Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Review RPG Codex Review: The Banner Saga

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
Patron
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
15,048
Location
In quarantine
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Tags: Stoic Studio; The Banner Saga

The northern wind is stiff, but I could never tell with this featureless terrain if not for the red banner flapping. The combat variety may not be great, but I press on. I feel the game's heart and hear it sing its Nordic blues. Most of my characters are dead, and I blame the fake C&C for lulling me into a false sense of security. I am playing Stoic Studio's 2014 tactical RPG The Banner Saga.

So would my review go. But thankfully I am not the reviewer. It is rather the esteemed community member Bubbles. So have a few snippets from his take on the game:

The past year has given us strong evidence to suggest that the RPG industry would be tremendously helped if our Canadian friends were to cease operations immediately and released all their herded up talent into the indie wilderness. Stoic, the studio behind The Banner Saga, follows in the tradition of other ex-BioWare developers who, upon leaving the company, suddenly began to exhibit a talent for making good role playing games (Daniel Fedor's NEO Scavenger being the most prominent other example). In fact, the crowdfunded Banner Saga is more successful at offering a “BioWare experience” than anything that company has put out since Dragon Age: Origins. This game features a compelling story, well-drawn characters operating under a constant threat of perma-death, choices with a wide variety of consequences, and a surprisingly complex and novel combat system that prevents the battles from feeling like repetitive trash combat. It is also very pretty.

[...] After close inspection, I can attest that Stoic's C&C system is quite cunningly implemented. Let us start with what would normally be the worst consequence of them all: you lose a battle against a horde of merciless enemies. Your heroes all fall unconscious on the battle field, and all hope is lost. What happens now? Reload to last save? That would be the bland, safe choice, allowing you to simply redo the battle until you get it right and can reap the rewards of victory. So, no, that is not what happens. Instead, a text window pops up and tells you how you got saved. Usually, some of your nameless supporting troops rushed to your aid and hurtled themselves onto the spears of your enemies, thus paying the ultimate price in the service of a smooth gameplay experience. Rarely, one of your less important companions made a heroic sacrifice, forever removing himself from your party roster in the process. Sometimes you wake up, battered and defeated, without really knowing what happened. Much e-blood has already been spilled over this mechanic; many of the game's harshest critics absolutely abhor the fact that it is (almost) impossible to get a game over screen from a party wipe. Other, more tolerant and progressive minds have come to appreciate the advantages of this implementation.

[...] The Banner Saga has a good battle system. Before the game's release, the system was tested in a multiplayer Free-to-Play game – The Banner Saga: Factions – which was released a full year before the single player game. Being able to study their players in a competitive environment provided Stoic with ample opportunities to discover the weaknesses of their systems design; the result has been a highly polished battle system that feels well thought out and fully coherent. That is not to say that this system is uncontroversial; in fact, it is probably the most hotly debated aspect of the game.

[...] The Banner Saga is an immensely unique, and, by no coincidence, immensely good game that combines great artistic design and robust C&C mechanics with a highly entertaining and deceptively complex battle system. The Banner Saga has only a few outright flaws; the shoddy dialogues and the constant need to click-click-click through them line by line are a blemish on an otherwise engaging narrative. Moreover, the startling lack of enemy variety and the relatively dumb AI keep the battle system from realizing its potential for true tactical greatness. The game's system of choices and consequences also has far less of an impact on the story than Stoic's PR department has been trying to claim; nonetheless, it still offers an engaging and immersive range of decisions that will directly influence your battle performance and can occasionally result in major character deaths.

I suspect that The Banner Saga will always be the subject of great controversy; it has a kind of self-assured swagger, flaunting all of its little weirdnesses and weaknesses without making much of an effort to look like a typical tactical cRPG or a typical casual story game. The game features heaps upon heaps of idiosyncratic gameplay systems, like the strange combination of a broad C&C system with a fully pre-determined linear story, the fact that you will rarely if ever be able to see a "game over" screen, the "sit back and immerse yourself" approach to map travel, and a whole slew of novel and deeply unrealistic combat mechanics. You may choose to accept or reject these mechanics according to your personal preferences; all I can tell you is that all of these elements stand in the service of a fully coherent and extremely tightly designed gameplay experience that I deeply enjoyed playing through.​

Read the full article: RPG Codex Review: The Banner Saga
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,561
Location
Tampon Bay
It was better than I expected, but not really a game for me (storyfags should love it though), and very short. What happened to the second episode?
 

