Banner Saga is out today. It’s certainly lovely, and any turn-based game should be proud to have artwork this nice. I remember Jean d’Arc on the PSP was pretty, but you can’t beat a big ol’ computer screen to bring to life this kind of animation, even if it’s not very animated. These are a lot of talking heads, with the bare minimum of drifting snowflakes, wafting Nordic braids, and fluttering capes, but they’re far prettier than the average talking heads.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, it seems like Banner Saga is a series of dull tactical combats with a whole lotta storyline between every battle and a character development system with broad simple strokes. And then a whole lot more storyline. At a time when I could be fighting richly detailed battles in Card Hunter or Fallen Enchantress, why am I poking around with this basic system, which turns into a bit of a mess thanks to the uncompromising 2D graphics and the not very good interface. Can you figure out what’s going on in the above screenshot? Do I have a dude behind those tall black robot guys? How do I rotate the camera? And why do I get to see the numbers, but not how they work? Since the artwork is so pretty, am I not supposed to care so much about the math? <\/p>\n
It’s still early. I’m only three chapters in, with no telling how many to go. At this point in a tactical SRPG, I’d just be getting warmed up. So maybe there’s a lot more to reveal as Banner Saga goes on. But it’s not looking very promising. I didn’t know I was signing on for a pretty cartoon with a lot of dialogue about some burly Norse guys and some humans and some evil black robots and occasional primitive tactical battles. Personally, I was hoping for a tactical combat game first and foremost, with a strategic level where I managed varied interesting characters and made meaningful choices, with a bunch of historical flavor on top. Fortunately, I haven’t uninstalled Expeditions: Conquistador.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Banner Saga is out today. It’s certainly lovely, and any turn-based game should be proud to have artwork this nice. I remember Jean d’Arc on the PSP was pretty, but you can’t beat a big ol’ computer screen to bring to life this kind of animation, even if it’s not very animated. These are a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games"],"yoast_head":"\n