The attack being your health, and the always alternating player and enemy turns no matter how many enemies are left (until 1 is left) was absolutely wonderful in my opinion because it takes the tactics you use in pretty much every turn based tactics game and turns it on their head.
Nearly every turn based tactics games ends up being: -Find smaller element of overall main enemy force. - Concentrate all of your units there. -Eliminate all of those units in detail -Rinse repeat.
But Banner Saga flips all of that on its head. Suddenly eliminating enemy units is bad, that just means full health enemies are going more often. Instead you want to cripple, but not kill enemy units. But that drastically changes the flow of a battle. No longer is the battle most complicated at the start, and ends up being a matter of simplifying into a winning end game. Those crippled units are still there, getting in the way, block movement, using abilities, weakening armor. And now the whole battle hinges on the critical juncture of when you decide to flip the switch and go from crippling to killing, when you want to start accelerating the number of good enemy turns but start refilling your horn for better bonuses.
It's a really fucking good system.
+9
Options
Theodore Flooseveltproud parent of eight beautiful girls and shalmelodorne (which is currently being ruled by a woman (awesome role model for my daughters)) #dornedadRegistered Userregular
i just recently finished banner saga 1! fuckin loved it
maintaining as much ignorance as possible on its exact systems (outside of inside-a-battle mechanics) was totally the right play for my own enjoyment, though looking at the breadth of stuff (character recruitment and resulting stuff) afterward I didn't even catch a whiff of makes me get those "missed content!" pangs just a bit
but then at the same time, the experience I had and the story i experienced felt whole, both during and after
it's a game that i felt safe to experience without metagaming at all, and i feel that it rewarded me
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
All of that counterbalances with your troops too. Like, you have that axeman who only has one hit point left - do you pull him from the battle, so that he's not wounded and you'll be able to use him again in the next fight, at the sacrifice of occasionally losing a whole turn? Do you try to get him taken out, so that your characters who can actually hurt people can move more often? Do you use him to cripple enemy armor, even if that's not his strong point?
The whole "your attack strength and HP are the same thing" put me right off Banner Saga.
It's a really good mechanic though
I super disagree
Why?
Like, it's different from the standard for that sort of game, but I don't see how it's a bad mechanic. It leads to really interesting gameplay.
Maybe I'm just really bad at the game, but it just led to me having characters with low HP and not being able to damage any enemies, leading to deaths over and over.
i just recently finished banner saga 1! fuckin loved it
maintaining as much ignorance as possible on its exact systems (outside of inside-a-battle mechanics) was totally the right play for my own enjoyment, though looking at the breadth of stuff (character recruitment and resulting stuff) afterward I didn't even catch a whiff of makes me get those "missed content!" pangs just a bit
but then at the same time, the experience I had and the story i experienced felt whole, both during and after
it's a game that i felt safe to experience without metagaming at all, and i feel that it rewarded me
What choices did you make? Who was your final crew?
Pyre is also distracting from Tacoma is out next week
0
Options
Theodore Flooseveltproud parent of eight beautiful girls and shalmelodorne (which is currently being ruled by a woman (awesome role model for my daughters)) #dornedadRegistered Userregular
i felt the way in which you have to manage the "when to kill" decision in banner saga is a really interesting expression of army discipline and overextension, and flavor-wise replicates the difficulties of coordinating a larger army vs a smaller group in a rewarding way you don't often see
The whole "your attack strength and HP are the same thing" put me right off Banner Saga.
It's a really good mechanic though
I super disagree
Why?
Like, it's different from the standard for that sort of game, but I don't see how it's a bad mechanic. It leads to really interesting gameplay.
Maybe I'm just really bad at the game, but it just led to me having characters with low HP and not being able to damage any enemies, leading to deaths over and over.
It definitely requires some rewiring to get good at. Luckily, for the most part the game is pretty cool with you losing battles, especially early on.
I tanked my first few battles in Banner Saga, because it plays so differently than everything else. Once it clicked I started over and basically never lost anything. It was very rare for even a single guy to go down, though I did have to rotate wounded people off the lines from time to time. Kinda leads to a snowball effect as I could stay in fights longer and get more renown and items and become stronger.
0
Options
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I tanked my first few battles in Banner Saga, because it plays so differently than everything else. Once it clicked I started over and basically never lost anything. It was very rare for even a single guy to go down, though I did have to rotate wounded people off the lines from time to time. Kinda leads to a snowball effect as I could stay in fights longer and get more renown and items and become stronger.
Yeah, likewise. I was terrified to let anyone get downed in battle, which is something I just had to get over, and I ended up spending a bunch of time in the training arena to get used to the rest.
I really hope the trend of mouse-over compendium stuff (and sometimes clever dialogue) continues from Pillars of Eternity/Tyranny and now Pyre. It's really good.
