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KickStarter The Banner Saga 3

Starwars

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I've been listening to some game soundtracks lately and I must say that Banner Saga 1 has one of the best soundtracks I've heard.

It's seriously amazing. Didn't find the second one to be nearly as good though.
 

Septaryeth

Augur
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
298
So basically BS3 is "we don't have a lot of money so we recolor the old enemies and give them better stats"? :P

By the end of BS2 you should have encountered these "warped" version of old enemies.
I think they are warped Dredge Scourge? You can kind of tell by the broken armor and their size, but the appearance and animations look completely different.
They also present different challenges as they come in small numbers with ridiculously high stats (that's right, they get to move twice because your team is bigger!), along with different abilities.

It's a pain to get through them, but I'll at least give them the credit of making some variety.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth



https://af.gog.com/game/banner_saga_3_preorder?as=1649904300

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/2159040

Backers, we have a Launch Date!
Posted by Khatie

Greetings, Backers!

We've got exciting news to share with you today - we have an official launch date!


Launch date!


We know many of you were excited that we were able to beat our original estimate of December (that never happens!) and we're excited to bring you the trilogy's conclusion this Summer. We're so grateful for all your support - this has been a six year journey from the seed of an idea, to the conclusion of an epic three-game saga. Thank you for all your support, and please mark your calendars!

Physical rewards coming soon!
For those of you who have backed at the physical tier reward levels, we plan to ship your swag out around that time as well. Shipping should be billed soon so watch for that email.

We already won an award! PAX East 2018 'Best Indie Game'!
Last week, part of Team Stoic traveled to Boston for PAX East to demo Banner Saga 3 on PC, and Banner Saga 1 and 2 on Nintendo Switch! Lead Designer Matt, Producer Zeb and Community Manager Katie had a great time chatting with fans at the booth, speaking on the RPG panel with Jesse Cox and sharing a pint at our Meet & Greet Friday night. And the best part is... we already won an award! Marooner's Rock honored us with 'Best Indie Game' out of all the awesome nominees. We're truly grateful to be acknowledged!

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Best Indie Game PAX 2018

Thanks to all the press and supporters who came out to see us, the game or to grab our Pinny Arcade Juno pin. We can't wait to get Banner Saga 3 into your hands this summer!

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Zeb with our amazing Cosplayers!

You can watch all the panels here on our YouTube channel.

Final Days for Austin's Kickstarter
Austin Wintory's Kickstarter - A Light in the Void - has reached full funding and there are a few days left to help reach the stretch goal!

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A Light in the Void

If you can, back this great project and share it with your friends!

Until the next update, and on behalf of all of us, thanks for helping make Banner Saga 3 a worthy finale to the trilogy.

Arnie, John and the Stoic Team
 
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toro

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8 months early release!? I think there is a high probability of a botched job.

They did not fix the combat, they are reusing the old locations (you basically travel back to the start of the story) and .... I guess they just want to wrap it up, sell this shit and go into Amazon's cozy arms.

Indie days are over for them.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/04/13/the-banner-saga-3-will-be-a-final-foray-into-darkness/

The Banner Saga 3 will be a final foray into darkness

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The bearded warrior looks exhausted. Part of a band of mercenaries, he blinks slowly at us. Even while the player chooses their next words, the crease-eyed humans and horned Varls of The Banner Saga 3 stand there, blinking slowly. Their hair fluttering, eyes searching you for intent. These are quiet moments of incidental detail. Twitching moustaches, billowing capes, tensing fists. They are looping animations, designed to bring life to otherwise static moments, but they are a smooth and subtle reminder that The Banner Saga remains one of the most beautifully animated game trilogies in existence. This tired axeman is just one of the finely-drawn fighters of the series finale. Arnie Jorgensen, Creative Director at Stoic, seems happy to let him rest.

“It’s really gratifying for me personally, as one of the people involved, to finish it,” he says to me, while showing the game at GDC. “Not only that but we’re finishing it to a better degree than we started… We’re not just finishing it, we’re finishing it strong.”

The first game, a turn-based strategy-RPG about humans and Varls travelling from one settlement to another, was welcomed by Alec and Adam as an “uncommonly beautiful” game of giants and conversation. Steven Messner’s Banner Saga 2 review called the sequel “almost as enchanting as cracking open the weathered pages of my favorite fantasy novels”. The final game in the trilogy will round off this story, taking the characters that have survived the player’s decision-making skills into a dark realm that’s slowly swallowing the rest of the world.

