So I've now played the game five times for a total of 53 hours of gaming, lol, you'd still be halfway through a regular cRPG by this point, though I can't say I mind, I've really enjoyed each run & by trying to use different approaches each time it feels like I've just played the game once still, if you exclude all the mashing through dialogues aspect of course.
And I've got to say, I really like the combat in this game, really really like it. I kind of wish there was an unlimited combat mode as the only thing not making me play it again is just all the mashing through needless plot/story for the same results/rewards. The great thing is, the game does have an infinite combat mode in the training tents & one could simply save the game at a camp & boot it up whenever one gets an itch for some Banner Saga combat, which I might well do. However, this would doom you to always playing the combat with the same dudes against the same level-scaled opponents unless you put together a bunch of saves from throughout the game. So... such a shame the game doesn't seem to have a save button & only allows you five save files, all of mine being at the end of the game, obviously.
Some interesting things to note from my hard difficulty run:
One of the objectives is to complete the game on hard without losing a single battle. I completed this objective even though I had to reload the first Rook fight in the house, as I only had Rook and Ivar as I was aiming for a keep Egil run as key to my plan to get this objective. I kinda forgot what I had to do with this fight & remembered after the first few strikes & reloaded. So you don't need to start again if this happens to you. Also, in the final fight with the Bellower, in the first battle with him, where you need to shoot him with the arrow, I mistakenly moved my arrow holder too early & he got killed, which brought up the reload screen as another member of the team cannot pick up the arrow. This also luckily didn't affect the objective, I guess because the fight wasn't lost, it was just defaulted. A technicality.
Another useful point regarding the latter case there, it seems the arrow comes with aggro attached, but you aren't allowed to know how much. The Dredge who went out of his way to smash the arrow wielder had previously been attacking someone wearing a +1 aggro item, but immediately abandoned this pursuit as soon as the arrow wielder came in range. It's difficult to know for sure what the algorithms are for aggro generally, as character weakness also plays a strong part, so maybe my arrow wielder was just the weakest target and it had nothing to do with the arrow itself. I definitely got the feeling that the arrow had aggro attached though as I had plenty of weaker characters on the board.
It would be interesting to know the exact workings of aggro generally which would be another great advantage of save games & infinite combat scenarios, to allow the player to actually figure out the permutations of these things if the game itself doesn't want to be open about it.
Anyway, I got part 2 in the sales as that's at a great price too, so that's something to look forward to next time I get the itch. In the mean time, time for a break from the cold wastes, these black Friday sales have left me awash with new things to play.