Kingdom Hearts board game adds Talisman to its Disney and Final Fantasy mash-up

One of the most unlikely crossovers of the video game world, Kingdom Hearts, is adding to its mixture of Disney movies and Japanese RPG series Final Fantasy with an unexpected tabletop spin-off to Games Workshop board game Talisman.

Talisman: Kingdom Hearts is based on the fondly-remembered 1980s Magical Quest Game, with players working their way around the board to acquire strength and magic before sealing the Door to Darkness.

Following on from the end of this year’s Kingdom Hearts III, the board game will feature the series’ heroes Sora, Kairi and Riku, as well as Disney characters Mickey (who in the Kingdom Hearts universe is a king), Goofy and Donald – the shieldbearer and wizard to Sora’s keyblade-swinging protagonist. The world-consuming Heartless return as the threat to the universe.

Other characters are also due to make an appearance – the Kingdom Hearts setting involves a mixture of characters and worlds from Disney, Final Fantasy and those completely new for the series.

Replacing the fantasy locations of Talisman will be worlds such as Traverse City – an original world – and Peter Pan’s Neverland divided across three regions on the board, while the in-game currency will be munny and aspects of Kingdom Hearts’ gummi ship space exploration and combat will be present.

Talisman: Kingdom Hearts is coming out of The OP – previously known as USAopoly – the publisher behind a variety of licensed spin-offs and tie-ins, from Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle and Disney Codenames to games based on Game of Thrones, Rick and Morty, and Marvel.

It’s not the only Talisman-based game due out in 2019, either. A new edition of Warhammer 40,000 successor Relic is planned for release over the summer, while multiple new games based on the classic – including an RPG and expandable card game – are in the works at Pegasus Spiele, which recently released the kid-friendly co-op Talisman: Legendary Tales.