The Banner Saga 3 Kickstarter.
Don't watch the video below if you haven't played the first Banner Saga, it shows a major character death from the first game.
Here's the link to the Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3
The Banner Saga is an amazing game! It's a strategy game, with an intriguing story and really cool characters as well as impactful choices. Depending on your choices quite a few characters could be dead by the second game. But my explaining it won't do it justice, I highly recommend you play the game yourself.
Anyway I made this discussion because the indie studio making the game have started a Kickstarter for the third game and I wanted to do all I could to help them out. You don't have to donate anything just because I asked though, I'm just trying to get the word out. However, if you can't pay anything I'd really appreciate you helping these guys out, simply by sharing the video wherever you can, again you don't have to, but I'd appreciate it. 
Anyway now that I got that out of the way, feel free to treat this as an official discussion thread to talk about the Banner Saga. Your favorite characters, the gameplay mechanics, etc... Just please spoiler tag it if you're gonna be talking about major things in the story.
Comments
Hell yes, the Banner Saga! I've been a fan since the first game was released. Actually, I found out about it just hours before it got released and pre-ordered it just a few minutes before to get the 10% discount
But honestly, considering how much I loved the first two games, taking the discount felt like cheating the devs, so to make up for it I definitly plan on pledging more money to the Kickstarter, given that it is the first time I get the chance to be a part of it. If I had 5000$ to spare, I'd gladly take the chance to have my appearance be used as a character in the game, but alas, it seems 50$ is all I can afford.
And it seems we're at the very least getting the game funded, given how much money has been collected in these first days of Kickstarter. With a bit of luck, several stretch goals will be reached as well, resulting in an even larger game. Oh man, this is going to be one of my highlights of 2018, I just know it. Just reading this thread has put me in the mood of replaying the first two games again. The only thing I am sad about is that this is going to be the last game in the Saga, even if the devs have hinted at the possibility of spin-offs in the same world some time ago. I could honestly play a dozen more games with that cast of characters.
Say, while we're at it, who is your favourite character?
My favorite character is actually Ludin with Eyvind as a very close second. How about you?
Ludin is surely great and also one of my favourites in the second game, though I'm not too sure about Eyvind anymore. I never warmed up to him that much, though he certainly fascinates me, so I am curious for his role in the third game. My favourite character is clearly Alette though, especially in the second game, I love the character development she went through. Ludin or Bolverk would be my second place, though I probably like Ludin a bit more than Bolverk. If he would have had any sort of meaningful role in the second game, Ekkill would also be a contender, but he just had too little screentime in the sequel, after impressing me in the first game.
Now that you mention Bolverk I have to say that I like him as well, though I wouldn't say he's my favorite. He's really cool and interesting.
Oh yes, I mostly like him so much because he is so interesting. His parts in the second game also felt so completely different from the Skogr parts or the Varl parts in the first game, so that was really refreshing. And I was surprised that he ended up having that much depth. Up until we got to play as him, I was actually pretty sure I'd end up disliking him, but I had to change my opinion on him after realizing that he can be played as a pretty complex guy. The fact that his Cull the Weak skill is among the most overpowered skills in the entire game if used correctly has probably not hurt my opinion either, even though I usually don't allow my opinion on characters to be influenced by their usefulness in terms of gameplay
Minor Banner Saga 2 Spoilers
You've actually reminded me of literally my favorite cutscene in the game with all this talk of Bolverk. I'm referring to the Banner Saga 2 when he and Hakon went head to head. "Stand down or you'll be losing more than your horns." That was so epic! P.S I actually really like Hakon as well.
That was indeed an epic cutscene and one of my favourites, together with the final cutscene at the end of the second game. I think it also was the first time we got to hear Hakon's voice actor, who did a terrific job there. The only thing that kind of took the epicness out of the scene was the fact that he literally one-hitted Bolverk in my playthrough in the following fight which kind of caused the game to freak out a bit (as in, Yrsa still came in and did her fire thing even though that was unnecessary
) But I agree, Hakon was great as well. I would have loved to play more as him in the first game, a single chapter just wasn't enough. I feel like he had the problem that outside of that chapter, he was always a bit overshadowed either by the leader of the Skogr banner or by Iver, who were just both more essential to the plot. But he still is a nice character and with a bit of luck, he'll get more to do in the third game. I also think that cutscene you mentioned gave him at least some time to shine.
It's been a while since there was activity here, but I figured nobody has mentioned this important update yet, so I guess it can't hurt to tell you here. For those who are interested in the game, but don't follow the Kickstarter: The game is founded! Well, that one was pretty obvious of course, but what's truly amazing is that they got twice the amount of money they asked for, meaning we got a couple of awesome stretch goals for everyone, not just backers
Two of the stretch goals add new game modes. One of them being the self-explanatory survival mode, while the other one is something called the "Eternal Arena", which is apparently going to feature a limitless amount of sandbox-style battles with customizable challenges. Both sound pretty interesting, but won't be available at launch. I'm certainly going to try them both out, though as someone who has always played the game for the story, I don't necessarily need these two. It's nice that they are added however, as they sound like they will provide interesting tactical challenges.
