INTRO:
In the many years of video game history, Nordic legends have rarely deviated from the formulae of having Vikings with horned helmets (themselves an historic inaccuracy) devoted to Norse gods, fighting and pillaging in the latter’s name. There were rare few video games that veer from such an incredulous but otherwise entertaining representation.
The Banner Saga is one such video game. Although it does have the same yarn of violent conflict that pervades the Nordic legends, it spins a demure tale while coupling it together with an uncompromisingly harsh system of combat.
PREMISE:
The setting is noticeably Nordic. However, instead of using the usual cookie-cutter of Norsemen and Old Norse gods, The Banner Saga uses names and legends that are closer to the renditions by far northern European cultures. (This is despite the fact that the developers, Stoic Studio, are former employees of BioWare and are based in Texas, USA.)
Anyway, the game is set in a continent with harsh weather. Animals in this continent are tough and hardy, and so are the sapient folk who populate and exploit it. The continent is in turn bounded by near impenetrable terrain and stormy seas, making travel beyond it impossible. Indubitably, such conditions make necessary resources scarce, and scarcity leads to conflict and hence wars.
That said, the continent’s sapient peoples are said to have been made by the gods. Firstly, there are the giants, the Varls. They are long-lived, but they are only ever “made” and could never breed. The youngest of them are still centuries-old, and there have not been any more since. They compensate by being particularly strong, tough and skilled in metalworking, stonemasonry and husbandry of similarly big and tough animals.
Next, there are the humans, the earliest sapient folk to be made. They can breed, but are practically out of place in the continent. Outside of the communities of caravans and settlements, humans are not likely to survive the dangerous wilds.
There are also other sapient folk, though they will not be in the spotlight until later.
Such differences between the sapient folks readily led to conflict. The equine folk retreated to the south (after killing all horses that they could find), whereas the Varls and humans warred against each other until rivers literally ran red.
However, at the height of their wars, the gods made the Dredge – sapient stone-people who appear to be inherently hostile to any other sapients. The Dredge unwittingly stopped the wars between the varls and the humans, who then banded together to drive the Dredge north.
For several decades, it would appear that the varls and humans have come to an uneasy peace. The varls settled the mountainous north of the continent, which they find more to their liking, whereas the humans settled south. Diplomatic traditions were established, but the peace did not mature into harmony. Moreover, the humans would be warring among themselves for scarce resources, as the prologue would show.
However, a looming crisis – practically the end of the world as they know it – would give everyone new things to worry about.
GAMEPLAY – OVERVIEW:
The Banner Saga came out during a time when story-telling was considered a major concern in video games, especially because the preceding years had big-name games with laughable story-telling, even when they are trying to be serious. For better or worse, story-telling became a more significant component of the experience offered by indie games, including being incorporated into the gameplay.
The Banner Saga is one such game. The player characters that the player would be using are very much involved in the story. Turning points in the story can render them unusable – or outright dead. The player’s decisions determine most of the outcomes, though the consequences of these decisions are not always strongly emphasized.
As for the actual minute-by-minute gameplay, the player watches over a caravan of people as they travel from one location to another, usually in order to reach safety or to reach someplace where they can do something. Along the way, the player has to manage their numbers, supplies and morale, in order to keep the caravan together. This will be familiar to players that have played games that are inspired by the classic Oregon Trail.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is the combat. It is unforgiving about mistakes, because it is designed such that every character is ultimately on a one-way trip to a knock-out.
GAME-SAVES:
The player does not get to make game-saves anytime that he/she wants. Rather, all of the entries in the series only make game-saves at specific points in the progression of their stories. These are for the sake of players who want to replay the campaigns from those specific points.
The player does get one auto-save, which is updated whenever the player’s caravan makes camp (more on this later), or otherwise loads the camping screen. However, this is the only control that the player has over the auto-save.
PLAYER’S DECISIONS IN PROGRESSION OF STORY:
Having played the game, I have observed that most major decisions are preceded by characters implying that these are not to be taken lightly. The characters also make remarks about the possible consequences. The most notable example is the scene just before the finale of the story in this game (which is the first entry of three instalments), where one of the main protagonists will mention that a certain very powerful enemy will be very cross upon having an esoteric weapon used on him.
These decisions mostly determine who ends up dead. Indeed, the consequences of bad decisions usually lead to such outcomes. Having dead characters mean less units to field during combat; this is something that would be a bit familiar to players that have had experiences with Fire Emblem and other Shouzou Kaga titles. (The deaths are caused by merely selecting one of several options, however, instead of tactical blunders on the player’s part.)
