Banner Saga 1, 2, and 3

[Correct_Carlo]

If these games have a thread, I couldn't find it. I'm playing Banner Saga 1, and attempting to finish it. I've started it multiple times before, but always get distracted.

Also, it's a terrible game for me to play as it's incredibly hard and losses compound. So I'm constantly replaying battles to get zero knockouts because if you get knocked out your character loses health for 4-5 days.

It's incredibly difficult on hard. Or, to be accurate, the main battles aren't that difficult, but because of my autism, I feel compelled to play every single War battle on Hard and always play the second battle, which is really hard on hard.

It's a great game, though. Totally underrated. It was well reviewed and everything, but no one talks about it any longer. My only issue with it is that there's not much variety of moves. Everyone basically just has 1 or 2 special moves and that's it.

 

[normie]

shit games

 

[Sarathiour]

I'm not going to be bother searching for the original thread, but the combat system is pants-on-head retard, and as such, I could never go further than the first two fight.

 

[Jvegi]

I remember one of the first fights was rigged to have 2 of your guys dead. You could save them if you really tried, but in the cutscene after, they were dead regardless.

My gf played through it and enjoyed it. I couldn't get into it, haven't really tried, even though I could see the potential for some fun times. The same with Pyre.

 

[Parabalus]

If these games have a thread, I couldn't find it. I'm playing Banner Saga 1, and attempting to finish it. I've started it multiple times before, but always get distracted.

Also, it's a terrible game for me to play as it's incredibly hard and losses compound. So I'm constantly replaying battles to get zero knockouts because if you get knocked out your character loses health for 4-5 days.

It's incredibly difficult on hard. Or, to be accurate, the main battles aren't that difficult, but because of my autism, I feel compelled to play every single War battle on Hard and always play the second battle, which is really hard on hard.

It's a great game, though. Totally underrated. It was well reviewed and everything, but no one talks about it any longer. My only issue with it is that there's not much variety of moves. Everyone basically just has 1 or 2 special moves and that's it.

Great games, gets a bit too much of them same if you play them all in succession.

The first game is extremely brutal on Hard, much more difficult than, e.g., AoD or even Underrail on DOMINATING. There is some luck involved because what items you get is randomized.

You get some new abilities in Banner 2 and 3, but not too many.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

They're tacticool games pretending to be RPGs.
And tacticool games with bad combat are just bad games, sadly.

 

[AdamReith]

The first game would make a decent chapter 1 of a serious game.

The second game was the same battle over and over with a non-sensical story thrown in to justify the lazy churned out content. Finished it and can't remember a single thing that happened.

Didn't bother with the third one. Seems to me like another case of front loaded episodic gaming where the developers lost any kind of interest in making something decent after the first episode was pushed out the door.

I'd recommend the first one though if you are interested in a promising demo with cool art and atmosphere.

 

[Darth Canoli]

It's incredibly difficult on hard. Or, to be accurate, the main battles aren't that difficult, but because of my autism, I feel compelled to play every single War battle on Hard and always play the second battle, which is really hard on hard.

It's a great game, though. Totally underrated. It was well reviewed and everything, but no one talks about it any longer. My only issue with it is that there's not much variety of moves. Everyone basically just has 1 or 2 special moves and that's it.

Banner Saga 1 is quite hard, up until you get the right items and nothing is hard anymore (I also played on hard), but maybe I was lucky with the items I found/bought, only played it once and I don't plan on replaying it.

The armor + health system, which inspired DOS 2 retardation with a double armor system this time is quite bad but it kind of works anyway because current health = damage dealt, that's the best thing about its combat system.

The first game would make a decent chapter 1 of a serious game.

The second game was the same battle over and over with a non-sensical story thrown in to justify the lazy churned out content. Finished it and can't remember a single thing that happened.

Didn't bother with the third one. Seems to me like another case of front loaded episodic gaming where the developers lost any kind of interest in making something decent after the first episode was pushed out the door.

I'd recommend the first one though if you are interested in a promising demo with cool art and atmosphere.

The first one is good and I recommend it, the second one is decent, if you liked the first one, it's good enough if you play it 1 year later or more.
The third one is worse than the second, they made it only because they promised a trilogy to the fans (or backers?) and clearly, they shouldn't have.

TL DR: Play the first one, interesting story with good combat once you get used to it and get the hang on the combat system.

 

[JarlFrank]

The third one is worse than the second, they made it only because they promised a trilogy to the fans (or backers?) and clearly, they shouldn't have.

