Isometric strategy rpg mixed with a terrible choice simulator that takes place during a Norse fantasy Ragnarok.
And by terrible choice simulator, I don't think he means it's a terrible simulator that offers choices. He means the things you have to choose from are all terrible and you have to decide on what you think is the least terrible and live with the consequences.
I get the sense they planned to have Ludin do more in the first game. Maybe they'll carry over old ideas for Ludin story beats into the sequel.
If he's still alive, of course. Personally I'm really conflicted about whether I want him alive or dead going into the next game as the repercussions for either are tantalising
Oh, huh.
I hadn't realized he could die.
Ahh, yep. Sorry. I'll do you a favour and not tell you when it occurs
I get the sense they planned to have Ludin do more in the first game. Maybe they'll carry over old ideas for Ludin story beats into the sequel.
If he's still alive, of course. Personally I'm really conflicted about whether I want him alive or dead going into the next game as the repercussions for either are tantalising
Oh, huh.
I hadn't realized he could die.
Ahh, yep. Sorry. I'll do you a favour and not tell you when it occurs
Nah its fine, I don't care much about spoilers.
I was just surprised because I played through the game a few times without getting the impression that it might happen.
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
Isometric strategy rpg mixed with a terrible choice simulator that takes place during a Norse fantasy Ragnarok.
Also incredibly beautiful art and a chilling score. And there are light management elements for your ragtag, fugitive fleet people searching for a safe haven amidst the war and chaos.
Isometric strategy rpg mixed with a terrible choice simulator that takes place during a Norse fantasy Ragnarok.
Also incredibly beautiful art and a chilling score. And there are light management elements for your ragtag, fugitive fleet people searching for a safe haven amidst the war and chaos.
Cresting the rise to see Grofheim? I still get goosebumps thinking about it
BTW, this sequel is quite nice folks. And the super secret, don't tell them I told you, forum is doing very well in its stated purpose of reporting bugs, balance issues, and all other feedback to which the devs seem to be quickly responding and adjusting with. You should all feel very positive vibes from me about this.
I remember in the months leading up to Mass Effect 2's release, I replayed Mass Effect 1 to get everything just right. Not just the story decisions, but also everybody's stats and gear.
And then Mass Effect 2 happened and your Mass Effect 1 stats and gear turned out to not matter at all. Not even Shepard's class was set in stone.
Anyway, a number of Youtubers seem to have got advance copies of The Banner Saga 2 and some of them imported their Banner Saga 1 savegames.
And it seems everything carries over. Not just your story decisions and your surviving characters, but also your Renown, Supplies, Items and Stats (including people's kills needed for promotion). I'm not sure about the size and composition of the caravan, but it looks like that one carries over too.
Everything.
Still got a few days. Time to try for a 'perfect' Banner Saga 1 run.
Rook, Alette, Ivar, Hakon, Yrsa and (of course) Eyvind are all level 5. Oddleif, Nid, Ekkill, Eirik, and Griss are all level 4 and some of them have enough kills under their belt to reach level 5.
Got all the Godstone items and two of those Jarl Seals that restore willpower (I don't put points into Willpower when leveling up, but boy do I love willpower-regen items).
And yes, I did condemn kind, innocent Egil to certain death so I could take along a twitchy-eyed, axe-wielding loon. I'm sure that decision won't come back to bite me in the ass in any way.
Oh, and I brought the dredge baby along. I really hope that minor sub-plot has some kind of payoff later on.
So I've been playing this since it basically launched.
Anyway, the following is a story spoiler for Alette's route. Not sure how big a story spoiler, really. It comes up pretty early, but l don't know the long-term effects, if any.
I've decided to let Alette train as a mender. I wonder how that'll work mechanically, although her bow is already looking a lot fancier.
Also, Overwatch is a pretty great skill.
Part of me wants to know if Rook can also train as a mender. I kind of hope not. I hope he has some other story-based upgrade or whatever is going on.
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GumpyThere is alwaysa greater powerRegistered Userregular
So I've been playing this since it basically launched.
Anyway, the following is a story spoiler for Alette's route. Not sure how big a story spoiler, really. It comes up pretty early, but l don't know the long-term effects, if any.
I've decided to let Alette train as a mender. I wonder how that'll work mechanically, although her bow is already looking a lot fancier.
Also, Overwatch is a pretty great skill.
Part of me wants to know if Rook can also train as a mender. I kind of hope not. I hope he has some other story-based upgrade or whatever is going on.
