Game News Banner Saga 2 available for pre-order, coming April 19th

[Infinitron]

Tags: Stoic Studio; The Banner Saga 2

The Banner Saga 2, second chapter in Stoic Studio's Norse-themed tactical turn-based and choice & consequence trilogy, was originally supposed to have been released last year. However, Stoic appear to have gotten themselves sidetracked with the console port of the first game, as well as a tabletop spinoff called The Banner Saga: Warbands, and the sequel ended up getting delayed, first to an unspecified "Winter", then to Q1 2016, and now finally to April 19th. Here's the announcement on the game's Steam page, where it is now available for pre-order:

Hello All

Huge thank you for playing The Banner Saga and supporting us during development. Being a small team and working on something we love is both amazing and challenging but we're finally here with Banner Saga 2. Thank you all and we can't wait to get you folks in game!

We're proud to have the Windows and OSX version of the game launching on April 19th. The preorder will also be on a 10% discount up until we launch the game but we will not have any launch day or launch week discounts, however our main price will only be 19.99 this time around instead of 24.99.

April 19th will be here soon! If you have any questions, please let us know via the Steam Forums, Twitter, or Facebook.
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There's been practically no news about Banner Saga 2 for the past six months, but looking at the game's new website, it seems everything we learned about it back then is still relevant. If you liked the first game, then this one is the same but better, so get it now before the price goes up.

 

[Abu Antar]

What happened to their forum? No matter what link I use, I get directed to their front page.

 

[J1M]

What happened to their forum? No matter what link I use, I get directed to their front page.

Bioware employees don't like feedback.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Still need to finish the first one so I can import the save.

It's a fun game with glorious visuals, but very rpg light.

 

[MicoSelva]

LoL @ screenshots spoiling the funeral scene from the first part's ending.

Spoiler

I am guessing Rook/Alette will have a more background role this time, unless Stoic actually made two versions of the storyline for this game.

If you liked the first game, then this one is the same but better,

How can we know that?

so get it now before the price goes up.

LoL @ blatant shilling.

 

[ArchAngel]

First one was a shit game, I am skipping this one.

 

[Bastion]

So what's the reason to purchase the second part anyway?

 

[Zetor]

First one was pretty much the dictionary definition for 'good for what it is'... which in this case means a game you buy when it's 60-75% off on a steam sale and you've run out of great games to play

I'm hoping they got some better writers for the second instalment, myself -- having more variance in combat would be nice too, but it seems there'll be some different enemy types this time around at least. Next design challenge: battlemaps that aren't just flat 20x20 squares! I believe in you, Stoic.

 

[Infinitron]

How can we know that?

Read the website I linked to. Or previous Codex newsposts about the game.

having more variance in combat would be nice too

http://www.bannersaga2.com/whats-new/

Along with the variety of adding new races, classes, talents, and monsters, combat has been given some attention as well. Several new systems will be experienced while in battle. We added story telling in battles where characters are giving more context to the situation or continuing where you left off in dialogue. The choices you make in dialogue also affect who is supporting you in battle or who is not. Destructible environments add some interesting elements by slowing down either side. Finally different battle win conditions change what you have to accomplish while you are fighting.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=9979

“One of the things we’ve seen a lot in comments is some of the combat felt a little slow, or not diverse enough so that was the number one thing we tackled,” says McGee. “No-one seems to have a problem with the type of heroes you can play as, it’s the type of enemies you’re fighting so we went through and thought where can we spend our budget to diversify that enemy base – give them new abilities, buffs… My whole thing was to give them a culture and really extrapolate on that to bring the Dredge to life.”

The team has also dedicated a lot of time to watching Let’s Plays of the first game, picking out where players hesitate or pause. “You see where they lose interest – you can hear it in their voice and see it in their mouse clicks,” says McGee.

“Now the combat boards are all going to be hand touched. They’re going to be scripted to really follow the narrative so it’s never going to be this situation where I’m just on a blank board with random spawners. The first battle you fight there, the tutorial, is you come upon this village that’s about to be sacked so the whole battleboard emulates that. There’s destructible barricades. That wasn’t in the first but it really provides a new layer to the strategy.”

At this point Jorgensen joins us. He has watched a lot of those Let’s Plays and says that the main takeaway from the first game for the team has been the need to work on switching up the combat..

“We’re going to have more win scenarios,” says Jorgensen. “We’re going to have a lot more variation in combat, not just ‘kill them all’. John [Watson, the lead programmer] did a whole new toolset for the engine so we can make it more scripted, so we’re going to be moving story through the combat.”

He goes on to elaborate on what McGee was saying about the tutorial/demo battle. “The whole thing feels a little more cinematic. We have destructibles now so you can put up barricades and have them broken. You can put up urns that are knocked over with coals that come out and affect the battlefield.

 

[Trash]

Liked the first game. An Oregon Trail like game with gorgeous graphics and some neat C&C. They needed to add more diversity to combat by spicing up the battlefields but they seem to have done that. One of the Kickstarters that genuinly delivered for me.

 

[Burning Bridges]

It's still a shame that such great combat and artwork was married with such shit ideas about gameplay and storytelling.
I guess it's what you will consider a "great" game if you have been indoctrinated to Bioware style games.

 

[agris]

Liked the first game. An Oregon Trail like game with gorgeous graphics and some neat C&C. They needed to add more diversity to combat by spicing up the battlefields but they seem to have done that. One of the Kickstarters that genuinly delivered for me.

They also added more enemy types to address everyone's complaint of Too Much Dredge(TM).

 

[flabbyjack]

First one was pretty much the dictionary definition for 'good for what it is'... which in this case means a game you buy when it's 60-75% off on a steam sale and you've run out of great games to play

I think I spent $0.50 on Banner Saga 1 from a humble bundle. (OK I actually give more than that, but you get the idea).

 

[Delbaeth]

No GOG version planned?
No Gold.

 

[Infinitron]

No GOG version planned?
No Gold.

The first game is on GOG, so it'll probably show up there eventually.

 

[Delbaeth]

The first game is on GOG, so it'll probably show up there eventually.

I wouldn't be so sure about this.

But, hey. We'll see.
The Linux build could even happen.

 

[Infinitron]

The first game is on GOG, so it'll probably show up there eventually.

I wouldn't be so sure about this.

But, hey. We'll see.
The Linux build could even happen.

"Myll_Erik" is some publisher representative: https://twitter.com/Myll_Erik

 

[Bubbles]

The first game is on GOG, so it'll probably show up there eventually.

I wouldn't be so sure about this.

But, hey. We'll see.
The Linux build could even happen.

Is he seriously arguing that Steam DRM prevents piracy?

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Purchased!

 

[Starwars]

Banner Saga 2 version of the main theme can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/awintory/the-banner-saga-2-an-oath-until-the-end

Fucking amazing really. The soundtrack for the first game was one of the best I've heard, can't wait to hear the music for this.

 

[Metro]

So was the first game a complete story? I remember this was going to be episodic but now they call it a 'sequel.'

 

[toro]

So was the first game a complete story? I remember this was going to be episodic but now they call it a 'sequel.'

It's more like the first chapter of the main story. Which means that you can take it any way you want it.