The Banner Saga Trilogy – Review

The Banner Saga has enjoyed quite a bit of success as a great Strategy RPG on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One for a while now. So it was only a matter of time before the game would get ported to Nintendo Switch. Thankfully, the Switch port is just as good as it’s other versions.

The game is about the bronze age Viking era, where you’ll be facing an apocalypse as you shift between the perspectives of different characters and their individual groups, and the decisions you make will carry over into the sequels, which are all out on the Switch. There is also a resource management aspect to the game, where members of your armies can die permanently. This makes the game also feel a bit like Oregon Trail in a way. But most of the time the game plays host to text and voice acted cutscenes. The story is interesting, and the choices really do matter, as there are different ways to solve problems or different battles to fight. The visual style is also done in a Western-styled comic book with a bit of the flair seen in works like Aeon Flux.

Combat seems at first glance to be a simple affair of deciding to either move your character or hold their ground, as you typically can’t do both if you move too far away, but the game does give you a few options there. If you move beyond your acceptable range, you can spend willpower to take another action, or augment the strength of your attack. Another thing you can do is chip away at the enemies defense level, so other characters can inflict more damage, and in some cases, any damage. The not being able to damage an enemy without reducing their armor first is especially true in the third game, as arrows and other weaker attacks can be deflected quite reliably. This is thanks to a more defined deflect mechanic. The last bit of gameplay quirks come from the Pillage mode, which is activated when there is only one enemy left. Getting desperate to survive, the enemy will get a bit tougher. Of course, each character has special attacks or skills that let them do a variety of things, so approaches to battles can be quite varied. You gain levels in this game mostly from accruing kills with one character, which does make it a bit difficult for weaker characters to keep up with the heavier hitters. This changes in the last two entries, where you just spend Renown. You can change the nature of how your passive abilities work as well, leading to further customizations.

The only failings that this game has is the aforementioned permadeath of your army, and that higher difficulties need your wounded player characters to rest. And the resource management can also detract newcomers to the genre from being able to fully enjoy the game. And even on the easiest difficulty, the game can be pretty unforgiving at the beginning. The fact that combat pacing just overall feels slower than maybe it should be. Their third game especially seems to suffer from slow down on the Switch, but that’s something that can likely get fixed. But it’s a shame that there weren’t as many quality of life improvements across each entry, let alone globally. These games are for better or worse, straight port jobs. But even with that, The Banner Saga is a fun game and offers more promising second and third entries. If you are a fan of strategy RPG wit a bit of a stiff challenge, this game comes recommended. However, I highly recommend carrying your save data over and starting from the beginning instead of hopping to either parts 2 or 3. Trust me.

Editors Note: This review was updated on July 26, 2018 to reflect Eric’s thoughts on the entire Banner Saga Trilogy.

Verdict

A fun, but a bit slow Strategy RPG with some resource management elements that somewhat detract from the experience.

Score: 8

Positives

The gameplay is simple yet still hard to master.

The Story is very interesting, with multiple ways to solve problems.

Negatives

Combat flow feels a bit slower than it should.