It’s All Greek to Me – Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends Review

It’s amazing how many times a company can go to the same well, bringing up a game with all of the same mechanics and some slight variations in how those mechanics are executed, and still come up with a fun game that (maybe) surpasses the original.

Though at least so far without the scoring app that actually makes the game easy to score.

After going the comics route and the Star Trek route, Wizkids has come out with a new version of the ultimate filler game, Fantasy Realms (which I reviewed some years ago).

Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends is a new variation on this theme of having a hand of cards and scoring what you ultimately have in hand.

Designed by Bruce Glassco with artwork by Darren Calvert, this version of the game was published in 2025.

Whenever game designers and companies come up on variations of the same game, they usually try to add one major mechanical difference along with other minor variations as well.

Greek Legends is no different in that respect, as it adds the concept of the Afterlife (I’d say that’s getting quite theological, if Greek mythology didn’t already heavily invest in that).

It’s an interesting addition to the game that adds a bit of “strategy” (I use quotes there because really, there aren’t many games that are more tactical than this one) to the whole thing.

First, a refresher on how Fantasy Realms works.

You have a hand of 7 cards and you will always have that.

You draw a card, either from the deck or from the discard area, and then you discard a card.

If the discard area has 10 cards at the end of a turn, then the game immediately ends and you score the cards in your hand.

Cards will score based on other cards or icons that are in your hand, or maybe they won’t score if you’re missing a card type that this other card wants.

However, you lose 10 points for each card that you have in your Afterlife.

So you’d better make sure they’re worth it!

It can get all confusing at times, but by now we’re getting used to it.

The Afterlife is a way to discard cards (but only those that say they can be discarded there) but still have their powers and icons active. They will still score, or help your other cards score.

The River Styx, for example, must be in the Afterlife because if it’s not, you lose 20 points instead of the 10 for being in the Afterlife.

However, it has three icons that may contribute to your other cards’ scoring, and it gets +5 if you have a God and a living hero (meaning it’s not in the Afterlife).

With the icons and the +5 points for its own bonus, it may be worth well more than the 10 points you lose.

If you discard to the Afterlife, you do have to draw a card and discard it to the discard area, as something has to be put there every turn. You can’t cheat the endgame by avoiding it.

This adds another dimension to the whole thing, because you’re trying to figure out just how many points a card will give you, and whether or not you can afford for it to be in the Afterlife.

Not only that, some cards require that you have something or they will go to the Afterlife at the end of the game.

Most of the time, you don’t want that to happen.

The Minotaur is a monster that, if you don’t have a Living Hero who is Clever or Strong (meaning it has one of those icons on it), all of your heroes will go to the Afterlife.

I’ve tended to avoid the Afterlife in my games because I haven’t been able to figure out how best to use it to actually get points, but in my last game, I managed to get a couple in there who triggered my Living cards with their icons even while they were costing me points.

In the end, they gained me more points than the 10 points they lost.

Other than that new addition, the game is largely the same except it has even more icons and card types, and the combinations are almost enough to give you a headache.

So much so, that Wizkids provided a flowchart of what cards might have what icons!

Here’s an example of one of my scoring hands (I have not won this game, so don’t take this as a great combination of cards).

You have to look at how all of the cards interact.

Herakles has a penalty where if he’s alive, all other heroes go to the Afterlife at the end of the game, but the Moly can counteract one penalty.

The Minotaur has a penalty as mentioned above, but since I have a Strong hero (Herakles), that penalty doesn’t happen either.

Andromeda scores 17 extra points if you have a quest and a hostile monster, which is there.

Seems like a lot to keep in mind for a 10-15 minute filler, doesn’t it?

Some people may not like that, having the opinion that a light filler shouldn’t involve that much math and stuff.

I’m not one of those, because I do really enjoy this game for what it is: a quick game to either start or end the day, or to get you through the time while you’re waiting for the other game to finish.

It’s not that taxing, and anybody who plays games regularly shouldn’t have too much trouble with it.

It may be a bit much for non-gamers, but that’s ok!

Being a card game where you are drawing and discarding cards, it’s incredibly random, another strike against it for some people.

But again, it’s 10 minutes.

What else do you have to do with your time?

Of the various Fantasy Realms games (I’ve played all of them at least once), I would have to say that this one is my favourite, just because it’s a bit more intricate and it makes the agonizing decisions of which card to discard even harder.

What are you keeping? Is it time to change direction?

These decisions are in all of the games, but the Afterlife just adds that dimension which makes it shine, even if I haven’t used it all that effectively.

I am always willing to play this, especially if we need to kill time and just have 10-15 minutes on our hands.

What new version of this game will they come up with next?

The mind boggles!

But in the meantime, this one’s pretty good.

(This review was written after 3 plays)