The Banner Saga Review

            The more and more I think about the entertainment industry these days, the more depressed I seem to get.  Within the comic industry writers and artists are constantly hindered by editorial mandates in order to line their books up with much larger publisher plans as opposed to telling a good story.  The film industry seems to be unable to release anything but sequels or adaptations based off of some 80s/90s nostalgia products or artsy award bait that no one will remember in six months.  And then we have the video game industry.  Where do we even start with it?  Should we talk about how the publishing companies have no respect for their own products as art?  Should we talk about how the bloated budgets of the AAA branch of the industry effectively insure that most of them will never see a profit?  Should we talk about how the industry is constantly nickel and diming us with microtransaction for content that should have been in the core game?  Should we just talk about the fact that so many of these games aren’t even in working order at launch and have to be fixed through a series of patches weeks or even months after the initial release?  The list goes on and on.

            Luckily it’s not all bad.  Many of the nostalgic properties that these films are based on often turn out to be pretty decent movies, most notably those of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and comic industry still has many talented people working within that know how to work with publishers in order to get the stories they want told.  The video game industry, on the other hand it another matter.  Sure, there are great AAA releases every year but it seems like for every Witcher 3 or Bloodborne there is Battlefront or a Batman: Arkham Knight or an MGSV which probably accounts for why so many internet personalities tend to gush over certain independent video games.  Granted there are many more bad independent video games out there then good but free of the shackles of the AAA industry, many talented developers have been able to develop their own original IPs and every now and then you get something truly memorable that that you will be thinking about long after the credits roll.  Which brings us to The Banner Saga; a small Viking-themed tactical RPG, made by a team of former BioWare developers who managed to beat their old bosses at their own game.

           

        Taking place in a fantasy world inspired by Norse Mythology, the game follows a hunter from a small village named Rook who must lead an ever growing band of followers west, away from a seemingly unstoppable horde of stone/metallic creatures known as the Dredge.  With his daughter and a number of other heroes in tow the group will face hardships including starvation, attacks from bandits, Dredge, insurrections from the very people they rescue and simple bad luck that comes about during a journey but will hopefully find a safe haven from this new threat.  There are a number of things that makes this particular plot unique and endearing.  The main thing is that it is a completely unique IP and doesn’t seem to directly lift anything from any pre-existing IPs.  There aren’t any orcs or goblins roaming the countryside, dwarves hold up in mines or arrogant elves who think they know better than everyone else.  Instead it takes on an overall tone that is clearly inspired by Viking culture and Norse Mythology.  Granted it does seem to lift a lot from this culture to the point that this world seems to take place after some kind of Ragnarok event, but the various races and creatures encountered within the game seem to be the developer’s own unique creation and discovering the stories behind these races, kingdoms and such is done in a natural way that doesn’t resort to overly long exposition making the whole experience a delight.  It’s only real downside is that the plot itself doesn’t amount to much more than a road trip and is clearly meant to be the first act to a much larger story.  Because of this, many major plot points are left entirely unresolved and unlike franchises like say Dragon Age, it’s going to leave the player feeling frustrated as opposed to wanting more.    

           

           The gameplay itself is effectively broken down into two parts; the RPG/caravan half and the tactical grid based combat half.  Throughout the entirety of the game, you are leading a caravan of survivors and must decide how to effectively lead them to safety.  The mechanics of it are relatively simple.  You have a number of villagers, fighters, and giants known as Varl within your caravan who are constantly consuming food that at times can be very hard to come by which can lead to large numbers of your people dying off or fleeing the caravan should supplies run out.  Once you enter combat you have to decide how you will lead your soldiers, effectively deciding how many of them will live or die during the fighting itself.  All of this leads you to make meaningful decisions that, unlike similar game such as Fire Emblem and some of BioWare’s more recent outings, can potentially have short and long term consequences for the characters.   For example, on the trail itself you will often run into people who may or not be trouble for your group.  In some cases you will encounter people who will raise the spirits of you caravan members and bring much needed supplies and soldiers to help fight through your enemies.  Unfortunately it is equally as likely that whoever you are helping will simply drain your resources or steal precious food.  In some cases your actions can also lead to the deaths of major characters with seemingly insignificant actions having unexpected results that will shock and horrify the player as they see their poor choices play out and potentially have favorite characters meet their end.  The one admittedly big problem that this half has is that the events in question are described to you through text descriptions as opposed to actually showing you through a cutscene or gameplay.  While it is understandable due to the fact that this is a low budget indie game, one cannot deny that these moments would have had a lot more impact if they had played out another way.

