Renown acts as a sort of currency it's used to buy items that empower your fighters or supplies to keep your caravan alive. What this seemingly scarce (maybe it's me?) resource gets you falls in line with The Banner Saga's theme of survival. Should you win a few fights or accidentally stumble across the lesser of evils when making decisions, you'll earn renown. If things prove too difficult, though, you can adjust the difficulty setting at any time, if only to see the well-written story through to the end. After only an hour or two you'll find these stressful situations to be far more daunting than the battles ahead-especially considering you can't manually save, which often feels more like a curse than a blessing. It's impossible not to second guess your decisions when even seemingly easy solutions have outcomes that are impossible to predict. As you wander from one town to the next, you're constantly forced to make tough decisions, the outcomes of which typically range from "oh God I'm screwed" to "FUUUUUUUUUUUUU." Do you face the huge army of Dredge on your heels and lose dozens of clansmen? Or do you make the choice to flee, leaving the sick and elderly behind to die? You won't permanently lose party members in battle-but you will when you let a group of travelers join your caravan and they end up shanking your tank before stealing your supplies. Even when you're winning, it always feels like you've lost.īut the battles are nothing compared to gut wrenching tragedy that is the in-between travels of your caravan. Thankfully, your soldiers don't die when defeated (otherwise The Banner Saga would be impossible to complete), though they do suffer health and damage penalties until fully rested, making the fact that another battle is inevitably just around the corner all the more devastating. The difficulty isn't impossible to overcome, but it does force you to take advantage of every ability and item at your disposal. No matter the outcome, your journey continues. Even a single misstep can result in losing a battle, and when you win fights, you'll often do so with only a unit or two left standing. Enemy AI is frustratingly sharp, as your foes prioritize killing blows and ganging up on a single, powerful unit. These grid-based fights are similar to those in games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem, where you have access to a dozen or so classes, each with various strengths and weaknesses. Initially, hopelessness comes in the form of challenging tactical battles. Where many games task you with saving the world, The Banner Saga makes it clear that a handful of heroes can't do much when a million enemies are knocking at their doorstep. Which is to say, you're basically screwed. Every trek is a perilous one, and while no one in your caravan will die of dysentery, you must defend them from brigands, Dredge, and even your own greedy clansmen, all while managing the supplies necessary to keep your followers from starving to death. Only, you quickly find out no such thing exists. With a caravan of survivors under your command, it's your responsibility to lead them to safety. Its fascinating viking-inspired setting is overrun by the Dredge, a race of malicious rock people bent on destroying the world-your town included. Part tactical RPG, part Oregon Trail, and part depression simulator, The Banner Saga offers a rewarding journey drenched in misery. The Banner Saga is undeniably cruel, but its endless series of brutal scenarios plays perfectly into its wonderful, mature end-of-the-world tale. Oh, and I have no currency left to buy anymore supplies. By the time I reach the next town, half my caravan is dead from starvation. Reload, third option nothing happens for awhile-until the thieves murder my guards and steal every ounce of food I have left. I choose the second panic spreads, morale is reduced to "super abysmal," and some of my clansman kill each other out of desperation. I choose the first panic spreads, reducing overall morale to "abysmal." Cue the reload to a checkpoint an hour back. I have three options: Question my apparently not-so-trustworthy clansmen, institute a rationing policy, or assign extra guards to the provision stores.
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