Your decisions have carried on, and the setting remains a fantasy dark age but one where this dark veil has spread over most of civilisation, alongside corrupted foes. You head behind this veil with a caravan of mercenaries to find “melted villages” and “forests curled like fish hooks”. The enemies, which still accost you on a polite, turn-based grid, are the misshapen victims of this atmosphere. Hunched archers and gnarled Varls. The ruins of Strand, a village from the first game, will also make an appearance.

But the caravan making their way through the darkness is only one side of the story. Another group of characters remains in a city called Arberrang, the only city that hasn’t been overtaken by the Dredge, the stoney, apocalyptic foes you’ve been fighting and fleeing from the whole series. Of course, it’s under siege and overcrowded (“Like a boiling pot,” says Jorgensen). You’ll still move from one area to another in the style of a long entourage. But this time it’s district-by-district, street-by-street. There’s nowhere else to go. As the besieged warriors of Arberrang, you’re trying to buy the caravan passing through the shroud enough time to do their thing – find the source of the darkness and stop it.

“One of the things we’re concentrating on in Banner Saga 3 is that we need to stick the ending of this,” says Jorgensen, who’s taking me through a demo of the battles. “If we don’t stick the ending – and it doesn’t matter what you’ve chosen along the way – you chose A, I chose B – if we don’t stick the ending then we’ve really failed in the whole thing. It’d feel like a disservice to the community, the story, everything.

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“We’ve really taken our time to make sure the endings are as satisfying as possible… It’s a very wide range of endings you can have in this game and they come back to decisions you’ve made in Banner Saga 1 and Banner Saga 2 which you thought could have been small decisions.”

Like the Mass Effect games, seeing a character die in the earlier Banner Sagas means they’re missing from the later games, whereas another player might have kept that character alive and well. A lost battle also doesn’t result in a “game over” screen. The story simply continues with some negative consequences. You can lose supplies or even one of your important heroes (and that attitude continues in the third instalment). This has made it increasingly difficult for Stoic to develop each successive game. The choices, victories and losses all grow into a twisted tree of possibilities, and they have to keep track of every branch.

“It also feels good to end it because I don’t think we could do another,” says Jorgensen. “It’s become unwieldy because we’re carrying through all the decisions you’ve made… so we’re also thinking: if we had to do a fourth, would the whole thing fall down upon itself? Collapse under it’s own weight?”

There have been a few imitators of the Banner Saga, mostly in their animation style. But if another studio wanted to copy their method of creating a branching storyline across multiple games, would Jorgensen recommend it?

“It’s a very weird template,” he says. “If I had talked to them I would have said ‘don’t do this’. You know, I think there’s a good reason why companies like BioWare do Dragon Age 1, and then Dragon Age 2 is totally different.

“I would tell people to be very careful about what we just did. It’s worked but man it gets dodgy. Like, will people be interested in your same gameplay for six years? I don’t know. It’s a concern. And we did it, or hopefully we’re doing it with Banner Saga 3, but it’s touch and go, you know.”

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Like he implies, the game itself hasn’t changed much in six years. This is still a world of turn-based battles and stat-boosting charms. But there have been some changes. In the darklands there’s a new turn counter. If you defeat all enemies before this “timer” runs out, then you can choose to flee before the next waves comes. Or you can take a breather and prepare for more baddies. It’s designed, says Jorgensen, to represent how the caravan in the darkness is under pressure, constantly attacked as they travel. But it’s also there for people who want to crack on with the journey. Wipe the board clean and you can move on.

Those looking to earn extra rewards and items can fight multiple waves. Between each wave, there’s a moment of respite in which you can see the direction from which your fresh foes will throw themselves into the fight. You also get a chance to put some of your fighters “on the bench” and replace them with healthy warriors. But these waves won’t be endless – they only go as high as four and there’s a final boss if you keep battling, who will drop shiny bits of equipment when you land the ultimate blow. That’s useful, as there aren’t exactly any mercantile geezers selling talismans by the side of the road in this hostile, purple haze.