A MOST UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE:
Unfortunately, not every important decision comes with noticeable warnings. There is one moment in the game where the protagonists encounter a certain character that would come across as empathetic to their plight. Indeed, if the player accepts his help, the player’s caravan would be bolstered substantially. The consequence of this decision only comes much later, when this character betrays the protagonists in an attempt at mutiny.
There are very few noticeable warning signs about this, at least to the new player. Prior to the encounter, one of the protagonists is warned by a seemingly mad person (who is a pre-order bonus character) not to trust people who look like this person.
During the encounter with this person, there is the use of impatiently-worded sentences for the option to refuse his help. This sentence even includes asking another character to knock out this would-be betrayer. The reason for the uncharacteristic appearance of this option only becomes clear later in hindsight, after the aghast player reloads earlier game-saves in an attempt to prevent the disaster caused by this person.
CARAVAN:
With the major decisions in playthrough progressions having been described, the more technical parts of the gameplay would be elaborated.
Firstly, there is the caravan. In the narrative, the caravan contains families (human families, that is), specifically the families of the “fighters” in the caravan. This gaggle of otherwise defenceless loved ones and friends – collectively called “clansmen” – are the raison d'être of the combat-capable members of the caravan.
Gameplay-wise, the caravan can seem bothersome and unrewarding to a jaded player that is only concerned about pragmatic achievements. The number of clansmen always tend to be higher than the number of combat-capable members, and there does not appear to be any major setback from having them killed, other than significant morale drops.
The gameplay-related consequence of keeping many clansmen alive, or having many of them inadvertently killed or lost, only becomes apparent in the third and final entry of the series. Until then, the clansmen are a burden – something that the more hard-hearted characters would point out. Indeed, in this first entry of the series, they are just a bothersome number.
FIGHTERS AND VARLS:
There are two types of combatants in the caravan. Firstly, there are the varls, who are all readily combat-capable and who count for a lot more than the other type. Secondly, there are the human fighters. In the first entry, they make up the bulk of the caravan’s army, and consequently take the brunt of the losses.
Aside from the outcomes of battles, there are occasions in which the numbers of these combatants can change. For example, the varls are more readily predisposed towards their own kin and creed than those of humans; some may leave together with certain playable varl characters in order to achieve something. The player does have some means of influencing the changes, but the changes are very much inevitable.
Anyway, the combatants in the caravan determine how difficult the actual battles that the player oversees would be. If there are more enemies than there are combatants, the battles that the player would fight are noticeably more difficult, e.g. having higher-grade and more numerous enemies. The consequences of having the caravan’s army being outnumbered can compound onto each other, so it is in the player’s interest to have ample fighters and varls.
Ultimately though, the fighters and varls are just numbers in the gameplay. They are not player characters, they do not have progression systems and there are no customization options for them.
SUPPLIES & CONSUMPTION:
The caravan marches on their stomachs. The combatants also need materials to maintain their armor and weapons. Consequently, there is the gameplay element of “supplies”, which represent the food and gear that the caravan needs in order to survive. Generally, having more of these is better; there does not appear to be any detriment to having a lot of supplies – as rare as this occurrence is.
As for the consumption rate of the supplies, the caravan consumes 1 unit of supplies for each 100 persons on each day. Therefore, larger caravans have greater supply concerns.
For better or worse, the exact amount of supplies that the caravan has is not shown to the player directly. Instead, the game displays the supplies remaining as the number of days that the caravan has left before it runs out of supplies.
GETTING SUPPLIES FROM EVENTS:
The player can find supplies through certain events that can happen while the caravan is travelling. More often than not, the caravan would be getting supplies from people that they meet along the way; the actual method of acquiring them, however, can vary according to the player’s decisions. These methods can include outright banditry. By the way, there will be more elaboration on the aforementioned events later.
LOSING SUPPLIES FROM EVENTS:
Unfortunately, some of those events can cause the caravan to lose supplies. More often than not, this happens due to theft. Even in the end-times, there will still be people preying on each other.
Still, the main cause of loss of supplies is the passing of days. Therefore, the player should be wary about tarrying on the journey. Besides, the player could just refer to a guide for those events; this suggestion would be elaborated further later.
BUYING SUPPLIES:
There is no clear currency of any kind. Money is likely not to matter much when cities are being destroyed and the countryside cracked open.
However, the peoples on the continent have always been insular, no thanks to the hardships that they face every day prior to even the end-times. Therefore, the peoples and merchants that the caravan come across take considerable persuasion to give up whatever goods that they have.
