#The banner saga reviews full#
#The banner saga reviews series#

If you’re coming to the series fresh, you’re probably better served starting at the beginning. You’ve already spent dozens of hours getting to know these characters - so they just go straight to the good stuff.

However, freed from the shackles of the AAA development process, the execution comes across as so much more compelling. Stoic was founded by ex-Bioware developers, so the inclusion of cross-game saves here isn’t necessarily groundbreaking.

It’s a game full of pathos and payoff - and it all feels very well-earned by Stoic.Īs with The Banner Saga 2, a lot of the bigger dramatic beats here will rely on the choices you've made in the previous games. Without hyping it up too much, The Banner Saga 3 definitely feels like the “Return of the King” to the first game’s “Fellowship of the Ring”. To go into any further detail would risk giving away key plot-points or worse: giving away some of the major moral choices you’ll inevitably have to make over the course of The Banner Saga 3. Then, within the thick of the encroaching, world-ending darkness creeping towards Arberrang, you’ll resume control of The Ravens (*a group of mercenaries introduced in the second game) as they escort a pair of enigmatic menders (*wizards) towards a literal heart of darkness under the cryptic promise that their guides have the means to set the world right again. Having finally arrived in the human capital of Arberrang, a group of human, varl (*giants) and horseborn (*centaur) survivors must wrestle with both holding back an unstoppable tide of Dredge* (golemic monsters made of stone) refugees - and worse - whilst also combating the various political threats developing within the confines of the city walls. Picking up exactly as The Banner Saga 2 ends, The Banner Saga 3 is a story told in two distinct halves. With The Banner Saga 3, all of the above continues to be the case as the series’ reaches its zenith, attempts to address its biggest mysteries and endeavors to provide a compelling conclusion to the whole affair. The more Stoic invested in building up that tone, the easier it was for you to do the same and the more effective the series became at relentlessly-hammering in the ever-escalating desperation faced by its core cast. Every character got their moment and every little piece of the puzzle played its part when it came to imbuing a sense of culture and history to the world in which these series take place. Across both installments, it rarely felt like even a single line of dialogue was wasted.

More specifically, the first two Banner Saga games understood the power of tone. Stoic struck an incredibly impressive balance between building up a setting and characters that you always wanted to know more about and providing gameplay with enough meat on its bones that you never tired of sending your viking warriors into the game’s gauntlet of combat puzzles. A turn-based tactics RPG set in a richly-conceived and compellingly-realised fantasy world, the first two installments of The Banner Saga trilogy were masterclasses in intimate storytelling, subtle worldbuilding and ingenious encounter design.

#The banner saga reviews series#

#The banner saga reviews full#