The Banner Saga 3 Review

A tune worth marching to:

The original Banner Saga was a huge surprise to me when I played it a few years ago. A mix between XCOM and Oregon Trail, it sent me on a short but beautifully sweet journey that tested not only my strategy mettle, but my decision making prowess. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the third and final part to this wonderfully mean saga since devouring the second on launch day, and I was thrilled to finally see my journey to its bittersweet end.

Story:

If you’ve slept on the Banner Saga until now, you’re in for a treat. These games were made to be played back to back – they feel like one game uncomfortably split over three titles. With lengthy two year breaks between each chapter, anyone returning will have a tough time getting back into the rhythm of Banner Saga’s involved story – especially if, like me, you don’t have your original save games anymore. Luckily BS3 provides a generous and good-fortuned save state to start the title with, replete with largely positive choices carrying over from the first two adventures.

This is really the only complaint I can level against the otherwise phenomenal storytelling, but it feels like an important one. I struggled to reacquaint myself not only with the myriad gameplay systems after all that time off from the series, but the characters and overall plotlines too – something that an incredibly short, patchy ‘recap’ option on the menu barely covers. Picking characters for my team was often an exercise in ‘yeah I think I remember liking him…’

Regardless, once I shuffled back into the Banner Saga’s intense and stressful decision making I was back to having an absolute riot. Banner Saga 3 is as relentlessly uncompromising as its predecessors, tasking you with making minute to minute decisions inside of battles and out, to lead your caravan of warriors and civilians to safety from a darkness that threatens to engulf the entire land. Picking up directly where BS2 left off, you’re thrown into the civil unrest of a town packed to the brim with refugees of different races and creeds, all trying to escape an encroaching, world-ending wave of darkness. It’s a boiling pot that’s in the process of bubbling over, and as fights and riots break out all around you’re left to make the best choices you can for you, your people and the world at large. No pressure.

As series fans will know, this game is home to a split narrative. Elsewhere in the land a small party are making their way through the darkness, trying to get to the bottom of the strange happenings in this new, twisted world. If you’re up to speed you’ll know that not everything is as black and white as was painted in the original outings, with even the demonic Dredge seemingly trying to escape from something far worse than themselves.

The script is well written and – when the game deems it worthy for voice work – well acted. The narrative that’s been building and evolving since the original game is now a weighty, tense and desperate thing – and indeed I was desperate to see how it all turned out, and for the most part I wasn’t disappointed. The Banner Saga 3 had a lot to wrap up and it rises to the challenge admirably, with enough twists, turns and exciting revelations to keep the proceedings interesting all the way up to the endgame.

Gameplay:

The Banner Saga 3 struggles slightly to keep its main gameplay focus – grid-based battling – quite as exciting through yet another adventure with very little change. There’s a solid foundation that will feel familiar to anyone who’s put time into games like Fire Emblem, with enough wrinkles to feel fresh and new. Or at least, the original Banner Saga did. On our third outing very little has changed with these systems, and it’s starting to show.

What you can expect upon booting up Banner Saga 3 – apart from having to remember all your old builds, items and priorities on the battlefield – is a slight level-cap bump, a few new trinkets to equip and some interesting new classes. Other than that, however, you’re still going to be fighting battles in much the same way as before. For me, that meant the giant-like Varl up front swinging for the fences, and a team of archers in the back finishing off anyone they couldn’t. The game introduces some new abilities to call upon, such as a chain-lightning spell that – should the battlefield be set up in a very particular way – deals massive damage to an entire squad, but often this just boils down to luck rather than strategy.