For this purpose, there is the resource that is “Renown”, which will be described further later. However, it will be said for now that Renown is the currency-equivalent that is used to purchase supplies from markets that the caravan comes across. Renown is used for other things too, so the player has to balance between spending Renown on getting supplies and those other things.
The exchange rates can vary from market to market; the rates are already pre-determined by the developers. That said, there are no known ways to sell anything in return for Renown.
RENOWN:
Renown is the other number that the player has to keep track of. This is earned whenever the protagonists perform impressive feats, the most common being victorious in fights, even if the overall battle (and the war) is a losing one. Renown can also be accumulated through certain decisions in events. (Again, there will be more on events later.)
Renown is never lost, at least not lost in ways other than spending it. As for what it is spent on, there are supplies that can be somehow acquired from merchants. The same merchants also offer relics that give player characters an edge in battle, but do not do anything for the caravan. Renown can also be spent on powering-up characters.
Whatever the expenditure, the player should keep this in mind: there are no refunds. There will be more elaboration on the things that can be bought with Renown later.
EVENTS ON THE JOURNEY:
As mentioned earlier, events will happen during the journey of the caravan. These events often come together with decisions that the player has to make in order to resolve the events. There is usually at least one decision that lets the caravan ignore or bypass the occasion that caused the event, but more often than not, the player has to take a decision that affects the caravan.
The decisions do not always come with foreshadowing or warnings about what would happen to the caravan. Indeed, the game can seem unpleasant in moments where the player makes a decision that seems wise, only to be punished for doing so.
The cause-and-effect of these decisions is only clear in hindsight. For example, having the protagonist consult others during an urgent situation that requires prompt action would just result in disaster.
The map of the continent also happens to be a guide in such situations. This can seem like a surprise, because the map does give the impression that it is just there for the sake of canonical lore. These events tend to occur at locales that do appear on the map. If the map’s lore mentions that the village that the caravan has arrived at are known for being unfriendly to outsiders, the end-times would likely make their disposition worse.
That said, the decisions have been designed by the developers to have fixed outcomes; there are no RNGs involved, which is fortunate. Therefore, the player could just refer to a game-guide, especially these many years after the debut of the game.
CAMPING:
When the caravan is travelling through the country and is not in danger, the player can have them “camp” at any time. In actuality, camping is by default a way for the player to take stock of Renown and his/her player characters; there is no penalty to stopping to camp incessantly. In fact, camping triggers the update of the auto-save.
Camping is the first step towards getting the caravan to rest and thus regain morale. There will be more on morale shortly.
CARAVAN MORALE:
Being composed of living people with feelings and sentiments, the caravan understandably has a measure of morale that the player would want to track. There are several levels of morale: “excellent”, “great”, “neutral”, “poor” and “bad”. In the narrative, everyone in the caravan has trepidation about what would happen next, so these words are really only there for gameplay purposes.
That said, the level of morale determines how much of a bonus edge that the player can have in battle right from the start; there will be more elaboration on this later. The caravan’s morale also determines how many losses that they take from battles.
MAINTAINING MORALE:
Generally, higher morale is better. However, maintenance of morale is not so easy. As mentioned earlier, everyone in the caravan is wary of what comes next, and walking on foot is tiring; this is implemented in the gameplay as a guaranteed daily decline in morale. Certain events can also reduce morale, if the player picked poorly. There are also certain events that are guaranteed to cause morale losses.
The player does have a readily available means of raising morale. This is having the caravan rest while camping. Resting automatically advances the day tracker by one day. The number of days accumulated does not matter – at least not in this entry of the series – but supplies will be consumed anyway. Therefore, the player will not want to spend too many days on morale upkeep.
COMBAT - OVERVIEW:
The game mechanisms that have been described thus far are quite simple. As mentioned already, any player that has experience in Oregon Trail gameplay would find the management of the caravan to be simple (and especially easy, if the player has a cheat-sheet of the events available). Therefore, combat makes up most of the complexity in the gameplay.
It should be emphasized here that combat has characters on a one-way trip to a knock-out. The dredge does have some means of healing or reviving their own kind, but even these are not without setbacks. Therefore, the player will have to make certain that only members of his/her own side are standing at the end.
There are three particular statistics that the player can see from every unit, including those on the opposing side. These are “strength”, “armor” and “willpower”; these will be described further later.
Each aspect of combat is substantial enough to have to be explained in its own section. As foreword, the word “characters”, “combatants” and “units” would be used interchangeably to refer to the participants in the fights.
CONFIRMATION CHECKS:
Accidental clicks are a frequent lamentation from players about turn-based tactical games. The developers are aware of this, and have implemented confirmation checks for just about every action that a unit can make. Players have only themselves to blame if they made moves that they did not want to; that said, absent-mindedness is punished severely.
