And the seams aren't all that neat, I tell you. It's somewhere in the middle - it has its 'DEATH HAS CONSEQUENCES' cake but it's taken a big bite out of it.Īlec:ěut given an important character can be killed by falling off a cliff in dialogue but not by being chopped in the head by a stone sword, it does often feel as though two entirely different games have been welded together. I'd love it if the narrative adjusted to reflect casualties, but it'd be a nightmarish balance job for the devs.Īdam: The fact that there are story branches and characters that only exist because of failures does seem at odds with the fact that death isn't death.

It (almost) eliminates the quickload reflex, at least for those willing to engage on that level.Īlec: tell you what though, I find it jarring that when your guys get 'killed' in combat they're not dead, as they are if something unfortunate happens in the roleplaying bits.

And the fact that the story can continue when a fight is lost is wonderful. The threat of running out of food or a safe place to stay feels much more pressing and motivating than winning a fight ever does.Īdam: Agreed. It's the latter that's the strongest, the refugee tale filled with difficult decisions and terrible consequences. Or is it?Īlec: Well, this raises probably the central issue, which we'll get to later no doubt, which is that it's trying to be simultaneously a game about a colossal war at the end of the world and The Walking Dead. It's a game about running away from overwhelming forces. The pursuit, the constant threat of decline and need for shelter. He turned into a big chap with horns and then.events occurred.Īlec: He smashed the very sun, plunging the whole world into ice.Īdam: But what IS The Banner Saga about? I claimed it was about refugees rather than war, which I think is sort of correct. It's the tale of what happened when an unlucky scientist got caught in the explosion of a gamma bomb.Īdam: Ha ha. And they have a right old natter about Stoic's recently released, uncommonly beautiful, Viking-inspired roleplaying/strategy/giants'n'conversation game The Banner Saga.Īlec: Well then, The Banner Saga. They dream of old gods, they think of roads not taken, they mourn for the lost. Separated from all else by a great storm that ripped the land asunder, Alec and Adam huddle on a fragile, knife-shaped peninsula to watch the world freeze and die.

Banner saga 3 dredge baby