Game News The Banner Saga Released

[BlackAdderBG]

Spoiler

In the Rook side, in the battle to distract the dredge so the people can flee, I lost that battle and the chieftain died. If you win it, does he remain alive? Also, is there a way to save the boy in that "conversation" puzzle where Aletta is attacked?

Spoiler

"Alive" yes ,it's wounded and you never speak with him again ,later on he dies quietly.About the boy(with shield?),it can die randomly later on and don't think it has any role in the game

 

[Visperas]

I see, thx BlackAdder.

 

[SuicideBunny]

I've been playing for a little while and I'm enjoying it quite a lot. Combat is good and so is the enemy AI. Graphics are beautiful but there's little animation, too many static pictures. The caravan managing part could be deeper but well, I've just started it. I have one question

Spoiler

In the Rook side, in the battle to distract the dredge so the people can flee, I lost that battle and the chieftain died. If you win it, does he remain alive? Also, is there a way to save the boy in that "conversation" puzzle where Aletta is attacked?

Spoiler

chieftain dies a lot. as for convo puzzle? which one? the one at the beginning where you can tell them to wait inside or the big fuck you moment towards the end? if the former, just tell them to go inside or shoot arrow without hesitation. the latter can be circumvented by not taking those two helmeted assholes along.

 

[cherry blossom]

I don't get the "wah it's so simple" complaints about combat. It is most certainly not any more simpler than the autopilot crap we got in IE games. It is simple but elegant; the tactics and the gameplay involvement that the system accommodates for melee combat is vastly superior to the entire IE auto-pilot until dead with the occasional health potion.

I do share the pain about the lack of a proper equipment and inventory system, though. The game could have been much more with those.

Because it is simple. This game is heavily influenced by many of the strategy RPGs on consoles, most of which have far more depth than this game does. I don't understand why they didn't implement something as simple as battlefield elevations, obstacles, etc. For example, in Final Fantasy Tactics, you can have archers at a high elevation raining arrows down on you, or you can use lightning spell son enemies standing in water for extra damage, etc. And a lack of equipment system is just inexcusable.

Well, JA had none of that either and JA2 had only a very basic form of it. Nonetheless, I think variations in elevation work best when you have larger set pieces or an entire area map to explore and to fight as you please. Small set pieces aren't best medium for that. Conquistador, for instance, had some fairly big set pieces and elevations and it worked just fine.

There are some obstacles in some fights, though.

Compared to a lot of recent games the combat is good, but it's still a far cry from Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, etc.

Not familiar with FFT or TO but generally speaking, yes, it could have been far more interesting.

 

[Grunker]

Just finished this. It's a great little gem.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

I played some of this. I would rank it the same category as SRR, EC. none of them are full scale RPGs but nevertheless, fun to play. EC is best among these three imo. SRR has shittier combat (but with more variety) but atmosphere music and art is solid. TBS is very low on real CnC, but art is quite good and combat, which gets repetitive later on due to lack fo variety, is better than SRR.

 

[Donkerman]

Great story, good combat, C&C, kicks starter, indie, unique characters, good sound track, excellent art. What more do you want?

 

[fastjack]

Great story, good combat, C&C, kicks starter, indie, unique characters, good sound track, excellent art. What more do you want?

You don't really want to hear the answer to that.

 

[Donkerman]

Not from you.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Will they release an editor for a KKKodex game edition?

 

[Johannes]

Great story, good combat, C&C, kicks starter, indie, unique characters, good sound track, excellent art. What more do you want?

hookers and blow.

 

[General Maxson]

I played some of this. I would rank it the same category as SRR, EC. none of them are full scale RPGs but nevertheless, fun to play. EC is best among these three imo. SRR has shittier combat (but with more variety) but atmosphere music and art is solid. TBS is very low on real CnC, but art is quite good and combat, which gets repetitive later on due to lack fo variety, is better than SRR.

EC?

 

[Monty]

I played some of this. I would rank it the same category as SRR, EC. none of them are full scale RPGs but nevertheless, fun to play. EC is best among these three imo. SRR has shittier combat (but with more variety) but atmosphere music and art is solid. TBS is very low on real CnC, but art is quite good and combat, which gets repetitive later on due to lack fo variety, is better than SRR.

