KickStarter The Banner Saga

[Grunker]

I know you can only raise stats on level-up. But in Factions, you could reduce stats to increase others. Like reduce exertion on your Shieldmaster to raise Armor, or vice-versa on an archer. Seems like you can't here. Oh well.

 

[Indranys]

So far the only units i managed to recruit were linked to the story, there were no options to recruit generic characters from city screens or camp screens. That being said, im still at the start of the game, so there might be an option later?

Thanks man.
Please, inform me again when you get a little further into the game.

 

[Grunker]

I already did..? You do not get to hire your own dudes.

Well, here's my 2 hours in review:

This game is good. As in, I like it a lot. It ain't no KoDP ( ), but it fucking ain't no SRR either.

Beautiful art, dialogue which can be cringe-worthy but also does the job quite well, and interesting mechanics. I call this a winner.

 

[Wulfstand]

The game is FUCKING AMAZING. Hoooly shit, if it were a little less-linear, I wouldn't know what more to want from it.
The graphics are BY FAR some of the best I've seen in the past years, when it comes to 2d, the voice acting and music are top-notch, the combat is turn-based (and really fun/interesting, always feels exciting when you know you might lose a party-member for good during any encounter, but somehow I have the feeling that my units will slowly start to snowball once they gain levels+items), and the decisions you have to take are at times quite good/interesting.
Everyone should try it out, end of discussion.

EDIT: it seems your allies don't actually die during combat, my mistake.

 

[Zed]

HUMBUG!

edit: salvaging this post a bit by saying I really don't buy the hype and that I might try it if it's on sale or something.

 

[Zewp]

Do you use reknown both for buying supplies, items AND for leveling? urgh...

Yes, and I'm about 6 hours in and there simply doesn't seem to be a way to take care of even half your needs with the available reknown. I can either choose to have everyone starve or have heroes competent enough to hold their own in fights. Not made easier by the fact that I constantly have to camp to raise morale and random events happen which frequently makes me lose supplies.

 

[Raghar]

And people here complained how games are easy.

 

[Grunker]

Fuck the swedish dude, this game is getting better and better. It's not going into my Top10, but it is well worth the cash I paid so far.

Do you use reknown both for buying supplies, items AND for leveling? urgh...

Yes, and I'm about 6 hours in and there simply doesn't seem to be a way to take care of even half your needs with the available reknown. I can either choose to have everyone starve or have heroes competent enough to hold their own in fights. Not made easier by the fact that I constantly have to camp to raise morale and random events happen which frequently makes me lose supplies.

That sounds pretty good, honestly

 

[Garm]

Do you use reknown both for buying supplies, items AND for leveling? urgh...

Yes, and I'm about 6 hours in and there simply doesn't seem to be a way to take care of even half your needs with the available reknown. I can either choose to have everyone starve or have heroes competent enough to hold their own in fights. Not made easier by the fact that I constantly have to camp to raise morale and random events happen which frequently makes me lose supplies.

Sounds kind of like a pain in the ass, but at the same time the choices the currency forces you to make is refreshing. Might pick this game up during a sale now.

 

[Zewp]

That sounds pretty good, honestly

It kinda is and it kinda isn't both at the same time. It seems I'm in quite the predicament and I can't seem to get out. My main source of reknown is battles, but my party is currently underpowered for the enemies being thrown at me, so I struggle to earn reknown to upgrade them, which in turn means I do worse and worse in battles. I can rarely afford to let my units rest to heal up, because that burns precious supplies that I need to prevent my caravan from starving. It would be nice if the game gave you the option to spend time hunting for food at the risk of letting the enemy gain on you.

 

[Grunker]

The crux of these kinds of games is spiraling misfortune. Their consequence and resource systems wouldn't work without them. You're describing KoDP's mechanics.

The difference is that this is meant to be played over and over like KoDP, and that's a bad thing. However, I think that anyone should be able to manage on a second playthrough. You learn a lot during the first that you could redo.

I'm very happy they chose to keep the difficulty levels high.

 

[anus_pounder]

Onef's backstory. Who the fuck is fadr and why has he hijacked someone else's backstory? Haven't found any other 'bugs' so far.

 

[Sensuki]

The fights on Hard when you're with the Varl guys are lmao easy. When you're with the humans they're a bit more difficult. I may have just fucked up my early game levelling with them though and I still only have 5 heroes (chapter 4).

 

[Zewp]

Well, I just finished it. I'm more than a bit disappointed with that ending.

Spoiler

Seriously, that's it? I played around 10 hours so length-wise it's okay for $25 game, but it doesn't feel like a standalone game at all. It feels episodic. The game ends way too suddenly and it doesn't give any sense of resolution. There are two storylines - the immediate one, with the dredge invasion and the overarching, main story about the spreading darkness and the serpent that must devour the world. The dredge are clearly not the main focus in the story, yet the game ends when you kill one of the dredge head honchos.

It's almost as if they were still busy writing the game's story and then just decided to end it halfway through. There's no closure to be had. What is the darkness that is spreading in the north? What happened to the sun? What happened to the gods? What's the story with Juno and the serpent? Why was the land torn asunder with dredge spewing forth from the tear?

I'm sorry, but this is just a single episode, not a full game. It's a pity that the ending has cast such a pall over the entire game for me, because up until the ending I was having a lot of fun with the game. I would honestly recommend people wait and see if there are further episodes before they buy the game.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I e-mailed them yesterday morning and they still haven't replied to me, what a scam and terrible company.

