Banner Saga 2

There are different ways of doing a series of games. Many titles try to massiv3ly improve on their previous games, therefor the older one will look dated once you return. Many do try to do something very different in style, leaving some of the fans of the previous parts unconnected to the new installation. Other titles were simply never planned with the idea in mind to ever be continued, neither story- nor gameplaywise. Well, you might have guess it, Banner Saga II is something completely different then the things I previously mentioned. Banner Saga II is the direct successor to Banner Saga in the most positive way of "more of the same" that you could imagine. It´s like Banner Saga wouldn´t ended, little to zero cut between the games. There are no breaks. Sure, the landscape looks a bit different. Sure, the LevelingSystem is now optimized on higher levels. Sure, the focus of the plot changes a little bit. Sure, you have more variety in units. But that´s just like it would have been when Banner Saga would have targeted to be twice as long. This makes a personal rating of Banner Saga II incredible easy. If you disliked the first part, you´ll dislike this one. But there is only one way to dislike Banner Saga I I´ve ever heard of: Not understanding or accepting the general concept of the game. Beeing so committed to a setting and an atmosphere that it´s presenting you barely predictable decisions which cause you to feel like you´ve nearly never chosen right is some hard stuff---and if you don´t get it, you won´t like Banner Saga. Although I´ve got to say, that "unpredictable" deaths of groupmembers aren´t as common as in the first one, you will still not like Banner Saga II. Everybody else will like it just like the first installation . Therefore, I grant the game five stars. But I´ve got a warning: Most shouldn´t buy this EDITION of the game, as the Edition containing the soundtrack is just 15% more expensive!

Unlike others on the thread, I didn't find the continuation of the Saga effective. The storytelling from before continued, yes, but the combat encounters now felt like they were strung together with "Now, you must fight your former allies/friends/etc!" Things like... I got the sense that certain characters stayed around just to keep their art assets from going to waste. The new characters and enemies in the game are, overall, less well drawn and less well animated. And where before, I felt like the Banner Saga, pt I, had a slightly too bare system that still allowed for interesting tactical decisions, pt II hasn't added much with the new classes. There's also not much difference ~between~ the classes at higher levels, and the added complexity is weighed down by the clunky UI. This is all to say—Banner Saga, pt I, is still good. Banner Saga, pt II, however felt like more like it just stretched the old ideas out, rather than adding new interesting material.

I loved the first episode, so I was a bit quick buying the second one : I'm running on Linux Mint (~Ubuntu) and realised afterward there's no linux version. So I gave a shot to Windows version using my default wine 1.6.2 : double click on installer and let's see what happen. There was an error message at the end of the installation, but otherwise it works, I could import my BS1 saves, I'm day ~60 and everything is running fine. I won't say much about the game itself : i t's as good as the first one, and the experience keep becoming better and better while the story unfold and the consequences of your choices cashes... or crashes in...

Banner Saga 2 is not bad at all. It stands pretty much as good as Banner Saga 1 did. But that's the problem. Lack of innovation and too long of a development cycle between the parts. Even beautiful graphics, gorgeous music and great story couldn't keep me from snoozing closer to the end. Although the game wasn't bad at all, I'm not sure I'll wait for Part 3.