Review 1
Purchased!
NOT WITH A BANG...
Banner Saga 1 is amazing. Banner Saga 2 is fun. Banner Saga 3, unfortunately,
fails to live up the expectations of its predecessors and is a disappointment.
Pros
1. As usual, the art is great.
2. Story and writing is top notch.
3. Core mechanics are solid.
4. Music is fantastic.
Cons
1. Constant crashes. This is, undoubtedly, the most unstable game in the trilogy
and crashed on me consistently once every 30 minutes or so. It's especially
frustrating when it happens right after a long battle and the game hasn't saved
yet.
2. Punishes you for being good at the game. Let's say you make all the "right"
choices, have lots of clansmen and fighters, do your best to defend the city
etc. The game's going to take you about 5 hours to finish because the better you
are, the more rushed the ending is and it skips over LOTS of content. In fact,
it's actually harder to deliberately draw out the game if especially you have a
good save from Banner Saga 2 and want to spend more time with your cast. Just
terrible game design.
3. Waves and waves of enemies. By Banner Saga 3, you can have some pretty
overpowered characters. The devs' solution to keeping the combat engaging
is...just sending DOZENS of enemies against you. Creative.
4. Unsatisfying conclusion. No real cutscenes, no meaningful resolution, no
caravan to take care of, the decisions you've made throughout the game have
minimal impact on the conclusion, everything just kinda ends.
5. What is the deal with the emphasis on Survival and Eternal Arena? I play
these games for the story not doing weekly challenges.
Conclusion
This really could've been Stoic's magnum opus but they dropped the ball hard in
the last stretch. As someone who genuinely loves this series, seeing this
mangled corpse be the conclusion is just sad.
Review 2
Purchased!
The Banner Saga is one of the best series I've ever played, and the final
instalment didn't disappoint. The series has a compelling story (trying to stop
the destruction of the world), beautiful artwork, amazing voice acting, rich
character development, gorgeous music and engaging gameplay. It's a tactical,
choice driven rpg with turn based combat. The narrative is brilliant, your
choices really matter, so be prepared to lose your favourite characters in the
blink of an eye.
You should play the first two games first as this is the last of the series, and
so it's the end of an epic story. This game is a must play. One of the most
memorable games I ever played.
Review 3
Purchased!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2723170140
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2994890757
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2994378099
Review 4
Purchased!
This series is amazing. Although I would give each individual part on its own a
7, the entire series combined as intended to be played is a solid 9/10
experience. The art and music alone carry this game miles but the story and
characters really pull you into The Banner Saga. I have compared this to a
viking version of the Oregon Trail just far more forgiving and far more
enjoyable. With what feels like so many choices its hard not to jump back in to
see what other outcomes I could get. This is a series that will get you to
replay it no matter how well or poor you play first time around. Great stuff,
can't wait to see what else the devs put out.
Review 5
Purchased!
I love this trilogy of games, and have absolutely zero performance issues in the
previous two titles. I don't know why, but I and many others experience infinite
loading screens or outright crashes. The game is very good otherwise, but with
no save feature, having to replay battles I won again and again gets old, fast.
I'd understand if it had just launched, but 6 years after launch these game
breaking bugs have interrupted my play-through somewhere between 10-20 times.