Before long, doubling and tripling the length of battles only served to keep me from the story that had me hooked. My heroes were all so powerful by this stage of the story, and I was so comfortable and secure in their optimal use, that the items I was being rewarded with weren’t making that huge a difference.
In most cases, though, I found it underwhelming in practice. It’s an interesting risk-reward concept, and in certain key places, the very idea of facing a seemingly unending horde of foes added to the feeling of being under siege, outmanned and outgunned. Fight too long, though, and you’ll risk more injuries for favorite heroes as they take more and more damage. In certain battles, you’re given the option to delay victory and face another wave of enemies to earn powerful items and further character growth. There is no significant change from previous Banner Sagas save one: the unnecessary addition of waves of enemy reinforcements. “The second major component of play is the solid if unremarkable tactical battles, several of which litter most chapters. The world-building on display here is truly impressive. Walls fall, fires erupt, and battle cries add to the din of chaos around you.
These narrative asides can seem like small moments but can transform into quick and unexpected knives to the gut. They are also far from trivial: The fates of characters can be determined by any one of them, as can the resources and population of the caravan, which become far more than mere numbers as the story unfolds. From left to right, the caravan of our heroes travels the wartorn Arberrang or apocalyptic landscapes while important decisions and vignettes are presented to them as they go. From there, we travel into the famous side-scrolling landscape from the first two installments. The principal city of Arberrang is shown to us as a big and believable painting of devastation and suffering wherein we can resupply the caravan, level up and manage our heroes, and select districts of the city that have been highlight to continue the story. By pairing the resource management and RPG advancement mechanics with story decisions and powerful vignettes, I found myself rapidly absorbed into the unfolding drama, battles, and character progression. The Banner Saga’s most enjoyable feature is its story, and the tale told in this finale is a tremendous achievement. The battle before that ending is beautiful and powerful, however. A fighter knows that any gut punch, no matter how devastating, is rendered more palatable by the final bell. Still, seeing the end credits play so quickly after I’d made some devastating choices with real consequences couldn’t help but numb the pain of those results for me.
There are enough points of divergence in this trilogy that make a second or even a third playthrough worthwhile, just to see everything that might happen. This brevity aids in replayability, certainly, and The Banner Saga and The Banner Saga 2 are of similar length. The ending was put before me before I’d had an opportunity to sit with what I was experiencing and digest it. I spent eight or so hours on it, start to finish, including several reloads and experiments I undertook to test the potential twists and eddies of the story. Events, tragedies, and battles keep coming, with no more than a minute or two between them, and it is this brisk pace that exposes how disappointingly short the Banner Saga 3 is. Days are passing in the Saga’s world, but it never feels so. “It is this tension that horsewhips the story and keeps it pressing forward at breakneck pace.
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