The Banner Saga - Every decision matters

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Hello everyone! How are the combats with the beautiful ladies from the last entry going? Have you been able to pull a few flashy combos already? For this new entry we will switch to an entirely different genre and style. In this blog I have already talked about several games funded through the popular crowdfunding website of Kickstarter, such as Mercenary Kings, Valdis Story o Darkest Dungeon, all of them clear examples of how to make great games without the need (relatively) of spending a fortune, and is in this new entry I’m going to talk about yet another game that was funded through Kickstarter and that is about to receive its second installment after the first one was unanimously praised by the critics worldwide, although perhaps many of you still don’t know this game, after all, it is not one of those titles that get one of those massive marketing campaigns that many of the big boys of the industry get. The game I’m talking about is called The Banner Saga. Let’s see what this little gaming gem inspired in the tales and folklore of the icy lands of the north of Europe has to offer.

The Banner Saga is the first title from Stoic Studios, a name that might not mean much to most people, however, behind that name you can find three industry veterans that worked in Bioware, and more specifically in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, and for all those of you who have played that game that should enough to call your attention. The Banner Saga is basically a Tactical RPG, although that would be a far too simple way of describing the game, as Stoic´s title does much more than just that, adding elements from managing games and even conversational adventures in which our choices will have consequences. I know, I know, you already heard that many times, but trust me, this time is for real, however, just as the saying goes: careful what you wish for. The story of The Banner Saga takes us to a world in which the gods have died and the sun has stopped, leaving the world in a state of eternal day that many have related to the beginning of the apocalypse. The humans coexist in a rather forced harmony with the varl, a race of semigiants with huge horns coming out of their foreheads, although it wasn´t always like this. In the past the humans and the varl had their disputes, but one day they decided to set their differences aside and join their forces to fight a common threat: the dredge. Created by a jealous god that envied the creations of his peers, the dredge are dreadful stone creatures created with one purpose and one purpose only: destroy the other gods´ creations. The dredge were defeated in the past by the combined forced of the humans and the varl and confined in the lands of the north, but now they have managed to escape their confinement, marching to the south while destroying everything they find on their way, forcing humans and varl to retreat in order to survive, and which will serve as the starting point of the adventure of the two main characters: a human and a varl. The destiny has wanted these two warriors to lead their survivors in the journey to salvation in these times of suffering and chaos, and despite their reluctance, they will have to try their very best in order to ensure the survival of their people, however, ahead lies a long a treachery path full of dangers and difficult decisions that no one would like to have to take. I would be worthy to mention that the story is intended to be a trilogy, so don´t be surprised if the ending is rather “brief and sudden.”

As I was saying before, The Banner Saga is essentially as Tactical RPG game similar to classics such as Final Fantasy Tactics or Shining Force, but Stoic´s title is much more than that. Our caravan will travel through the icy lands of the north from town to town, and our mission will consist on keeping our people alive… or perhaps I should keeping as many as possible alive. It seems the guys from Stoic must be big fans of Game of Thrones, for just like in R.R. Martin´s popular bestseller, in The banner Saga we will more often than not see many characters bite the dust for good, including main characters. In The Banner Saga we will be forced to take a big amount of decisions along our long journey, and all of them will have a direct impact on future, some of them for good, and some other for bad. For example, a man who seems to be a powerful warrior approaches our caravan and asks us to let him join us in our journey, and we, of course, accept his offer, I mean, who would refuse the help of one more sword in such desperate times, right? The problem comes when we find out that the powerful warrior that was supposed to be one more brother in arms turns out to be a coward and a assassin, murdering some of our people middle of the night before running away with some of our precious (and scarce) resources, with the devastating effects that could have for the morale of our people (and it’s direct negative impact on the battlefield). Or a mom and her son could approach us begging us to let them join us, and of course, what kind of monster would abandon such a helpless person in such dark times? The problem is our resources are running dangerously low, and two more mouths to feed makes the already hard situation even worst, now many of our warriors might not be properly nourished and therefore weakened, something they could pay with their lives in the battlefield. These and many other are the decisions we will have to take, and as I said before, every single decision that we take matters, till the point where even the lives of main characters could be at risk, for in the harsh and cold world of The Banner Saga none has anything granted, so it will be up to us and our judgment to make the right decisions… or at least the less bad ones. Many games have claimed to allow you to make decisions that have a true impact in the story, but few (or almost none) has been able to achieve such a goal to the level Stoic has, forcing the players to consider well every single choice due to the fear to the unexpected consequences, for in The Banner Saga there is no such thing as good or bad decisions, but rather and infinite scale of grey choices. This constant dilemma will be emphasized by the excellent narrative of the game and the great personality of its characters, for despite being a 2D game, the great design of these makes them come to live, managing to make us feel guilty every time one of them goes down, almost regretting we didn’t have the time even to say by properly, making us feel constantly the burden that torments the main characters. Bioware has always been famous for being masters at the craft of telling powerful stories inside complex worlds, and there is no doubt that there is a lot of Bioware´s pedigree in Stoic.

