a special Ally (represented by the orange victim, if you’re not using the miniatures that you could get).

All “Final Girl” targets are instead “Savior” targets, at least until you manage to get him out of there.

He’s a bratty kid, of course, and he’s certainly not going to believe this tale you’re telling about somebody trying to kill him (even when the thing actually attacks him! WTF?), so you have to build trust with him.

You do that with “Build Trust” action cards, which (if successful) will move up Trust, from Go to Hell to Eat Me, to I Guess You’re Ok, to finally I Believe you!

As you slowly gain trust, the Savior can do more actions in your Action phase.

If he’s at the bottom, he won’t do anything.

At “Eat Me,” he can heal a health and reduce one damage done to him.

Starting at “I Guess You’re Ok,” you can actually move him (hopefully toward an exit space).

At “I Believe You”, he can take an action to reduce Horror (once every other turn) and he will agree to be rescued.

But he won’t follow you. You have to actually move him with his actions.

Which can be hard because he actually panics like a victim when bloodlust increases.

You know what’s really cool about him, though?

If you rescue him, you get all of your remaining Victim Save bonuses, and you flip your card to its Ultimate side, gaining that power immediately.

You don’t have to have saved anybody to do that!

I like that aspect of this.

The bad thing about the Savior?

If he dies, you lose.

That’s what can make the Setup cards really important.

Since you can’t Build Trust without being in the Savior’s space (unless you have the Walkie Talkies item), you have to race to him, as the Killer will always move relentlessly towards him.

Thankfully, since he does panic like a victim, he will panic if he takes damage, running away (but still not trusting you).

The other part of the Savior is that each Upkeep Phase, you draw a Trust card.

Something will happen based on your level of trust.

If you’re in his space, you want to make sure your trust is high before you draw either I’m Not Going Anywhere With You or Let Go, You’re Hurting Me.

Losing health or time is not fun!

Others are also not great if you haven’t built up trust, so just make sure you build things up as fast as possible.

If you run out of Trust cards, then basically nothing happens. I thought that would be a concern, but I was able to get him out of the Mall well before they ran out.

The Item cards are pretty cool for a Mall setting, and they can actually be very helpful!

The Chopper Keys are so cool, because they let you ride the motorcycle, giving you extra mobility when you’re moving.

Even better, you can ram it into an enemy for four damage (though you and anybody riding with you takes a damage as well).

When the Mark X has 15 health, that’s a nice chunk!

Banana Peels make use of the balcony spaces. You can drop up to two of them in a balcony space.

If an Enemy enters the space, discard the token to make it fall over the railing, doing one damage to it and getting them off of the balcony and into the Food Court.

What’s especially cool in SunnyDaze Mall, though, are the Boomsticks.

You can dual-wield them if you manage to get both, doing two extra damage instead of just one, but even better is if you use them on a balcony space (or through a wall, though that’s not quite as spectacular).

An additional damage on top of its extra damage, plus the damage from the fall?

That’s a good way to mass up some damage.

Of course, there’s always the chance that it will run out of ammo (roll a 1), especially given my penchant for missing Horror rolls.

But one of these did lead to two cinematic moments in my last game.

The fall after getting hit with a Boomstick is what shut down the Mark V.

Then I did almost half of the damage needed to kill the Mark X by doing it again (after hitting her with the motorcycle, which was also quite cinematic).

I love this stuff.

The Gift Card is awesome because, if you’re in a Search area (and you likely are if you just got it), you can discard it to look at the top 2 Item cards and take one.

Free Boomstick, maybe?

The Event cards aren’t really that noteworthy, though, with a couple of exceptions.

Bart the Mall Cop is really cool, as he patrols the balconies and the ground floor beneath, fighting crime whenever he sees it.

Yeah, he’ll talk your ear off if he moves into your space, but if he enters an Enemy space, he’ll do 2 damage to it!

He’s a tough old bird!

Even better is that, if he dies, nothing bad happens to you.

I didn’t have the Savior’s Girl come out, but having an extra die when trying to Build Trust can be very helpful.

Of course, getting her killed before you get him off the map is really bad, so don’t do that.

Other Event cards can be nasty.

Lockdown makes both exits inaccessible until you run to the Security Office.

Depending on when that comes out, that’s a true pain in the neck.

Fire Sale can be good or bad depending on where you and the killer are.

If you’re in a store with a victim after they all move, then you lose a health, but so does the killer (and any allies you have).

Finally, let’s take a look at the Terror cards.

There’s one Minor Dark Power which involves the Savior’s bond with the killer, making him move towards the killer.

Then there are a bunch that involve killing victims as collateral damage (even one of the cards is named that!).

Fire Alarm can panic victims over the balcony railings if you’re not careful.

Collateral Damage could kill a bunch of victims if there multiple balcony spaces between you and the killer.

I mentioned how busy the Hunter can be with the Mark V ally, but the Savior more than doubles that with the Trust cards as well as the Ally actions.

Having them both together can sometimes be overwhelming, but I was getting used to it by the third game.

And I just love the whole Savior mechanic, even as it can get annoying when you’re just racing to get to him first.

It does make your strategy kind of one-note, because you have to get to him as soon as possible.

No “I’ll go into the store and search until I have something good” strategy.

That’s just going to get the Savior killed, and you lose if that happens.

I do love the extra ways to do (and take) damage.

Getting knocked through a store wall, knocked over the balcony, it all adds to the visuals as you can picture all of that.

There is mainly one problem with the Mall, and it’s enhanced if you have Kat as your Final Girl, so let me talk about the Final Girls that come with the film and I’ll get back to that.

Kat and Tali are really cool Final Girls to play.

Kat doesn’t have much health and requires 6 victim saves to get to her Ultimate, but the save slots are pretty cool.

Some healing, some Horror reduction, a bunch of movement, and a free Guard card.

Tali is even better for that, requiring only 4 saved victims and having 6 health.

She doesn’t heal or get Horror reduction, but instead gets to take a Retaliate or a Guard card or move.

And what’s this?

Take any top Item card?

Wow!

Their ultimate abilities are also very nice.

Tali takes a Reaction card immediately when flipped, and then they all cost 1 Time less.

You recover health if you save any other victims.

Kat is even better, and this brings out the fault with SunnyDaze Mall.

Damaging an enemy with a gun does 2 extra damage? Sweet!

What’s that?

Other than the two Boomsticks, there are no guns in Sunnydaze Mall?

What the hell?

Thankfully, in my one win, the time I sent the Mark X over the balcony with the Boomstick, not only did she take all that extra damage (+1 for the Boomstick, +1 for the fall), she also took 2 extra damage from Kat’s ability, making a huge attack.

But only two guns just seems wrong, but maybe that’s normal? I’m trying to think back to other locations.

Anyway, this makes her ultimate ability very situational, but when it happens, it happens hard.

Overall, I’d give a big thumbs up to The Killer From Tomorrow, as long as you don’t mind some extra bookkeeping and complexity.

There’s a lot to remember in this one (I’d forgotten that anybody who takes damage in a balcony or store takes an additional damage, for instance).

Thematically, this film is awesome, though I’m not sure how thematic it will be when you’re having Hans trying to kill the Savior.

Why is he doing that?

Still, this is an excellent film and well worth a try.

(This review was written after 3 plays of this film)

Check out all of my Final Girl reviews here! More will be coming.

Final Girl Reviews