EC?

Expeditions: Conquistador

 

[MrEvilGuy]

90% of options end with same result.

Knowing that would make the game suck. Fortunately, I had no idea while playing it.

You really didn't notice it when tried to send the prince away and you couldn't or when didn't want to go to that coastal city and still end there?

I didn't try to send the prince away. But now that you mention it, I thought it was pretty strange that Iver refused to go any further on foot because he was "tired," forcing the entire caravan to stay at the final city.

Man, now I won't be able to enjoy the sequel. Oh well, I'm glad to have been informed.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

So does the C&C has real consequences on gameplay and progression (different journey, locations, quests...) or is it just a few choices that changes some dialogues, NPC availability and ending?

 

[JarlFrank]

Looks boring and banal, not an inclination at all.

Too white people focused for you?

 

[Infinitron]

Looks boring and banal, not an inclination at all.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/baby_goat/screenshots/?appid=237990#scrollTop=0

 

[Roguey]

Looks boring and banal, not an inclination at all.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/baby_goat/screenshots/?appid=237990#scrollTop=0

I don't see any comments about how it plays.

 

[toro]

Finished it on normal difficulty.

The biggest flaw of the game is the combat system: it's simplistic and incoherent. Instead of implementing actions points or initiative order or something else, they implemented the "each side will always take turns" mechanic. This is not a bad mechanic in itself but in this case, it's an awful idea. As BlackAdder said, sometimes is better not to kill the low strength/hp enemies because (1) they steal the turns from more powerful units, (2) they mess-up the AI path-finding for other units and (3) they can be used to promote low dmg units like shield masters. And truth to be told, you will have to exploit this shit if you want to finish the game.

There is some flavor of C&C in this game. There are even multiple choices dialogues but nothing world changing, however is nice to have to deal with the consequences of your decision. And it works fine for example when you are low on supplies and you have to deal with food thieves.

I played the game two times because first time I was unable to beat the final boss mostly because I promoted the wrong npcs and then I could now use them in the final battle. But the overall difficulty is decreased significantly once I knew who stays and who goes. Let's say that the Varls bridge went down

Overall, it's a good game. Although it crashed several times and the save system is retarded.

 

[ben_reck]

not perfect but blissful throughout. lovely as a sensory experience.

no quibbles about the writing. Dry and droll. Especially like the bonus pre-order character and all of his sticking.

combat's not so simple, 1,2, 3. you want to give some thought to init order and initial placement. but hard was too tough for me, so what do I know?

 

[St. Toxic]

It's like someone tried to recreate Tactics Ogre in Flash and, eh, sort of succeeded but not really?

 

[Johannes]

Finished it on normal difficulty.

The biggest flaw of the game is the combat system: it's simplistic and incoherent. Instead of implementing actions points or initiative order or something else, they implemented the "each side will always take turns" mechanic. This is not a bad mechanic in itself but in this case, it's an awful idea. As BlackAdder said, sometimes is better not to kill the low strength/hp enemies because (1) they steal the turns from more powerful units, (2) they mess-up the AI path-finding for other units and (3) they can be used to promote low dmg units like shield masters. And truth to be told, you will have to exploit this shit if you want to finish the game.

wtf you gotta lern2play if you want to finish the game? staying well away from this turd then

 

[Irxy]

Played it for 3 hours and am bored, so far art is the best thing about this game. Well, combat is not bad I guess, still rather simplistic.
Not sure why they decided to give you 2 parties to control, seems annoying to me.

 

[x4nti]

The combat system isn't complex, but it's well-balanced and it's tightly nit together. Also simple mechanics aren't inherently bad; otherwise you would say that games like chess and go (which is extremely simple) are bad. In banner saga the complexity is probably about the same level as that of (end game) chess.

Not saying that I wouldn't like to see more complexity. A full inventory with different kinds of weapon and armor - that would have been really nice.

 

[Monocause]

Some two hours in and I like it so far. Some UI design decisions are off, but I imagine these can be easily introduced in patches.

I miss the option to fast-forward enemy moves for instance, and to fast-forward the caravan moving animations.