There’s also new characters, bringing the count of notable heroes to 40. Bulwark is a strong, tanky warrior of the Dredge. That’s the traditional enemy of your clans but he’s now fighting alongside you, for reasons players of the second game might remember. He has the ill-tempered ability to slam the ground and knock everyone back. You also get to play as Juno, the shady lady who’s leading your band through the darkness, like some suspicious tour guide. If she falls in battle, she stays on the field as a spirit, and some purple glowing “fonts” appear on the grid. Order her ghost to walk over these fonts, then return to her body and she’ll be fully revived.

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There are more additions and tweaks. New charms and keepsakes, as well as all those carrying over from previous games. But there’s also a new system of giving your clansfolk special titles. You promote fighters with Renown (the equivalent of good ol’ XP) but you can also grant them a fierce name. The Wolf, The Mountain, The Foolish. All of these grant unique abilities and bonuses to stats. But you can’t double up, nor can you share titles between characters. There can be only one Mountain, for example. And if that character dies over the course of the story, you won’t get the title back. After all, who can live up to Bulwark the Granite One?

But as with previous games, the art and animation is its most striking feature. Some characters are based on the likenesses of developers themselves, or their other halves. Folka is based on the wife of the game’s writer, Alex Thomas. Yrsa is based on the partner of the studio’s co-founder John Watson. And that bearded warrior who looks so tired? That’s Petrus, aka Producer Zeb West. He’s also sitting with Jorgensen and I, talking about the game. Unfortunately my recorder doesn’t pick up his voice, but trust me, he looks less weary in real life.

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Alongside these faces you’ll find the visages of various Kickstarter backers. Character motions, meanwhile, were recorded in Jorgensen’s garden, then sent to be rotoscoped. It’s the same homebrew method they used for the previous games. Jorgensen’s biggest problem, when it comes to managing the animators, is that, if anything, they are too eager to make their characters look outstanding. He’s often telling them, he says, to tone it down.

“I’m constantly pulling them back and saying ‘more subtle, more subtle, more subtle’.”

But now that the Banner Saga is coming to a close, will the studio keep using the animation method that made their name? Will they keep making grid-based battlers? Or are they keen to try something altogether new?

“The only thing we know is that Stoic is going to be a company that’s known for strategy RPGs,” says Jorgensen. “And that doesn’t mean turn-based strategy but we love strategy in our games on some level, and we love RPGs. As far the art itself, we’ll get to that when we start getting deeper into the next game.”

For now, they plan to be “ankle deep” in DLC but admit that this plan is liable to change if the community’s interest in their striking, Viking world dries up. At which point, they’ll move onto the next thing. It doesn’t mean that the Banner Saga’s world will be abandoned, because they like this land of man and beast. But any future instalment would be divorced from the current trilogy.

“If we revisit The Banner Saga in the future,” says Jorgensen, “we’ll probably take a really different look at it.”

The Banner Saga 3 is scheduled to release on July 24
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-banner-saga-3/banner-saga-3-story-combat-characters

The Banner Saga 3's upgraded story and combat concludes the series in apocalyptic style

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The Darkness is approaching. That means a new tale of challenging decisions, complex battles, and ceaseless misery is on the way with The Banner Saga 3. The last game in Stoic Studio’s Nordic trilogy promises to conclude the caravan’s story in apocalyptic style. So you can be sure there are plenty of inventive new tricks that you’ll want to make use of in Rook, Alette, and Fasolt’s final stand.

Add a little frost to your summer
Stoic are determined to bring some frigid temperatures to your summer with The Banner Saga 3 release date set for July 24. So while it’s hot and sunny outside, you can transport yourself to the chilly world of Norse mythology, with its howling winds and frozen grounds.

You can pick up the game on Steam and GOG for $24.99 / £18.74 / €24.99, or splash out on one of the special editions. The Deluxe Edition - complete with soundtrack, wallpaper, digital map, and a Gold Wasp in-game item - will set you back $29.99 / £22.49 / €29.99. The Legendary Edition costs $39.99 / £29.99 / €39.99 and includes the Shadow Walker heroic title, Petrie Clan Ring legendary item, and a digital copy of the novel The Gift of the Hadrborg, plus everything in the Deluxe package.

Fight The Darkness on two fronts

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The third game in the Banner Saga trilogy will take into consideration every decision you’ve made in the series so far, and put you under increasing pressure. This time, the mysterious Darkness is close enough to breathe down your neck, so it’s time to face it head-on. To do so, you’ll need to fight on two fronts, the first of which will be at Arberrang, the capital city of men in Rundwall.