STRENGTH:
Strength is the main reason that combat has units indubitably being killed or otherwise incapacitated.
Strength is both the health and damage output of any unit; this is emphasized across all entries in the series, including the first. Therefore, the typical video game trope of “critical existence failure” is not apparent here. To elaborate, this means that as a unit takes damage, it actually gets weaker and less able to harm enemies. Therefore, it is in the player’s interest to minimize damage to the strength of his/her own units.
As mentioned earlier, the Dredge do have means of restoring the strength of their own. However, this comes at the cost of their armor reserves – something that they cannot replenish in any way (at least in this entry of the series).
ARMOR:
Units having only Strength would make combat terribly simple, e.g. down to just who gets to hit who first. Therefore, there is the mechanism of Armor, which serves to restrict the damage that can be inflicted on a target. The damage reduction is on a one-to-one basis.
Every combatant has armor, even those who seem to be wearing mere cloth and leather straps. Furthermore, the amount of armor that even the most lightly equipped characters would be enough to prevent one-hit kills from all but the most powerful opponents.
In the case of the Dredge, their armor is certainly on a one-way trip to zero. However, the player has access to “menders” like Eyvind; in-universe, menders can repair equipment rather readily. Their Mend spell can restore some armor; more often than not, this is enough to discourage the opponent from attempting further attacks on player characters that they have attacked earlier.
ARMOR BREAK:
Armor can be reduced. The main means of doing so is having a unit perform an attack that is directed against the defender’s armor instead of strength. This attack uses the unit’s armor break rating instead of strength. Armor break remains constant throughout any battle, so even units that are already weakened can still do something before they are knocked out.
CHANCE-TO-HIT:
For better or worse, there are chance-to-hit rolls in this game. However, in the case of this entry of the series, they only come into effect when an attacker’s strength is below that of the defender’s armor. Every point of surplus armor imposes a cumulative 10% penalty to chance-to-hit, which is 100% by default. Therefore, it might be prudent to reduce an opposing unit’s armor before attempting to harm its strength.
However, it should be noted here that even if the defender has more armor than an attacker’s strength, the minimum damage that can be dealt is still one, plus any point of “willpower” that the attacker spends on increasing the output of the attack.
WILLPOWER:
Speaking of willpower, this is the “energy” of a unit, to utilize a term that has been around in video games for a while. This is not essential to survival, but it should be expended in order to improve a unit’s performance. Willpower can be spent on a few things, including the use of special abilities, extra movement, or extra damage output. These will be described in their own sections.
Every unit begins with willpower equal to their base level of it, at the minimum. In the case of the player’s own units, they may have more, if caravan morale is higher than neutral. Conversely, if caravan morale is lower than neutral, their initial Willpower is lower than their base level.
If the player’s units have any surplus willpower at the start of battle, then this is the only surplus that they will ever get. If they spend willpower to below its base level and regain willpower later, they can only regain it up to their base level.
WILLPOWER EXPENDITURE LIMIT:
To prevent units with very high willpower reserves from spending a lot of willpower at once, there is a limit on the expenditure of willpower for any action (with the exception of the use of special abilities). Generally, humans have higher limits, in order to keep them competitive with varls.
RESTING:
In lieu of having a unit do anything, the player can have a unit rest instead. This lets the unit regain one point of willpower, as well as any other benefit that it might get from its special abilities or other sources. Resting in battle is of course risky; the unit must stay in place and do absolutely nothing else.
EXTRA DAMAGE OUTPUT:
Willpower can be spent on increasing the damage output of attacks, be it attacks on armor or strength. In the case of the latter, this does not increase the apparent strength of the attacker relative to the defender’s armor, i.e. expending willpower this way will not circumvent the chance-to-hit mechanism that has been mentioned earlier.
MOVEMENT:
Of all the gameplay elements in combat, movement is perhaps the most important. Movement determines whether a unit can come to grips with the enemy or have the enemy come into range, and conversely, whether it would get into range of the enemy’s attacks. Movement can also determine whether a unit can get behind obstacles that prevent enemies from reaching it, or let enemies go around the front-liners to hit the squishy support members.
Every unit has a base movement range; this stays constant throughout a battle, unless there are conditions or de-buffs that affect it (which are rare in the first entry of the series). Generally, more lightly equipped units, like archers, can move further than those with heavier equipment, though of this means that they run the risk of being over-extended.
A unit can have its willpower expended in order to move further; every point of willpower is exchanged for one more tile, in the case of small characters. In the case of large ones, every point of willpower counts for two more tiles. To prevent ambiguity, the game does show the extent to which any unit can move, including the effects expended willpower.
