Written By: Tyler Selig
 |
| That's what the lineup of girls wanting me is like. Or something. Yeah. |
Verdict: The Banner Saga
looks beautiful – with a visual style that not only rivals other games but the
finest animated movies – and sounds wonderful, with a memorable plot that you
genuinely manipulate, but while the combat is decent, it doesn’t reach the
heights of genre heavyweights.
As soon
as you turn on the game, you get a taste of what it does best. Even on the main
menu you can see that this Viking themed tactical RPG --where you control a
caravan and lead your small army around a bleak world trying to save it —is beautiful
and ambitious. I’m talking ambitious by any standard, whether it’s AAA or
indie, because in a lot of ways The Banner Saga is special.
It
starts with the visuals, like I said above. They are so good in this game that
you could easily mistake it for some of the finest Disney movies, or the
artwork of Don Bluth – both of which are influences that the developers have
acknowledged as far as I know. It’s because of these visuals that the world
comes to life, whether it’s the wonderfully drawn characters or the world in
the distance, it’s just a joy to watch. With that said, it’s a bit of a shame
that most of the story plays out with still shots rather than fully animated
sequences. It’s a small issue – not really even a problem -- that exists, but
it’s forgivable because it’s a small team that is trying to do a big thing. It’s
amazing that the year has just begun and we already have a nomination for best
visuals of the year for the next Gamecepticon Awards.
Austin
Wintory returns to breathe life into a game with its music, and even though for
the most part the music is more subtle, it is not less powerful. It creeps in
when it has to, and lends a real sense of atmosphere to this Nordic world. It
goes from slow and pretty, to crushing and triumphant, but it never loses the
vibe of the universe that Stoic has created. You may not notice it as much as
some soundtracks, but it’s there, and it’s digging a hole into your heart. I
think at this point gamers should officially announce that Wintory is a
national treasure.
The
Banner Saga is trying to be a Viking epic, and it already gets the sights and sounds
right. But what really makes something epic? I, like many others, cringe at
using the word because it’s so overused… but The Banner Saga actually is epic,
in its most purest form. It takes it back to the real origins of the word, and
gives us a tale that is large in scale, with a fairly large cast of characters.
Let’s
put this into perspective: you literally lead a small army across plains,
through forests and up mountains, while sleeping in tents and whatever towns
you find, all while fighting off bandits and an enemy known as the Dredge. This
is epic personified, people, and the story is a large reason why it deserves to
be labeled as a true epic.
Your
choices actually matter, and that’s the biggest selling point for a lot of
people. Sometimes games try this, and even though they give you the illusion of
choice, your choices ultimately funnel into one or two main story pools.
Obviously The Banner Saga wants to get you to a destination, and I’ll never
know the true extent of freedom that you have unless I play through again, but
in my experience the choices I made impacted the events, whether it was
instantly or later down the road.
I was
thrilled when a choice I made had consequences later on in the story. I sat
there thinking, “Oh yeah, I remember doing that!” When my game crashed near the
end, right after an important moment, I actually picked a different course of
action and it definitely changed how everything unfolded. It is because of this
genuine sense of self-worth that the game implants into you that the story is
memorable and even at times emotional. I’m not going to sit here and say it
made me cry or belongs in the all-time greats, but it’s pretty damn good and
above a lot of games, and the seeds that you plant with your reactions to the
varied situations are a large reason for that.
The
game isn’t perfectly though. Final Fantasy Tactics was cited as an influence,
but Tactics was so good it’s hard to live up to that. In a bunch of ways, The
Banner Saga does, but the combat leaves a little to be desired. It’s not bad, but it lacks innovation and ends up
being extremely repetitive. There isn't a lot of variety in the enemies so you fight a lot of battles where the opposing team are similar to battles before. The idea to have an armor and strength bar is an
important one, and having the opportunity to do more damage by clicking on a
star when attacking lends to the tactical nature, but it feels like the combat
was more of an afterthought than a top priority. It just lacks the depth of the
giants of the genre, and again, while it is fun enough, it wasn’t anything that
I’d come back to. In fact, it was a bit of a distraction from the real reason I
continued playing, and even though there are larger scale battles where you can
use your troops, it just doesn’t go far enough. Again, it’s a small team, but
it is what it is.
 |
| Yeah, by killing things. |
Actually
watching the caravan may be a problem for some, and indeed, this game is all
about the caravan. You see, in between battle you watch your army walk either
left or right, as you search for the next town or your destination. It’s really
not that thrilling, but the game does a good job of keeping you involved by
popping up with decisions quite frequently. I have to reiterate that I don’t
actually find this bothersome, but there are people that will.
One
thing that does bother me, and this could be personal preference, is that the
currency (Renown) is overused. Basically what I mean is that in order to
promote (level up) your characters, you use renown. When you want to buy
supplies, you use renown. The game is pretty unforgiving in a lot of ways, and I
get that they wanted to add a degree of severity to making choices, but I don’t
like that they share a currency. To me it feels like it doesn’t really let you
experience the game like it should. I know that I suck at it, but I didn’t buy
an item from a merchant, and at one point I started using my Renown almost
entirely on supplies. This meant no levelling up, no buying items to equip,
just supplies. I am aware that part of it is my problem, and due to some of the
choices I made it made it more difficult, but I stand by the notion that this
is an issue that needs to be addressed.
I’ve
seen complaints that the ending was, well, shitty, but I thought it was sad and
a fitting way to end this episode, and I do look forward to the next part
because The Banner Saga really could be a saga worthy of praise when all is
said and done.
No comments:
Post a Comment