“The Darkness is pressing closer and closer to you,” Arnie Jorgensen, co-founder of Stoic, says. “The art [of the city] is dynamic and changes based on decisions you make. You may make an unwise decision which results in an entire part of the city being on fire. You might lose a wall. As these decisions are happening the whole art piece is going to be changing.”

If you’re concerned that this means The Banner Saga 3 is much more static than the previous games, don’t be. “There will be travel in Arberrang, but it is going to be close travel through city streets,” Jorgensen assures. “Ultimately, what you are trying to do is keep as many people alive as you can, holding off The Darkness and buying the other caravan time.”

Yes, this time you have two caravans to worry about. While your main camp in Arberrang concerns itself with bolstering the last line of defense, a second one is travelling towards danger to strike at its heart. This opens up a number of interesting routes to the game’s many different end states.

“It is possible that you lose Arberrang and The Darkness caravan continues to travel,” Jorgensen explains. “It is possible that you hold the enemy off long enough to buy enough time for the Darkness caravan to finish what they need to do and maybe save Arberrang. The endings are going to be wildly divergent based on what you do.”

Clash swords with warped and twisted creatures

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As your second caravan is literally travelling through The Darkness you should expect The Banner Saga 3’s enemies to be even more ferocious than before. You’ll be attacked by soldiers that have been mutated into purple creatures with serrated edges and evil eyes. “They have new passive abilities since they've been warped,” Jorgensen explains. “They have heightened statistics.”

There are more threats to be discovered inside The Darkness, though. Those alone will make battle a more bitter struggle than before, especially as you are surrounded by The Darkness on all sides this time around. “In combat there is actually now a turn counter, where literally in each fight you are racing against the clock as well,” Jorgensen says. “If the turn counter reaches zero, another wave attacks you.”

This adds increasing pressure to The Banner Saga’s chess-like combat encounters. Should you be able to eliminate every foe from the field before the timer runs out, you are able to flee and continue the story. But, if you run out of time, more enemies will enter the battle. It’s easy to become overwhelmed should you fail to keep on top of things, but those who can withstand multiple waves will be confronted by minibosses who drop special items when defeated.

Long-term Banner Saga players have come to rely on willpower to aid in achieving victory. While willpower remains a key mechanic for The Banner Saga 3, the magical Horn - which bestowed characters with extra willpower points - has been taken away. Replacing it is a character-led system that requires you to position your warriors together in order to buff each other with extra points. Combat positioning has always been a vital skill but it is now of paramount importance.

Battle alongside new and returning heroes

Surviving characters from The Banner Saga 2 will act as the foundation of your forces in the third game, but they are joined by new or changed personalities. One of The Banner Saga 3’s new additions is Alfrun the witch. “She's the first character who can give strength to another character,” Jorgensen says. “It's a bit overpowered, but in The Darkness you're going to need it.”

Alfrun is able to cast spells such as Ride the Lightning, a magic attack that allows you to dive into combat. “The further she travels, the more damage she does,” Jorgensen explains. “So you might want to pose her behind a tank, jump in, do damage, and get back.”

Returning from past games is Juno, but this time she’s an active combat party member rather than a passive character who exists on the sidelines. “Juno has been a mysterious character throughout the saga,” Zeb West, producer at Stoic, says. “She seems to know what's been going on but she's been really tight lipped. Now she's playable on the battlefield. An interesting ability she has is that, if she dies, she goes into this ghost world and awakens.”

The spirit realm acts as a minigame within combat, and requires Juno to travel to fonts on the battlefield where she can collect dark energy. This matter is able to resurrect Juno, with more time she spends collecting it in the spirit realm resulting in her being stronger when she returns to the waking world. You’ll need to assess the risk, though: if everyone else dies while Juno is still in the spirit realm, it’s game over. So, be careful, as Arberrang and the rest of the world are relying on you.

The Banner Saga 3 releases for PC on July 24. It will be available on Steam and GOG.com.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Can't embed video: https://www.gamereactor.eu/news/656373/The+Banner+Saga+3+wont+be+jarringly+different+from+the+rest/

The Banner Saga 3 won't be "jarringly different" from the rest
Zeb West explained how importantly consistency is for them.

The Banner Saga 3 is coming our way this summer, and at PAX East we got the chance to talk with Stoic's Zeb West and Matt Rhoades about the new features in the game, where we found out that the core principles aren't being changed all that much.

