Feature: The Banner Saga

THE BANNER SAGA REVIEW

After more than four years since its initial release on PC and two years since it’s release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, The Banner Saga, an epic Norse adventure, has been released on the Nintendo Switch. This comes just in time for the release of the third and final game of the trilogy in July.

game” and was funded through Kickstarter.

Being new to the game it admittedly was a little difficult to pick up at first. As from the moment you turn it on you are dropped into the sprawling world and given choices that could have a huge impact down the line. Maybe. It’s impossible to know what In my opinion, this was a brilliant decision, the your choices might affect and that for me was the Switch is the perfect platform to play this game on, best part and the worst. It was nerve-wracking especially when playing handheld. It looked excellent having to make all these decisions with no idea what and played just as well. Obviously, it’s creators must I was doing. Should I let all survivors into my group? agree as each game in the trilogy is set to be on the Should I charge or create formations in battle? Did switch. that one choice I made about how to get inside the gate change my whole game?! Or was it that The Banner Saga’s creators are a development decision to side with the two brothers, Hogun and company called Stoic which was founded in 2011 Mogun? There’s no way to know. Unless I play it by three ex-Bioware developers. It was their “dream again, which honestly, I definitely will.

This learning curve made it difficult to appreciate the game at first but once I got over it, I was blown away. The art style was beautiful and captivating, the music provided the perfect ambiance. I found that it didn’t take too long before I started to care about the main characters, Hakon and Rook and I wanted them to be good leaders which meant I needed to make good decision.

You begin with a prologue and the character Ubin, this is a tutorial in all but name and allows you to get to know the game without making gamealtering decisions. Kind of. Your decisions with Ubin can affect the relationships and choices of another character Eirik later in the game but that as far as I know is the only impact. The tutorial to me wasn’t clear enough and should have been a bit more indepth. Despite going over combat it took me quite a few chapters before I really understood what I was doing. Also knowing when to rest/use up your resources and promote your heroes can be tricky as you never know how long it will be until you get an opportunity to do it again.

After the tutorial, you are sent across the map to Rook and his daughter Alette where you will face your first Dredge. Dredge are an ancient race with yellow eyes, supposedly made of stone, that have recently started to reappear in the world. They are the main antagonists of the game and you’ll face their armies in battle many times.

Battle in the game has a turn-based combat system not dissimilar to X-COM: Enemy Unknown.

It takes planning and real thought to come out victorious. The use of special abilities, powered by willpower, makes it all the more interesting and I’d highly recommend not forgetting about the horn which provides extra willpower like I kept doing.

Also picking what order your heroes are in is

something I suggest you actually take time to think about, I didn’t at first but once I did I noticed the battles became far more interesting because I had a strategy, however minimal it was. That being said battle could become quite tedious at times as it really is just doing the same thing over and over for different reasons. Which is why it was so important that the characters and their story were done well and thankfully they were.

Once you’ve finished the second chapter with Rook and Alette you move cross the map again to play as Hakon, who you meet when playing as Ubin. He is the leader of the caravan and a strong varl, which is a horned, long living race. Moving from town to town, he and his army fight dredge after dredge in the pursuit of refuge. Which may give you an idea of how bleak the world and situation can feel.

Despite the bleakness, overall the story is enthralling, and the battle gameplay is fun and well thought out. There were shocking losses and frustrating moments, especially at first but it’s a fun game and I’d highly recommend picking it up and giving it a play.

By Emily Langford

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