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Feature: Death becomes us
From the outset, everything in The Banner Saga seems designed to encourage you to be careful. As you lead your caravan towards safety, you try to keep people alive by rationing food, managing the number of your followers and weighing the dangers of the unknown. Anyone who has ever given a soldier in XCOM a custom name knows that it takes very little to get…
Feature: I'm going to need a Saga holiday after this
After waiting two long years for the final instalment of Stoic's fantastical strategy trilogy, The Banner Saga 3 begins in the best possible way. It picks up where the second The Banner Saga 2 left off, and one of the first things you get to do is punch your scheming arch nemesis - who probably made your last moments of that second game a right…
It's nearly time to sharpen your axe and wade once more into the beautifully illustrated frostbitten apocalypse that is The Banner Saga. Stoic's strategy-RPG series was always planned as a trilogy, and the third and final chapter is excitingly close, now due out on July 26th, two days later than first expected. Within, a new trailer that could be considered spoiler-laden for those who haven't played…
Feature: The end of the trilogy
The bearded warrior looks exhausted. Part of a band of mercenaries, he blinks slowly at us. Even while the player chooses their next words, the crease-eyed humans and horned Varls of The Banner Saga 3 stand there, blinking slowly. Their hair fluttering, eyes searching you for intent. These are quiet moments of incidental detail. Twitching moustaches, billowing capes, tensing fists. They are looping animations, designed…
Stoic's Viking-y RPG trilogy will conclude with The Banner Saga 3 on July 24th, publishers Versus Evil have announced. The strategy RPG trek has seen tough battles and difficult decisions so far, but the worst is surely yet to come. Our boy Brendy recently talked to Stoic and will have more to tell you about the game later today. For now, coo, look, a release…
We've not peeked at The Banner Saga 3 since Stoic's Norse fantasy strategy RPG soared through Kickstarter in 2017, but now here's a new trailer and oh! word that the game will launch earlier than expected. The Kickstarter tentatively said December 2018, and I'd even speculated that adding stretch goals features might push it back further, but publishers Versus Evil have now announced it'll launch…
The crowdfunding campaign for The Banner Saga 3 [official site] has wrapped up and -- surprise! -- seems enough folks do want to see the Norse fantasy turn-based strategy game through to the end. As well as hitting its goal, the Kickstarter campaign hit several stretch goals. The second game improved on the first a lot, so fingers crossed that this trend will continue and…
The tale of the little flag that could will continue in The Banner Saga 3 [official site], if a Kickstarter goes well. Yup, developers Stoic have turned back to crowdfunding to conclude their strategy RPG series. We waved the safety flag for the first Banner Saga, digging its look and style but not so much the combat, then waved the chequered flag for its follow-up,…
If you've been waiting Ever Since The World Began, you Can't Hold Back, you're suffering Desperate Dreams, your Eye of the Tiger scans the horizon for signs of Broken Promises, then good news: The Search Is Over, and Here Comes Desire. Today The Banner Saga 2 [official site] receives its promised Survivor mode in a free update. Survivor mode is a permadeath challenge with rounds…
Feature: A strong second act
Despite its flaws, The Banner Saga [official site] is one of the most memorable indie releases of 2014, and now the second act is here to push the story to even more desperate frontiers. But does The Banner Saga 2 improve upon its predecessor's lackluster strategy combat while still expanding on its promising story? Here's wot I think. (Note: there are spoilers for the first…
I've spent so long frolicking in the intangible tangerine skies of VR-land lately that it's genuinely bewildering to look at a traditional game again. It's so... flat. So... image-y. And also so sharp and fluid and won't make my eyeballs pulsate and flail as if dancing helplessly to some unseen disco beat from hell. Confusing matters worse is that gorgeous strategy/roleplaying/survival opus The Banner Saga…
The Banner Saga, as I remember, is a tactical RPG about a really nice flag and the rapscallions who want to steal it from you so they can really admire its fine needlework. That's... hang on, no, Wot Adam Thought reminds me it's a jolly pretty tactical RPG about a leading a caravan and army across a cruel Viking-y fantasy world - which becomes too…
Feature: Tweaking the trilogy
I arrived a few minutes early for a Banner Saga 2 [official site] interview with Stoic's artist Arnie Jorgensen and writer Drew McGee at E3 so I set my bags down and walked over to a vacant demo computer. The game is the second of Stoic's planned trilogy and I've only played half of the first Banner Saga so I was a little cautious –…
Ah, the video game industry's eternal quest to corrupt the hearts and minds of our youth continues. Not content with turning them all into warlike barbarians, anthropomorphous cubes of meat or cats, now that hateful, wretched 'interactive entertainment' is teaching them the ins and outs of running a medieval thieves guild! When will the madness end? Killers And Thieves [official site] is the (evil) work of…
The Banner Saga arrived at the great RPS mead hall to a somewhat mixed reception. We appreciated the manner in which the beleaguered band of luminaries presented themselves but couldn't help but yawn long before they'd finished telling us of the events that had brought them to our table. Whatever its flaws may be, The Banner Saga told an unusually bleak and believable tale of…
Feature: Stoic In The Face Of A Crushing
This afternoon King - owners of Candy Crush Saga and an ever-increasing percentage of the dictionary - issued a statement defending their actions regarding the news that they had filed an opposition to Stoic's attempts to trademark "The Banner Saga". A defence that seems odd in the face of what's actually happening. Especially as they're arguably attempting to assert a trademark they don't actually have.…
Feature: The Saga Saga
Yesterday the internet was alive with the news about King, owners of Candy Crush Saga, their trademarking of the word "Candy", and their ensuing threats to other developers who are using the word in their game titles. The response from King was to flap their eyelashes and protest innocence - they were only defending the Earth against evil, not liberally chasing anyone and everyone. About…
Feature: Ramblerok
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. They dream of old gods, they think of roads not taken, they mourn for the lost. 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.
Feature: For the ages?
The Banner Saga is a tantalising prospect. An independent release from a small team of former Bioware employees, it promises a rich story, a new world and intricate tactical combat. It also has the most stupendously attractive art I've seen in a long time. Impressed by the opening hours, I've since spent several days in the game's icy company, I've deliberated long and hard to…
Feature: Banner Banter
The Banner Saga's first chapter is due out next month. It's certainly much anticipated, coming from a team of ex-Biowares, and following a phenomenally successful Kickstarter. A tactical RPG, turn-based combat combined with a unique way of delivering its narrative, it's going to be interesting to see how it suits people's tastes. It certainly divided John and Adam, as they played through the first three…
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