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Middle chapters are agonizing. The first part of a trilogy gets all the exciting set-up bits. The third part wraps it all up. Poor Part Two languishes, more 'The start of the end' than a proper tale in its own right.In so many words: It's not that the second chapter of pseudo-Nordic epic The Banner Saga 2 is bad, nor overly short. But with yet another cliffhanger non-ending, this second outing is less 'A Sequel' and more 'Another Episode'—in a story stretched, presumably, over the length of four years by the time we're done.And here I thought the releases for Dreamfall Chapters were too far apart.One perfect shotThe episodic feel is bolstered by the fact not much has changed between The Banner Saga and its sequel. If you enjoyed watching your tiny caravan trudge across the landscape in lengthy camera pans the last time around?
Ten more hours of that, broken up occasionally by a short chat or a turn-based battle.It's the same blend as before, though certain elements are new. You'll meet a race of centaur-folk known as the Horseborn, more distinctly a group of outsiders than even the first game's giant race of Varl. In battle, the Horseborn play the role of dart-in-dart-out shock troops, able to sprint away after attacking.Battles are also more clever than the first outing, more distinct. Most now revolve around secondary objectives—for instance, ending after a certain enemy is killed or an obstacle cleared—which minimizes the tedium of grinding down an entire horde of baddies and also allows for some interesting hold-out scenarios a la 300 Spartans versus the entire Persian army. You get a feel for the scope of these battles even though you're only playing a little six-on-six chess game.That's The Banner Saga's trick, really—making much out of little. A handful of soldiers are shorthand for an unstoppable force.
Your Saga Continues Now. The award-winning adventure continues in Banner Saga 2! This epic, story-based, role-playing game continues its emotional journey across a breaking world. The Banner Saga 2 The award-winning epic role-playing game continues with The Banner Saga 2 where The Banner Saga left off, in a world with left in grim darkness as the Dredge slowly overtake it. Cities and towns continue to crumble into chaos.
A cross-section of forest stands in for a vast labyrinth of old growth. A few lines on a map and a bit of flavor text represent an entire kingdom we'll never visit.And a dialogue box stands for hundreds of deaths. The Banner Saga 2 is still presented in the manner of a Choose Your Own Adventure. Every ten or so seconds on your slow ponderous journey to the human kingdom of Arberrang, a box will pop up with some event—maybe your guards spotted movement in the trees or you come across soldiers harassing an old woman. You typically choose between two or three courses of action and then live with the consequences.This is the bulk of The Banner Saga—making small, innocuous choices that sometimes get everyone killed. Or killed and then robbed. It's tough being a leader during the end of the world.The problem is these choices once again feel largely inconsequential.
Most of the game revolves around provisioning your caravan and keeping your followers alive, but not only is it fairly simple but there's really very little reason to bother aside from forced sentimentality. Sometimes the number of humans in your caravan goes up. Sometimes it goes down. Either way, you're unlikely to notice a difference.Named characters suffer from the same problem as in the first game—there are too damned many of them. And once again, the game has time for about five of them to have any meaningful impact on the story. The rest hover in the background, occasionally butting in to give roundabout 'Oh captain, my captain' speeches or remind you 'Ah yes, you're the red-cloaked archer lady with kids or whatever who I haven't heard from for the last ten hours.' And it's the crew from the original game that suffers most.
Not long into The Banner Saga 2 our neatly-unified group splinters into two caravans again, and it's the new one—The Ravens, led by the legendary Varl berserker Bolverk—that carries most of the important story beats here. Which is great because Bolverk is a badass, but less great because all of the important characters from the original Banner Saga are in the other caravan which does.well, nothing really. Not much of anything, for the whole game.Herein we return to The Banner Saga 2's biggest flaw: It's the middle part of a trilogy.
And a trilogy structured in the most unsatisfying way possible—not three related-but-separate stories, but one lengthy tale chopped into three pieces.Frodo walks a little closer to Mordor. Master Chief tells us he'll finish the fight, next time around. Neo does.whatever the hell happened in The Matrix Reloaded.Thus The Banner Saga 2 picks up from one cliffhanger and drops us off at another, and—just like the first game—it cuts to credits right when the story starts to pick up. There's the big spoiler moment and then you get ready for the revelations to follow and.nothing.
Join us again for The Banner Saga 3.Bottom lineAs I said up top: It's not that The Banner Saga 2 is bad. Same great art, same tense tactical battles, same bewildering sense of scope emanating from such delicate pieces. I never knew slow pans across landscape paintings could instill such awe, and yet certain sequences in The Banner Saga 2 support tension that belies the game's humble budget.But there's not much substance here, and certainly not enough for this game to stand on its own as a work of fiction. It's an episode, presented as not-an-episode.
