![]() “Just get to the next town!” Sometimes, when a battle begins, and the same two Dredge variants that you’ve fought forty times already pop up across the grid from you, auto-pilot can engage. Despite all of its majesty, sometimes you get sick of your little caravan walking through the snow. The biggest issue with The Banner Saga lies in a tendency to drag on occasions. Difficulty does not really follow a standard progression some of the early battles are abnormally difficult, and some later fights that you expect to be epic throwdowns are cakewalks. The lack of indicators to what will happen based on choices you make can lead to frustration for some, and the lack of explanation of some game mechanics can lead to some painful early lessons. This can be especially disorienting when three or more characters are having a discussion who is speaking and to whom they are speaking gets lost very easily. The story is great, but the lack of voice acting or cutscenes turn conversations into walls of text. There is a bit of opportunity for gamesmanship of a few combat mechanics, and the characters tend to skew a bit too much toward standard RPG tropes during battle, but combat in The Banner Saga is streamlined, interesting, and fun.Įven though it has a lot of good going for it, The Banner Saga is not without its problems. The combat here is intense and strategic, different units have hugely different styles, abilities, and strategies, and several numbers need to be juggled in order to determine the most efficient way to fight. On any given turn, a character will receive so many actions to spend: moving around, taking cover, using abilities, or attacking foes. Anyone who has played a tactical RPG knows how these work: the battlefield is a grid, with units and obstructions scattered throughout. ![]() The other half is the tactical, grid-based combat. The caravan, RPG aspect is only half of The Banner Saga. Strongholds can dwarf your caravan of refugees. However, it would not be surprising if they do not. As a player, you want the characters to survive against the impossibly bleak landscape and horrible enemies chasing them. It helps that the characters are interesting, believable, and flawed and that the story is engaging. In multiple playthroughs, how you behave as a leader and treat others in your caravan can dramatically change the story and characters available to you. In The Banner Saga, both of these problems are either not present, or they are hidden so well that it is impossible to tell. Second, options are usually too obvious as to what outcome they will cause (see: Mass Effect‘s Paragon/Renegade system). Generally, the plot is going to be about the same one way or the other. First, choice rarely makes for dramatically different outcomes in games. ![]() The issue of choice in many games is twofold. Will you let them join your group, knowing nothing about who they are and what they’re capable of? Will you continue on, leaving them to die (or possibly meeting them later, out for revenge)? Or will you attack them and steal their supplies? These kinds of scenarios pop up extremely often in The Banner Saga and rarely are your choices insignificant. As your caravan proceeds across the countryside, the player will be forced to make decisions. The caravan will add new characters, including the Varl, powerful creatures that are essentially Giants. The Dredge are essentially sentient suits of armor, lacking any emotion or mercy. The player takes the role of commander of a migrating caravan of people, fleeing from a monstrous army called the Dredge. The Banner Saga is essentially The Oregon Trail meets Final Fantasy Tactics but dressed up as a bleak Viking epic. The grid-based battle system should look familiar to tactical veterans.
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