These characters come across as ordinary people – you might want to let the definition of ordinary slip a bit with the varl – and don’t feel like saviours or world heroes that a lot of RPG stories build their characters up to be. As you can probably tell, the story in The Banner Saga revolves a lot around these survivors trying their best to fend off the mysterious black Dredge. It’s a depressing tale that follows two groups of travellers, a human led caravan of refugees who are fleeing their homes after it was destroyed by the Dredge and a varl led band of warriors who are trying to reach a key location. Their belief in the gods seems to be wavering as rumours spread that the sun isn’t changing because the gods are dead. The sun is stuck in the sky, so because of this the people are confused and insecure to the dangers around them. Players find out about the world as they play, and soon it’s clear that living in this world is depressing. The story in The Banner Saga is well written, with a mature theme throughout that doesn’t depend on edgy swearwords or scantily clad women to make it feel “ grown up.” There isn’t much time spent on building a background to the world, as a short introduction is given to the player at the start, then the game begins by dumping the player in the midst of a brawl at a pub. While you would think the varl wouldn’t have to worry about being wiped out from anyone, these giants, along with the humans, are under threat from the Dredge, a strange civilization that seems to have a sole purpose of killing any humans or varl that happen to be in their sight. #THE BANNER SAGA LENGTH FULL#While the internet screams for pirates and ninjas, The Banner Saga uses a piece of history that isn’t given the exposure it deserves in video games, Norse Vikings, and thrusts that into a fantasy world that is full of humans and varls – giant, horned beings that look like they are ready to beat some fools to a pulp. There aren’t many indie titles that fall into this category, which made me even more excited to see what could be done with the genre when a developer isn’t tied to a big publisher. What made me even more interested in the game was that this indie developed title by Stoic, a small company made up of ex-Bioware employees, was in fact a strategy RPG. It’s an addiction that started back in the PlayStation era – from Final Fantasy Tactics to Front Mission 3, from Disgaea to Valkyria Chronicles (that reminds me that I still need to play Jeanne d’Arc), I would like to think I’ve played most of the major entries in the genre, so I was happy to see that the Kickstarter campaign for The Banner Saga’s first episode was successfully met back in April of 2012 by quite a margin.
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