So players of The Banner Saga enjoy our tactical combat, and we're building off of that," West said. "It's not gonna be jarringly different, because hopefully players will play through the entire trilogy and have an even experience, so we don't want to like suddenly shake it up on them."

"But we did add a couple of new combat features. In the darkness battles there'll now be a turn counter, so with this party going into the darkness it's kind of a race against time, so we want to kind of reflect that in the combat. So now there's a turn counter where, if you don't defeat the waves, the enemies, in time, another wave will appear. If you do defeat the enemies, you can choose to fight another wave of enemies with the chance of greater rewards. You can get a mini-boss that drops an item, and that's the only way to get items in the darkness."
 

Swampy_Merkin

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I've been listening to some game soundtracks lately and I must say that Banner Saga 1 has one of the best soundtracks I've heard.

It's seriously amazing. Didn't find the second one to be nearly as good though.

I loved the score to TBS so much (and the end of it moved me so much) that as I started the 2nd installment I decided, "nope....I'm just going to wait till #3 is out and then I'll start again from the beginning."

Lo and Behold, my wish for #3 is already there in 2 months....hope they didn't rush that shit to grab whatever cash was left from whatever good will was left after the 2nd.

The 1st installment left me rapt.....please don't fuck me Alex Thomas....I mean please fuck me the right way baby....
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


What are menders Juno and Eyvind up to and what part will they play as the end of the saga draws near? They have proven to be powerful allies thus far, but even Juno’s own order sentenced her to death for a reason.

Does she really have your best interests at heart? Or is she driven by a darker underlying motive? So many questions remain unanswered.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3/posts/2200016

Soundtrack Preview and Banner Bearer Update!
Posted by Khatie

Greetings, Backers!
We are in the final stretch with Banner Saga 3, working tirelessly to bring this saga to its epic conclusion! We will send another update very *soon* with the shipping costs and more details on how to get your names confirmed for the Banner Saga 3 credits. But in the meantime...


Austin's new Official Soundtrack Preview Video!

Austin Wintory has created a preview of the Official Soundtrack for Banner Saga 3 and it's here for you to enjoy! He's crafted an incredible musical journey from the fields of battle to the depths of the darkness, surging with the last hopes of the survivors, and marching toward the epic conclusion to the saga! You can check it out here:


Exciting Change to the "Banner Bearer" Reward Tier!

Recently the team prototyped a much more fun and interesting way to fulfill the "Banner Bearer" tier reward of "Customize Lead Caravan Character".

You may recall that the original description was:

"Some strong clansman, male or female, must carry the banner for the caravan! We'll give you the ability to customize a unique character, to hold the banner aloft, for your traveling in-game caravan."

Well when we started to work more on this feature, it became clear there was a better way of doing things! We'll let Arnie explain:

"When we got deeper into the way the Banner Bearer reward worked it became readily apparent that the hero holding the banner was going to be simply too small to see and, well, not very cool. As I looked at the caravan it was clear that a great element to customize would be the ever present cart that holds the banner. I mocked up three ideas for it and the team all thought it was way cooler. I think we can come up with a lot of really different and interesting designs for people to have fun with." - Arnie Jorgensen, Art Director

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Banner Bearer Concept
What do you think?
We'd love to hear from you about this change in the way we are hoping to fulfill this part of your Banner Bearer (and above) tier reward. Please let us know in the comments below!

Thank you to all backers for your continued support and encouragement as we put the finishing touches on Banner Saga 3!

Banner Saga Trilogy at Steam Summer Sale!
Tell all your friends the time is ripe to play Banner Saga now in preparation for Banner Saga 3 coming in July. The trilogy is on sale now for 55% off during Steam's Summer Sale!


Steam Summer Sale!

Come Celebrate Launch with Team Stoic!
Stoic is planning a launch party for Banner Saga 3 with our fans! It will be in Seattle on Tuesday, August 7 from 6-9 PM. We would like to gauge the interest in numbers to start to plan out the scope of this, so please take this very short survey to help us out!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S3LaunchPartyInterest

Thank you! And until next time, stay cool!

Arnie, John and the Stoic Team
 
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Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-banner-saga-3/the-banner-saga-3-story

Despite its epic scale, The Banner Saga 3 hasn't lost its human focus

The Banner Saga is at its best when the race for survival that underpins the trilogy is brought to the fore. Dwindling supplies encourage a desperate scrabble to the next settlement in order to prevent your people from starving. An ambush means your entire caravan is forced to rush across a collapsing bridge. Moments like these stick in my mind just as clearly as some of the series’ most desperate battles. Which is why The Banner Saga 3’s realisation of the end of the world makes it Stoic’s most arresting effort yet.