 

[Grunker]

The fights on Hard when you're with the Varl guys are lmao easy. When you're with the humans they're a bit more difficult. I may have just fucked up my early game levelling with them though and I still only have 5 heroes (chapter 4).

I think this depends on your management. For me, it's the other way around. Humans, managable, Varls, pretty tough. In general I think the difficulty is odd. Sometimes it's pretty damned hard, sometimes it's just a waltz. I passed the three bridge-parts without trouble, and I even wasted 45 reknown early game on two items that I can't use because I hadn't figured out the system.

 

[Tigranes]

No way to skip tutorial? You fucking kidding me, you dumb shits?

At least it's short.

 

[anus_pounder]

Well, I just finished it. I'm more than a bit disappointed with that ending.

Spoiler

Seriously, that's it? I played around 10 hours so length-wise it's okay for $25 game, but it doesn't feel like a standalone game at all. It feels episodic. The game ends way too suddenly and it doesn't give any sense of resolution. There are two storylines - the immediate one, with the dredge invasion and the overarching, main story about the spreading darkness and the serpent that must devour the world. The dredge are clearly not the main focus in the story, yet the game ends when you kill one of the dredge head honchos.

It's almost as if they were still busy writing the game's story and then just decided to end it halfway through. There's no closure to be had. What is the darkness that is spreading in the north? What happened to the sun? What happened to the gods? What's the story with Juno and the serpent? Why was the land torn asunder with dredge spewing forth from the tear?

I'm sorry, but this is just a single episode, not a full game. It's a pity that the ending has cast such a pall over the entire game for me, because up until the ending I was having a lot of fun with the game. I would honestly recommend people wait and see if there are further episodes before they buy the game.

Serves me right for opening every spoiler, but I'll this kind of put me off playing the game for a bit. Just finished the bridge bit.

 

[Comrade Goby]

Well, I just finished it. I'm more than a bit disappointed with that ending.

Spoiler

Seriously, that's it? I played around 10 hours so length-wise it's okay for $25 game, but it doesn't feel like a standalone game at all. It feels episodic. The game ends way too suddenly and it doesn't give any sense of resolution. There are two storylines - the immediate one, with the dredge invasion and the overarching, main story about the spreading darkness and the serpent that must devour the world. The dredge are clearly not the main focus in the story, yet the game ends when you kill one of the dredge head honchos.

It's almost as if they were still busy writing the game's story and then just decided to end it halfway through. There's no closure to be had. What is the darkness that is spreading in the north? What happened to the sun? What happened to the gods? What's the story with Juno and the serpent? Why was the land torn asunder with dredge spewing forth from the tear?

I'm sorry, but this is just a single episode, not a full game. It's a pity that the ending has cast such a pall over the entire game for me, because up until the ending I was having a lot of fun with the game. I would honestly recommend people wait and see if there are further episodes before they buy the game.

I think these guys didn't know how to manage resources the best way. Also isn't the success of this the determining factor on if they do more episodes?

Still the length is disappointing to hear.

 

[Raghar]

Steam forums are once again a riot.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/237990/discussions/0/648816743372000250/#p1

Here we have some asshole named HailAlistair with 507 hours logged on Dragon Age: Origins crying that he can't savescum every single dialogue option in this game. Says he doesn't have the time to replay battles... I can't even respond to these threads coherently.

And why do you want to?

Actually I find these posts quite entertaining.

 

[anus_pounder]

Onef's backstory. Who the fuck is fadr and why has he hijacked someone else's backstory? Haven't found any other 'bugs' so far.

Well, quite a few other characters (mostly the one-scene wonders) also have short tales with unrelated characters as their character story, I suppose this the devs way of trying to avoid 'was villager, now soldier, the end' kind of backstories - which is essentially what one of your archers is. Not a bad way of doing it , imo.

Gonna give the game a 2nd playthrough, I think. Doubt theres enough to warrant a 3rd though.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Well, I can't beat the big bad at the end. Guess I didn't do a great job... definitely didn't have enough renown to get more than one guy up to rank 5.

This game is pretty good. If you're replaying for the story or C&C, there's probably not a whole lot to go off of, but the combat is type. I'll probably replay and game it a bit more (with ranking up guys that are going to be in the final fight more in mind).

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I think I'll just get another copy in some other way, I paid for the game and they flat out ignore me.

 

[Sensuki]

The fights on Hard when you're with the Varl guys are lmao easy. When you're with the humans they're a bit more difficult. I may have just fucked up my early game levelling with them though and I still only have 5 heroes (chapter 4).

I think this depends on your management. For me, it's the other way around. Humans, managable, Varls, pretty tough. In general I think the difficulty is odd. Sometimes it's pretty damned hard, sometimes it's just a waltz. I passed the three bridge-parts without trouble, and I even wasted 45 reknown early game on two items that I can't use because I hadn't figured out the system.

With the Varls I have like 7 varl and 3 humans to choose from, usually roll with 5 varl and one human, besides the sometimes restricted movement it's pretty easy, more recently as I've gotten some guys to higher level (4-5) I've only been dropping 0-1 (usually the human who gets one shotted) unit every fight including reinforcements and 'finsih them off'.

With Rook and Alette I think I did something wrong at Frostvellr and didn't have enough units survive battles (which were pretty hard to begin with). Only have 5 party members, maybe it's possible to get another.

 

[Morality Games]

... playing the the game on Hard with no causulties seems pretty implausioble, but I'll keep trying.