That's why the episodic model sucks. You lock yourself into making the exact same game three times in a row (episodes aren't even like sequels where you can change things a little to keep it fresh, they're literally the same game just that you cut the campaign into bits rather than releasing it all at once), and if you lose motivation you can't abort the project and start something new because then your released episodes will stand as parts of an unfinished work which lowers the motivation of players to buy your game, because the campaign's story won't conclude.

If you can't afford to make a long game in one go, just write a shorter story. Not every game's story has to be novel length.

 

[Technomancer]

the combat system is pants-on-head retard

I think they had something going with Health bar = Str/Damage. It's definitely unorthodox and I wouldn't like to see it anywhere else but it kinda makes sense. You can't really fight at full power when wounded or close to death.

 

[Sarathiour]

the combat system is pants-on-head retard

I think they had something going with Health bar = Str/Damage. It's definitely unorthodox and I wouldn't like to see it anywhere else but it kinda makes sense. You can't really fight at full power when wounded or close to death.

That in itself is fine, the problem is when you pair it with the turn system.

The game is hard because the whole system is rigged against you : the combat system punsih focused damage toward a target, and force you to split damage across everyone to avoid the blitz of a full heath character at the end, but also reward the enemy in doing so by killing or maiming the character for the rest of the campaign.

 

[Starwars]

I really enjoyed the first game. Not that it was perfect in any way, because it sure isn't, but it felt really fresh and unique when it came out. I found the combat system pretty fun despite its weirdness. The soundtrack for the first game is also one of my all time favorites.

2 and 3 are still worth playing but I didn't find them nearly as engrossing as the first. In fact, I can't really remember much about them. They didn't leave much of a mark.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

the combat system is pants-on-head retard

I think they had something going with Health bar = Str/Damage. It's definitely unorthodox and I wouldn't like to see it anywhere else but it kinda makes sense. You can't really fight at full power when wounded or close to death.

That's the one, single, mechanic that makes the entire game not shit. Rather than being a static stat, strength becomes a precious resource that needs to be protected and managed because even if your entire team is alive, if they are weakened, they can all only do as much damage as their strength allows them to. Honestly, I wish more games would do this. They kind of already do with things like mana pools, but it's not the same. In Banner Saga, STR is impossible to replenish. If you lose it you're fucked. However, what's unique about it is that if you don't get hit, your STR is as powerful at the start, as it is at the end, so it's not really like a mana pool in the classical sense. It's more a resource that's managed through how well you play. The better you play, the stronger you are, while the worse you play, the quicker you die.

Anyhow, I played one, single, battle over and over and over last night, trying to beat a War event on "Charge!" (which is the hardest instance) and survive 2 battles in a row. Maybe I suck, but I'm about 90% sure it's not possible this early in the game, at least not with my current caravan. Although, I haven't examined items much. Maybe items are insanely great and I'm just not realizing it.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

My gf played through it and enjoyed it. I couldn't get into it, haven't really tried, even though I could see the potential for some fun times. The same with Pyre.

Pyre is a simplistic sportsball game with a visual novel attached; it never had potential for anything good.

 

[NJClaw]

My gf played through it and enjoyed it. I couldn't get into it, haven't really tried, even though I could see the potential for some fun times. The same with Pyre.

Pyre is a simplistic sportsball game with a visual novel attached; it never had potential for anything good.

The game self-identifies as an RPG:

Who are we to contradict it?

 

[karoliner]

Nice art and music but not worth playing.

 

[Tigranes]

The first game was decent - it has a vibe, it has a functional gameplay loop, and despite the flaws (notably encouraging you to keep enemies alive), the battles could be fun. I never bothered with 2 and 3 because I expected them to be more of the same and the formula isn't strong enough to stretch that far.

 

[Alienman]

It's one of the "whiniest" games I have ever played. Yes, the world is about to end, I understand that, but do everyone has to be so god-damn depressive 100% of the time? It's not even that cool melancholic feeling certain games/movies convey. It's just whine. It gets really taxing after a while.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Spoiler

you guys did save Rook instead of his daughter.... right?

 

[Technomancer]

Spoiler

you guys did save Rook instead of his daughter.... right?

I actually did a second run when I saved her. She becomes an OP archer, by 3 she is completely broken especially with the right items.

 

[Boleskine]

Enjoyed the first game and was happy as a Kickstarter backer, especially considering how many KS projects flame out or don't deliver.

I rather liked the combat system in BS. Most battles seemed to come down to the wire. The management/c&c side of things provided a nice balance to the overall experience.

The multiplayer spinoff BS: Factions was pretty fun but apparently it went offline over a year ago.

I never got around to playing BS2 or BS3, not for lack of interest.