No sign of any mender stuff for Rook in my play through yet. However, Erik has managed to turn into a Bear summoner which is wizardy enough for my team
Strange. My supply situation is actually quite comfortable for once, yet because of the constant near-starvation experiences of the first game I keep spending Renown on yet more supplies I don't think I actually need.
Still, at least all that food lets me really appreciate the intimidatingly beautiful surroundings.
I think the selling point about adding objectives to combat was overblown; that didn't happen too often and it was not particularly interesting when it did.
Also, am I imagining things, or has the dialog gotten a bit worse?
I feel like in the first game it tended to be very understated, with a lot implied by a little, whereas here you have people saying, fairly often, something along the lines of "I feel [emotion] now because of [reason]."
Although I still enjoyed it. Probably going to play through it a few more times.
Question about the end.
The last scene in the human-caravan storyline was unclear to me: What is going on with Canary?
Her herd killed most of your scouts and lined up to kill everyone else, too? Or was something else happening? I couldn't tell.
I guess maybe they made it intentionally vague?
kedinik on
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
I get the feeling there's some deep branching possibilities depending on who's alive or dead from the first one.
Not like heavy plot changes, but just simply who's available as fighters.
I think I may not be able to actually win the final fight.
Final battle for Banner Saga 2
Iver just isn't not beefy enough to beat the level 10 with rank 10 item monster I made.
So I may just have to accept the Iver loses ending. I couldn't figure out how to make the lightening work. Pushing him into it didn't seem to do much.
I get the feeling there's some deep branching possibilities depending on who's alive or dead from the first one.
Not like heavy plot changes, but just simply who's available as fighters.
I think I may not be able to actually win the final fight.
Final battle for Banner Saga 2
Iver just isn't not beefy enough to beat the level 10 with rank 10 item monster I made.
So I may just have to accept the Iver loses ending. I couldn't figure out how to make the lightening work. Pushing him into it didn't seem to do much.
That's rough.
Have you tried grinding down his health with Eyvind's electricity, instead of ever really engaging?
Although I could see that being hard to pull off.
Does Iver die if you lose the fight?
kedinik on
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
I get the feeling there's some deep branching possibilities depending on who's alive or dead from the first one.
Not like heavy plot changes, but just simply who's available as fighters.
I think I may not be able to actually win the final fight.
Final battle for Banner Saga 2
Iver just isn't not beefy enough to beat the level 10 with rank 10 item monster I made.
So I may just have to accept the Iver loses ending. I couldn't figure out how to make the lightening work. Pushing him into it didn't seem to do much.
That's rough.
Have you tried grinding down his health with Eyvind's electricity, instead of ever really engaging?
Although I could see that being hard to pull off.
Does Iver die if you lose the fight?
Does the lightning really do anything? My Iver was smacking Bolverk around, they were the same level. Juno told me to let him get hit by lightning but it only ever seemed to do 1 damage to him, so I finally just smacked him really hard with the axe and dropped him. Does anything different happen if you use the lightning?
In terms of gameplay for the second game, I'm not sure I really liked Bolverk's class of beserk. Considering how much tighter a lot of the fighting arenas are I felt Bolverk hurt as much as he helped in combat, hitting my allies. If I sent him into a fight without allies nearby he often would get slaughtered before he could do much damage. Maybe my play style is too cautious. I liked to lock enemies down with the Varl and then swoop in and kill them with the humans.
I did notice that at the start of each of Bolverk's turns, he starts out with a little Bellower-possessed roar. Once you've kicked him into the lightning once, Bellower no longer shows up.
I'm don't know what that means mechanically. Bellower did have armour regen in his fight. Maybe he lends that to Bolverk for as long as he's possessing him?
I did notice that at the start of each of Bolverk's turns, he starts out with a little Bellower-possessed roar. Once you've kicked him into the lightning once, Bellower no longer shows up.
I'm don't know what that means mechanically. Bellower did have armour regen in his fight. Maybe he lends that to Bolverk for as long as he's possessing him?
I did notice that Bolverk does seem to have some regen abilities whenever he does the Bellower roar. Still, my Iver's armor and strength were too high for Bolverk to break through, especially considering I let him bring the fight to me.
I did notice that at the start of each of Bolverk's turns, he starts out with a little Bellower-possessed roar. Once you've kicked him into the lightning once, Bellower no longer shows up.
I'm don't know what that means mechanically. Bellower did have armour regen in his fight. Maybe he lends that to Bolverk for as long as he's possessing him?
