The Banner Saga

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 128 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 85 out of 128
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 128
  3. Negative: 11 out of 128

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  1. RPG_Fanatic
    Jun 20, 2023
    9
    A hidden gem of PS4,i love this tactic game,love the battles ,OST and amazing art style.
    Very fun Tactic RPG
  2. Kai82
    Oct 15, 2021
    10
    A remarkable game. It is a mixture of a strategic RPG and survival management. The mixture of this made a challenging gameplay with lot of hard decision. Also the art style, soundtrack and graphics are unique and enhance the immersion. The world is inspired by Nordic aka Viking culture and mythology. Story: The goddess Loom Mother created the humans by learning to weave life into theA remarkable game. It is a mixture of a strategic RPG and survival management. The mixture of this made a challenging gameplay with lot of hard decision. Also the art style, soundtrack and graphics are unique and enhance the immersion. The world is inspired by Nordic aka Viking culture and mythology. Story: The goddess Loom Mother created the humans by learning to weave life into the world. The other gods wanted to do this too but had often not the skills or patience. Some imitated this by creating other races like the Varl (Giants) or Horseborn (Centaurs). One angry god however created the Dredge who are living humanoids out of stone to destroy the other races. He was punished by the Loom Mother but this ended accidentally with his dead to every gods shock as they thought themselves to be immortal. The gods then fought and killed themselves or are in hiding but there is no evidence for the last. Meanwhile the before fighting Varl and Humans made peace to repel the Dredge. They won and the Dredge seem to be gone. However many years later the sun stopped at the sky and the Dredge seem to return in numbers unlike before. This will be a struggle for survival. I like the story and the dread. You feel the menace and the harsh battle for survival. Together with the well done characters it is an immersive and enjoyable adventure. Game play: Firstly the strategic RPG parts. It is turn based but not with a speed attribute. You are in control of up to 6 characters per battle. Each side has alternating turns no mater the numbers except one is down to the last man standing. Example you have 6 characters so after 12 turns it is your same characters turn again. When the enemy has 8 it will be 16 before the same characters turn. Be careful! This is dangerous when you have spared the most powerful enemies until the end. You have an armor and health rating. Health is also attack power and this is an interesting concept. Lets say attack power 9 against armor 7 with 10 health. This is 9-7 = 2 damage and with this health is 10-2= 8. The possible damage output is lowered from also 10 to 8 for the damaged character. You can attack the armor instead but this is a separated lower value. You do at least 1 damage no mater the armor but with high differences the hit percentage is lower and lower. You have also willpower that can be added. You have a stock and a value for max adding. The value will be added to the result. Lets take the above example and use 2 willpower. Damage 9-7=2+2=4. Useful in many situation as it can also be used to increase moving range. The character level up with enough kills but you must pay the level up with more and more renown (See below) for this and it is not much status increase per level. Also you can equip better artifacts (only 1 per character) and each 2 levels your willpower based special skills get better but also more expensive. A simpler but really enjoyable system with some depth. Then there is the survival part. Some say it is similar to the classic “The Oregon Trail” but I think this is not familiar anymore. You are the leader of a caravan and must protect its people. You travel through the lands with them and must get food and this is also bought with renown points. You get those for defeating enemies and some events. It is harsh decision making between level up and buying more food. Starvation is a thing and more people need more food. There is a moral rating system and this will be also with benefits and penalties. There are random and scripted events where you have to made decisions. Your decisions mostly have consequences and you can gain or lose heroes, food, moral and people too. It is a cruel situation and as leader you have to make harsh decisions or let others pay the price. I forgot that defeated heroes need recovery time except on easy difficulty (And more on hard). You can still use them but they are really weakened. Resting improves moral, heals wounded heroes but it takes time and consumes food. I think this is a good set up and the rest is easy to learn. The game worked really well with its story, characters and challenges. Even normal gets really hard later on when you want to be noble leader and safe as many lives as possible. Then there is the graphics. It looks hand-drawn and the world and characters look amazing. Another game where I would buy an artbook. The soundtrack is truly good and I was amazed that they used artist I already cherish like Malukah, Peter Hollens and Taylor Davis. They have good YouTube channels by the way. With this the game is a masterpiece for me. Overall a good game creates emotion and has an addicting gameplay. This is true for the Banner saga and the mixture is worth 10/10 for me.… Expand
  3. aspentitan
    Aug 6, 2021
    7
    Let me start off by saying this is a decent game and one I'd actually recommend to purchase however it has some issues that distract from its full enjoyment. The first issue is that the game and its lore try to overachieve to the point it's confusing and distracting on a first playthrough. Part of my recommendation to purchase this game is because it has a ton of characters and each isLet me start off by saying this is a decent game and one I'd actually recommend to purchase however it has some issues that distract from its full enjoyment. The first issue is that the game and its lore try to overachieve to the point it's confusing and distracting on a first playthrough. Part of my recommendation to purchase this game is because it has a ton of characters and each is embedded within the games lore, but the way it is presented, by switching from different character perspectives is overwhelming to understand within an initial playthrough. I stopped halfway through my first playthrough to redo the game with the same choices so I could re-read and enjoy the story more and understand the characters better but there are just too many names and waypoint lore and in the end it just became blah, blah, blah. I lost interest repeating and rereading. It would have been wise to include an insert which would allow an overview of the game setting so you could understand the setting and characters much better while playing the game. The second issue goes hand in hand with some presentational choices. Reading text is wayyyyyy outdated and with this much dialog voicing should have supplemented the text you had to read. It was present in some cutscenes so really felt like the game was experiencing a software bug by way of audio dropping for the rest of the gameplay. The third issue I had was camera. It really needed to be able to rotate for a cleaner view of enemy and friendly stats. I made many mistakes of interpreting the battlefield because various animations, especially Varl (Giants in the game) hid or confused some areas of the in game map. This issue wasn't a huge mess but did impact my games enjoyment. Now that I've expanded upon these issues I'd like to say the rest of the game is extremely impressive. The amount of characters you can play and their unique skill sets are pretty amazing. For a small turn based game the game can get very tactical and rewarding. Despite not enjoying going thru games more than once I was very tempted to try the game again. Instead, you can import your characters into the next entry so that's where I'm heading and maybe someday I will replay the entire trilogy again with what I remember of it. One thing I would like to point out in my review is that most reviews were going gaga about the story and not going on much about the gameplay. I would say the gameplay is the strong point of this game but it will take the full trilogy playthrough to get enough action in to satisfy you. My first playthrough of this first saga really only felt like an introduction to the game before it was already over. The story left me really wanting to go back and learn what just happened better though so maybe that's what everyone is getting at. Overall a decent game I am a fan of the fire emblem games and although different this game has enough going for it to earn my interest in it's purchase and stand behind it. One other thing this is not a rts game as some reviews state it is a turn based strategy game. As you travel along the game requires choice/input to branch your story. If that's rts then I guess it helps explain why Candy Crush sued lol.… Expand
  4. Jajooka
    Dec 1, 2020
    4
    Price:
    First and foremost the 3 banner saga is but one game with around 20 hour playtime each, and with one story. Selling them separately is just money-grabbing consider the price of the 3 when you make your decision.
    Battles (Turn-based strategy): It has one interesting aspect: the strength is both your health and your damage stat so the current health of a character is equal to the    Price:
    First and foremost the 3 banner saga is but one game with around 20 hour playtime each, and with one story. Selling them separately is just money-grabbing consider the price of the 3 when you make your decision.

