THE BANNER SAGA: FACTIONS - If Don Bluth Created a Tactics Game
The Banner Saga’s animation style brings to mind animated classics like An American Tale or games like Dragon’s Lair mixed with some Viking inspired lore. Beneath its beautiful looks and fluid hand drawn animation, however, lies an interesting and deep turn-based combat game, at least from what I’ve experienced so far, and that’s without even getting to touch the promised choice driven single player story. Interested? Read on brother, this might be the game for you.
Its probably worth noting that I only had my initial viewing of Thor: The Dark World just 2 days ago, so with Banner’s Viking roots I now have an excuse to use words like Tis, Henceforth, and an overuse of the word brother.
To Arms!
Okay, I’m good now. Anyway, for those interested in The Banner Saga, it's worth noting it was developed by just three people--Alex Thomas, Arnie Jorgensen, and John Watson. Together they form Stoic Studios and are planning on releasing Banner Saga on 01/14/14, so peep the trailer below to see a bit of it in action.
If you’re left wanting more, fear not, brother! Thou hath just the thing, and it's The Banner Saga: Factions, the just released free to play multiplayer portion of the game that can be found on Steam right now (for both PC and Mac), and if you’re not already clicking, then get to stepping because it's worth sinking your time into. You can head to the town hall to recruit some base soldiers and take your team into battle against others of a similar level, or if you’re more of stat pusher, you can head to the battlegrounds to tweak your character's stat points and rename and classify your units to your heart's content. While you can’t do a ton at the beginning, once you get some renown under your belt (the game's level up currency gained by slaying enemies) you’ll be promoting units and have a team made up of various obscure Green Lanterns in no time.
Hmm, that last part might be just me. Who doesn’t love a warrior named Tomar-Re?
The game has its attacks split into 2 types. You can either weaken the enemies armor or try to do direct damage to their body, but chipping away a few turns at their equipment is beneficial in the long run. It might take you a few extra turns to win, but it's the best way to ensure you can pull out a victory. Each unit also has a set amount of abilities pertaining to their class, but the biggest difference in battle is willpower. Each unit has a set amount of willpower that they enter battle with, and that source is finite and does not replenish. Willpower allows you to either move farther or put more damage into your attack. You can choose to get 1 willpower back by not doing anything, but that is a risk in itself since spending a turn replenishing 1 will can turn the entire battle around giving the other person what amounts to a free turn. The scarcity also quickened the pace of battle overall, as you won’t have a ton of characters sitting on the corner of the battlefield not doing anything just to get some extra will.
The Banner Saga: Factions is incredibly addicting and fun, and it just makes me even more stoked to get my hands on the full single player experience. If you’re up for a game, hit me up on Steam at KnightofOA.