Yeah if you click Bolverk and hover over his status effects there's one from Bellower giving him +4 armor AND strength every round. I think the lightening is to get rid of that. But even if I get rid of the regen Iver still gets neutered after one good armor break plus follow up strength damage swing. It's left ambiguous if Iver dies or not when the tower collapses, but it does show Bolverk getting revived by the serpent and removing the arrow from Bellower if you lose the fight.
I did notice that at the start of each of Bolverk's turns, he starts out with a little Bellower-possessed roar. Once you've kicked him into the lightning once, Bellower no longer shows up.
I'm don't know what that means mechanically. Bellower did have armour regen in his fight. Maybe he lends that to Bolverk for as long as he's possessing him?
Yeah if you click Bolverk and hover over his status effects there's one from Bellower giving him +4 armor AND strength every round. I think the lightening is to get rid of that. But even if I get rid of the regen Iver still gets neutered after one good armor break plus follow up strength damage swing. It's left ambiguous if Iver dies or not when the tower collapses, but it does show Bolverk getting revived by the serpent and removing the arrow from Bellower if you lose the fight.
It could have just been me but my Iver had the ability to drop his strength lower than Iver's defense in one hit, and then do that until you can hit him with lightning. At that point you just shield bash him into the lightning and then wail on him into hie drops.
Was it possible to tell Canary's people to buzz off? I let them join up since I was grabbing every hobo along the way.
Wondering if there's a version where you didn't bring the horseborn in with you.
And yeah my Iver can barely drop Bolverk's strength at all with first hit. I made a really mean Bolverk. I could probably do it with some repeated shove and dance, but it would be pretty slow going and getting caught once it enough to ruin my own strength. So it's kind of impossible to shove and not get retaliated against the following turn.
Was it possible to tell Canary's people to buzz off? I let them join up since I was grabbing every hobo along the way.
Wondering if there's a version where you didn't bring the horseborn in with you.
And yeah my Iver can barely drop Bolverk's strength at all with first hit. I made a really mean Bolverk. I could probably do it with some repeated shove and dance, but it would be pretty slow going and getting caught once it enough to ruin my own strength. So it's kind of impossible to shove and not get retaliated against the following turn.
Did you unlock Zephyr during the Bolverk portion of the campaign?
I am wondering whether you get Zephyr each turn if you did not unlock it for the new mender.
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
Was it possible to tell Canary's people to buzz off? I let them join up since I was grabbing every hobo along the way.
Wondering if there's a version where you didn't bring the horseborn in with you.
And yeah my Iver can barely drop Bolverk's strength at all with first hit. I made a really mean Bolverk. I could probably do it with some repeated shove and dance, but it would be pretty slow going and getting caught once it enough to ruin my own strength. So it's kind of impossible to shove and not get retaliated against the following turn.
Did you unlock Zephyr during the Bolverk portion of the campaign?
I am wondering whether you get Zephyr each turn if you did not unlock it for the new mender.
I did unlock Zephyr on the mender before the end and had it available. So I'm not sure if you get it either way.
So i can keep away pretty good. But it'd be tough to knock him back out of range far enough. I'll probably give a Rook playthrough sometime before the next Banner Saga comes along. Maybe do it as a 1&2 playthrough and will be better prepared for this end. Then I'll also have save states of endgame failure and Rook/Alette groups to play with for the third game.
Was it possible to tell Canary's people to buzz off? I let them join up since I was grabbing every hobo along the way.
Wondering if there's a version where you didn't bring the horseborn in with you.
And yeah my Iver can barely drop Bolverk's strength at all with first hit. I made a really mean Bolverk. I could probably do it with some repeated shove and dance, but it would be pretty slow going and getting caught once it enough to ruin my own strength. So it's kind of impossible to shove and not get retaliated against the following turn.
Did you unlock Zephyr during the Bolverk portion of the campaign?
I am wondering whether you get Zephyr each turn if you did not unlock it for the new mender.
I did unlock Zephyr on the mender before the end and had it available. So I'm not sure if you get it either way.
So i can keep away pretty good. But it'd be tough to knock him back out of range far enough. I'll probably give a Rook playthrough sometime before the next Banner Saga comes along. Maybe do it as a 1&2 playthrough and will be better prepared for this end. Then I'll also have save states of endgame failure and Rook/Alette groups to play with for the third game.
Re: that ending fight
I had a pretty badass Iver at that point, 14 armor and 20 strength, so he could've taken Bolverk down in two hits without breaking armor if not for the regen. I think a big part is getting lucky with lightning strikes, specifically having one pop near you or even in Bolverk's way. Didn't know there was a proper ending for his failure though, that's neat.
