Santorini Second Edition Board Game Review

Roxley released a brand new expansion for Santorini that we will hopefully be reviewing soon, but with that printing they decided to reprint the original game in a Second Edition and Pantheon Edition. Roxley was nice enough to send us a Second Edition printing of the game, so let’s take a peak at what the Second Edition brings, and whether Santorini is still worth purchasing / upgrading in 2025!

In Santorini, players will be moving around with workers, building structure, and trying to outwit their opponent. On your turn, you will move a worker and place a building tile. Movement and placement rules apply, but getting the right building pieces in the right spots will propel you to victory. Too many poor choices, however, and you might inadvertently help your opponent!

This game has been around for some time now, and is considered to be one of the most accessible board games currently available. As you can read on BoardGameGeek, it was designed to be easy enough for Elementary school classrooms, but engaging enough for adults. And to that end, I think the design and development team has nailed it.

The Second Edition printing of Santorini changes a few things. It looks like the artwork has been slightly updated (I think, although it could just be more vibrant), the building pieces are slightly different in both look and shape, and the box itself seems to be a bit larger than the original. The real reason to purchase this version – or purchase for the first time – is the rebalanced god powers. These have been tweaked just slightly from the original to make playing as any god as equal as possible. While this version doesn’t include all the content that you’ll find in the Pantheon Edition – no expansions here – there are still a good number of gods to choose from.

There seems to be a lot of confusion around what is included in the Second Edition versus what was included in the original release, but rest assured not a whole lot has changed. Unless you want the slight tweaks to balance for god powers, I think your original version is probably just fine. That being said, Santorini isn’t an overly expensive game to purchase, and if it’s a favorite of you and your gaming group, I wouldn’t hesitate to upgrade to the new Second Edition.

It is still a very impressive game. It’s packaged well, has upgraded components, and while at first glance you might think it looks relatively similar, there are nice subtle changes that make the cost of entry worth it. I’d be interested to see how easy it is to mix old expansions into the new experience – unfortunately, I’ve lost the only expansion I ever owned for the original game so I couldn’t test that, at least not right now.

I’ll have more to say on this experience when we review the cooperative expansion, Riddle of the Sphinx. Until then, we think this is a great re-launch of a classic game, and one worth your time if you haven’t experienced it yet!