Severian Silk

Guest
The art was better than I expected. The combat was roughly what I expected, unfortunately. The C&C was less than I expected. Not sure what kind of a score I would give this game. :(
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I give (metaphorical, because i can't be arsed) points for originality of gameplay systems.
Buck the cargo cult.

People getting mad because they 'should' weaken enemies before finishing them off in cargocultcodex was funny.

Also it was kinda hard to play perfectly (with 0 downed party members), so not having mission failure state for the dumbfucks was worthy tradeoff IMO.
 
Last edited:

Sensuki

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
9,799
Location
New North Korea
Codex 2014 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
I really liked the combat, and I agree with your criticisms of the combat - AI could be better and the encounters against dredge lacked variety. Willpower stat doesn't really matter on Hard.

I was not a fan of the dialogue or the C&C and I basically just ignored everything about the game other than the combat encounters.

Another flaw is that the game runs pretty crap, but since it's not a real-time game it's not super noticeable.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,107
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Specifically, ex-TOR guys.

Re: the AI, I found that it was pretty consistent about hounding your weak/wounded guys and taking them out. That may be a low bar to clear, but it's something that surprisingly many games aren't very good at.
 

Lord Azlan

Arcane
Patron
Shitposter
Joined
Jun 4, 2014
Messages
1,901
Thanks for the review - I was trying this the other day and did not have enough time time - T'is a shame!

Well written review and detailed about the things I would want to be covered - a bit positive for a Codex review? Makes me a bit excited to try it. One question though - I have only been here a year and have seen C&C mentioned a few times in other threads - I now have the confidence to ask what is that?
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,737
Very well written Bubbles, I agree with all your points. For me, it came together as a thoroughly enjoyable game despite its flaws. My biggest wishes for TBS2 are more map variety, enemy variety, and improved writing / dialogue presentation.
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
This thing took about twice as long to write as the Blackguards 2 review despite being shorter. I felt that it was much harder to write about a game that I actually liked; I don't know how the guys at IGN manage to do this every day.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
Kickstarter Fanboyism is rampant on the Codex.

In the past people would consume a lot of promotional material and be so excited that, when the game came out and sucked, there would be a 50/50 chance that they would ignore the gnawing hollowness of disappointment they felt inside and proceed to defend the turd they had waited so long for.

But now, people have invested real money - sometimes hundreds of dollars. It's a whole new level of being hyped up or a game. Now it would be so painful to admit that the game sucks, that there is a 90% chance of pure denial mode.

That, combined with our lack of decent review writers, has seen our once prestegeous magazine release schlock review after schlock review. Stop the decline already.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,107
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
We're such big Banner Saga shills that we posted the review 17 months after the game's release
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
For 17 times more money amirite? :M

Nah, but a game billed for its C&C, whose C&C don't affect the story should receive a slightly more critical review on the RPGCodex imho. And it just seems like there is a pattern regarding the Kickstarter games.

Not saying you are shills, just saying we all collectively could benefit from taking off our Kickstarter goggles already.
 

Lerk

Learned
Joined
Jul 26, 2013
Messages
196
Location
Dunwall
We're such big Banner Saga shills that we posted the review of it 17 months after the game's release
But coincidentally in good time for the sequel.

:hmmm:

Review is good. But it's hardly "immensely unique". KoDP and Oregon Trail both mine very similar veins.
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
Messages
7,817
Review is good. But it's hardly "immensely unique". KoDP and Oregon Trail both mine very similar veins.

Well, obviously. I wanted to have a section tracing the similarities between the combat systems of the three games, but Infinitron said it would be too grognard-y for our target audience. Maybe next time.
 

Copper

Savant
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
469
The irony is, my wife who's pretty casual outside of sim/management type stuff was far more critical of the lack of 'beat this fight to progress' in the Banner Saga.
 

Sensuki

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
9,799
Location
New North Korea
Codex 2014 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
I don't think it is. If it was they wouldn't be deciding what goes in the review based on their 'target audience'.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom