Review for The Banner
Saga
I go into this review not as an
expert on Strategic RPGs, but someone who has a good amount of past experiences
with popular versions of the genre such as Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics,
and Civilization. I will tell you my overall view and opinions of the game
after about 6 hours of game play, and then let the reader decide for themselves
if this game is right for them or not.
In the Ease of Entry section I want
to give reasoning to how easy or hard it is to pick up a game when you have
never played any other type of game in the genre.
Background
The Banner Saga is a Strategic RPG
set in a mystical world based on Nordic lore where the sun has mysteriously
stopped setting, a mysterious invasion of a previously thought extinct race of
mechanical-like creatures, Dredge, terrorize villages, and an uneasy alliance
between the Varl, a race of horned giants, and humans. You switch between two storylines; one of
Hakon, a Varl sent to protect the stuck up Prince of Men on his way to the Varl
capital to the east in order to train him in diplomacy, and Rook, who only has
his daughter left after his wife died and village was burned and asked to lead
them west for safety from the Dredge.
The story and the lore are very
detailed in the map, but if you delve further into the lore behind The Banner
Saga it is not very well explained. I wish they would have explained the story
as much as they did the game play, but maybe Stoic Studies is taking the head
first type strategy with lore.
Game Play
In both stories you lead a caravan of people
on an easterly or westerly set path towards their destination. Much like Oregon
Trail the caravan automatically heads in one direction only stopping when an
event appears or you decide to stop and camp. Also like Oregon Trail you try to
maintain a balance between the supplies and happiness. While you travel you see
the days travel add up and you see the happiness of the caravan diminish, so
you stop and camp to improve the wellbeing of the caravan. In this menu you
will be brought to a town style type menu where you click on buildings/tents to
go into character menus, training battles, or rest to improve the overall
happiness.
The Camp menu screen and the options shown
In the character menu screens you
can level up your character, look and assign at stats, or give him/her an item.
You level up through combat, which I will explain in detail later in the
review. Other choices throughout the story you gain Renown which the currency
used throughout the game to not only level up characters but to also buy
supplies for the caravan and items in the markets. The character menu is very easy to navigate
and there is always a help button at the bottom of the screen that will display
what all the stats do and how they affect your character in battle.
Now for the main part of The Banner
Saga, the combat. Combat is the typical Strategic RPG style of battle where
there are movement squares and then after you move depending on the character
and his/her attack range you can attack afterwards. Any tile highlighted in
blue will show where the character will be able in one turn. However if you
need to move just a bit further you can use your Willpower, which is used for
abilities as well, to advance to the yellow title at one Willpower per tile.
The size of each character affects the strategy of the battle as well. The Varl
take up a 2x2 tile space while the humans only take up one at a time, and
allies cannot pass through each other (unless their abilities specifically
states so). So this ends up in a lot of complex strategies of blockades and aggro
tactics which is nice for advanced players.
In combat you can do one of three
options in the wait, abilities, or attack. The Banner Saga uses an interesting
mechanic for the combat, which instead of just HP you have armor too, which
affects how much damage you do to a target’s HP. When you attack you can either
attack the armor or the HP of the target.
You can also increase the damage of an attack by using Willpower to
shatter even more armor or take away even more HP. The HP of the target affects
how much damage the enemy is able to put out as well. The less HP the less
damage the enemy can deal to you. You get a “Are you sure?” double click button
before confirming an attack, but not one for movement which would have been nice.
Abilities are based on each
character and some seem way more useful than others. Such as one on my tank
lets me push an enemy back up to six spaces damaging them based on how many
enemies I hit them through, while another requires an archer to get into melee
range to use. The Class system so far in the game seems to be pretty minimal. You
have your basic tanks, archers, melee damage, and support style characters.
This is good for players who are new to the RPG in general, but it really seems
to lack depth.