Judged on its own merits—not the plot lines it wraps up from the first game and not those it sets up for the last— The Banner Saga 2 is underwhelming.I'm looking forward to the third game, assuming we get answers and it's not a barely-concealed feint to set up a second trilogy. But a handful of great moments don't save The Banner Saga 2 from feeling like a largely ancillary tale.
Embark on your own epic journey in Banner Saga, the critically acclaimed tactical RPG where your strategic choices directly affect your personal story and the world around you.Leave your home and strike out on a desperate journey to save your people. Lead your caravan across stunning environments and into war with enemy clans and vicious Drudge soldiers. Build relationships and make choices that will shape the future of your clan as you scramble to survive in this beautiful, bleak world.Banner Saga Features:- A unique fantasy realm inspired by Norse mythology – explore a grim world shaped by the legends of the Vikings. By purchasing this item, you are transacting with Google Payments and agreeing to the Google Payments. AFinitDataCallback(key: 'ds:17', isError: false, hash: '24', data:functionreturn 'gp:AOqpTOHwoYPwqkrjCwTm8TJCNSs9ptI1JxBDdwVmhpaBTWsncSjJo0XDtabViNgoTgRZo1-2lkHSgGxvPp908','Justin Green',null,2,null,null,null,'was interested in this game a few years ago and never got around to purchasing it. I should have done so sooner.
Pretty great turn based strategy RPG. Artwork is beautiful. Excellent creativity in how the world is developed. I only have two complaints.
The story is a bit difficult to follow in the begining. The descriptive text in towns and battle are difficult to read most of the time. You have to get pretty close to the screen. I will be buying part 2 and 3 for sure.'
,424000000,1,null,null,'6','Justin Green',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Beytell',null,2,null,null,null,'am using a Note 10. My download doesn't complete on the Playstore. I notice that it passes 80%, but when I look again the download stopped and I can only click on install again. I have attempted to complete the download more than 5 times. I am downloading over stable wifi. This has not happened with other games. I would happily change my rating if a solution is provided.'
,564000000,2,null,null,'7','Rupert Beytell',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Sherrod',null,2,null,null,null,'this game represents some of the sharpest writing in the playstore. The grand story that is told is enchanting and cinematic. The cast of characters is broad, but every actor in this tale, whether it is a main protagonist or supportive role, feels lively and significant. Some instances give the player's dialogue options and I found myself easily roleplaying and speaking for that character. The strategic, turn-based combat is tuned flawlessly and a blast. Definitely a modern classic.'
,912000000,0,'Versus Evil','Thanks, Madeline for your thoughtful review. We really appreciate you sharing it here and we're so glad you enjoyed the game so much. Ud83dudcaf',462000000,null,'0','Madeline Sherrod',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Kelly',null,2,null,null,null,'art style and decent story. The game is really let down by horrible, arbitrary design choices in terms of game mechanics. The combat system is nonsense.
Targets have health and armour that are targeted separately and damaging one does not damage the other. Health is also damage. This is an illogical and unrealistic system. Story choices are arbitrary and unpredictable and often result in permadeath of a party member that you have spent limited resources on levelling up.' ,648000000,0,null,null,'1','Rory Kelly',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Chaudhary',null,2,null,null,null,'there any way to turn off the profanity/swearing in the game?
EDIT: You really should provide a way to switch off the profanity/swearing in the settings. Expletives like 'B.tch, add nothing to the game and ruin the immersion. And don't think you can get away by adding Norwegian curses like 'F.en' or even obscene phrases like 'rat anus'. You should provide an option for respectable people to enjoy the game without such degrading words. If not, then I'd like to request a refund.'
,163000000,0,'Versus Evil','Hey @Suleman there isn't, but it's mild at best. I believe there are only a handful of curse words in the entire game. Ud83dude04',280000000,null,'7','Suleman Chaudhary',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Chungunco',null,2,null,null,null,'got this for the One plus 7Pro. Was looking forward to it because it was amazing on iPad. Currently however, it's stuck on startup. After it asks for permission to use media, it's stucj forever loading.
Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling to no avail. I have emailed support already regarding this and will be willing to change my score as soon as a work around is found. Edit - reinstalled for the third time and it started up. Wish I didn't have to reinstall it again and again',630000000,0,'Versus Evil','Hi Carlo, we're sorry to hear you have this issue with the game; we've answered your ticket now.
Hope we can resolve the issue for you. Some devices are too new to play this older game but we're doing our best to support as many as possible!'
