The Banner Saga 3 review

Coming on PS4, Xbox One (tested version), PC and Nintendo Switch on July 26

Behind every moment and banner raised is a fight full of suspense. The Banner Saga has been exactly that for 5 years. Now, with the release of The Banner Saga 3, the stakes are as high as the frozen peaks we climbed to where we are, and the reward is just as sweet.

The Banner Saga began with the story of a father and his daughter, Rook and Alette, trying to escape the dredge while their counterparts in Varl, Vognir and Hakon, were escorted prince Ludin to Arberrang. The two sides continued, their history intertwined and their efforts would lead to a final confrontation with Boersgard against an unstoppable and evil army.

After Boersgard, your group splits to cover more ground and continues to increase its membership with the addition of more allies, including a race of centurion creatures called Horseborn and the Ravens, a group Human mercenaries Varl, who continued Prince Ludin's initial ambition to proceed to the Human Capital, Areberrang.

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While the scope of the series would continue to grow, all decisions were terribly human and cumbersome. When you start The Banner Saga 3, many of your choices materialize and shape the way your caravan approaches the head of darkness. Even after the fall of the revelations of The Banner Saga 2, many people will be speechless and the past will come back to absolutely haunt you.

As relationships break and divide, so does the party. On the side of Rook or Alette, you will face the fall of civilization as the horizon slowly disappears. Yet, in the midst of Armageddon, you are a beacon of light that fights an apparently inevitable end, fanning the fires of hope.

Conversely, the second half of your party chose to give up the tried-and-true tradition of standing on the light, attacking instead at The Darkness, jumping head-first into the unknown. With the common goal of saving the world, there is a beautiful symmetry of watching one side staring at the enemy and refusing to move, while the other can not afford to stop.

The Banner Saga 2 relies on you to understand characters, plot and intense motivations behind them. This third part is the culmination of many years of storytelling, and therefore expects you to tackle it with vast prior knowledge.

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The duality of these two approaches is also played out in the temporal mechanics of each side. The Rook / Alette camp must look for everything it can, and the sum of the efforts of the two previous parties peaks in time.

All Varl, Fighter and rescued clan members are used as currency against darkness. days and hours come the last stand. This hourglbad is then used as a room for maneuver for those who are in the dark, influencing the way you approach each situation as the days turn into minutes. For a game that focuses largely on the time it takes to reach your destination, the reversal and its execution culminate in an imminent sense of urgency.

Wrapped in the story of survival are decisions, difficult decisions to make. As your clan has grown, so does their clan. The characters open slowly in the darkest moments and their awakening is incredibly rewarding, but with this understanding come debilitating ultimatums. You will be forced to choose between the characters you have come to know throughout the series and there will be hard farewells on both sides. The results are something fans will discuss for years to come.

Just like the story and its characters, tactical RPG combat has also evolved. While new characters offer interesting new abilities, the most notable difference lies in the battlefield itself. The grid-based table remains the same, but the will system that allows characters to move extra spaces or increase their attack values ​​has been changed by fighting in The Darkness.

Now, when fighting in The Darkness, players can cast a lightning spell previously reserved for Menders. Whenever you succeed in killing, an extra energy stock will be stored. There has also been an additional round of wave-based fights that allow players to choose to fight and call for reinforcements to repel the ever-increasing enemies in order to obtain valuable equipment for their members.

Now that you are at the end of your journey, many of your fighters will have reached their peak, and although it remains levels and statistics to win, is a new focus on heroic titles.

After reaching level 10, you'll unlock heroic titles, among which you'll choose one. Each title offers a different tactical advantage – such as regenerative armor, additional damage, or even placement buffs – and will take into account the archetype of the person to whom you will badign them and how you will deal with them. will use in the battle afterwards. It's a much more interesting way to spend your fame and shape your approach to battles far more than just a stat.

Just like the arrow you delivered to Bellower on the first outing, the graphic design strikes with deadly accuracy. The scenes are never static: the characters grab their weapons anxiously or the gust blows gently in the air, adds an extra layer of detail that is simple but effective. While the two previous titles have given players time to get used to the red banner on their caravan, they float effortlessly in the wind and accentuate the size of your tribe.

The world has also experienced its own development, especially the city of Arberrang, flooded with muddy browns, and the deep purples of The Darkness that really showcase the feel of their respective arches. There are cutscenes, placed sparingly at specific times to accentuate the gravity of the situations as well as an incredibly dark VA that accompanies the key moments – giving an extra level of insight.

Verdict

The Banner Saga 3 is a sweet-bitter Goodbye to a franchise that I've come to love. In its quieter moments, it's a beautiful showcase of creating memorable characters with a limited screen time, while at its strongest, there are decisions that will haunt you for years. weeks and battles that leave few scars.

The Banner Saga 3 never fails to impress with the way the seeds planted in the first game have brought them to their conclusion. Although it's not a genre for everyone, it's a game for everyone.