My relationship with The Banner Saga has always been weird. I liked the world and the story, yet I never cared much about the gameplay at all. So, every time I’ve played one, it was considerably late and after serious self-motivation. After all, I did want to learn how this Saga ends. And sadly, just like with previous entries, I’m left conflicted after playing the game.
First thing of note is that just like with the second game, there is no good reason to start playing this game without importing save files from the previous one. This is a story in 3 volumes, not several self-contained stories that complement each other. Even the almost 3 year gap between me playing the previous game and starting this one was confusing enough, not knowing the story and the characters will lead to an even worse experience.
Either way, if you’re not familiar with The Banner Saga, it’s a weird mix of The Oregon Trail, interactive fiction and turn-based tactics with a visual style reminiscent of Ralph Bakshi and Don Bluth animated features and set in a North mythology inspired world that is dying. So what you usually do in the game is watch as your caravan moves from location to location, occasionally stumbling upon encounters that require player choice with an inevitable consequence either right away or hours (and games) later, and also often being pulled into the turn-based combat. You manage the morale and rations for the caravan, the hero characters who participate in combat and can be upgraded or injured during combat and you make choices, some of which can lead to some of those hero characters dying forever.
As before, The Banner Saga 3 is strongest when it focuses on its main story and the lore. And while I personally found one of the biggest revelations of the whole series to be somewhat lackluster, the conclusion to the overall story was good. It was also nice to see lots of characters, some present since the very first game, explored further and showing their growth and change. The visual style is stunning, rare animated sequences look great, music is fitting, occasional voice acting is solid.
Gameplay-wise, it’s more or less the same as before as well, but with more tiny variations and class skills. As usual, I’m not into this sort of gameplay, so I’ve played on Easy and brute-forced most of the combat, so I’m not one to give an opinion on it. But I did find some of the changes and additions to be nice. And it’s also nice that this time around, combat can influence the fate of the characters, even if it’s somewhat rare and still doesn’t account any character nuances, just a simple – win/lose check.
Overall, the game felt like it suffered from being another separate entry, though. There were moments where characters yet again died unceremoniously, described in one short sudden sentence and never mentioned again. And moments where the game goes “remember when…” and references something that happened several games and many many simplistic and often forgettable encounters before. And even though it did do the “your choices will boil down to numbers” thing far better than Mass Effect 3 many years ago (somewhat ironic given the roots of Stoic Studio), the whole ending section didn’t have as much of an impact as it wanted to have. I liked the Saga as a whole, yet, I can’t say that I would easily recommend it. It’s certainly unique and its world and visual style are fantastic. But is it worth the time investment of playing it in the end? I’m not sure.