'Attack on Titan' release date news: Manga board game to be released in 2016

Attack on Titan posterToho Productions

"Attack on Titan," a popular Japanese manga with anime and video game adaptations, is set to have a board game under its name.

Cryptozoic Entertainment, together with Don't Panic Games, has recently acquired the rights to release a board game under the Attack on Titan franchise. The collaborating companies will have Antoine Bauza, designer for games like 7 Wonders and Hanabi, and Ludovic Maublanc, designer for SOS Titanic, design the upcoming anime-inspired tabletop game.

However, contrary to conventional tabletop games that are played in a horizontal manner, the Attack on Titan board game will involve vertical gameplay. A player will be set to take up the role of a Titan, which stands vertically on top of the board, while the rest of the players, the heroes, try to defeat him by climbing all the way up to the highest plank-point on the titan. In the manga, as well as the anime adaptation, Titans only have one weakness: the back of their necks.

Those who attended the Anime Expo in Los Angeles and the Japan Expo in Paris got to experience the game firsthand. One of the photos released by Cryptozoic shows a man playing the game while costume playing as Eren Jaeger.

"Attack on Titan" tells the story of Jaeger, a teenage boy living with the last survivors of the human race within a set of walls after the monstrous, grotesque and man-eating creatures known as Titans ravaged the planet. Jaeger is accompanied by his extremely protective and highly skilled foster sister, Mikasa Ackerman. Their whole tumultuous journey to rid the world of Titans began after the man-eating giants breached the wall and ate their mother.

"Attack on Titan," also known as Shingeki no Kyojin, sold 50 million copies worldwide and even ousted One Piece as Oricon's bestselling manga in the first half of 2014.

The "Attack on Titan" board game is due for international release in 2016.