The third game will be instantly recognisable to fans of the series. I’m playing Rook’s storyline, carried over from the previous two games. Rook is a hunter who has leadership thrust upon him as he is forced to uproot his village and travel west. Following on immediately from the events of The Banner Saga 2, this threequel opens on his attempt to gain access to the human capital of Arberrang, which is under siege from an army of statuesque Dredge.

Meanwhile, in the game’s parallel narrative, Juno and Eyvind - a pair of magical Menders - are heading east. Along with a collection of mercenaries known as the Ravens, they’re attempting to turn back the world-ending darkness that is driving the Dredge into the path of the humans and their uneasy allies, the gigantic horned Varl.

The story alternates between Rook and Juno’s dialogue-driven narratives with a number of turn-based battles woven in between to heighten the drama. Rook’s story focuses on the situation in Arberrang where he is forced to considers what it means to be a leader as traditional societal hierarchies collapse. Not only does he attempt to maintain the fragile peace between the city’s rival houses, he tries to turn back the armies of Dredge piling up outside the walls..

In the other narrative, Juno and the band of mercenaries she’s tentatively won over advance into the darkness. It’s here that enemies new to The Banner Saga are discovered. Twisted by the darkness, the Warped have a special attack that allows them to drain strength from your units which is then added to their own reserves. When they’re defeated, these enemies crumble into piles of ash that remain on the battlefield.

banner%20saga%20screenshot%201.jpg


If your units pass through the ash then they’ll lose willpower - a resource required to empower your attacks - while enemy units will be buffed if they step on their fallen allies. It’s a repeated reminder that you’re surrounded by the end of everything. Nothing seems to have survived the darkness, and the stress of being the last left alive in that environment is fracturing the disparate group of fighters both in and out of battle.

The situation isn’t getting any better from Rook’s perspective by this point, either. Arberrang lies with the open ocean on one side and an army of Dredge and a wall of darkness on the other. Having brought his people from one end of the known world to the other, Rook is now trapped in a besieged city on the brink of civil war. In a way I’ve not seen the saga manage so far, Rook and his ever-swelling caravan are pulled from pillar to post, stretched thin as they simply try to survive. To make matters worse, the citizens of Arberrang aren’t willing to cooperate even as they face not one, but two threats to their very existence.

banner%20saga%20screenshot%202.jpg


The sense of desperation and hardship that the two narratives put forward, albeit in very different ways, are what The Banner Saga has always been about. Even at times of peace, when you look deeper into the world that Stoic has created, you see references to war, famine, and hardship everywhere you go. As the series comes to a dramatic head, it’s impressive to see that despite the fantastical threat looming on the horizon, the difficulty in scraping out a living that defines this world is still woven seamlessly into the game.
 

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:roll: https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-banner-saga-3/the-banner-saga-3-dredge

The Banner Saga 3 devs are "definitely aware" of the game's political parallels

dredge%20banner%20saga.jpg


The developers of The Banner Saga say they “haven’t shied away from” the political parallels that can be drawn with their game. With the final chapter of the apocalyptic Norse trilogy due to release next month, some themes in Stoic’s game bear striking similarities to hot-button political topics.

If you’re unfamiliar with The Banner Saga, it follows a caravan of refugees as they flee across their known world. Hot on their heels are an army of Dredge, statuesque armored figures feared and hated by the two civilisations that occupy most of The Banner Saga’s map. As the saga has continued, however, the concept that the Dredge are simple bad guys has been challenged, and as everyone huddles together at the end of the world, it’s easy to come to pity your enemies.

In an interview with PCGN, lead designer Matt Rhodes and lead developer Alex Thomas said that although the foundations of the story were set out six years ago, developers Stoic haven’t avoided the geopolitical parallels that can be drawn between their games and real-world refugee crises.

Thomas says that those comparisons were “quite a coincidence for us, but I don’t think we shied away from it. What I'm really happy with how it turned out was that we're not telling you what to think either. You have the choice to go either way, and that's always been an important aspect for us. You have the choice to do the thing that you want to do. There's going to be a consequence that you might not like, but we tried to keep it as unbiased as possible. We tried to write it in a way that feels like this is what actually would happen as a consequence of your actions. But yeah, you'll see parallels if you look for them, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.”