    Battles (Turn-based strategy):
    It has one interesting aspect: the strength is both your health and your damage stat so the current health of a character is equal to the damage it deals with an attack (against health). You also have armor, and the damage one character takes is lowered by the flat amount of armor it has. Means you always have to decide either to go for breaking armor (in order to be able to deal higher damages for health later) or try to damage their health while they have higher armor in order to lower their damage output sooner. Otherwise every character has only 1 ability at the first game and 2 from the second which is a bit underwhelming, and there is also very very (very) low variety in enemy and terrain-types. The difficulty level isn’t dull, but isn’t too challenging either (in the first game the first fight when I had to rethink one or two times was the last boss). All in all the Battles are fine and aren’t the weak part of the game.

    Decision-making:
    - It is real bad. Most of the time there isn’t any choice option that is close to what would you do in that situation. The decision-points feel far-fetched too often, the consequences are thoughtless and / or random, and worst of all: sometimes provably doesn’t matter. (when you have 6 choice in a dialogue, and eventually all get you the same results). In this regard nothing works like it should have. Eg. there are several decision points when you can recruit / allow people to join your caravan. If you do something unpopular or you run out of food then people start leaving. So the game expects you to feel like it somewhat good or ‘right’ to have a bigger caravan, but it gives you no actual benefits, on the contrary: you have to feed more people which isn’t easy. So the whole logic collapse. The game punishes you by taking away people from your caravan that has no benefits but eat a lot. (after 2 games they seem to have realised it too because at the third game these man are at least able to forage for food).

