Dante - Inferno

In DANTE: Inferno, you will journey through the nine circles of hell as a part of a narrative campaign that, at the end of each circle, culminates into a showdown with one or more of the legendary characters found in The Divine Comedy. This divides the gameplay into two main parts, the Chronicles Phase (narrative exploration based on branching storybook passages), and the Confrontation Phase (boss battle).

The fundamental aspect of the Chronicles Phase is the Book of Chronicles (a storybook) which is an immersive window into the realm of nightmares as it was envisioned by Dante Alighieri. While the game environment is deeply rooted within this source material, you will have the opportunity to experience a fresh story set within a faithful representation of Inferno, with Dante as your guide.

In the Confrontation Phase, you will face an enemy in a dynamic, tactical, three-dimensional combat. Every confrontation has a basic objective and special objectives, which will change depending on the choices you make while exploring each circle. This phase will end either when you fulfill one of the objectives or when the players are defeated.

The Chronicles Phase embodies the fundamental aspects of the way The Divine Comedy has been recreated within the board game medium. It’s interesting, it’s fun, and it gives players constant agency through a steady stream of decisions to make and dilemmas to consider, as they appear in the narrative passages. Although the primary aim of the Chronicles Phase is to bring the journey through Inferno alive through a breathtaking and captivating story, it will also drastically alter the course of every upcoming battle.

The world of Inferno is alive, and the characters you meet along the way have their own motivations and agendas, and they are willing to take advantage of the opportunities that the current turmoil opens for them. The game is a complex ecosystem with many different options on how to interact with it. Over time, your decisions will determine which way the campaign will end.

The path of the story will be paved through narrative passages. The way you interact with the world around you will shape the story of the current circle you are in and may also have an impact on the subsequent circles. Whenever you make a key decision that may alter the course of the narrative, you will receive a Discovery Card as a record of the current state of the game world. The game will then build the reality of each circle based on the Discovery Cards that you have acquired.

Every decision that you make during the Chronicles Phase will also shape the Confrontation in some way. The Champions might receive an advantage in the form of new Equipment Cards, but they may also succumb to the temptations that will cause the enemy to grow stronger. There are allies to find that can help you, but also the possibility of making new enemies that will join the fight against you. The branches of the narrative may even lead you to alternative Confrontation objectives with completely different rewards at the end of the showdown. In the end, what you will do during the Chronicles Phase will alter the Confrontation not only from the mechanical perspective but also from the narrative standpoint.