The turn system in The Banner Saga
is “You move one character, enemy moves one character, you move one character,
etc…”. This is nice in the sense that you can’t lose multiple units in one
enemy turn, like in Fire Emblem, but this makes you stuck with your choice of
movement for multiple turns without any option to fix it. So the game really
rewards you for thinking multiple turns ahead, and adapting to the changing
board.
The camera is fixed in one
direction and cannot be moved around. So when you start to stack units close to
each other it gets a bit hard to click the feet of the target or ally you want
to target. However the UI is very minimal so it does not clutter the screen
with information so this issue of a one direction camera has never really been
a huge issue for me.
The battle screen in Training mode
Ease of Entry
I
believe the entry level of The Banner Saga is VERY low, which can be its own
double edge sword.
The Banner Saga starts out with a great and
short intro tutorial that goes over each element of the game, menu, and combat
as if you have never played a Strategic RPG before. These help bars are always
available when you need them again if you click the question mark located on
most screens.
However this low bar of entry gives
the game a lack of depth and sometimes customization. This is best represented
by the item system in the game. That was not a typo before; each character can
only carry one item, that’s it. The items are very well explained and are not
that complicated, but most people familiar with RPGs are used to hold about 5-8
items on a character.
The character menu with the help button on
Style
The
style of The Banner Saga is one of the best artistically styled games I have
played in a very long time. The style of a slightly still highlighted
foreground with minor movement done by characters, such as the wind blowing on
a shirt or the eyes rolling ever few seconds, with a still slightly blurred
background gives you the feel of television cartoon from the 1970s or 1980s.
While some people might not enjoy this art style, I personally found this slightly
still artwork throughout the game interesting and kept me looking for each
movement in the scene while never getting the feeling that I was just staring at
a picture.
Snow consistently falling during
the menu screens and especially during the dialog options gave a sense of mood
for the game. While the snow has little effect graphically, setting wise it was
huge. Really giving me the feel that I was in the Nordic lore of a game.
Everything is done with the Nordic lore in mind. From the horn at the top of
the screen during battle that shows you the gained willpower for every killed
enemy to the background of the character select menu in which you see ancient Nordic
artwork and styling.
Simple Conversation to show the style and the number of choices
The
only problem is I could see a less patient player not even knowing that the
character’s clothes or eyes were moving.
This is due to the lack of voice acting throughout most of the game.
While there is some voice-overs in some major transitional cut scenes, the
majority of the game is reading the text at the bottom of the screen. This
draws your attention to the bottom of the screen instead of seeing, in my opinion,
the beautiful art style that Stoic Studios has made. So if you are willing to
take the time through the game, and specifically the dialog, you will enjoy the
game a lot more than if you try to rush through.
Writing
The
dialog in The Banner Saga is very well written, with many choices on how you
choose to progress through the story. No character so far seems to say anything
that is too far out of the realm of his/her personality or the realm of what we
generally think a Viking would say. Even when you choose an option that doesn’t
seem to fit the personality the writing, much like Mass Effect, corrects the
conversation and makes it seem possible for the character to say that line.
Also while the humor in the game was not Laugh Out Loud funny it did give me a
few smirks and never felt forced.
There are also many options in each
dialog menu. It was very rare for me to only have two options to choose from.
Generally there were three to four options for each end to the speech varying
from passive to reckless options. Each choice seems to have lasting effects
throughout the story, even the choices that don’t seem to be a major choice can
have huge consequences. A good example
of this is that I had an option to send one of three characters to fend off a
Dredge attack on a villager, so I sent the character with the shield and he
ended up getting his skull bashed in without a chance of user controlled
combat.
The writing in this game does not
hold your hand throughout and uses words that are not common in conversational
English. This use of more “advanced” English appears more often in the inner
thoughts of the characters than in the conversation between the characters. So
if English is not your first language you might have to pause and look up some
words to get the full meaning of the text.
Conclusion
I think
The Banner Saga is of the best Strategy RPGs I have ever played, and I think it
would be a good transition game for people looking to get into the genre. It
has a simple itemization, with a complex battle system, a beautiful art style,
and a story that makes me want to find out what’s next.