Plot in general, since I just finished:
I do somewhat prefer arc of the first game more, which felt like it had more going on than a long string of chase sequences. The traversal was more spectacular, and I like the additions to caravan management, but I don't know if the design took full advantage of them. I was never hurting for fighters and was practically swimming in food and renown for both parties.
Plotwise, I'm not sure I dig the pacing of BS2. Eyvind singlehandedly defanged the Serpent as a threat moments after it appeared - presumably if it shows up he'll just blast it again - and given their conduct I'll be let down if he and Juno don't turn out to be the real villains; one casually controls minds, the other literally tried to become god, and it's looking like this whole darkness thing is their fault. More to the point, the ending is kind of rushed (I had to laugh when Bolverk just dragged Bellower with him into the tower, presumably for the exercise) and it seems like there's nowhere else to run besides over the sea.
That said, I still had a blast with it. The two 'core' elements of Banner Saga, the apocalyptic worldbuilding and the day-to-day hazards of caravan management, are still intact and they did a respectable job building on established characters. I need to check out Alette's side, but Rook plainly looks like he's seen some shit, man, and I loved the little bits of development for smaller characters like Hogun and Mogun. We'll see if BS3 can wrap things up neatly, but I'm definitely still on board.
Curious if anyone ran into any bugs or polish issues? Being in the beta, I and the other testers saw quite a few but they were fixing them as we found them. Just wondering if anything slipped through?
Curious if anyone ran into any bugs or polish issues? Being in the beta, I and the other testers saw quite a few but they were fixing them as we found them. Just wondering if anything slipped through?
Sometimes I had invisible characters on the battlefield.
Alette turned invisible after a little while, and then other humans started flickering in and out of invisibility. The problem was intermittent.
I could still play because I could still see the shadows of the invisible characters.
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
From February 23-28, everyone who has Twitch Prime can get Banner Saga 1 free! Then next week, from March 2 - 7, all Twitch Prime subscribers can receive Banner Saga 2 free! (Oh, and if you have Amazon Prime, you totally also have Twitch Prime automatically)
We need your help! Twitch wants to help Banner Saga 3 be awesome too, so for every player who downloads and plays each game during their featured week, Twitch will give us $1.00 toward development! Even if you already own both games you can download them again for FREE or introduce your friends to the series, and everyone who downloads and plays will be helping us fund development of Banner Saga 3! If you have questions, we've put some more info in our FAQ
Don't forget that you need to actually launch the game (not just download it) for us to get the contributions from Twitch - so please launch it!
These are some great games - interesting and distinctive turn-based combat, ragtag band management with FTL style decisions, character progression, great music and jawdroppingly beautiful. Pretty cool to be able to pick them up for free.
Look for it in the "Free with Prime" section of the left hand menu bar.
Timing on Banner Saga 2.
From February 23-28, everyone who has Twitch Prime can get Banner Saga 1 free!
Then next week, from March 2 - 7, all Twitch Prime subscribers can receive Banner Saga 2 free!
Posts
And by terrible choice simulator, I don't think he means it's a terrible simulator that offers choices. He means the things you have to choose from are all terrible and you have to decide on what you think is the least terrible and live with the consequences.
Nah its fine, I don't care much about spoilers.
I was just surprised because I played through the game a few times without getting the impression that it might happen.
Also incredibly beautiful art and a chilling score. And there are light management elements for your ragtag, fugitive fleet people searching for a safe haven amidst the war and chaos.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Cresting the rise to see Grofheim? I still get goosebumps thinking about it
Heartbreaking.
The last boss was such a cheap shot.
And then Mass Effect 2 happened and your Mass Effect 1 stats and gear turned out to not matter at all. Not even Shepard's class was set in stone.
Anyway, a number of Youtubers seem to have got advance copies of The Banner Saga 2 and some of them imported their Banner Saga 1 savegames.
Everything.
Still got a few days. Time to try for a 'perfect' Banner Saga 1 run.
My play through the beta test has been satisfying, for your information.
Got all the Godstone items and two of those Jarl Seals that restore willpower (I don't put points into Willpower when leveling up, but boy do I love willpower-regen items).
And yes, I did condemn kind, innocent Egil to certain death so I could take along a twitchy-eyed, axe-wielding loon. I'm sure that decision won't come back to bite me in the ass in any way.
Oh, and I brought the dredge baby along. I really hope that minor sub-plot has some kind of payoff later on.
Eh. Good enough.
