Reflections: The Banner Saga, Balancing, and Story

I really wanted to enjoy The Banner Saga. I found it after the kickstarter ended, and followed it until it was released. I’m all about the nordic scene; I think it’s super interesting, and not terribly overdone. Vikings and giants sounds like a great time to me. I had heard the story was bleak, and I was ready to dive and and be engulfed in the world. However, the battles got in the way.

Playing on easy seems like a cop-out. I play games regularly, I should be able to do whatever I want on normal. However, the turn-based strategy battles are near impossible some of the time. The balance just seems off: there are either too many enemies or they are too powerful… or sometimes both. You as a player can switch between difficulty whenever you want, but whenever I felt as if I needed to switch to easy it was like I was giving up. I’m not bad at turn-based strategy; I like to think I’m pretty decent. However, there’s something about the way this game is done that makes me terrible. But is it just me? I’ve talked to other turn-based strategy enthusiasts that have had as much trouble as I have.

When you get to the story, it’s compelling and interesting and draws you in to want more and more. However, the battles get so frustratingly difficult that you close the game, never to move on to the next part of the story. I’m very disappointed. I can’t experience the story that was drawing me in because the balancing of the enemies is off and the mechanics aren’t very clear. I remember the first battle being fairly hard as well. Either the mechanics need to be introduced better because there’s clearly something many players missed, or the balancing for normal mode shouldn’t be so ridiculous. Apparently they are making a sequel, but if it’s exactly like the first one gameplay-wise but with a different story then I’m not interested. After all, I’d never get to the story anyway.

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