    *** spoiler ***
    Another taste of Banners Saga’s logic: There is a point where one of your man stabs you in the back and leave (with several of your soldiers) after a conversation. I reloaded several times to choose other dialog options but the results were the same. Then I looked thoroughly in the events leading to this (by replaying), and found nothing special really: He helped me against a guy that seemed crazy then join me. Some times before that there was some dialog when someone – out of the blue – said not to trust masked mans. Maybe that was the point when I should have been “””smart””” because the guy wears a common foot solder helmet that covers one third of his face? Or maybe the fact that his ability called “backstabbing”? The whole thing felt cheap, and I felt the same on several other occasions.
    ************

    Story:
    The main plot builds up some exciting threads, and made me curious but in the end left me disappointed. All in all the story is mediocre in my opinion.

    Atmosphere:
    At this point I feel particularly misled, because watching the intro of the game, it had a really cool atmosphere with several drawed-cartoonish cutscenes, and vivid music that I liked. But in reality, those are the only cutscenes in the game, and there aren’t even background music at most part, just the mind blowing, while your caravan traveling from A to B. No voice-acting either.    … Expand
  5. DanielcoXZ
    Jul 27, 2020
    10
    Aquí está un juego de estrategia que no es muy complejo tiene excelente historia, música y gameplay.
  6. SemenGalyutin
    Jul 16, 2020
    10
    Оцениваю всю трилогию. Лучшие пошаговые бои сделанные в книжном стиле. Сюжет шикарен, драма, игра напоминает фильм Игру престолов. Любой персонаж может умереть и действие которое вы сделали или не сделали в первой части, в третей части будут иметь последствия. Несколько концовок. Игра уникальна. Совет - проходить всю трилогию перенося сохранения то у вас получится самое офигенное чувствоОцениваю всю трилогию. Лучшие пошаговые бои сделанные в книжном стиле. Сюжет шикарен, драма, игра напоминает фильм Игру престолов. Любой персонаж может умереть и действие которое вы сделали или не сделали в первой части, в третей части будут иметь последствия. Несколько концовок. Игра уникальна. Совет - проходить всю трилогию перенося сохранения то у вас получится самое офигенное чувство масштаба происходящего. Если вы проходите игру по отдельности каждую часть, начиная новую игру, персонажи которые у вас погибли по сюжету будут живы, а это поверьте не так интересно… Expand
  7. DinoBeam
    Jun 27, 2020
    6
    really fun and unique combat, perfect art style, but oh god is it wayy wayy wayy too stressy, way too depressing
  8. SKonung
    Nov 11, 2019
    6
    Не зацепило. Возможно, зайдёт любителям соответствующей мифологии.
  9. hello_world
    Aug 4, 2019
    7
    The game has a distinctive art style and is by far the strongest part about the game. The combat system is simple, but has a lot of depth to it. You might be able to win the first few battles with much thought, but strategy becomes imperative very quickly, which is good for this style of game.

    The UI for ps4 is a little clunky though. You decide on the actions you want to take with the    The game has a distinctive art style and is by far the strongest part about the game. The combat system is simple, but has a lot of depth to it. You might be able to win the first few battles with much thought, but strategy becomes imperative very quickly, which is good for this style of game.

    The UI for ps4 is a little clunky though. You decide on the actions you want to take with the left analogue stick and pressing x, but this is an awkward system. There were times where I accidentally chose an action that I did not intend. I don't see why they couldn't use simple button prompts or the d-pad for choosing an action within a list of actions. Moving your units during the pre-battle placement is also more cumbersome than it should.

    There is also only one currency in the game that determines how much food and items you can buy and to upgrade your characters. However, this resource is quite scarce. This would be good to make the world seem harsh and the journey a struggle, but there is a lot of meaningful consequences for letting your people starve. They could make the punishment more harsh or create a more substantial benefit for keeping your people well fed to make this choice more compelling.    … Expand
  10. sufflaminandus
    Feb 3, 2019
    8
    The Banner Saga is remarkable example of humble game that knows its limits and thus provide a consistent gameplay that shines at every presented aspect. Is this a BioWare experience or something else but Stoic Studio managed to create THE only game that worths more than Kickstarter crowd has invested in it.