LARGE UNITS:
Large combatants like varls and large Dredge take up four tiles instead of just one. This also affects their freedom of movement; any path that they take must be two tiles wide, or it cannot happen.
This is important to keep in mind, especially when fighting against the Dredge. Preventing the large (and often hard-hitting) Dredge from coming to grips can be key to keeping units alive.
CHOOSING PATHS OF MOVEMENT:
A frequent complaint about tactical turn-based games is that the pathfinding scripts for units are often automatically decided for them, without the player having any control. If the game has tiles with hazards or buffs, the frustration over this lack of control is compounded further.
The developers of The Banner Saga are aware of this. Therefore, the player is given the option of choosing the path of a unit through a series of clicks, other than clicks on the confirmation checks. Every click also updates the locations that the unit can reach.
If there is a problem with this feature, it is that the visual assets for the confirmation checks may obscure tiles that the player wants units to move onto.
TAKING AN ACTION AFTER MOVING:
After moving, a unit can take an action, with the exception of resting and moving some more.
Usually, taking action after moving is for the purpose of making attacks; conveniently, the game will highlight which enemies are within the unit’s attack range after a would-be move. The highlights also show the amounts of possible Strength damage that can be inflicted. However, the game will not show which enemies are within the reach of special abilities; the developers could not reach this level of complexity in the coding.
ALTERNATING TURNS:
A problem in turn-based games is that the side with more units always has the advantage of overwhelming the other side by having the initiative more often than not. This happens whenever either of the usual turn-taking systems are used: the team-by-team sort, or the initiative step kind.
To allay this problem, the game has a hybrid system of alternating turns and initiative steps.
Firstly, the player decides on the initiative steps of his/her own units. This is completely in the player’s control, because units do not have any statistic that governs initiative steps.
Then, the sequence that the player uses is combined with that of the enemy’s in alternating patterns. As an elaborative example, the player almost always gets the first turn, with the first unit in the player’s chosen sequence. This is then followed by the enemy’s turn, with the first unit in its own sequence.
This continues until the end of either side’s sequence is reached. When this happens, the other side will take its turn with the next unit in its sequence. Afterwards, the side whose end of sequence is reached earlier will have its sequence restarted, i.e. it gets to use the first unit in its sequence again, if it is still around.
This means that the side with fewer units (usually the player’s) gets to use its own units more frequently than the other side, relatively speaking. This also means that as one side takes more casualties, its remaining units get to move more frequently.
TURN SEQUENCES:
The player is always shown the sequence of turns, albeit only about a dozen turns ahead. This sequence is changed whenever casualties happen, or special abilities that alter sequences (such as Forge Ahead) are used. Either case alters the sequences permanently.
In the former case, the next unit in the sequence takes the place of those that have become casualties. In the latter case, their places are exchanged; nobody gets an extra turn (at least not until the second entry, when units that can have extra turns are introduced).
DOWN IS DOWN:
In the first entry of the series, a downed unit is downed for good. There are no special abilities that can revive downed units. Furthermore, there are no units that can somehow effect something when they are taken down. There are also no units that can take advantage of other downed units.
KILL COUNTS:
For better or worse, the progression system for units is determined by the number of kills that they have accumulated. This also applies in the case of units that are not meant for toe-to-toe combat, like Eyvind the Mender.
There are thresholds in the kill counts that determine when they can be “promoted” with the expenditure of Renown. The actual kill counts can go well beyond the thresholds, so units that are already eligible for promotion can continue to rack up kills. However, it is in the player’s interest to avoid having specific units hoard kills, because there are many occasions throughout the series that cause the player to lose units or divvy them into separate caravans.
The thresholds in the first entry are notably higher than those in subsequent entries. This means that units in the first entry that have high kill counts at the end can achieve greater levels immediately in the beginning in the second entry. There are of course some caveats that will be described in the review of the second entry.
PILLAGE MODE:
To address the issue of support-oriented units not getting enough kills to be promoted, there is the Pillage mode. Pillage mode can trigger during battle, specifically just before the onset of victory. The condition for triggering it is that the player has more than one unit remaining, whereas the opposing side has only just one.
Pillage mode disables the mechanism of alternating turns. Instead, all of the player’s units can move before that last enemy unit. This allows the player to set up the last kill for the unit that needs it most.
However, it should be mentioned here that when the second last enemy unit is killed – thus triggering Pillage mode – the last enemy unit gets to move before the player can make use of the mode. Therefore, the player might want to consider whom the last enemy unit can harm before it is knocked out.
