Towards the end of 2021, Renegade Game Studios released Power Rangers Deck-Building Game Zeo: Stronger Than Before. I was so pumped for it. I loved the original PRDBG and Zeo is my favorite season of Power Rangers, so I was more than ready to tackle it. Thankfully, Renegade was kind enough to supply me with a review copy to take for a spin and I wanted to share my thoughts.
At its core, Zeo: Stronger Than Before plays exactly like PRDBG. All the mechanics are the same and it’s a standalone expansion so you can play it by itself or combined. They have recommendations for how to combine the two games and I also appreciate how there’s a blurb in the rulebook that points veterans to the content new and exclusive to Zeo: Stronger Than Before. Thankfully, Matt Hyra and T.C. Petty III did not take the easy way out and just reskin PRDBG to be Zeo. Every card (well, almost) is different in some way. The Lair has a different effect (it heals instead of attacks) when Masters are acquired, the Zord Bay works differently (and in my opinion way better), and even some of the Starter cards and Blaster cards are different. The only ones that are the same are the Starter cards that provide Shards and Energy as well as Stun cards. Already, a big win. There are even the new Zeo Sub Crystal cards that have powerful one-time effects.
Sadly, while things didn’t feel like they were copied from PRDBG, I wasn’t impressed with what I felt was a lack of diversity in Hero and Villain abilities. Kat and Archerina are essentially the same character just for the Heroes and Villains respectively and Rocky and Adam are very similar mostly just changing out if they care about Equipment or Maneuvers more. This bummed me out. It also just feels like the Villains were made to be much weaker. In PRDBG, it isn’t hard to feel like the Villains have the upper hand, but in Zeo: Stronger than Before, it feels like they were terribly nerfed. Now, I will admit that this may have to do with my playstyle and may not necessarily be part of the actual game design, but reading through the Villains, I became less impressed with each one. Some of the design appears to be in an effort to speed up the game, but I personally didn’t feel the trade-off was worth it.
There is one card in particular that I do think is poorly designed. Draining Power is a low cost Maneuver that lets you perform and Attack for free and if it hits, you steal up to 4 Energy from your opponent. If this is acquired and attached in the early game, you can quite easily shut your opponent down and stop them from doing much of anything for the rest of the game. If it’s acquired in the late game, it’s not nearly as big of a problem, but I think it could use some tweaking.
Another great thing about Zeo: Stronger Than Before though is the art. Outside of the Billy Cranston card, I love the art. It’s very fun to look at and amazing. The only reason why I don’t like the Billy Cranston card is that for some reason it shows him morphed as the Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger when by this time in the franchise, Billy had lost his powers. It’s a small detail, but it bugs me.
Zeo: Stronger Than Before has some good and even great areas, but sadly has some parts that make me sad. In the games that I played, whoever played as the Villain was nowhere close to winning at any point and didn’t have fun during the experience. I can only imagine that they felt the Villains in PRDBG were too much and ended up overcorrecting in this iteration. I’m also still sad about the box insert not having a neat place for the Zord Bay or Lair. One thing I have not done yet, but really want to do is combine this one with the original game. I think that would probably provide the best experience.