    TBS tells us the first part of trilogy about ‘End Times’. Set in fantasy Norse    The Banner Saga is remarkable example of humble game that knows its limits and thus provide a consistent gameplay that shines at every presented aspect. Is this a BioWare experience or something else but Stoic Studio managed to create THE only game that worths more than Kickstarter crowd has invested in it.

    TBS tells us the first part of trilogy about ‘End Times’. Set in fantasy Norse world, we follow the journey of two characters as they travel across the continent. On the west, Varl Vognir and his troupe escort human prince to the capital to make an alliance between races. The Varl are horned battle-hardened giants that are slowly dying out. On the west, huntsman Rook leading his villagers away from the horde of dredge, another race, that for unknown reason commenced a large-scaled assault on varl and humans.
    All and all story of the Banner Saga is gorgeous and elegant. It does not try to be pretentious and yet it build a fabulous realistic epic full of mystery and lore. But this is subjective. What is objective is that TBS knows the measure. It does not flood you with oceans of text pouring from any edifice. Dialogues are short and meaningful merging perfectly with ongoing events.
    The visuals are adding up to this effect. Well, sure, it is a mostly text-based game: you will be watching the caravan movement from portrait view and reading event texts and dialogues, sometimes accompanied with closeup view. But the drawing is beautiful and stylish. At certain degree it delivers more pleasure than another 3D world with its limitations. What does NOT deliver me any pleasure is the lack of voice acting. At first, the silence of closeup dialogues was even getting on my nerves, somehow.

    Gameplay is split between caravan-story mode and tactical turn-based combat. Caravan mode is a survival text-adventure with emphasis on choices-consequences. The player is watching the caravan movement and observe the state of three parameters: morale, population, and supplies. Each day the caravan consumes supplies. If supplies run out people will start to die. Morale decreases with time and improves on resting (if people not starving). It affects events and willpower in combat. To tell the truth, population does not affect gameplay much. You can let your clansmen die and it won’t hinder your walkthrough. But nevertheless I label the caravan management good because it entertaining purely by itself. It fits with into the story so nicely that you just starting to care about these non-existing countrymen as the game progresses.
    But the gem of the caravan mode is events. Regularly you, as leader, will have to deal with numerous kinds of situation that occur during travels. The treasure wagon is falling down a cliff and your faithful bodyguard is the only force pulling it back. Let go? Help him? Believe in him? Think of other solution? Let me tell you: the choices are very ambiguous. In fact, sometimes they are so ambiguous that outcomes may look artificial, and thus - frustrating. But still, TBS choice and consequence event system is the best implementation out there, far superior than, say, precursor the Walking Dead. It is because it is realistic and genuine. It rewards prudent actions with goodness and shortsighted - with meaningness.
    The foundation of combat is armor-strength(health) system. You can hit strength but damage number will be reduced by armor value. One interesting detail that strength servers both as attack value and health value. Experience is called renown and goes into leveling up, which gives points for distribution. Renown is earned via combat and events. It also serves as currency to buy supplies and artifacts. Ah! Who are heroes? Heroes are various companions who can join you as playable NPCs. Each hero has unique active ability and class, which provides a common passive ability and define a general role.
    The system was outlined. Is it good? Yes. The “strength is both attack and health” adds incredible depth to the combat. The fight are well designed. There are (almost) no cheesy tactics. There are many heroes so there are many team setups. Some of them are completely opposite in playstyle, none of them are OP. There are no useless skills. The AI has incredibly good implementation of “general” actions. It all (especially first clause) results in fun, enjoyable and challenging combat. But there are downsides too. Firstly, AI does not take into computation skill effects and items at all. It can be exploited heavily. Secondly, there are very few types of enemies. Thirdly: round-robin. Specifically in TBS it turn the end of the battles into total mess.

    The Banner Saga is fresh experience, made with care and passion. It based upon existing devices but, at the same, time remains independent and proud. But the most remarkable achievement of Stoic Studio is ability to cross off: they don’t tell you nothing about nothing, they only tell you the truth.

