Banner Saga 1

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy-RPG / Interactive Story-Driven Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Banner Saga 1 AKA The Banner Saga is a game that pairs Strategy-RPG battles with Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style storytelling, where choices you make outside of battle affect your odds in battle, who you can bring into battle, and so on. It’s a game focusing on different factions who have each formed a caravan to fend off bandits or flee invading forces, and rather than moving on a map you must manage your caravan as it progresses from town to town.

It’s a really unique mix of elements that really challenges you to make good decisions – do you spend money to ensure your caravan remains fed and happy, or do you buy better equipment for your warriors to ensure they survive the next attack? Do you stop and give your caravan a chance to rest, risking becoming a sitting duck for a raiding party, or do you soldier on, leaving your people weak and weary?

The strategy-RPG part of the game also has some unique elements, the most noteworthy being the game’s two central races, humans and varl (a race of horned giants). Varl are hardy, and fight like tanks, but they’re also huge, which makes it harder for them to move around on a crowded battlefield.

In addition to this, the game makes use of a health/armor system that tasks players with deciding which to attack – the lower the armor, the more damage the health receives when attacked, but attacking health lowers a unit’s own attack strength. In addition, the same points that fuel a character’s special attacks can also be expended to add extra oomph to a physical attack, or allow a unit to move a bit farther on a turn – players must decide how to best use these points during the course of the battle.

Given the emphasis about hard choices baked into every element of the gameplay, it should come as no surprise that the story is similarly bleak and oppressive. In the West, a party of varl just looking to collect taxes for their king gets in over their head in political struggles as a human prince joins them on their journey. Elsewhere, a town of humans flees dark invaders spreading across the land. These stories are well-told, with excellent writing that gives characters ton of personality without undercutting the dark tones of the overarching story.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the part that the game’s gorgeous hand-painted visuals play in this presentation. In both cutscenes and in battles, your characters are lovingly detailed and animated, and even in static conversation scenes as your characters stand there stoic above the text, subtle animations continue to bring them to life.

Okay, so there’s clearly a lot of good going for this game, but there’s bad as well, and it’s this – the game’s control setup is awkward and the game’s systems aren’t quite as intuitive as I’d like. As much as I understand systems like the armor/health system in theory, in practice it’s hard to get a good feel for the strategy of them, and there were times I had to struggle to do what I wanted in the game because the way controls were laid out never clicked with me. To the game’s credit, it does allow for touchscreen controls in portable mode, but those playing the game docked may find the game to be awkward to play.

The Banner Saga is still a strong strategy-RPG with a wonderful presentation and a lot of unique elements that set it apart. It’s just unfortunate that some of those elements also make it a bit difficult to get into. Fans of the genre looking for something different should definitely give it a shot, though.

tl;dr – Banner Saga 1 is a Strategy-RPG that mixes in Choose-Your-Own Adventure mechanics as well as numerous systems that require you to carefully manage both your party and your caravan. It’s a game with a wonderful somber story and a brilliant presentation, but it’s marred by frustrating controls and strategic elements that are difficult to wrap your head around. If you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll probably want to check it out, but this game isn’t for everyone.

Grade: B-

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