Anyway, the following is a story spoiler for Alette's route. Not sure how big a story spoiler, really. It comes up pretty early, but l don't know the long-term effects, if any.
Also, Overwatch is a pretty great skill.
Part of me wants to know if Rook can also train as a mender. I kind of hope not. I hope he has some other story-based upgrade or whatever is going on.
Still, at least all that food lets me really appreciate the intimidatingly beautiful surroundings.
I enjoyed the first game more.
I think the selling point about adding objectives to combat was overblown; that didn't happen too often and it was not particularly interesting when it did.
Also, am I imagining things, or has the dialog gotten a bit worse?
I feel like in the first game it tended to be very understated, with a lot implied by a little, whereas here you have people saying, fairly often, something along the lines of "I feel [emotion] now because of [reason]."
Although I still enjoyed it. Probably going to play through it a few more times.
Question about the end.
Her herd killed most of your scouts and lined up to kill everyone else, too? Or was something else happening? I couldn't tell.
I guess maybe they made it intentionally vague?
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Not like heavy plot changes, but just simply who's available as fighters.
I think I may not be able to actually win the final fight.
Final battle for Banner Saga 2
So I may just have to accept the Iver loses ending. I couldn't figure out how to make the lightening work. Pushing him into it didn't seem to do much.
That's rough.
Although I could see that being hard to pull off.
Does Iver die if you lose the fight?
In terms of gameplay for the second game, I'm not sure I really liked Bolverk's class of beserk. Considering how much tighter a lot of the fighting arenas are I felt Bolverk hurt as much as he helped in combat, hitting my allies. If I sent him into a fight without allies nearby he often would get slaughtered before he could do much damage. Maybe my play style is too cautious. I liked to lock enemies down with the Varl and then swoop in and kill them with the humans.
I did notice that at the start of each of Bolverk's turns, he starts out with a little Bellower-possessed roar. Once you've kicked him into the lightning once, Bellower no longer shows up.
I'm don't know what that means mechanically. Bellower did have armour regen in his fight. Maybe he lends that to Bolverk for as long as he's possessing him?
So I think you can headbutt him into lighting until he either dies or becomes weak enough to fight directly.
I hate this game for making me regret trying to help people. (not really, I love this game)
Wondering if there's a version where you didn't bring the horseborn in with you.
And yeah my Iver can barely drop Bolverk's strength at all with first hit. I made a really mean Bolverk. I could probably do it with some repeated shove and dance, but it would be pretty slow going and getting caught once it enough to ruin my own strength. So it's kind of impossible to shove and not get retaliated against the following turn.
I am wondering whether you get Zephyr each turn if you did not unlock it for the new mender.
So i can keep away pretty good. But it'd be tough to knock him back out of range far enough. I'll probably give a Rook playthrough sometime before the next Banner Saga comes along. Maybe do it as a 1&2 playthrough and will be better prepared for this end. Then I'll also have save states of endgame failure and Rook/Alette groups to play with for the third game.
Re: that ending fight
Plot in general, since I just finished:
Plotwise, I'm not sure I dig the pacing of BS2. Eyvind singlehandedly defanged the Serpent as a threat moments after it appeared - presumably if it shows up he'll just blast it again - and given their conduct I'll be let down if he and Juno don't turn out to be the real villains; one casually controls minds, the other literally tried to become god, and it's looking like this whole darkness thing is their fault. More to the point, the ending is kind of rushed (I had to laugh when Bolverk just dragged Bellower with him into the tower, presumably for the exercise) and it seems like there's nowhere else to run besides over the sea.
That said, I still had a blast with it. The two 'core' elements of Banner Saga, the apocalyptic worldbuilding and the day-to-day hazards of caravan management, are still intact and they did a respectable job building on established characters. I need to check out Alette's side, but Rook plainly looks like he's seen some shit, man, and I loved the little bits of development for smaller characters like Hogun and Mogun. We'll see if BS3 can wrap things up neatly, but I'm definitely still on board.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Sometimes I had invisible characters on the battlefield.
Alette turned invisible after a little while, and then other humans started flickering in and out of invisibility. The problem was intermittent.
I could still play because I could still see the shadows of the invisible characters.
BUT why the fuck is Tryggvi saying "If I'd supported"? I did support! Goddammit, don't sass me!
Edit: Whoa! I also just had a bunch of folks injured in the sparring mode? What's up with that?
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
From February 23-28, everyone who has Twitch Prime can get Banner Saga 1 free!
Then next week, from March 2 - 7, all Twitch Prime subscribers can receive Banner Saga 2 free!
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2