Regarding the combats, The Banner Saga makes use of a system that many fans of the genre will feel familiar with right from the start, however, the system is so dynamic and accessible that even the newcomers will be able to get the hang of it without much trouble. The battles of The Banner Saga will take place in stages divided by a grid, and we will be able to choose up to 6 characters to form our squad. Our characters will be divided in two different races: the humans and the varl, which will have different classes, each with their own unique skills. Once we have put together our team, it will be time to the let steel talk. The battles will be divided in turns that will alternate each time one of the sides carries an action with one of their characters. Opposite to what we see in other games, where the Life and Strength stats are two different things, in The Banner Saga these two stats will always go together, which means that every time we lose life, we will also lose strength, therefore a weakened character won’t stand a chance against a much more powerful character. On top of the life gauge we will also have an armor gauge, for in The Banner Saga we will be able to chose whether we want to aim our attacks to our enemies themselves or to their armor in order to damage it. Every time we attack an enemy (or they attack us), the damage will be the result of the difference between our attack power and the resistance of the enemy´s armor, therefore, as I was saying before, a weakened character won’t have much to do against a character with a good armor, so many times we will be forced to attack our enemy’s armor in order to weaken it to have a chance to damage them later with our attacks. When a character falls in combat, it doesn’t die, instead of that, apart from not being available for the rest of the combat, the character will remain injured for a few days in which we won’t be able to select it for any other combats. This system will force us to think whether finishing an enemy right away is always the most convenient thing to do, or if perhaps we should save the finishing stroke for later, as forcing the enemies to play with a character that poses almost no threat to us could give us the precious extra turn we need for our strategy. Finally, we also have the special skills of the characters, which will require Will Points (a.k.a. PM). Once we finish a combat we will reward with Renown and experience points. The first are vital to the Banner Saga, as they are the “single currency” of the game, and which will allow us to manage the third main aspect of The Banner Saga’s gameplay: the management of our caravan. The Renown Points will allow to perform all kind of actions, from buying resources so that our people doesn’t starve, to buy better equipment for our warriors, so it will by imperative that we learn to manage them efficiently if we are to success, for they will be scarce, and without them things could get really ugly really soon. The experience points, on the other hand, will allow our characters to level up, granting them access to better weapons and skills. During the march of our caravan, we will have the option to halt and camp in order to tend to the wounded and equip our characters, although, again, we will have always have to think twice whether is worthy or not, for even keeping our warriors fit for the battle is indeed important, this action will require resources that might not always be as plentiful as we would like to.

Finally we have the presentation of the game, which, sincerely, is ASTONISHING and which will absorb us from the very first minute, especially if you are into classic animation. The cutscenes of the game will use animation scenes that seem to be drawn directly from the best 70/80´s animation classics, while the conversation scenes will make use of semistatic images slightly animated (the clothes moving the wind, a quick blink, snow falling) with great mastery in a way that they don´t feel completely static. But the great presentation of the game is not limited to the scenes, it also applies to the rest of the title, with impressive combat animations that give the feeling of being playing some Walt Disney classic animation movie, and the same goes for the BEAUTIFUL dreamlike landscapes our caravan will have to venture through, which together with the haunting soundtrack composed by an (as always) inspired Austin Wintory (Journey) and the game´s melancholy narrative style, will immerse ourselves in the dangerous, cold and just astonishingly beautiful world of The Banner Saga. The guys from Stoic have truly done a wonderful job, especially when you think of their limited resources when compared to other big productions, achieving a unique style that is rarely seen in the industry nowadays.


The Banner Saga is a very special game that is difficult to explain with words. The guys from Stoic have managed to create a title that, despite its modest budget, walks the thin line that separates the big productions from the small ones. Regardless of if you like Tactical RPG games or not, if you want to play something different, you should really give a chance to The Banner Saga, for its probably one of the most unique and especial titles released in the recent years, and although it is true the title does not invent anything, the mix of concepts give as a result a game with a huge charisma that DESERVES to be played. You can get it for PC via Steam, for mobile devices on Android and iOS, and also for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One via the online stores of each platform, as well it´s second part released recently for PC on Steam, and which will soon be available also for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, keep in mind that the second part will continue the story right from the point where the first one left it, therefore is highly advisable to play first the first game in order to be able to understand well the story and its mechanics. So grab your axes, put on your horned helmets, and earn you place in Varhalla!


GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a6rJbTsvJQ