    8/10    … Expand
  11. Dal_ReviewedDat
    Jan 25, 2019
    8
    Other than being utterly beautiful, the Banner Saga ticks many of my strategy needs for the PS4. I'm a fan of turn based combat thanks to years of playing CiV games, and Xcom from PS3 /PS4 (Xcom2) ... what the Banner Saga adds to this is a story that actually does bend on constant decision making, which in my initial play though I found overwhelming and I was playing with constantOther than being utterly beautiful, the Banner Saga ticks many of my strategy needs for the PS4. I'm a fan of turn based combat thanks to years of playing CiV games, and Xcom from PS3 /PS4 (Xcom2) ... what the Banner Saga adds to this is a story that actually does bend on constant decision making, which in my initial play though I found overwhelming and I was playing with constant regrets.

    I picked this up in sale at £3.99, which is an amazing price for what you're getting. I felt I could of picked up the trilogy in the sale, but wanted a try out first. I've been aware of this game for years, and was hoping it was very much as it is, so I'm not disappointed.

    However.

    It's hard. Really hard. I started playing on the hardest setting because I wanted the Platinum, which I instantly got upset about as died of frustration, so went down to Normal - which is still, really really hard work. It's the combat. It's not like Xcom frustration whereby you have an 88% chance of hitting the target and somehow still miss and scream with frustration, in fact, you rarely miss or have a hit deflected at all - what makes it hard is human error. A 20 minute battle can turn after a single character makes a bad move (obviously a bad decision by me) and then I find myself going from an almost injury free win, to a scrapped by win with 2-3 injuries at best.
    It's also frustrating that you win a battle and then get a chance to either regroup, or, chase the fleeing enemies off - which basically means without healing or regaining special moves, you just have a handful of new enemies to fight - this seems pretty random to me, as sometimes I'm doing well and get 1 or 2 new enemies enter who I quickly clean up, sometimes I've had 4 new enemies and just about managed a "win" but with everyone almost injured at the end. The prize for doing this is usually a pretty mediocre piece of equipment.

    I'm still early game after a good 30hrs + put into the Banner Saga. I kind of **** at myself whilst playing, but I'm addicted to it and feel it's a great strategy. I refuse to play on the easier setting, but I would like to get my tactics homed and start seeing real wins.

    It's easy to recommend this to any Xcom fan, any fan of strategy generally that has a spare £5-£10 ... it's not new, but thanks to its art style, it's timeless anyhow - enjoy!    … Expand
  12. siphus007
    Sep 8, 2018
    9
    Great game, and if I had more than a 10 point system, I would probably say 8.5 honestly, but it leans higher so I will go with a 9. Be warned, this game starts off dreadfully uninviting. They immediately dive into confusing conversations, imagining that you 'read all the books already' to the game's lore, which don't exist. It is a major turn-off, but I'd highly suggest that the first timeGreat game, and if I had more than a 10 point system, I would probably say 8.5 honestly, but it leans higher so I will go with a 9. Be warned, this game starts off dreadfully uninviting. They immediately dive into confusing conversations, imagining that you 'read all the books already' to the game's lore, which don't exist. It is a major turn-off, but I'd highly suggest that the first time you start the game, commit to 2-3 hours out of the gate. Once the battle system begins, you'll never look back.