PROMOTIONS:
Promotions are the main means of increasing the power levels of units. However, units can only have four promotions, up to rank 5 in the first entry of the series.
Each promotion requires expenditure of renown. Typically, each subsequent promotion costs more than the previous ones. Indeed, the promotion costs in the first entry are perhaps the steepest, level to level, compared to the other entries. Interestingly, the subsequent entries will rationalize, recalculate and refund renown points; this will be described in the review articles for those entries.
Anyway, each promotion grants two points that can be invested into any of the statistics for a unit. The first entry in the series only gives such a method for spending these points.
LIMITS TO STATISTICS:
Every unit has limits to its statistics; the statistics cannot be improved beyond these. This is in order to maintain parity between units of different races and professions. For example, any maxed-out humans will still have higher willpower expenditure limits than any varl.
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
Although some battles can be won with just deft placement and appropriately executed attacks, the use of special abilities make battles more efficient and/or interesting.
Not every unit has special abilities. There are generic units that have none whatsoever, such as unnamed Archers and Footsoldiers. Dredge grunts also have next to none, other than the traits granted by their species.
There are two types of special abilities: “actives” and “passives”. As to be expected of such video game terms, actives require input from the player, whereas passives automatically take effect if their conditions are met. As a unit gains ranks, its special abilities are automatically upgraded.
PASSIVES:
Passives are usually imparted by either the unit’s race or their profession, or a combination of both. For example, Varl Strongarms automatically damage any enemies that are adjacent to their targets.
In the case of the Dredge, they have a passive that is detrimental to them: “Splinter”. This causes a domino effect on consecutively adjacent Dredge units that reduces their armor by one point, whenever any Dredge unit in the bunch loses armor for any reason. Indeed, this will be the mains of dealing with large numbers of Dredge, as Krumgr the grizzled Varl would recommend.
Passives rarely improve as the unit gains ranks, but there are some that do. It is not easy to know how they are improved though, because the promotion process does not show details of the improvements when it is enacted.
ACTIVES:
Actives are the means through which the player achieves efficient outcomes in battles.
In the first entry of the series, many of the actives that the player’s units have are either intended to displace enemies, or damage their strength directly. Indeed, most actives that inflict Strength damage can inflict at least one point of it, regardless of how much armor that the target has.
That said, most actives that involve physical harm will be mitigated by armor. Actives that involve magic or the elements, such as Eyvind’s lightning and Yrsa’s pitch-fire, ignore armor. Keeping these differences is important, because they can reduce the damage that incoming enemies can inflict. Besides, the game will not show the amount of damage that actives can inflict.
Active abilities are not used at their highest rank by default. That said, actives always consume at least one point of Willpower when used, and this is to use them at their basic rank. Having more willpower spent allows the unit to use the greater ranks of its actives, typically for greater effect as will be described and shown to the player. For example, the Tempest ability that varl swordsmen have will highlight which units would be struck if the ability is to be used.
Most actives let the player choose the ranks at which they are used. However, some do not. For example, the Eagle Eye ability – which lets Marksman-type archers increase their range – will automatically spend that much willpower depending on the additional range that is desired.
ONLY SIX CHARACTERS & ENEMY REINFORCEMENTS:
The player can only have up to six usable units in any battle. The opposing side tend to number just as many, often more.
Therefore, the player will have to be particularly efficient in battles. That said, this might not be too difficult for wily players, due to certain laughable flaws in the decision-making scripts of the CPU-controlled opposition, which will be described later.
INJURIES:
As long as a character is still standing at the end of a battle, he/she would still be up and around for the next battle, regardless of how long that he/she has fought and how much punishment that he/she has soaked in the previous battle. In the next battle, he/she is fully restored with no lasting harm.
STARTING AREAS:
The opposing sides have their units start in areas that have been designated as their “deployment zones”, to use a term from table-top games involving tactical battles. The CPU-controlled opponent already has set its units, so the player has the advantage of being able to set his/her own to exploit that.
In some battles, the extent and locations of the deployment zones depend on the player’s choices prior to the start of combat. Some combinations of zones can be troublesome for the player, such as one where four-tile squares are all that the player have.
Generally, the player might want to have starting locations that put as much distance from enemies as possible. This makes it likely that the enemy has to engage the player’s units piece-meal, or spend precious turns trying to maintain coherency in their approach.
ENEMIES – OVERVIEW:
The end-times may be coming, but the peoples of the continent are still prone to fighting each other no thanks to their harsh lives. Therefore, the player should expect enemies to be accosting the caravan almost all the way.
