#but...I have some Fire Emblem and Monster High in store so... variety~!

[kiose]

Nap in the locker room cause someone gave it her all and is all tuckered out after the match :P

B-day present for @chimchiri cause she asked for SpitDash and I tried It might be a bit late on your side of the world but still Happy B-day and hope ya had a good day filled with fun and good times :D

[4colorrebellion]

4cr Plays - Banner Saga 3 (Switch)

The Banner Saga - a strategy RPG inspired by Scandinavian mythology - was one of the first huge Kickstarter hits. Unlike some of the other crowdfunding successes, Banner Saga delivered on its promises and went on to become a cult classic. Now, two years after Banner Saga 2, the final chapter of the trilogy has hit download stores on all of the major consoles. 

I’ve been intrigued by the series since it launched. The artwork is beautiful, and I love strategy RPGs like Fire Emblem. Still, for whatever reason, I never got around to trying the series. When offered a chance to play the third installment, I figured - why not? 

Here’s what I thought about it.

Right off the bat, I suspected that I shouldn’t have picked the third game in a trilogy as a starting place. The story picks up immediately where Banner Saga 2 ended, with the cast split in two. The basic motivating factor of the series is that world is being consumed by darkness, the sun is frozen, and the cold and monsters are threatening to wipe out all of civilization. When Banner Saga 3 starts, galf of the cast are encamped in the last human stronghold - Arberrang. Their task is to unite a whole host of warring factions in order to maintain some vague semblance of society. The other half of the cast have headed north, into the darkness, on a desperate mission to fix this entire mess. 

There is a recap video intended to get you up to speed on the highlights, but it doesn’t really explain who any of the characters are. Still, it did get the central themes across, and the genuinely good writing pulled me the rest of the way in. The central storyline is bleak, but fairly compelling, and there are some fairly memorable characters. The story calls on you to make frequent choices, and a few of those actually require some thought - as they feel like the tipping points where you could maintain or lose party unity. If you’ve played the previous games, you can import your save file to bring into account the past decisions you made. 

Of course, there is a game that takes place between these dialogue scenes. Banner Saga 3 is a strategy RPG, reminiscent of games like X-Com or Fire Emblem. The action takes place on a grid, where you take turns moving characters around the battlefield. Each character has a movement range that determines how many spaces they can travel in a turn. When within range of an enemy, you can choose to attack - ending your turn afterwards. Some characters can attack at range, while others must be in an adjacent square. 

One twist over many strategy games is that enemies have both a “strength” value - which represents both the damage they do and their health - an an “armor” value - which determines how much harm they can avoid or absorb on a hit. When you attack, you can choose to target their strength or their armor. You need to lower their strength to kill them, but if their armor is high, they will be able to simply ignore most of your attacks. It is tempting to aim for strength directly, but it is rarely the right move. It’s often far more important to chip away at the armor. 

You character also has a limited amount of willpower that replenishes over time. Willpower can be spent for a variety of actions, including moving additional spaces. It can also be spent to increase the power of an attack.  In addition to strength, armor, and willpower, characters also have an exertion stat that determines how much willpower they can spend to boost actions and a break stat that dictates the amount of damage a character can do to a target’s armor.

Each character has a race and a class, which determines their basic stat distribution and grants a set of special abilities. These abilities can do things like hit enemies with arrows when they move within a targeted area or allow you to perform a sweeping attack that hits a circle of enemies around you. The three core races that form your party are humans, the Varl - a race of giants with great strength - and the Horseborn - centaurs who tend to have high movement range. 

In addition to regular battles, with a fixed set of enemies to defeat, there are also battles where waves of enemies attack. If you can withstand every wave and defeat the boss at the end, you can earn special items. 

The battle system in Banner Saga is fairly deep, with layers of strategy to figure out. Story confusion alone might be enough to warn new players away from starting with the third game. If it isn’t, the gameplay is. Banner Saga 3 has a simple tutorial to teach you combat, but it really is not enough. Many systems are not explained at all, and I had to piece together the rules from trial and error. I’m still not completely clear how every ability or character class works. I don’t know if the earlier games do more to explain what is going on, but I felt like I was thrown in the pool at the deep end without a lifejacket. 

This feeling extended outside of combat too. Between battles and dialogue events, your party is wandering across a barren wasteland. As it turns out, you need to gather supplies to feed your growing armies. This isn’t explained - they just assume you knew this already. I don’t mean to complain too much. I was able to figure pretty much everything out. Still, it is worth mentioning. This is not a game that is intended to bring in new players. If you’re curious, start with the first game instead.

The combat is reasonably satisfying, but eventually got a little stale as the game went on. There is not a huge variety of enemies, and most maps have the same basic layout. Eventually, every battle feels about the same. The game is tough, but this is mainly because a reasonable portion of the cast is too weak to do much. Instead, I felt like I relied on a small portion of the characters - mainly my Varl - to win battles. 

My dissatisfaction with the combat was unfortunate, since the writing and the visuals - my god, the visuals - are so good. This game is gorgeous. The textures and art are hand-drawn, and the general style of the game is incredible. Each character is distinct and memorable. The locations you wander through are bleak, but stunning. This game looks fantastic. As it is mostly two-dimensional, it also performs well on the Switch, with no real technical issues observed during my time with the game. 

Ultimately, Banner Saga 3 was a gorgeous, well-written game that I didn’t love actually playing. The combat isn’t bad, but it didn’t suck me in enough to go back and replay the first two games immediately. It also is not a game that is particularly welcoming to new players. If you’re curious, I’d recommend going back and trying the first game instead - see if this viking-inspired apocalyptic saga grabs you. At some point, I might have to go back and give it another try from the beginning.

A copy of the game was provided by the developer, Stoic, for this review.

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