radiofloyd Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 I'm just going to keep creating threads for games instead of actually playing them. Nah this will be the last new thread I create in a while, I swear... I have to admit the opening hours of this and Broken Age have been among the most impressive of any games I've played in a long while. The kind of stuff to re-ignite your passion for games. The Banner Saga is a turned based rpg set in a Norse setting, developed by Stoic, an indie company started by ex-Bioware devs. It's the first in a planned series. My first impressions are: holy fuck, this game is beautiful. The opening scene where your band of adventures walks across the bridge to the city is just stunning. And in the dialogue scenes, the art work is even more impressive with a beautiful hand drawn style. I've only played the tutorial fight so far but it seemed cool, an enjoyable spin on the formula anyway. Time will tell how difficult or tactical the fights really get. All in all it seems like The Banner Saga is going to be a great, and very distinctive rpg, unless something goes badly wrong. I'm all for bite-sized indie games but if kickstarter leads to more "AA" games of this quality... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craymen Edge Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 I'm a rubbish forum-er, so I wrote about this in Completed Games a few months ago, but never bothered making a thread (but seeing as it's taken this long for anybody else to mention it, I guess I didn't really need to). Here's what I said: The first thing about The Banner Saga is it is fucking gorgeous. It looks amazing. It's a fairly simple RPG in structure: you're in charge of a cravan made up of fighters and refugees fleeing an overwhelming enemy force and trying to survive. Along the way events come up and you have to make decisions, or you run into pockets of enemies and have to fight. The turn based combat is very enjoyable, the story and atmosphere are very sombre and depressing at times, which I guess is appropriate for the setting. I think it's really well done.(urgh, 'very' twice in one sentence) I liked it a lot, and can't wait for the next part. The final battle was stupidly hard when I played it, and I had to lower the difficulty level to get through it. They've patched it so there isn't such a spike now. The sense of fleeing an overwhelming enemy while watching the number of refugees in your caravan dwindle as supplies run out and people starve is very effective. It really does generate a feeling of hopelessness which is unusual in gaming. I wish there was a bit more voice in the game. The guy who narrates the intro is great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted September 14, 2014 Author Share Posted September 14, 2014 Alright, time to get stuck into this. I played my first proper battle which actually took a few goes to win without anyone dying. Combat is a nice game of cat and mouse, good fun. Luckily the game seems to autosave before every fight. Apparently my characters were ready for "promotion" but when I was on the camp screen I couldn't see any "promote" button and it doesn't look like they had enough to kills to raise their stats. I also couldn't figure out a way to spend my "reputation" but I'm sure I will figure it out in time... My characters probably just need to reach their kill totals. The world map is huge, I'll be impressed if all of that is contained in this one game (which raised a relatively modest $700k on kickstarter). But it looks like Stoic have spent the money wisely. So far so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted September 20, 2014 Author Share Posted September 20, 2014 6 hours into this now, it's a cool game. The exploration is on rails so you don't have to worry about where to go. It's essentially a strategy rpg set in a Skyrim-like world. There is a fair amount of dialogue and decision making but the meat of the game seems to be in the combat., which is fun and engaging, on normal anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted September 21, 2014 Author Share Posted September 21, 2014 I'm understanding combat a bit more in this game now. A really important stat is Exertion which allows you to add extra points (Willpower) to your attack or movement. I.e. if a character has 2 Exertion, then they can do 4 damage instead of 2 in combat by spending 2 Willpower, or 3 damage instead of 2 by spending only 1 Willpower etc. Willpower is the pool for this ability so obviously it depletes as combat goes on, Exertion is the stat which determines how much Willpower you can spend. Another important thing is that, the quickest route to victory is not necessarily to kill all the enemies one by one, it can be far more beneficial in the long run to ignore a enemy once its strength (strength/health are the one stat in this game) has been reduced (rendering it effectively harmless) and moving on to the next enemy which is at max strength, even if these means leaving multiple enemies alive for longer. Better to fight against two enemies with 1 strength, than kill one enemy but leave another alive with 9 strength. