Posted on: February 7, 2014

DAWGaMims

Games: 26 Reviews: 2

Fight for your life

The game is pretty fun (lasted me 16 hours) and is gorgeous. The fighting is decent, but it lacks tactical punch. The problem with the combat is the lack of strategy - each character has their unique special ability, but I found myself seldom EVER using them. Part of this is due to their uselessness, part of this is due to their "obsolescence" (one attack, for example, is like "chain lightning" but it only works on enemies diagonal to each other - enemies are almost NEVER diagonal to each other. In fact, I never used this ability. And it's weaker than a regular attack). Still, what should attract you to the game is its bleak story. And the story is bleak. The world's ending and you're just trying to survive. By the end of the game, you'll be wondering if you'll actually see the end at all or if it will be game over . If it isn't the enemies that are killing them in battles, it's their slow starvation. And here is my biggest complaint of the game: the dialogue system. Put simply, it isn't clear what effect your choice will make. (NOT SPOILERISH) Say you find an orphaned girl. One of your options is "throw her in the back of a wagon." You think, "Golly! Of course I'd take her with me!" so you click on it, feeling golden hearted. Only to find out that you just eternally enslaved her. It can be very frustrating and given that the game has no save system (other than an autosave that continually saves the game at every "check point") you cannot correct your error.

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Posted on: January 16, 2015

Akalabeth

Verified owner

Games: 649 Reviews: 92

Quirky

Great artwork and animation, and a cool story but some of the gameplay elements and ways they represented certain actions didn't quite do it for me. The combat system (initiative) is a bit unintuitive but workable once you understand it, what is odd however is that- a hero can fall in battle and be okay, but outside of battle you can sometimes lose a hero in just a dialogue system. This is fine but in one campaign branch, the first few missions I repeatedly got my butt handed to me and was surprised my men had not perished. Most of the problems though are in the story-branch of the game. The problem is that sometimes the consequence of your choices are not obvious. Now if it's an unforseen consequence, no problem, but in one example I wanted to re-capture a town and at one point, I thought I was making a tactical choice that would draw the enemy out into the open where I could fight them more easily but in actuality that choice of mine had my army circumvent the town entirely- which is really frustrating when I've spent the last while trying to get to it. Then reloading, I had to re-do a fair portion of the game due to the way saving works. One over-arching story element too is the safeguarding of your refugee convoy, but by games end, some unfortunate decisions on my part meant that my convoy was basically all dead. And the game didn't seem to care. Didn't make much sense. The final battle also has some scripted elements which don't always make sense depending on tactical positioning. Overall though I would still recommend the game, just know that it has a few failings.

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Posted on: August 26, 2016

Ben304

Verified owner

Games: 787 Reviews: 5

Wonderful game

Beautiful art, unique gameplay, thought-provoking writing and a wonderful soundtrack; everything that The Banner Saga is made up of work together in harmony to create a fantastic experience - and gosh is the word 'Saga' appropriate for this story. Hope, desperation, anguish, betrayal and the chance to be a hero make this story something definitely worth experiencing, and combat mechanics that take time to learn, but rarely feel overwhelming, make the battles as intense as one would hope for. A very satisfying experience.

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Posted on: September 22, 2016

Qari

Verified owner

Games: 225 Reviews: 1

Hate - Love - Hate - Love

So, I bought this game and it looked cool as I wanted to get into some turn-based combat games. I tried it for all of 12 minutes and uninstalled. After playing some other turn-based games, I tried it again, and got it in a bundle for my phone. Load times are terrible there (cause i'm a spoiled PC gamer.) With a grasp of turn-based combat, the game became a lot more fun. It was a bit overwhelming to someone who avoided the genre all these years. So, the art, the music, and the story are all great. Any number of reviews, even the negative ones, will mention that. It is beautiful and if you aren't concerned about a perfect run the decision making is like real life; sometimes things don't turn out how you expect and sometimes they do. At least for your first time I recommend not looking up guides or tips and just proceeding how you know best. I am a perfect run type of gamer but I let it slide to the wayside and really enjoyed the game because of it. The story really captivated me. So, what makes me hate it? Ultimately the combat encourages weakening enemies without killing them. That can be frustrating after playing other turn-based combat games where you want to drop enemies quickly so you gain an advantage. Although by the end it's not all bad. You adjust to it and while it makes less sense, it is a mechanic and you work with it. There are trade-offs too to employing the strategy, like gaining less willpower which is really important in the final battles with low or bad morale. It's still probably my least favorite part but it's manageable. I highly recommend the game if you are familiar with turn-based combat. It'll take some getting used to, but it's not a steep learning curve. It just requires a different mindset. I highly recommend.

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Posted on: August 7, 2016

Marlamin87

Verified owner

Games: 1697 Reviews: 2

Beautiful experience.

There are games that I love so much I buy them twice. This is one of them. It is beautiful and the story will hit you right in the feels. You make choices and you face consequences. Sometimes very harsh ones. You meet people and you get close to them. And then you get to weight those bonds against the responsibilities you have. And decide what is more important.

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