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Hey guys, today we are taking a peek at The Banner Saga, a brand new strategy RPG.
This game is set in a fantasy world where the sun has become stuck in the sky, resulting
in everlasting day.
The game is dialouge heavy, with very little voice acting although there is some as you
travel between map loctions. However, in all the conversations it's up
to you to do the reading.
Although a lot of people are introduced at quite a rapid pace the characterisation and
writing makes it easy to distinguish them, as each
are memorable in their own right.
The combat is all turn based, no matter on how many enemies or friendlys are on the field
it will alternate between sides. The exception to this is when there is only one man left
standing on one side, at which point you go into pillage mode
and each character gets one turn each round, even when they greatly outnumber the opponent.
The basic element of fighting is choosing whether to attack an enemy's armor, or strength.
Strength dictates health and damage dealt by an opponent, but armour reduces your attack
power on them and can deflect blows, cancelling out the attack.
As well as just hitting them you have the option to use up willpower points, which can
buff the damage you do, and have special abilities, such as "tempest"
which allows you to damage multiple enemies in one turn with a sweeping swing of the weapon,
or another which will knock the bad guys back, while making them bleed out if they move.
This makes the combat much more dynamic and means it requires thought into who you place
where and when is the right time to use up those willpower points, as they won't regen
during combat.
It can be quite tricky until you get used to the idea of it, but even if one of your
team should fall they dont die, they are just useless for the rest of the
battle, this of course might change as you delve further into the game.
You often face multiple enemys and need to choose who to prioritize, do you get rid of
the main guy who does all the damage first, or take out his friends who aren't as threatening,
but will still chip away at you team as you try to take down the main threat?
There are both ranged and melee characters, and the melee themselves vary from tank like
to the more squishy but agile spear men or axe wielders.
Graphically the game is great, its a briliant style of art, and isn't static. When engaged
in dialogue they have added movement to the scenes,
be it just falling snow or tapping fingers, the scenes certainly feel a lot more alive
for it. The soundtrack is beautiful and very fitting,
to see why it it called "The banner saga!"
A lot of the names are rather hard to pronounce, for people or places, lets just say I was
really glad when I finally met a guy who just wanted to be called "Gil".
Control wise all you need is a mouse - You'll get dialogue options as you interact,
although I did have a small issue here where some bits got skipped occasionally even though
I was being very careful to not double click after the first instance that happened,
from what I could find there was no option to go back in the conversation either.
This wasn't constant and didn't affect my gameplay too much, but a back button would
have been a nice feature. I did also enouter a couple of typos, but
so rarely that they did not impact my enjoyment or throw me for a loop.
As you travel on the road you will encounter events, where you need to choose how to act
or proceed, these can affect outcomes, and characters who fight for you.
Supplies are needed, you can replenish these at towns, but dont run out! Moarle will help
your troops in combat improve this by resting up, and taking time away from the fights!
As your units get kills they gain "renown points" use these points to level up your
characters, where you can choose to improve their basic attributes,
or unlock new levels of their special skills. There are also jewlery items you can wear
for buffs and bonus's.
Overall I hada great time with this game, it felt engaging and the combat certainly
wasnt stright forward hack and slash, so although I didnt do too great at it, there
was still a lot of fun to be had.
If your a fan of this genre I would certainly recommed grabbing this title, even if its
not usually your thing, its worth a look! Although I have not finished the game yet
it has been marketed at 12 to 15 hours for a playthough,
apparently also with enough unique choices and characters that it would merit more than
one completion of it. I'll be finishing this off pretty pronto,
and can't wait to see how it all turns out.
If I'e peeked your interest, I've linked the steam page in the description. I've been OnlyMezza,
see you next time!