0
Options
Theodore Flooseveltproud parent of eight beautiful girls and shalmelodorne (which is currently being ruled by a woman (awesome role model for my daughters)) #dornedadRegistered Userregular
i just recently finished banner saga 1! fuckin loved it
maintaining as much ignorance as possible on its exact systems (outside of inside-a-battle mechanics) was totally the right play for my own enjoyment, though looking at the breadth of stuff (character recruitment and resulting stuff) afterward I didn't even catch a whiff of makes me get those "missed content!" pangs just a bit
but then at the same time, the experience I had and the story i experienced felt whole, both during and after
it's a game that i felt safe to experience without metagaming at all, and i feel that it rewarded me
What choices did you make? Who was your final crew?
here is a long meandering post about banner saga choices
i feel the majority of my decisions as Hakon contributed properly to the cascading loss of that whole endeavor, playing the accomplished warrior immensely overmatched by the scope of his new duty, falling back on what he knows but keenly aware of how much more he needs to be now and stumbling towards that
Yrsa fled when I deferred to her forest fire plan against my better judgment; Mogr stood by me until the end; Ludin remained unpunched and whole; Gunnulf let the treasure cart go over the cliff and lived to become my clean-up all-star once i finally figured out warhawks; the varl whom i rebuked set out to prove himself worthy of joining my guard. i charged into the enemy lines the next fight and lost the battle, and he died.
with Rook i prioritized Alette's well-being and the caravan's continued existence, but struggled with pulling the trigger on those hard lines that, when crossed, would mean abandoning compatriots to their fates, or giving up on hope. like in Einartoft, where i didn't join Ivar on the bridge... but then remained there for three days, treating wounds and removing the fallen until Fasolt was dead and Ivar strode out one-armed and delirious to fight. i just couldn't bring myself to leave!
i lost the poor shield boy like instantly with Rook, by failing to act in time at what i later learned was the first death possibility of many for him, causing him to leap in and protect Alette. then, at Frostvellr, i attempted to break in and raid the keep but fuckin lost the fight and essentially got ran out of town. apparently there's a whole thing with the shield boy and the captain of the guard dude at Frostvellr later, buuuut that was the last i saw of that guy. my life was free of this particular drama.
the decisions that stick with me are small ones, like robbing a farmer after they refused our trade, because we had a day's worth of rations left. or waiting for like 10 days in Sigrholm for Juno, for Eyvind's sake, just clicking the rest button like maybe one more day will do it, maybe one more... but it never did, and our supplies just dwindled away. that led to my one and only march with starvations.
for the final decision i gave the arrow to Alette, as a sign of my faith in her ability to pull it off. it's tough being the dad of a warrior teen during the apocalypse. you wanna protect em but you wanna put your trust in em, too, ya know? that end was pretty fuckin rough! i played the first 5 seconds of Banner Saga 2 and "like" how wrong it already feels, Rook surviving her. it's a subversion of sorts, but one that wouldn't feel near as powerful if i weren't keenly aware of the fact that it didn't have to happen like that. One of the areas where, despite how i was talking about the "missed content" feeling, the game is strengthened by knowing the other possibilities. anyhow this post was really long and i still felt like i was just sorta skimming my thoughts.
+3
Options
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
The divergent storylines of Banner Saga 2 are pretty dang incredible
Rook is a broken man who is trying to deal with grief, lashing out at anything around him, and Alette is a young girl suddenly thrust into a position of power and heroism, trying to live up to the example set by her father and not lose her optimism and the faith of her people.
Like, that's pretty much two different games. The fights are all pretty much the same, sure, but they have a completely different feeling based on how you're hitting them and who you're hitting them with.
I liked the mechanics of the battles in the banner saga, but I didn't like when I lost the archer I had poured a bunch of resources into because a different character made a really dumb decision and she went with him.
My friend is working on a roguelike game you can play if you want to. (It has free demo)
The shield boy in banner saga is supposed to die. Dude has like 8 death triggers. Its an achievment to get him through the game
I managed to blind luck my way into him surviving, no idea how.
0
Options
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I've played the first Banner Saga several times now, so I know a bunch of the ways that Egil can die (and how to save him). I even have my preferred way to have him die, if I plan on making certain end game choices.
Because they have similar art styles, feature your party travelling in a caravan during which you have to make decisions on your path, are fantasy games set in a desolate world and present their stories through text primarily
0
Options
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
It is reminding me of banner saga but much lighter
I have yet to have a choice in Pyre that made me lean back in my chair and then stand up and walk around for 10 minutes before coming back to my computer and stare at my options for another 10 minutes completely unsure if the choice I was about to make would kill one of my powerful fighters or get me enough food to hopefully march to the next town without losing any refugees to starvation
Posts
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
It's a really good mechanic though
I super disagree
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Why?
Like, it's different from the standard for that sort of game, but I don't see how it's a bad mechanic. It leads to really interesting gameplay.
Nearly every turn based tactics games ends up being: -Find smaller element of overall main enemy force. - Concentrate all of your units there. -Eliminate all of those units in detail -Rinse repeat.
