Another title out of the first wave of Kickstarter-funded RPGs has been released: you can now purchase The Banner Saga on Steam, GamersGate and GameFly among others, with a DRM-free version on GOG slated to be release in the near future, for $24.99/€22,99/£18.99.
While backers have already been sent their Steam keys, I’d imagine the majority of people reading this article will be interested in reading some reviews and imrpessions of the title before considering a purchase, so I rounded up what I could find online, starting from this Eurogamer piece, 8/10.
A stronger criticism of the combat is its overall lack of variety. Neither terrain nor environmental obstacles affect movement or combat strategies to any significant degree, irrespective of whether you’re fighting in a snowy forest or a cobbled town square. There’s also a lack of variety when it comes to enemies, with the vast majority of your foes consisting of a heavily armoured race called the Dredge that are bereft of any real personality or design flair. Nonetheless, the strength of the combat system’s mechanics manages to prevent it from becoming mired in repetition, keeping things interesting throughout.
The Banner Saga offers 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. While this crowd-funded instalment stands as a complete experience in itself, it deserves to sell well enough that the planned parts two and three might come to fruition. I don’t envy the hundreds that have suffered under my ineffectual command, but it would be a shame not to see the saga through to its end.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun, scoreless, is less kind to the game:
The heroes’ journeys in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy are catalogued in a regular series of wide-frame long distance shots. As well as pleasing the New Zealand Tourist Board, the footage of actors and their stand-ins striding across landscapes was short-hand for the days and miles that were passing, demonstrating the commitment and endurance of the Fellowship and, later, its fractured elements. Though they were all reduced to dwarves (and the hobbits and dwarves to baby dwarves) by the mountains that held them, those long shots also served as a reminder of their undertaking and the strength that they required to shoulder it.
In a twisting of a similar perspective, Stoic’s vision reduces those ‘˜hero shots’ to a rabble led by a fragile banner, carrying families, histories and entire cultures in its wake. Broken carts creak and clatter. It’s a picture of vulnerability and a different kind of strength, and at its best the game is about that as much as it’s about stats and tiles. It’s a shame that, in this instance, the world is more fascinating than the somewhat cumbersome game that inhabits it.
USGamer, 5/5.
I … just go and play it, will you? With the caveat that you understand that this is only tangentially related to games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem. You won’t be able to assemble a League of Extraordinary Fantasy Soldiers here or even dress them to the nines. Which is fantastic because the claustrophobic desperation of the plot wouldn’t gel well with the genre’s usual tropes. The Banner Saga is a taciturn beast, unwilling to freely yield its secrets. It’s like the winter that swallowed the world, with rules that are blindingly simple to understand but difficult to command. Beautiful, bleak and built like what all good viking-related media want to grow up to be, the first chapter of The Banner Saga is a work of art. (So there, hah!)
IGN, 8.6/10.
The Banner Saga deserves commendation for the strength of its art and music experience alone, which shatters conventions. That experience, in turn, complements a bleak story of a world teetering before its fall, where the harshness of the Scandinavian landscape mirrors the plight of mutually distrustful refugees. It’s also a tough tactical RPG that rewards thought and careful strategy, although it stumbles a bit in explaining systems beyond its combat.
Destructoid, 8/10.
The Banner Saga is a dark and onerous experience, but its one that draws you in. I’ll be waiting with bated breath to see which way this winding path darts next. Something tells me we’re not out of the woods just yet.
GameSpot, 7/10.
Even more compelling is The Banner Saga’s atmosphere. The colorful hand-drawn characters and cel-shaded villages would have been at home in a high-budget animated film. And the sight of your caravan stretching across the screen, with the yellow banner flying from an oxcart and the horned varl trudging wearily onward, reinforces the viciousness of the elements. An excellent soundtrack echoes the story’s touchstones of personal sacrifice and stubbornness with discordant trumpets that sound out troubled fanfares, signaling heroism under duress. The Banner Saga is a beautiful game, filled with interesting ideas and enjoyable battles. It’s too bad the story gets entangled within its own winding web, but this chilly journey does a fine job of reminding you that being a respectable leader is about more than just giving rousing speeches and schmoozing with the high and mighty.
IncGamers, 8/10.
It’s tempting to say that The Banner Saga is like a long-lost, early Disney film about Vikings, except of course for the fact that Disney would never touch this narrative. The game tells a bleak and relentless tale, depicting a group of dwindling refugees trying to escape the end of the world. With its weighty choices, strong writing and convincing characters, even the dread hand of the saved game apocalypse couldn’t prevent me loving this one.
GamesRadar, 4.5/5.
By its end, The Banner Saga isn’t so much about how many battles you win, or what level your fighters are–it’s about the journey of surviving from beginning to end. All the branching choices and possible playable characters mean your experience will be completely different from that of your friend’s, and the interesting 10-hour campaign will keep you eager to see it through, difficulty be damned. You’ll make tough decisions. People you grow to care about will die. And by the time the credits roll, you’ll have woven a story all your own to tell.
Finally, Kotaku has some first impressions:
You might think continually going on about the game’s art is superficial, and it is, but that doesn’t make it any less important. I’ve been playing this game in various guises for almost a year now, and I still just leave it running sometimes, hand off the mouse, watching things as simple as a unit’s idling animations. P
And while the fluff in the middle mightn’t have worked, the core at the other end of the game – the battles – certainly do, some fresh ideas meeting tried-and-tested genre staples to provide an experience that’s flexible enough to remain fresh throughout the game, no matter the size or style of battle.
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