    With a great and enjoyable cast of eccentric and beloved or hated characters, and a punishing system of choice where each simple caraven choice has the potential to deal you great damage, and one of the most enjoyable and addicting battle systems I've ever played, Banner Saga is an underrated gem in my opinion. For an indie kickstarter game, you get 10 or so hours of gameplay on 1 run, and there is never a dull moment for 5 minutes where you don't feel like a choice, a character upgrade, or a battle move is unimportant. There is replay value, but that's not usually something I go for. Great music, and an impressive art style that keeps the game above the 2D, sucky-graphics-are-retro indie look we see so often now, and did I mention the complex, fully-baked, strategy-heavy battle system? The main drawback is a lack of regular voice acting and.... well... I guess a slow start? Overall this is a superb game.    … Expand
  13. SuperkenGaming
    Jul 23, 2018
    7
    The Banner Saga
    Really good if you like reading
    The Banner Saga is the first game in a trilogy of turn based role playing tactics game set all in the world of Vikings… Though I feel like there’s an even more prominent genre to throw this game into.. And that a visual novel I was really looking forward to giving this series a shot and play through the trilogy, and while I see why so    The Banner Saga
    Really good if you like reading
    The Banner Saga is the first game in a trilogy of turn based role playing tactics game set all in the world of Vikings…
    Though I feel like there’s an even more prominent genre to throw this game into..
    And that a visual novel
    I was really looking forward to giving this series a shot and play through the trilogy, and while I see why so many people love this series...
    it’s just not very casual friendly and its really tough to get through this 8 hour campaign... not necessarily because the gameplay is hard…
    the gameplay is essentially party managements and turn based tactics.. As you play through the story you’ll get different groups of characters that belong to different classes all with their own special moves, and as you defeat enemies you’re bale to promote them and increase their stats… you’ll also get to know these characters during stops in villages as well as along your journey across the map…
    In game it’s all fairly simple, you take turns moving a certain space of tiles and attacking enemies within range, either weakening their defenses or going straight for their health...
    placement of your characters in battle is important as it is possible to lose party members... all of this is fine.. But eventually about half way through the game I was just over it...
    battles feel too Samey… and the story just wasn’t interesting enough to keep me going.. at first it is… it gave me a dungeons and dragons feel as I’m making choices and watching things unfold before me based on those choices, gaining supplies to feed my fighters, gaining items for my party to wear, watching my crew get annoying with other members and having to decide what to do with them to ensure moral stayed up…
    I felt immersed into the story… and then suddenly I’m with a new group of characters away from the group I was just getting to know and it broke the spell for me.. I stopped caring, I no longer cared about the consequences of my choices or what the interest of the characters in this game are…
    I just couldn’t follow along it was too much for me.. I just wanted to get to the end of this visual novel that felt like it was dragging on forever,
    there is good in the banner saga, I get that people love visual novels, but I just don’t... I want voice acting... if you want me to sit down and read for 10 hours your story better be captivating throughout... and it just wasn’t here for me…
    That being said im sure there are plenty out there that the idea of a visual novel meets turn based tactics rpg excited them…
    and for those people youre in for a great time… the banner saga is good at being just that…
    But its not for me..
    I give the banner Saga
    a 7/10    … Expand
  14. zimmer600
    Aug 18, 2017
    6
    A game worthy of being called a work of art, thanks to the talent of artists who created this masterpiece in graphic terms. And let our way is not long - impressions about the visual part remain unforgettable. But the gameplay and presentation of the story is weak.
  15. Nel
    Jul 18, 2017
    8
    Very fun and delightful RPG game. The game makes your choices really matter which is a nice for a change. It has nice mechanics and it has a simple battle system which also can be complex. The game is a treat to play.
  16. consolfreak1982
    Sep 30, 2016
    8
    The Banner Saga is a very well crafted and extremely atmospheric RTS developed by former Dragon Age/Bioware Members that Features not only one of the best 2D Artwork this Gen has seen so far, it Shocks you with consequences and draws you in with its fantastic narrative and addicting combat System - by all means, this game is far from being overly complex or strategic - its simple yetThe Banner Saga is a very well crafted and extremely atmospheric RTS developed by former Dragon Age/Bioware Members that Features not only one of the best 2D Artwork this Gen has seen so far, it Shocks you with consequences and draws you in with its fantastic narrative and addicting combat System - by all means, this game is far from being overly complex or strategic - its simple yet challenging. The only downside I could think of is that the game itself has a Kind of slow apporoach as most dialogue is text only. It pretty text-heavy and lenghty, but the Story and dialogue are exceptionell well written. If you like round based strategy games like Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem, then this should be on your top priority list right now - especially since part two just came out some ago and a third one will be released as well. Im sure the Banner Saga will be one of those Sagas that will stay in our minds for years to come.… Expand
  17. hokido
    Aug 31, 2016
    8
    Likeable characters and a great Nordic themed story and world and add in some very fine turn based combat that is challenging but not to the point were it becomes frustrating, you feel like you have accomplished something during combat, also add to the management of supplies and upgrading your key party members and you have a very good game.
  18. Cateye10
    Jul 24, 2016
    8
    The Banner Saga 2 è il perfetto seguito del primo e fortunato capitolo della trilogia progettata da Stoic. Non sono riuscito a trovare imperfezioni tali da rendere questo gioco meno appetibile del primo. Anzi, ho trovato TBS2 ancor più curato e piacevole, grazie anche ai moltissimi feedback che Stoic ha ricevuto attraverso i due anni che ci separano dal primo. La trama, il sistema diThe Banner Saga 2 è il perfetto seguito del primo e fortunato capitolo della trilogia progettata da Stoic. Non sono riuscito a trovare imperfezioni tali da rendere questo gioco meno appetibile del primo. Anzi, ho trovato TBS2 ancor più curato e piacevole, grazie anche ai moltissimi feedback che Stoic ha ricevuto attraverso i due anni che ci separano dal primo. La trama, il sistema di combattimento, il comparto grafico, la colonna sonora sono miscelate assieme ancora una volta per rendere anche questo secondo capitolo un piccolo capolavoro nel suo genere. La conversione per console non ha fatto perdere assolutamente niente al titolo, a parte il dover prendere confidenza con i comandi attraverso il pad. Ma in poco tempo anche questa differenza viene riassorbita dalle epiche vicende di questa avventura.
    Sicuramente a me, oltre che a divertirmi ed appassionarmi, ha fatto venire ancor più l'acquolina in bocca nell'attesa del terzo (conclusivo?) capitolo di questa Saga!    … Expand
  19. DevicsPrey
    May 26, 2016
    10
    I remember the feeble whispers travel through the vast quiet, creating a tender melody in their wake. I remember the ravenous night basking in aged candles’ shimmers as I walked to the wing chairs in front of the fireplace. I remember the person next me wearing an earnest expression as I silently sat down. After a few moments had past, he turned and asked me if I would like to hear aboutI remember the feeble whispers travel through the vast quiet, creating a tender melody in their wake. I remember the ravenous night basking in aged candles’ shimmers as I walked to the wing chairs in front of the fireplace. I remember the person next me wearing an earnest expression as I silently sat down. After a few moments had past, he turned and asked me if I would like to hear about legends of yore. I tacitly nodded in agreement and he went on to speak of humble men who traveled and fought across the lands to protect those dear to them, of heroes who sacrificed sweat and blood to stand against peril, of harsh choices to be made and crippling losses to endure, of faint hope and the distant promise of salvation.
    His voice, somber and heartfelt, as if he was recalling from memory. I remember hearing the sound of the burning timbers, watching the sparks engage in an intricate dance, and falling into reverie.
    This was my journey with the Banner Saga; a grand epic of all that is human, a masterful representation of our struggles with the world and our own emotions, a true testament that video games can accomplish more than any other medium. It is worthy of the greatest praise and approbation for achieving such feats. I expectantly await as the rest of this spectacular odyssey unfolds.    … Expand
  20. TheBigGorilla
    Mar 8, 2016
    8
    Here's everything you need to know:

    This is a strategy game in the same genre as Fire Emblem or XCOM. You manage a squad of members as you trek away from impending doom as a result of the sun suddenly stopping in the sky. You fight battles with up to 6 members at a time as you try to balance good leadership decisions with maintaining food for the caravan and what to do with the    Here's everything you need to know:

    This is a strategy game in the same genre as Fire Emblem or XCOM. You manage a squad of members as you trek away from impending doom as a result of the sun suddenly stopping in the sky.

    You fight battles with up to 6 members at a time as you try to balance good leadership decisions with maintaining food for the caravan and what to do with the strays and thieves you discover en-route.

    The only perma-death you encounter is solely reliant on the text choices you make (they cannot die in battle), which would make the combat feel empty if it wasn't for the ranking system. You need to reach kill milestones in order to allow your characters to level up, and each person can hold one item. The strategy and the depth that occurs just from those two elements becomes complex if you're a person looking to maximize efficiency and spend an extra handful of hours to plan out how to best utilize your characters.

    While there is no perma-death, if a teammate dies in combat they will have a health penalty if they are not fully healed before the next battle. The rate of the healing process is defined by the difficulty level you choose.

    I have two complaints: the game is short and there are too few battles. There are 7 chapters, but the first two are basically tutorials that mix explaining lore with explaining the game mechanics, and also briefly covers the consequences of your choices. Chapters 3-5 is the bulk of the game, and 6-7 involves the building up of the climax. Personally I found the ending to be too open-ended. But it didn't feel unsatisfactory due to a lack of plot, it just feels like the story was built to handle more information. It's presumably the end of the world, and the game leaves you and your caravan at its most vulnerable state. The dreariness has a feel of "there's something coming," and that atmosphere still lingers after credits. I was ready to take on more.

