Since people have been starting to get their copies in the mail, I figured it was time to open a thread for discussion purposes!
What’s your favorite new arts and flavor text, which mechanics changes do you appreciate the most, what things surprised and amazed you?
I am totally here for 70s dork Argent, getting to see Nigel’s face (!), AZ being cozy in his chamber, and all of the podcast characters that made appearances (man Schema is amazingly creepy).
Don’t have my copy yet, but tracking this thread regardless.
Still have to say the biggest shock to me is Space Dad without the mustache and beard. It just seems wrong.
But his Ace Attorney references and copious amounts of artfully ripped clothing do make up for it a little.
Also! Nigel’s face! I realize I already said that but I’m excited about it!
My wife and I have got two games in and have been very pleased with the changes. I am not a fan of the new text (to be fair I write in all caps so I actually had no problem reading the old text) but it is something I noticed and then never was bothered by as the games went on.
I was worried my wife wouldn’t like the changes to her favorite character, Tempest, but she seemed to really enjoy the new feel of controlling the weather. She does, however, miss the cuter version of Raptor Bot.
My favorite thing so far is that Bunker feels much more on brand. The constant reloading of ordinance and the more useful mode cards made me feel like every card was useful. Not to mention, I love that Turret Mode not only kept the BuddaBuddaBudda flavor text but also made that the source of the quote as well!
Okay, I’ve had a chance to look through things, and I have thoughts. Generally good ones.
First, the most-improved deck is definitely Bunker, although this new version is definitely a lot more complicated. Close second, to my surprise, goes to Unity. They’ve toned down a few of her bots, but made it much easier to get them out. I suspect this version will be less abuseable with shenanigans, but much more effective in general.
Absolute Zero, I am definitely going to need to see in play to make a decision. There seem to be a lot more setup-based moving parts where you play so-so cards with the goal of doing something bigger next turn (Haka has something similar, with more cards that provide a small bonus immediately and a big bonus if they last the round.) Fanatic is fascinating, and I feel like she has some wild synergy with our buffed Haka.
Most surprising - Captain Cosmic. His constructs use such a different core mechanic now that I’m curious to see how he operates.
Saddest: Raptor bot. Will never get over that, sorry.
Opening the box up, it was immediately obvious how the expanded staff at >G made their mark, through the graphic design and packaging improvements. (Such as the built-in instructions on how to construct the villain HP spinner.)
I am surprised the box shipped without foam fillers. If you, like me, don’t sleeve, there is extra room in the box for the cards to rattle around. Seems a weird oversight given that C&A both said they don’t sleeve.
The cards are pretty. Really pretty. For those who were worried about the art style, I have to say that I did not notice the variation in style between cards at all, because everything else is so consistent. Actually, this might be a minor drawback, but the combination of a smaller window for the art (I think?) and Adam’s ability to cram in so much more detail to a single image than he used to actually de-emphasize the art a little bit on the table. Which is too bad, because it’s all so good.
Having “START PHASE” and “END PHASE” in bright differentiated colors is like having those “start action” and “end action” tokens built right into the cards, which was brilliant.
I am still not a fan of the move from text to jargon (summon, discover, etc.), especially given that some of the actions cause shuffles or other cascading actions, and some don’t. We had to keep the rulebook handy as a reference. Which made me almost wish that they’d just come up with a symbol language for more lower-level actions, and given us a card with a key. Something like “(reveal cards symbol) 1 Minion, (shuffle symbol).” I’m sure I’ll get the new jargon down eventually, but at first it feels a little clunky.
We played the classic intro (Baron in Insula Primalis – I forgot about peril!) with random heroes (Tachyon, Captain Cosmic, Tempest, Wraith). We used the premade deck, which was funny because we instantly screwed with deck controlling cards. Take that, Baron! It was immediately clear that things that look like minor tweaks could have major cascading effects. For example, Tachyon is largely the same, in that I knew what each card would do just from the name, but one of the little tweaks sprinkled in is that HUD Goggles make her damage irreducible. Hey, that Hypersonic Dash penetrates all the -1s on the table!!! She in general felt just a little more powered-up. I was able to crack off two Lightspeed Barrages in that Baron Blade game, even with that card now shuffling her trash into her deck, without really stretching for it.
I’m sorry to say that, even with all the excellent effort to make the rulebook really explicitly clear, we had a rule debate at the table: Do Reactions on Captain Cosmic’s Constructs trigger when they would be damaged, or when the target they are next to would be damaged? We eventually settled on the latter, given the wording of the definition of Reaction – a change from the way the Constructs previously worked.
We’ll be playing lots more over the weekend, I’m sure!
I got my game two days ago, and I’ve had the chance to play two games. Here are some random thoughts.
Absolute Zero has always been my favorite and I am so happy to see how much better and smoother he plays.
Bunker is so much better, I love loading up his weapons and unleashing a barrage.
