Game:

The Banner Saga (2014)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 20:31

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Let's Play The Banner Saga [Part 19] - Wyrmtoe

We're back playing some of The Banner Saga by Studio Stoic. It's the human campaign that we're doing right now, but I think we're getting close to having the two caravans meet up. It'll be cool to see the character interactions between Hakon and Rook and Aletter and Iver, or Yngvar, as Krumer calls him.

Speaking of Krumer, that's another Varl character we talk to this episode after we get to the Varl town of Wyrmtoe. Look, this video is short in the tactical combat gameplay. And by short I mean there is no tactical combat gameplay at all. I know what you're thinking. FerrousPilot, you barbarous heathen, how can you make a Let's Play of The Banner Saga and not even feature any gameplay from The Banner Saga. Well it's not my fault that the game has a plot okay? Some sick people even consider the story to be more important than the gameplay when it comes to video games, which sounds wrong but there's no accounting for taste. Maybe Studio Stoic has story loving tendencies. They are former Bioware developers, after all, and we all know that Bioware is known for have a lot of story based games. KOTOR had a pretty good narrative, as I recall, so why can't The Banner Saga have more of a narrative focus too?

Plus, I'm going to be straight up right now and lay down some heavy handed game critique when I say this, holmspiffles: The tactical combat gameplay of The Banner Saga leaves much to be desired. It's not so much that the combat system is bad. It has its problems but so does anything. The issue is really the encounter design combined with the simplicity of the underlying stats. Enemy variety is minimal, and a lot of the battles feel similar to one-another. Ranged units add a little bit of complexity, which I appreciate, and some maps have terrain obstacles which also add some much-needed variety to the gameplay, but it's really not enough.

As a whole, I think the narrative is better presented than the combat gameplay. The characters are fun and the overall storytelling mechanism of following two separate groups is an interesting way to convey the plot.

Alright enough game critique. This episode of Let's Play The Banner Saga, we decide to go to Wyrmtoe after we got our asses kicked by Ekkil. Apparently Iver knows a guy there by the name of Krumer. Another Varl. Unfortunately, we're low on food supplies and start losing people left and right. Whatever. We always charge into battle anyway. We have some interesting conversations with Oddleif and Mogun (or was it Hogun?), before we manage to make it to Wyrmtoe, where plot spoilers happen, and more of the story is unveiled.

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