I have been in search of a challenging strategy game to pit my wits against for a long time now, and Banner Saga 2 proved to be a worthy foe.
Starting in the immediate aftermath of the first game, the player is in charge of a caravan of displaced Vikings who are racing across the continent to stay ahead of the Dredge horde. Monsters made of stone, the Dredge are slaughtering everyone and everything in their path, and their numbers make them unstoppable.
The game is divided between two modes, battle and caravan. Managing a caravan of hundreds of people is a headache of its own, even without the monsters breathing down your neck. Supplies steadily dwindle every day, making it imperative to reach the next town before they run out. However, constantly traveling without resting fatigues your people, who need rest days to recover.
But battle is the real show. With a top-down view, the battlefield is divided into a grid. Units have a range of movement and one attack action per turn. The player can deploy six units of mixed classes and abilities to combat the enemy. I was pleased to find that almost all of the classes have useful abilities and that Banner Saga rewards strategic thinking.
For example, making a shield wall with a handful of fighters not only acts as a physical barrier but also boosts the defense of the units in the wall, and archers become more useful in mid to late battle when enemies’ armor has been weakened.
Given the constant struggle for survival, Banner Saga 2 is as cheerful as a funeral. At first, I didn’t think that I would become very invested in the characters, but the interactions you can have with them while resting at campsites are superbly written. I grew fond of most of the cast, even the ones I didn’t have much use for during fights.
What also made me invested were choices. When the caravan is traveling, scenarios pop up. It could be anything from which path to take to “the-boat-is-sinking-what-do-we-do?” The wrong choice can cost your caravan lives (the game “helpfully” flashes up a causality count as a guilt trip). They even change depending on circumstances in which you enter a battle — or if you even have to fight at all. (Pro tip: for the emergency choices, never pick the more information option. It always ended in disaster and death for me.)
Banner Saga is a beautiful game. The hand-drawn aesthetic has more charm than cutting-edge graphics and fits the fantasy setting. Also, the musical score is amazing, and the most memorable video-game music I’ve heard outside of Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts.
Overall, Banner Saga 2 is worthwhile strategy experience that has more heart and soul than I’ve seen in a while.
8/10