By far, the most common enemies are the Dredge. They have to walk about like other people, but they seem to be everywhere. The later entries in the series would reveal the means through which they get to anywhere they want to. Other than Dredge, the player would be fighting off human bandits, and wayward varls. The latter occur far less, because varls generally keep to their own in the narrative.
Therefore, the player should expect to be fighting enemies that have different capabilities. However, there are similarities between them, mainly due to the fact that they are controlled by the CPU according to the decision-making scripts that the developers have made for them.
Each defeated enemy grants a bit of Renown. Sometimes, victory in a battle also grants Renown. Generally though, the first entry in the series is very sparing (or stingy) with Renown granted through battles.
If the outcome of a combat encounter is followed by continuation of the caravan’s journey, the game updates the auto-save for the playthrough.
DUMB CPU-CONTROLLED ENEMIES:
Making CPU-controlled opponents that are wise and cunning is very hard, perhaps next to impossible. Thus, most game-makers – especially if they are not well-versed in matters of artificial intelligence – go for other means of presenting challenge instead, such as having great numbers of enemies and/or powerful enemies that can overmatch player characters one-on-one. This is the case for the Dredge in The Banner Saga.
Unfortunately, this does not do much for their bad decision-making. The Dredge, in particular, often set themselves up for exploitation of their detrimental Splinter passive. Enemies can also be tricked into moving onto hazards, such as Oddleif’s pre-fired arrows. The worst expressions of their bad decisions is when Stoneguard Dredges use their shield bash ability at sub-optimal locations.
SEEDED RNG ROLLS:
As mentioned earlier, there are RNG rolls for when the target’s armor is higher than the attacker’s strength. For better or worse, these are enacted through seeded rolls, i.e. their outcome is determined through RNG rolls that have been generated already, meaning that repeating a scenario in the same ways still results in the same outcome.
To force a re-generation of the rolls, the player would have to update the auto-save of the playthrough, typically by having the caravan camp (again) before the upcoming battle. This will also change the composition of enemies and their starting spots in the upcoming battle too.
CONSECUTIVE BATTLES BUT NO GAME-SAVES:
There are some scenarios where battles happen one after another with no respite in between, at least in the narrative. Gameplay-wise, the player’s available units are fully restored in between these, but only if the player gets to change their initiative steps.
However, the game will not update the player’s save due to the limitation on updating the auto-save as mentioned much earlier in this review. Therefore, the player will have to be particularly wary of these consecutive battles, especially on which character to spend Renown on.
LOW RENOWN GAINS FROM BATTLES IN FIRST ENTRY:
The first entry in the series has relatively low renown gains from battles, as mentioned earlier. More often than not, the most Renown that the player would get from battles are the Renown from taking down enemies.
Indeed, it is unlikely that the player would have six or more level 5 units by the final battle, unless the player has been favouring specific characters. Favouring specific characters is not likely to end well for the player, because of the prospect of losing characters permanently.
RELICS:
The last, and perhaps least of the gameplay elements, are the relics. Each of the player’s units can have one, but only ever just one, of the relics. This is so, even if it seems like they can have more. (The relics tend to be small baubles or knick-knacks.)
Relics can be obtained through picking certain decisions during certain occasions. The most notable of these are when the caravan has found any of the Godstones, which are edifices that venerate the now-silent gods. If the player honours the gods’ creeds, the protagonists would somehow find relics that are associated with those gods.
These relics generally impart benefits to whoever bears them. Some benefits may be potent but specific, such as a relic that increases armor break ratings. There are generalist benefits, but the generalist ones tend to have small effects.
Even if a relic is particularly potent, there is another limitation to the use of relics: their level restriction. Each relic has a level requirement; their bearer has to be of the same rank, or the relic cannot be borne. There is no narrative reason for this.
Relics can be bought from merchants, but never sold. Therefore, the number of Relics that the player would have would just accumulate. Considering that the player could ever field just six units, the Relics can seem under-utilized. (This issue is somewhat handled in the later entries, but not through ways that would seem like a straight improvement.)
VISUAL DESIGNS:
The visual designs are perhaps where the first Banner Saga’s shortfalls are most notable.
Before elaborating on those shortfalls, the artwork and the effort that went into it should be described first. The Banner Saga benefits from artwork that is crisp. Even in scenes where there are a lot of similar colours, there is still sufficient contrast to differentiate between on-screen objects and persons.
This is thanks to line-work that is invested in the designs of characters and objects. For example, the folds in the clothes of just about any character are noticeable. Indeed, almost every character is recognizable from a glance, perhaps with the exception of two twins, which had been made near-indistinguishable from each other (and not for the better).