But Banner Saga flips all of that on its head. Suddenly eliminating enemy units is bad, that just means full health enemies are going more often. Instead you want to cripple, but not kill enemy units. But that drastically changes the flow of a battle. No longer is the battle most complicated at the start, and ends up being a matter of simplifying into a winning end game. Those crippled units are still there, getting in the way, block movement, using abilities, weakening armor. And now the whole battle hinges on the critical juncture of when you decide to flip the switch and go from crippling to killing, when you want to start accelerating the number of good enemy turns but start refilling your horn for better bonuses.
It's a really fucking good system.
maintaining as much ignorance as possible on its exact systems (outside of inside-a-battle mechanics) was totally the right play for my own enjoyment, though looking at the breadth of stuff (character recruitment and resulting stuff) afterward I didn't even catch a whiff of makes me get those "missed content!" pangs just a bit
but then at the same time, the experience I had and the story i experienced felt whole, both during and after
it's a game that i felt safe to experience without metagaming at all, and i feel that it rewarded me
Maybe I'm just really bad at the game, but it just led to me having characters with low HP and not being able to damage any enemies, leading to deaths over and over.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
What choices did you make? Who was your final crew?
I've only done 2 rites though.
It definitely requires some rewiring to get good at. Luckily, for the most part the game is pretty cool with you losing battles, especially early on.
Yeah, likewise. I was terrified to let anyone get downed in battle, which is something I just had to get over, and I ended up spending a bunch of time in the training arena to get used to the rest.
I mean, I am not at all surprised that this game is my jam but it's impressing upon me just like their other two games did just how much it is my jam
Ti'zo
here is a long meandering post about banner saga choices
Yrsa fled when I deferred to her forest fire plan against my better judgment; Mogr stood by me until the end; Ludin remained unpunched and whole; Gunnulf let the treasure cart go over the cliff and lived to become my clean-up all-star once i finally figured out warhawks; the varl whom i rebuked set out to prove himself worthy of joining my guard. i charged into the enemy lines the next fight and lost the battle, and he died.
with Rook i prioritized Alette's well-being and the caravan's continued existence, but struggled with pulling the trigger on those hard lines that, when crossed, would mean abandoning compatriots to their fates, or giving up on hope. like in Einartoft, where i didn't join Ivar on the bridge... but then remained there for three days, treating wounds and removing the fallen until Fasolt was dead and Ivar strode out one-armed and delirious to fight. i just couldn't bring myself to leave!
i lost the poor shield boy like instantly with Rook, by failing to act in time at what i later learned was the first death possibility of many for him, causing him to leap in and protect Alette. then, at Frostvellr, i attempted to break in and raid the keep but fuckin lost the fight and essentially got ran out of town. apparently there's a whole thing with the shield boy and the captain of the guard dude at Frostvellr later, buuuut that was the last i saw of that guy. my life was free of this particular drama.
the decisions that stick with me are small ones, like robbing a farmer after they refused our trade, because we had a day's worth of rations left. or waiting for like 10 days in Sigrholm for Juno, for Eyvind's sake, just clicking the rest button like maybe one more day will do it, maybe one more... but it never did, and our supplies just dwindled away. that led to my one and only march with starvations.
for the final decision i gave the arrow to Alette, as a sign of my faith in her ability to pull it off. it's tough being the dad of a warrior teen during the apocalypse. you wanna protect em but you wanna put your trust in em, too, ya know? that end was pretty fuckin rough! i played the first 5 seconds of Banner Saga 2 and "like" how wrong it already feels, Rook surviving her. it's a subversion of sorts, but one that wouldn't feel near as powerful if i weren't keenly aware of the fact that it didn't have to happen like that. One of the areas where, despite how i was talking about the "missed content" feeling, the game is strengthened by knowing the other possibilities. anyhow this post was really long and i still felt like i was just sorta skimming my thoughts.
Like, that's pretty much two different games. The fights are all pretty much the same, sure, but they have a completely different feeling based on how you're hitting them and who you're hitting them with.
I managed to blind luck my way into him surviving, no idea how.
like
he's too much
the music though
edit also I need a giant poster of the entire world map in my life
I thought it was some weird NBA Jam thing, and Banner Saga is a strategy game
Narrative
I have yet to have a choice in Pyre that made me lean back in my chair and then stand up and walk around for 10 minutes before coming back to my computer and stare at my options for another 10 minutes completely unsure if the choice I was about to make would kill one of my powerful fighters or get me enough food to hopefully march to the next town without losing any refugees to starvation
If you did, we aren't friends anymore
I said it might make him look shady, because it does, that's why it's cool
Anything he did after that (he shaves it off) was his decision
It looks great dude."
He keeps the mustache and gets a stat bonus
You fucked up and we are not friends
Because I enjoyed Bastions and hated Transistors, so I'm nervous about this one.
Transistors gameplay was so good I powered through to the end anyway.