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted October 11, 2014 Author Share Posted October 11, 2014 Played this again today. I'm not liking this war feature they've introduced where every time before a battle you can make about five different decisions which allows you to fight a harder/easier battle Which basically just makes me want to skip every battle, or choose the easiest option. If you tried the hardest option every time you'd be here all day. After 6-7 hours the limitations of the game are fairly apparent. I'm curious to see how long it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 The Banner Saga 2 has been confirmed for release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2015. We knew that indie developer Stoic was crafting a sequel to its stylish strategy role-playing game, but this is the first we've heard of its launch platforms. Stoic - a three-man team made up of former BioWare employees - has said that the sequel will continue the epic Norse storyline of the series' first adventure. A third title is planned to wrap up the tale. The original Banner Saga arrived for PC earlier this year to high acclaim, and is being ported to both PS4 and PlayStation Vita early next year. There's no word yet on an Xbox One launch for the series' opening chapter. "The critical reception and widespread fan appreciation for The Banner Saga is overwhelming and humbling," Stoic co-owner and art director Arnie Jorgensen said, "and has the team at Stoic dedicated to delivering a fantastic sequel. We couldn't be more excited." For Eurogamer, Stace Harman wrote that the first Banner Saga was "a refreshing take on the tactical RPG with a story every bit as engaging as its combat. It is a beautiful game filled with ugly choices and tough consequences." http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-12-08-the-banner-saga-2-headed-to-pc-ps4-and-xbox-one-in-2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craymen Edge Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 The sequel is out on April 19th. I kickstarted this back in the day, and just got a free key for The Banner Saga 2 from the original kickstarter campaign. I wasn't expect that, so I'm pretty pleased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 On 4/15/2016 at 9:28 PM, Craymen Edge said: The sequel is out on April 19th. I kickstarted this back in the day, and just got a free key for The Banner Saga 2 from the original kickstarter campaign. I wasn't expect that, so I'm pretty pleased. Just seen today it's gotten some great reviews: IGN - 8.9 PC Gamer - 86% Game Informer - 8.5 Gamespot - 8 Eurogamer - Recommended RockPaperShotgun I need to go back and finish the first game, I might start over altogether. It's gonna be a while before I get around to it though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craymen Edge Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 I'm trying to play less time consuming games as palate cleaners alongside my ongoing game of Grim Dawn. I'm going to get Banner Saga 2 next, when I've finished Hyper Light Drifter. I don't really remember a lot about what happened the in the first one, more about the atmosphere than the story, but hopefully I'll catch up quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 1 hour ago, Craymen Edge said: I'm trying to play less time consuming games as palate cleaners alongside my ongoing game of Grim Dawn. I'm going to get Banner Saga 2 next, when I've finished Hyper Light Drifter. I don't really remember a lot about what happened the in the first one, more about the atmosphere than the story, but hopefully I'll catch up quickly. Why don't you start a thread for Hyper Light Drifter? I'll play it sooner rather than later, it looks class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfnick Posted September 8, 2019 Share Posted September 8, 2019 Finally made a start on the first one of these yesterday after hearing loads of good hints about them over the years. For the first 30 min or so wasn’t so bothered. After that though something just clicked and I ended up playing it for hours. Im really enjoying the combat, satisfying and just enough tactical choices without being overwhelming. The art style is really great and the story while being a bit childish in its “choose your own adventure” style is interesting. In particular the little character story elements, I particularly enjoyed the drunken dick head one. After 1 night I’m already at chapter 4, looking forward to getting stuck in more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrangeRKN Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 I've played the first game twice (once on PC, once on Switch) and think it's fantastic, but still haven't built myself up to the second game. It's so exhausting from an in-game survival perspective that I really needed the break - which is a great compliment to the game, really! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfnick Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 Just finished it today, great game. I really enjoyed the combat and story elements. The supplies part ended up being more interesting than I originally gave it credit for too. I started to make some morally bad decisions and letting people and kids die just to keep supplies to save the many of the camp. Also liked how it handled accepting people into my camp. Some would become party members while others would steal or kill. There’s was always a risk and you never quite knew what would happen. Really made the decision to accept people feel like it meant something. For the the people who played it too I’d like to know your sides of the story regarding Spoiler blowing the bridge up - did you or not? I decided to, with the intentions it would save more Varl. I got kicked out and they ended up dieing anyway. Just wondered if anyone else had a different outcome? Who did you use for the final arrow? I let Alette do it and she died afterwards . There were a couple of other big decision moments but my memory is terrible and can’t remember the details at the moment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrangeRKN Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Spoiler First time on PC I had Alette die, and while I'd basically forgotten all the other choices on Switch I made sure to have Rook die instead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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