    Depending on how you play, there is only about 10-20 battles in the entire game. I appreciate games like this that don't implement cheap ways of keeping gamers busy or lengthening the game with ridiculous mechanics, but I was hoping for a more fleshed out, in-depth game that naturally lasts longer than this game did.

    TLDR: Buy this game if you are itching for a re-playable and appealing RPG strategy game, as long as you can overlook its less-appealing attributes (very short, less combat than expected, loose plot dynamics). The charm alone is what convinced me to play, and for some that's all you need. But for most, be prepared to buy the sequel for closure.    … Expand
  21. Allthat
    Jan 25, 2016
    9
    I absolutely love this game... I'll go so far as to say its one of my all time favorites. I've played through this game a few times now and replaying a game is something I never do (except Tomb Raider, man I love that game), and to be honest that actually says a lot about this game. The tactical combat is addicting and story tears me every time. Plus, if lore is your thing then there'sI absolutely love this game... I'll go so far as to say its one of my all time favorites. I've played through this game a few times now and replaying a game is something I never do (except Tomb Raider, man I love that game), and to be honest that actually says a lot about this game. The tactical combat is addicting and story tears me every time. Plus, if lore is your thing then there's plenty of it. The thing however that I love the most is the Viking theme that is very central to this game.

    In my opinion this game is a perfect 10 but the reason I'm giving it a 9 is because this PS4 port sucks, not that it's bad or anything but this game is meant to be played on a PC. It's a tactical game and playing it with a controller doesn't feel right. Just go play this on a PC... even the **** PC's can run this.    … Expand
  22. Datamari
    Jan 18, 2016
    9
    Impressive!
    The Banner Saga is a tactics RPG with an incredible art style. The game starts off slow, but once you have a full party of characters, it gets good. Think of it as a more engaging Fire Emblem. The story is very good, and throughout the game, you'll have a series of tough decisions to make that can either give you a reward, or a major penalty. You also have to manage    Impressive!
    The Banner Saga is a tactics RPG with an incredible art style. The game starts off slow, but once you have a full party of characters, it gets good. Think of it as a more engaging Fire Emblem. The story is very good, and throughout the game, you'll have a series of tough decisions to make that can either give you a reward, or a major penalty. You also have to manage resources, such as supplies and morale. The combat is great; it has a unique armor feature that effects your character's strength. Sure, it's not as flashy as other games, but it's still very fun, and takes some thinking to it. It's a solid game overall, and it should not be overlooked.

    The Banner Saga gets an 8/10.

    Also, don't tell the developers of Candy Crush Saga.    … Expand
  23. GreenMachineG
    Jan 17, 2016
    7
    The Banner Saga has an amazing art style that reminded me of a classic disney-esque or 80's cartoon type style. The game is drawn beautifully. Dialogue is well done, and having choices is always a plus. XCOM-style strategy/tile turn-based combat is one of my favorite types of combat so that being in this game was a blast. The only knock on the combat is it didn't feature much in the way ofThe Banner Saga has an amazing art style that reminded me of a classic disney-esque or 80's cartoon type style. The game is drawn beautifully. Dialogue is well done, and having choices is always a plus. XCOM-style strategy/tile turn-based combat is one of my favorite types of combat so that being in this game was a blast. The only knock on the combat is it didn't feature much in the way of obstacles like XCOM, it was always just an open square where you had to just place your guys in the right places and hope you didn't get surrounded. This also made retreat almost useless, so really all you could do is line them up and smash each other until you won or lost. Great story though, and a truly solid game overall. I would recommend The Banner Saga to anyone interested in Norse mythology/history, or to anyone who is a fan of turn-based RPGs or strategy type games.

    7.8/10    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

74
#74 Best PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Mar 7, 2016
    80
    Newly fashioned turn-by-turn combat elements, meaningful narrative choices and glorious bears make this Scandi strategy title an exciting breath of fresh air. [March 2016, p.94]
  2. The Digital Fix
    Feb 26, 2016
    80
    The Banner Saga can be unforgiving at times but it is worth all the effort.
    Read full review
  3. CGMagazine
    Feb 8, 2016
    80
    The Banner Saga's strong narrative, exquisite visual design and distinctive thematic approach to RPGs coupled with its insistence on making every decision and conversation have an impact on player experience make it a must-buy for Strategy-RPG fans.
    Read full review
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