Imagine a heavy euro where the tower on the board actively collapses while you are playing. That is the pitch for FALLING, designer Kentaro Yazawa's 1-4 player strategy game heading to shelves via Capstone Games and Japanese publisher Sunny Bird in Q2 2026, most likely around the end of June. Expect a 90-to-120-minute runtime at a meaty mid-heavy weight, not a dexterity stacker.
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Set up your group for freeYou play explorers climbing a crumbling tower, placing cards to pull in resources and trigger bigger rewards as each level of the tower is removed from play. As rounds progress, the tower shrinks beneath you and your placed cards return to your hand with bonus loot attached, so timing when to commit and when to pull back becomes the whole game. There are twelve unique sidekicks to choose from at setup, each with its own ability, giving the box plenty of variable setup to chew through.
This is a landmark for Capstone, whose catalogue already covers gamer favourites like Maracaibo and Ark Nova. The Ohio publisher struck its first formal partnership with a Japanese studio to bring FALLING west, after Sunny Bird ran a Kickstarter for the Japanese edition in early 2025. The world and character art comes from manga artist Tomohiro Tsugawa, which gives the whole thing a very different look to the usual sepia-and-brown heavy euro.
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Find events near youNo confirmed UK retail date yet, but Capstone's games usually reach Thirsty Meeples, Zatu and other specialist shops within a few weeks of their US launch. If the 90-minute weight sounds right for your group, round up your regular crew and pencil it in for later in the year.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Board Game Bliss | W. Eric Martin