Rhodes went on to say that “we’ve definitely been aware [of the current political climate]” while developing the game. He even says that he joked during development about putting Rugga, who Thomas describes as “the most despised character in the game” in a ‘Make Arberrang Great Again’ hat, in a reference to the human capital of The Banner Saga’s world.

Thomas says that while “we’re not being that overt,” characters in the game “are dehumanised to a large degree.” Despite the history and lore of the game directing players to hate and fear the Dredge, he says that “it’s the players decision whether they’re going to accept that the Dredge might be more like them and they want to protect them or not.”

The Banner Saga 3 releases next month, but you can check our Banner Saga 3 preview right now. Alternatively, check out our Banner Saga 3 tips guide if you’re replaying the first or second (or both) parts of the trilogy ahead of the climactic finale.
 

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http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/120930-the-banner-saga-3-recap-video-previews.html

On top of that, a number of outlets got a chance to play through a preview version of the game recently, and we can now see what they thought about it. Let's start with PCGamesN:

The sense of desperation and hardship that the two narratives put forward, albeit in very different ways, are what The Banner Saga has always been about. Even at times of peace, when you look deeper into the world that Stoic has created, you see references to war, famine, and hardship everywhere you go. As the series comes to a dramatic head, it’s impressive to see that despite the fantastical threat looming on the horizon, the difficulty in scraping out a living that defines this world is still woven seamlessly into the game.

Then see what RPG Site has to say:

We’ve gotten a chance to try out the first few chapters of The Banner Saga 3, set to release late in July for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and the final game in this trilogy pulls no punches in its beginning. Almost immediately, players are thrust into a difficult battle wherein Rook’s (or Allette’s) army must break through the gates of the last bastion of humanity, trying to find safety from the all-consuming darkness. It’s a tense beginning, and it really drives home the desperation of the situation.

Rook’s starting chapters throw a new wrench in the survival of the clan--politics. It’s no longer simply about getting the group to safety and fighting the enemies that get in your way. Now, players have to carefully choose their words well, as the wrong words at the wrong time can have more disastrous effects than a Dredge attack. While a player’s choices and consequences mattered before, they’re even more important now as Rook faces the end of days and the chaos steadily making its way to his doorstep.​

And here's GameSkinny's take on the demo:

We really enjoyed the strategic combat that the series is known for, and the art and animation are as beautiful as ever. On the downside, the music seems to be a little more generic than that of past entries, and we had a little difficulty with unit control on the battlefield (sometimes units will get hidden behind others, making it difficult to accurately command them). There are also some distracting grammatical errors in the game’s dialogue, but hopefully, those will be fixed before launch.

On the whole, we’re looking forward to finishing the game and seeing what the ending brings. With all the twists and turns that the first three chapters alone have had, we’re sure that the ending will be a treat to experience.​

And TechRaptor's impressions:

The Banner Saga 3 has shot up to be one of my most anticipated titles. The excellently crafted epic fantasy is currently in its crescendo, and I can’t wait to see it at its peak. I can’t say whether the story will end in a satisfying way, but the journey so far has been a joy to soak in. Combat has some good additions, and the density of meaningful decisions I’ve made in such a short time is much higher than at any point in the first two games. Everything’s on track for this to be an incredible end to an amazing series.​

A few words from GameSpew:

It’s hard to play The Banner Saga and not draw parallels to Game of Thrones. They’re both gripping tales of bravery, politics and conflict. Unlike Game of Thrones, however, in The Banner Saga it’s you calling the shots. You’re the one making the hard decisions and living with them. But as we move into the final throes of both sagas we’re left with trepidation. There will be shocks, there will be surprises, and there will be deaths. But there’ll also be closure; good or bad. And you know what? I’m looking forward to it.​
 
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lol at "political parallels"
most rapefugees are escaping poverty, not running from the world crumbling beneath them.
 

ItsChon

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
While not perfect, the story has been adequate enough to keep me interested. The second wasn't as good as the first, but still definitely acceptable. I just hope they don't try to drown the game with new features and focus on wrapping everything in a satisfying way that doesn't involve any bullshit political propaganda.

Game would have been way better if it was just one big finished product though.
 

Ivan

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Yeah, I liked the part where you get to play Vegeta.
 

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