Having both Tachyon and Argent Adept in a game means you never want for cards again, feels almost a bit too easy.
Insula Primalis was really cool and felt more focused and themed around two things: dinos and volcano.
Tempest is a beast.
In general the base game characters where strong, but usually ended up playing one card and activating one power and that’s it. Now even basic ones like Bunker and Tempest feels more alive and interactive.
Wagner Mars base was actually a bit of a let down. Probably down to a quick game and bad pulls.
Games are soooo much quicker (we got two down at four players in one evening, which is a first).
Artwork and card layout is on point.
Spinners made it so much easier to get a read on things like lowest health or highest health, we still accidentally plopped down damage tokens on the villain all the time ^^.
Wraith seemed almost weaker than usual, but probably just because everyone else was stronger than before.
It was actually hard to find space for everything in the box even unsleeved (where should I put Villain Character cards???)
I love this game and I love this edition. The ad for Rook City Renegades 2022 will keep me hyped the rest of the year.
Glad to see folks enjoying DE! 
Note that the new cards all say the following (with emphasis added by me). 
Play this card next to a Hero character.
They gain this reaction: …
It is a change in how he played previously (because that was often an issue, both thematically and mechanically), but it’s pretty clearly marked on the card. Sounds like this might have been more of an issue with it being a change from what we’re used to? 
(I had a lot of issues with that kind of thing early in playtesting, so I get it! 
)
I just for definitive edition and my favorite piece of art is Setback’s absolutely hilarious 80s/90s costume.
@Rabit I think you are right that we were maybe more thrown by the fact that it was a change than the exact wording. We keyed off of the phrase you highlighted, and struggled for a few minutes to match that up with the “a Hero target” and “that Hero target” on the back of the rule book, plus the fact that the Constructs themselves are targets. Then we did a double-take at the interpretation we thought it all left us with, because it wasn’t what we were used to. Anyway, thanks for confirming that we got the change correct!
There were a couple other “oh, dang, wait…” moments associated with some other tweaks, like Tachyon’s base power or Conservation of Energy. Mostly us realizing that our heroes were more powerful than we were used to!
I have to say I love this one. 
She’s pretty overpowered in EE. I think the way they nerfed her a little while still improving her (e.g., Utility Belt’s power and Inventory Barrage’s overhaul) is just wonderful!
She had some things toned down but I’m a fan of the fact there are more cards in the deck that are more worthwhile. Suture Self and Trust Fund are improved. Utility Belt also has more utlity.
I just played my first Wraith game today and the really funny thing is, I think her deck is strictly better. Impromptu Invention became more unpredictable, but that’s more than made up for by other changes. The only thing that I think got truly nerfed was the Infrared Eyepiece, which was not what I expected – I figured if you’re going to make the Wraith more “strike from the shadows,” change the Targeting Computer to something like making all her projectile damage be fixed.
Maybe the other heroes really just got that much better!
Just played my first game and… I think either Unity is overpowered now or I’ve been playing her wrong for years.
Unity is a “win more” hero, to a certain extent. If her bots aren’t threatened, she can be an absolute juggernaut.
Wraith… I also feel like she’s a little weaker. Infrared Eyepiece got a huge nerf. Stun Bolt is Limited and doesn’t deal Projectile damage. You can’t use Impromptu Invention to immediately grab Utility Belt+Razor Ordnance+Micro-Targeting Computer+Throwing Knives right off the bat; the new Impromptu Invention is fast but it can grab the Sonic Nullifier or Smoke Bombs, which are not so great. She does have the powerful Flashbang Projector, which can be as good as Take Down in some situations, but it costs a play and a power.
Absolute Zero also feels nerfed. Probably because he’s missing literally every card I ever use with him. Especially impale and cold snap which I suppose is because neither of those cards actually played into AZ’s gimmick.
Bunker, meanwhile, I don’t know. We got dealt some really awful RNG in regards to him so we didn’t get to see him at full capacity. Same with Argent Adept.
Edit: Also, I’ve gotta be honest I kind of miss Flying Smash’s old artwork.
My copy should arrive by Thursday! I’m curious, how are the events (critical or otherwise) if anyone has tried them out? Particularly wondering about Citizen Dawn, as I remember Christopher and Adam trying to build a “stealth mission to the Citadel of the Sun” on an episode once.
This is weird to me since I feel AZ is finally fun and playable for the first time ever. I love the DE version.
Yeah, I prefer Enhanced Edition AZ. But to each their own.
Also, shockingly Grand Warlord Voss is now worse than Matriarch (he’s a 9 and Matriarch’s an 8. Or maybe he’s an 8 and Matriarch’s a 7. Can’t remember). And Argent Adept is a 10 on a 10 point difficulty scale. Of course, I haven’t tried him out yet so that might not be entirely true. I do have trouble believing there’s anything worse than Matriarch (even with good crowd control she’s insufferable. At least Iron Legacy only does, like, two types of damage).