            Unfortunately it’s during the combat sections of the gameplay where the game comes up a bit short.  Like Fire Emblem, the game uses a grid based combat system and effectively ends when one side has lost all of their units.  Unfortunately, this game’s combat system lacks the complexity and depth that those games had to offer.  Weapon types don’t seem to matter as much as they should and so called special attacks don’t give you nearly enough of an advantage over the enemy as a basic attack would.  The amount of damage attacks do ultimately comes down to how much armor the person is wearing and how much health they have.  Armor effectively reduces the amount of damage the character in question takes and can sometimes eliminate damage all together if the armor score is higher than the attacker’s strength.  The amount of strength the character has is determined by their strength bar which doubles as a health bar and as the character takes more damage, the less effective his/her attacks are.  While admittedly it is an original combat system that showed some promise, it never quite lives up to it and you’ll more than likely be using the same strategy in every battle that will involve chipping away an enemy’s armor before delivering a series of killing blows.  While this kind of strategy is a good foundation to build your game around, the developers were either unable or unwilling to add some much needed variety to this process beyond melee and ranged attacks and this unfortunately makes the whole thing feel like a slugging match between the heroes and antagonists.

           

            What really brings the whole thing together, however, are the characters as the developers knew how to invest you in their struggle to survive as well as applying original personalities to the majority of them.  Rook for example isn’t a young hero in his prime, battling an evil force.  He’s actually a middle aged hunter with a fully grown daughter who had this responsibility suddenly thrown on him and the game makes you feel the weight and stress of each decision.  The game also features a roster of twenty three recruitable heroes and does a good job of developing the vast majority of them with relatively limited screen time for some.  For example, the game features two twin characters who, in a more poorly written game, would have been completely disposable and interchangeable.  However, the writers were smart enough to give the two distinct personalities, with one being a more rash and impulsive individual and the other being a more level headed thinker.  The game is also one that develops its characters through action and dialog as opposed to exposition.  Granted there is exposition on some of the characters backgrounds and it is appropriate when it comes up, but for the most part everything you need to know about these characters is done through casual dialog with one another that feels natural.  A great example of this is the banter between the Varl characters Krumr and Ubin who are always arguing over which of the two is the oldest of the Varl.  Why are they always debating this?  Well, the game doesn’t outright tell us and it makes us speculate as to what their history is and in turn makes them all the more interesting and the vast majority of the characters are written in a similar way; ways that give us enough information on them so that they have a developed a sense of identity but leave enough out so that they may surprise us with their actions and odd quirks.

Unfortunately there are several characters who aren’t nearly as well developed as they should have been.  This happens mostly with the Varl characters, many of whom were clearly put in as a means to bolster the number of heroes in the game but lacked much of a developed sense of identity.  It also doesn’t help that, once again, this game is clearly the first act in a much larger story that has yet to be finished and because of this, it feels as if potential arcs the characters were meant to go through were only left partly finished.

Despite its flaws, The Banner Saga was an incredibly enjoyable experience.  The story, though unfinished, was an incredibly enjoyable experience and discover this new setting was an utter delight.  The majority of the characters were relatable and well developed and the game knew how to make you sympathize with them and completely invest you in their fates.  While the combat based gameplay was less than stellar, the decision based caravan portions of the game were nothing short of amazing and should be the model for decision based storylines in video games in the future.  With The Banner Saga 2 due for release later this month, I highly recommend that you give this one a try even if you aren’t that big on independent games.  Trust me when I say, you will not have wasted your time.

           So until next time please like the follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on Twitter.  It feels so good to be back doing this.