As a result, the journey kicks off right away with multiple battles in succession. This is a smart move by developer Stoic, rather than attempting to shoehorn it into the main game, reducing the immersive nature of the storyline. With both the battle and dialogue being somewhat refined in the second entry, the tutorial has now been reduced to a single option in the main menu of the game with no more handholding in sight. The cutscenes are just as stunning, with the graphics ripped straight out of a Disney cartoon it’s just a pity the voice acting is limited to a few lines and the occasional grunt in battle.Īs immediate as the first two games were to establish the scene, The Banner Saga 3 manages to further streamline the experience, making the assumption that the player has finished the previous games. Compared to the harsher landscape featured in the original game, there are a lot more colourful scenes on display in the sequel - with the magnificent hand-drawn artwork and characters still present. When you’re not fighting your way out of a tight spot in conversation or battle, you’ll no doubt be soaking up the stunning and varied environments. Unfortunately, the control system is unchanged from the first game making menus clunky to navigate - especially in battle. If battles do become too much, you can always change the difficulty on the fly. Pilage mode means you can increase your attacks on sole enemies remaining. The special abilities are again varied with some that assist fellow party members, allowing them to deal damage on multiple adjacent tiles. If you’re struggling to reach your target zone, 'willpower' makes a return as a limited resource - enabling heroes to boost actions and movement - with the exertion stat also needed to be taken into account. In the worst case scenario, you can always plow through an obstacle if required. Introduced early on in the sequel are obstacles, requiring you to occasionally rethink your strategies depending on how the battlefield is laid out. There’s a mix of basic requirements like protecting an ally, and there’s even active storytelling in battles from time to time to add a greater amount of context and there are now more enemies to take on. There’s a bit more variety on offer this time, with the mission objective not always being to simply kill everything in sight. Apart from this, the battles do a great job at bringing the narrative to life. About the only other notable downside here is the interface at times can be a bit clunky to navigate when making selections. The brilliance of the actions in battle is how it rolls over to future decisions you make in and outside of battles afterwards. If you find the challenge is not great enough or perhaps too difficult, you can always adjust it to an easy or harder setting. Like the dialogue, battles have consequences. As the player, you can either choose to chip away an opponent’s armour or try and damage them directly by attacking their strength.
One difference in combat is the strength and armour icons. The classes include the usual close combat types to the ranged variety. There are a total of 25 playable characters and seven different classes, with certain characters, such as Varl, taking up more of the grid than others. The battles play out on a grid in a similar fashion to popular titles like Final Fantasy Tactics. The text-based decisions made as you progress lead nicely into the strategic turn-based combat. This backstory is used to introduce you to a convoy of characters comprised of both humans and Varl along with clansmen that travel the lands in a caravan party with their own missions at stake. Humans co-exist alongside horned giants known as Varls, despite the occasional turmoil, and now an ancient enemy threat referred to as the Dredge has returned to kill every living being in sight. The gods are dead and the sun has stopped moving with the world stuck in a state of eternal twilight. The Banner Saga doesn’t waste any time establishing its foundations. This physical release collects all three chapters of the story together, although the third isn't actually on the cart. It combines strategic turn-based combat with gripping text-based decision-making to draw you into a fictional world inspired by Norse mythology and filled with rich lore, as well as plenty of interesting characters you’ll grow fond of as your adventure progresses. As hinted by the title, Banner Saga Trilogy is an epic Viking story where every choice you make directly impacts how your journey unfolds.
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