The other two stretch goals are more interesting for me personally, as they will add stuff to the story. The first is going to add playable Dredge into the game and from the sound of it, this means that they will not just be playable units in the multiplayer battles, but that they will actually join the caravan for whatever goal it is we're going to work towards in the game. I'm super excited about that one, not only for the new dynamics this should add to the gameplay, but also for the story opportunities this provides. Then there's the second one, the stretch goal which convinced me to nearly double my pledge. Remember Ubin, the Varl scrivener? Well, thanks to the stretch goal, he will reappear in the game and rejoin the caravan after returning from his trip to the Horseborn lands in the second game. This time however, he won't just be an NPC to show up in various conversations, but he will be an actual playable unit on the battlefield, which sounds just all kinds of awesome!
I'm a bit sad we haven't reached the final stretch goal, which would have been a motion comic series about the game, but well, can't have everything
What we got there sounds like an amazing game, even more so due to these intriguing stretch goal additions and while it's probably going to take until late 2018 for it to finish, I'm surely hyped already.
Wow that all sounds really amazing!
I know this is an old thread and this may be considered as necrobumping, but I just finished Banner Saga 2.
I got the first Banner Saga for Christmas and after finishing I had to immediately purchase the second one as well. It was certainly an enjoyable experience, but overall, I think I prefer the first Banner Saga to the second one.
Now I'm pretty much hungry for the Banner Saga 3, so is there any more precise estimate on the release date besides 2018? :P
I'm just glad to see another Banner Saga fan! I don't think anything specific on the release date has been revealed. Just a couple teasers. There was a really cool and interesting art reveal video though. Showing things like how Eyvind is doing and Bolverk's crew.
I've just seen it. I wonder if they'll use that as the main menu screen.
Ahh Banner Saga I made the mistake of playing the first game on IPad, but then Banner saga 2 was free on XBL so I don't wanna waste money on buying the first game on XBL and playing through it again, which means I'm kinda stuck waiting until the first game is free on XBL.
So, Banner Saga 3 is ahead of the schedule and the release date is now summer 2018.
With that said, new video was released about Fasolt's whereabouts in BS3, so might contain some spoilers if you intend to go completely blind.
I'm gonna look forward to these character videos! Fasolt's an interesting guy. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he end up with Bolverk's group towards the end of Banner Saga 2?
Yep. I suppose he split up with them eventually and took the varl with him.
Luckily Hakon is still with me, so he might be able to talk him down.
He was one of my favourite tanks, I don't want to fight him.
Banner Saga 3 is now out!
Saw the trailer earlier today! So hyped! Probably gonna change the title to general discussion if anyone's interested in discussing it. Just please remember to use spoiler tags.
Sure, why not? No need to make a new thread if we have a similar one already.
I like the game so far, now I'm on Chapter 20. The ability to change teammates between enemy waves is a welcome change and heroic titles are pretty cool as well. Also I'm impressed that one seemingly minor choice in one of the previous Banner Saga games had a really huge impact. (but now I'm kinda depressed because of it
)
Finished the game a few days ago. Was pretty busy in the recent days, so I didn't really have time to write a proper comment until now. I'd say it was a satisfying conclusion to the series, but a bit on the shorter side. The ending was definitely lacking though, it could use some kind of an epilogue. More thoughts under the spoiler tag below. (with spoilers, duh)
So about that minor choice I was talking about. Not taking the dredge baby and opening the gates resulted into my Rook dying, which really took me by surprise. I had to take a break from playing, because I was pretty much numb after that and wasn't really paying attention what was happening next. I was thinking of redoing the choice, but then decided against it. Gotta live with my decisions and all that. But yeah, I was kinda depressed for the reminder day thanks to that. The ending scene where Rook was reunited with his family was pretty sweet, so eventually I made peace with it.
Wasn't that thrilled to learn about the design choice of defending Aberrang. Basically, the better you did throughout all three games, the less content you got towards the end. It could even skip several conversation with characters and conclusions to some of them. For example, I haven't even seen Rugga after the whole gate fiasco, which I didn't expect from such a prominent character. I dunno, the whole system just seems really strange to me.
As I mentioned earlier, I think it'd be nice if there was an epilogue to learn what happened with the characters, dredge, varl, etc. But this way the game just ended and... The end? I don't know, I just expected more. Even just a few written sentences would be fine.
Ludin got a beard! Loved his development throughout the series. He was such a brat in the first one, lol. Also, he was my mvp during the battle with Ruin. Got her impaled and then she just walked until she died. Not the most heroic kill, but eh, I'll take it. Speaking of the Ruin battle, Ubin's entrance was pretty epic. But I could do without him messing my turn order by bringing that cannon fodder horseborn with him. Still happy he came back though.
My Ravens team was usually Iver, Kivi, Folka, Eyvind, Sigbjorn and Castaway. (who is really good with the Bloodletter heroic title) After Rook's demise, Aberrang team was Oddleif, Mogr, Bastion, Canary, Petrus and Ludin/Ro'Ech.
Oh, and almost forgot to share my ending screen. Fasolt was too salty to participate.
Overall, I liked the game, but the first one still remains my favourite. I'll definitely replay the whole series eventually
this time with Alette surviving. And Egil as well, universe really hates that poor boy, trying to kill him on every step he makes.