REVIEW

The Banner Saga (PS4) Review

by Marc Smith, January 13th, 2016

The Gods are dead, the sun has frozen and the foul scourge of the Dredge are trying to wipe out any trace of human life on earth. Well, that’s only if me and my army of men, giants and crazy fire-witches have anything to say about it.

This Banner Saga has been available for a while now on PC, but it’s just made the leap over to consoles with this version for the PlayStation 4. As a console kind of guy, I missed this one when it was first released but thankfully we get, at least for what I can tell, a near identical port that sacrifices none of the visual or technical qualities from the PC. Again, I’ve never played the original, so take that as you will.

For starters, I’ll say that it’s difficult to compare The Banner Saga to a lot of other video games as stylistically it borrows more from table-top role-playing games. There is a large emphasis on story and micro management of your resources between battles. Aside from the combat, you have a hand in determining the actions of a travelling caravan of fighters and settlers, who accompany your heroes on their journey. The mechanics of handling your caravan aren’t overly in-depth, merely consisting of rationing supplies to survive each day of travel and making decisions to keep up moral.

It plays secondary to the combat, but compliments it by adding moments of reprieve where you can relax and soak it in the gorgeous visuals and finely written dialogue. Speaking of the visuals, they are one of the game’s real highlights. Like a minimalist Disney in some ways but also retaining an air of Nordic renaissance. It gives The Banner Saga a very novel feel, like a fantasy novel come to life, with every new location having tons of hidden details that you may not notice on a first glance.

Here’s a big expectation that the player must read a lot of text to engage with the story, which isn’t necessarily an issue, but it’s not going to appeal to everyone. It moves along at a fairly slow pace for the most part too, with a lot of optional dialogue between characters which aren’t necessary to advance the game, but add greater depth to the characters and lore of the world. The central characters like Rook and Oddleif are all born from tragedy and their stories have great emotional resonance throughout the game, although with The Banner Saga being a very plot centric experience, I don’t want to give away too much.

The narrative itself is very open-ended with many player choices affecting the outcome of events like arguments amongst your caravan or deciding how your heroes will break into an enemy stronghold. A lot of games often boast of their multiple choice system; but The Banner Saga remains one of few where it truly applies. There are instances in which saying the wrong thing to a character can result in them ditching your party and never coming back. There are no warning signs, it’s completely down to your own discretion and you’ll often be surprised by how events can unfold. Personally I opt to knock out characters who disobey me, it’s a great short term fix when you’re in a pinch. They may grow to resent you in the future for your thuggish actions, but that’s a problem for another time.

Your level of engagement with the plot and characters is entirely up to you. Most dialogues and events have default responses that allow you to progress in a more linear fashion, but to get the most from the game I advise experimenting with your options. There are little-to-no animated cut scenes either, with most of the action featuring character portraits and written dialogue. There’s also a lack of voice-acting which doesn’t do the immersion any favours. I gather this is due to the open-ended structure of the story and to have actors record the massive amounts of dialogue would be a huge undertaking. Despite this, the characters are interesting and their interplay is often worth the time and effort put in, even if your poor decision making sends them to a premature end.

The combat is what the game truly lives and dies on, particularly as in this title, it’s the only true interaction you have with the game. Operating a tiled battlefield, you take it turns to move your party around, attack, defend and strategise as best you can. Each character on the battlefield has their own HP and Armour points which are interlinked and determine the amount of damage that can be dealt. The armour stat works well as it helps you to prioritize your strikes and determine which enemies need dealing with first. Each character also possesses special abilities, some will allow you to knock enemies back a few tiles, whereas others can allow you to place traps to snare oncoming attackers.

There is a depth and complexity the combat that doesn’t shine through immediately; only once your characters have been promoted enough and their skill-sets widen does combat become more complex. Early battles will mostly consist of slap fights between you and enemies whilst your token archer character chips away at their armour from a distance. The battles themselves can be fairly tense and it’s not uncommon to find yourself constantly hovering over your character actions in a desperate attempt to come up with a strategic way of getting out of a tight situation.

The Banner Saga is most definitely a good game; however it won’t appeal to everyone. The gameplay and action is a little on the slow side for some and the plot requires a lot of engagement on the player’s part. The lack of music is definitely a sticking point for me, it really detracts from the atmosphere and works in spite of the lush visuals. If you enjoy turn-based strategy and intricate storytelling then The Banner Saga will more than satisfy your hunger.