From the point of view of someone who loved the original The Banner Saga, I'm sad to say I didn't find the sequel as good as the first game, and, at times, even frustrating. Let me tell you why.
The art, animations, visual style and music all keep in the same style, which is great because these were excellent in the original game.
In terms of gameplay, the game is very similar to theFrom the point of view of someone who loved the original The Banner Saga, I'm sad to say I didn't find the sequel as good as the first game, and, at times, even frustrating. Let me tell you why.
The art, animations, visual style and music all keep in the same style, which is great because these were excellent in the original game.
In terms of gameplay, the game is very similar to the original, the turn-based combat, RPG elements, dialogue choices, all is pretty much exactly the same, there's a few new units and abilities. The real only new thing added here is a set of optional "training" scenarios that you can do for a reward of renown points. The training master gives you a limited number of characters at up to 4 individual objectives that you need to accomplish, like using specific abilities or otherwise doing things in a specific way. In principle, this is cool, it allows you to "learn" new units and synergies, and the renown points sure are very important, but the problem is that often times the things you're asked to do are rather contrived, risky, not very efficient, and, worst of all, sometimes depend STRONGLY on what the AI does with its units. Because of this, sometimes you end up in frustration as you retry the "challenge" over and over again, even if they're optional...
The story starts well where it left off, you're immediately commanding your favourite characters from the previous game, with whom you most likely connected so much with, and there's even an epic moment quite early on that's very emotional.
After that, the game splits into a "new" main character, going back and forth between them, much like in the first game. This would be fine, good even, except that this "new" character is SOOO antagonistically different from Rook/Alette that the I felt the change intensely jarring. In the first game, the tone was always that of wanting to protect your caravan and clan through every hardship, and in the face of the approaching End of the World, as best you could, but this new character seemingly doesn't care about any of that. I didn't care at all for the "new" character and felt completely lost: was I supposed to get "in character" and be cruel and selfish in the face of so much suffering everywhere? Actually, you can turn into a good guy via your actions and dialogues, which I did, but that always felt very off character throughout the entire game and considering how everyone reacts to you.
Other than that, I felt like there was a maybe too much of playable characters around, with little "screen time" for each, which left very little room for character development, of course, which was disappointing. The mini events that pop up during your travels and demand some choices felt more difficult to understand the consequences of and more punishing this time around, not as satisfying in "building your own story" as in the first game. There was even one key moment almost at the end where I had to load from a previous save point when I was shocked that I had apparently agreed to betray a significant section of my "clan"/caravan and leave them behind... And I was sure I was selecting a "reasonable" answer and trying to get everyone to get along...
The main plot was rather mysterious and cryptic to me, what you learn of what is happening from Eyvind and Juno leaves you with more questions than answers, and, sure enough, the game ends in a cliffhanger in a very short last scene where you don't even understand what 3 main characters were trying to accomplish.
I don't mind mystery, the world and lore in this game is full of it, and it's good, but when you're feeling almost constantly lost during the whole game, it's not very satisfying in the end.
Because of all this, the game wasn't as enjoyable as the first one, even a little frustrating at times. The love I had towards some characters from the first game was what really kept me hanging on to it.… Expand
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