Unfortunately, the small size of the development team makes its limitation known in the visuals of the game. There are more than a few characters who appear to have the same posture, thus suggesting secondary and tertiary visual assets have merely been swapped when designing these characters.
The most notable shortfalls are the lack of animations for many story-related moments, outside of actual animated cutscenes. For example, there is one scene in which the caravan reaches one of the outposts of Einartoft (a varl city). There are dozens of varls on-screen, some of them clearly doing physical labour. Yet, none of them are animated. Consequently, the brevity of these scenes would not impress so easily on the player.
ANIMATIONS FOR BANNERS AND CARAVANS:
At least the titular banners and the caravans that fly them are animated. The density and composition of sprites in the caravan do reflect the actual numerical composition of the caravan, e.g. if there are hundreds of varls in the caravan, there would be many varl sprites in the caravan.
Their silhouettes and colours do clash with the artwork of the landscape as they travel along. However, this does make them stand out, which is perhaps the intended effect.
Being the eponymous objects of the series, the banners become noticeably longer as the story progresses. There are narrative reasons for this, such as the banners being enchanted relics that grow longer as the stories of their bearers get longer.
COMBAT ANIMATIONS:
Most of the animations in the game are meant for the fights. Even so, they might not seem that impressive.
Firstly, if the fight occurs during a battle between the caravan’s army and the opposing side, the player is shown a scene of other people fighting – or at least they are in poses of fighting. In fact, most of the characters that the player can see outside of the battle-zone boundaries are sparsely animated, if at all.
As such, if the player is expecting visuals that show armies clashing with each other when the story are at moments when armies clash, the player would be disappointed. That said, at least individual units that are participating in the actual fight are well-animated when they take their turns.
When units go down, the player should not expect particularly gory or violent animations. The game is trying to go for wider audiences, so there are no graphic scenes. (There are nasty noises though.)
ANIMATED CUTSCENES:
There are some animated cutscenes, but these are far and few in between in the first entry of the series, and even in the later ones too. One would wonder why the developers bothered with these when they are so sparse. They are not really memorable to a jaded player either.
SOUND DESIGNS:
The game begins with some voice-overs, but in actuality, there is next to nothing throughout the first entry and even the entire series. Again, this is a reminder that the game has been made on a tight budget.
What voice-overs there are though are quite decently delivered, even though the Nordic accents are likely forced. (There is the fact that the game is made in the USA, despite the Nordic elements of the presentation.) Combat, of course, benefits from illegible utterances like screams and yells; it would be remiss of the game if it does not follow the usual conventions of games that have an onus on combat.
Although the developers could not supply sufficient voice-overs, they can supply plenty of sound effects, and satisfying ones too. The crunching of wooden and stone armor (which is mostly what the peoples of the continent have anyway) is gratifying to listen too, as are the hits on flesh. The clattering of gear as a combatant crumples to the ground is another entertaining example.
Next to the sound effects, the music is perhaps the other sound design that a player would remember the game for. Most of the soundtracks, where they have songs, are in Icelandic, perhaps the only extant language that is the closest to Old Norse. They are haunting, often melancholic melodies, which perhaps fit the setting of the game.
SUMMARY:
The Banner Saga is not the first game to emphasize scarcity and hard decisions in gameplay. However, it strikes a very tolerable balance between giving the player enough to forge onwards and being stingy enough to prevent an unscrupulous player from exploiting the gameplay mechanisms.
The Banner Saga is not the first game to have apocalyptic settings and Nordic themes either. However, instead of recycling the usual adaptations of Norse mythology in video games, the game paints a bleak tale of mortals coping with the actions and inactions of gods, as well as their own mortal follies. Of course, the story is far from finished, but what this first entry of the series has done does achieve its goal of presenting violent and tragic struggles, even to my jaded eyes.
Although the game does have a striking artstyle, its overall presentation is a reminder that the game has been made with a tight budget, despite its Kickstarter crowdfunding. There are a lot of still-art scenes and frozen poses that the player would see in the first entry, and in the later ones too.
Gameplay-wise, the Oregon Trail elements are not particularly entertaining. They are simple – perhaps too simple for players that have played games with more complex resource management.
The combat system is much more interesting than everything else in the game though. It also benefits from some wise design decisions, such as confirmation checks to mitigate accidental clicks. Although it still has problems like things obscuring the view of the battlefield, fights are engrossing and more importantly, they reward good planning.
Overall, The Banner Saga does very few new things in terms of gameplay. However, what new things there are, happen to provide an entertaining challenge. As for its story-telling, its tight budget hurt its presentation, but it is otherwise very well-written.