,835000000,null,'1','Carlo Chungunco',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Andri Januar B.W',null,2,null,null,null,'one of the best android games i've ever played. Actually i played it once on my s7 device and it ran smooth without any problems. Now i use s10, i found slightly longer loading screen, and when on a party roster the heroes cannot be dragged into the party slots. Hope u can fix it soon.' ,480000000,0,'Versus Evil','Hi Andri, we got your support email and have answered you. Andri Januar B.W',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Wilber',null,2,null,null,null,'me hooked for 3 solid days.
![The The](http://www.gamersdecide.com/sites/default/files/content-images/news/2016/05/27/11-rpg-games-every-pc-gamer-needs-try/imagethebannersaga-23995-28690006.jpg)
Frustrating at times, but once you get the game mechanics down, it's really fun.' ,716000000,0,'Versus Evil','Thanks for sharing your review for our game, Brad. We're glad you had a good time.
Ud83dudc4d',555000000,null,'5','Brad Wilber',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Rickaby',null,2,null,null,null,'game on mobile! Gorgeous art, great combat, and gameplay where decisions have consequences. I can't recommend this game enough, even if it stressed me out sometimes. ,905000000,0,'Versus Evil','Thanks for this kind review, Dylan! So glad you liked it. Ud83dudcaf',164000000,null,'5','Dylan Rickaby',null,null,2,null,null,null,'J',null,2,null,null,null,'is by far the best tactics game I have ever played. I love the story, engaging combat, making decisions and choices that actually change the plot.
I won all three on my ps4 i had to get the ports for my tablet. Bring Banner Saga 3 to android?!' ,601000000,0,'Versus Evil','Thank you for this awesome review, Al!
We appreciate it. Ud83dudc4d',375000000,null,'4','Al J',null,null,2,null,null,null,'v. ,null,2,null,null,null,'the game. Combat, storywriting, mechanics, art, sound, it's perfect. The Android app is not so perfect.
Loading times up to 2 minutes. Graphic glitches when app goes to background. Dragging on the roster is difficult.
And I didnt get a hard difficulty achievement after completing the game on hard difficulty. That was a bummer. Worth 10 euro? Yes, if you don't mind being patient.' ,411000000,0,'Versus Evil','Thank you for your review and feedback.
We have a custom settings app which may help with the loading; please email us at [email protected] so we can assist you directly. ,null,null,2,null,null,null,'Copland',null,2,null,null,null,'didn't think the developer would still read these, so I deleted my old one just to write a new one. I'm a big fan of Xcom, although find it overwhelming at times and therefore give up. Banner Saga is the same kind of format but; simple, easy to use, the art work is just awesome and I feel involved in the game with the choices I make. I can't wait to buy the 2nd one and it's one of the few mobile games that I feel my money was well spent and not just an impulse buy.'
,548000000,0,'Versus Evil','Wow, we really appreciate this, Andy. We love reviews like yours that give a balanced and fair assessment of the game. All the best to you! Ud83dudcaf',232000000,null,'4','Andy Copland',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Smith',null,2,null,null,null,'is one of the best indie games I've ever played.
I gave it up in chapter 3 a couple years ago, but I saw my boyfriend playing it recently and decided to give it another try. This is only 1/3 of a full game, and the studio does a great job in making it feel like a natural continuation from game to game. The combat is tough and unforgiving, though it gets a little stale if you do what I did and play all three games back to back.
The story though. That and the art are some of the most original and unique combinations that have made this one of the most memorable gaming experience experiences of my life.'
,224000000,0,'Versus Evil','Hi Kori! Thank you so much for your review. We are glad to hear that you enjoyed playing our game ud83dude04',423000000,null,'8','Kori Smith',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Martin',null,2,null,null,null,'am still installing the game. I was reading the reviews to make sure the port would be as good as the pc version, which I recently bought as well. I then realized that the developer was reading AND responding to almost, if not every, review on here. I came here to let them know, that type of support and care for the customer is why i bought this without any further hesitation.
It's refreshing to see a developer that concerned about their customers. ,79000000,0,'Versus Evil','Hi Gregory, We appreciate so much that you took the time to share this here. I just made sure our whole team saw your review. We stand behind our games, but we wouldn't be here without our player. Please enjoy the game!
U2764',51000000,null,'6','Gregory Martin',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Tateno',null,2,null,null,null,'I start with five stars and deduct a star for each significant flaw. In this case, those rules went out of the window. I've completed the game twice, once with almost no do-overs and no prior knowledge and once trying to get the 'perfect' outcome. It's been so enjoyable that I give it five stars despite its almost fatal flaws. On the flaws: interminable load times, occasionally getting completely stuck and if I use Google pay whilst in combat, I return to a blank screen.' ,545000000,0,'Versus Evil','This is so awesome!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your review u2764',172000000,null,'9','Atsushi Tateno',null,null,2,null,null,null,'Barr',null,2,null,null,null,'https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AOh14Gg.
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