The Banner Saga Analysis
January 22, 2018
1 Overview
The Banner Saga is a top-down isometric turn-based tactical RPG developed by
Stoic and published in January 2014 by Versus Evil.
2 Formal Elements
2.1 Players
The Banner Saga is a strictly single player experience. The player alternatively takes
control of two different groups: a group in the west led by Vognir and a group in the
east led by Rook. Travel between locations is entirely scripted, but travel will stop
periodically with conversation prompts, allowing the player to drastically alter the
course of events.
2.2 Objectives
As the player progresses through the game, the main actions they take will be
making dialogue choices and engaging in turn-based tactical combat. The objective is
to finish the game in an optimal state by making dialogue choices which increase the
viability of one’s caravan, and by engaging (or not) in combat in a such
a way as to do maximum damage to enemies and receive minimum from
them.
2.3 Rules
2.3.1 Combat
In combat, the player controls both humans and varl, a race of giants with horns.
Combat takes place on a square grid, with human allies and enemies taking up one
square, and varl and other large enemies taking up four squares (the character is
centered). Like other turn-based tactical games, the turns alternate between
player-controlled characters and AI-controlled characters. Once only one character is
left on either side, a mode called ”Pillage” begins, in which characters simply move in
order of initiative.
Clicking on a character will show their movement range, combat abilities, special
abilities, and the ability to skip the character’s turn. Movement occurs only
at right angles, although some special characters have diagonal attacks or
abilities.
Once a character has moved and/or attacked, the turn ends and the next
character will act.
2.3.2 Gear
Later on in the game, the player may acquire gear. This is mostly purchased from a
merchant, but each character only has one equipment slot, and the different types of
items are also extremely limited.
2.3.3 NPC Interactions
There are a great many of NPC interactions spread throughout the game. These can
have far-reaching and diverse consequences. You might decide to attack a group of
bandits or dredge, which could give you more Renown or cost you resting time to
allow your heroes to recover from wounds, or you might decide to run away. Someone
in your caravan might get drunk and assault another member, and you will have to
decide how to deal with it, or when you encounter a group of fellow travelers,
will you allow them to join your group, run them off, kill them, or what?
These could affect the number of members of your caravan, your amount of
food, who is available for battle, and even which party members live and
die.
2.3.4 Stats and Leveling
Each enemy the player kills grants the player with Renown. This functions both as
money and as XP, similarly to souls from the Souls series. Each character
will be able to level up after getting a certain number of kills. The player
levels up characters by spending increasing amounts of renown. Each time a
character levels up, two points are granted to spend increasing that character’s
stats.
Each character has the same six stats: Ability, Armor, Strength, Willpower,
Exertion, and Break, but each has a different starting value and maximum value, in
addition to one different active ability and passive ability.
2.4 Procedures
2.4.1 Resolve Conflict or Talk to NPC
The player will spend a large amount of time resolving conflicts or talking to NPCs.
These dialogues could be purely for flavor, to add depth or realism to the characters
and the world they inhabit, or they could be mechanically driven, to create
diverging plot lines, or affect the player’s resources in some way. For instance,
following a battle in a city, the player might be faced with the choice of
recruiting some of the defeated enemies into their caravan, slaughtering them, or
leaving them to their fate. Each choice has a knock on effect to later parts of
the game experience. Slaughtering them will deprive the player of those
fighters later on, when their support might be critical. Allowing them to join
might spawn a whole host of conflicts inside one’s caravan as the two groups
struggle to coexist. The player will, of course, have to deal with those as they
arise.
2.4.2 Engage in Combat
The other major use of time in The Banner Saga is combat. Although many conflicts
can be resolved through dialogue choices, combat at many points is inevitable. The
player has the chance to decide which members will engage in combat, and
the order of their turns. Once in the combat screen, the player has a few
options for placing their party members before the blood starts flying. As
combat progresses, the player must gauge what the enemy AI is likely to
do, what their best response would be to negate that or to mitigate any
unavoidable damage. Archers and mages need to be placed in a sweet spot: close
enough to unleash their abilities, but far away enough stay out of harm’s
way.
2.4.3 Leveling Up
Leveling up a character grants the player two points to spend increasing their
stats. However, Renown must be spent to increase a character’s level, which
might be better used purchasing supplies, or convincing someone to do you a
favor.
2.4.4 Managing Health Conditions
If characters fall in battle, they are not killed (except in some extremely limited
circumstances). Instead, they enter a wounded state and must rest in a camp for a
certain number of days to heal. Being wounded brings with it deficits to a characters
Strength and other stats, which may make the character more of a liability than an
asset on the battle field.
2.5 Resources
2.5.1 Tangible Resources
- Party members: Party members hold many of the intangible resources listed below, but qualify as tangible resources since they may change location in the game world.
- Items: Items may be purchased from vendors, and stored in inventory or equipped on party members. These have level requirements and modify character stats.
2.5.2 Intangible Resources
- Strength: Strength functions as both health and damage in combat. When a character’s strength drops to zero in combat, the character is removed from combat and will enter an injured state when combat is finished.
- Armor: Armor blocks damage, so to figure out how much damage you will do to an enemy, simply subtract their armor from your strength. If the enemy has more armor than the character has strength, the damage is set to a minimum of 1 and the chance to hit the enemy is reduced 10% for each point of difference between your strength and their armor.
- Willpower: Willpower determines how many total extra action points the player will have during combat to increase movement range or boost the damage of an attack.
- Exertion: Exertion determines the number of Willpower points the player may spend at any given time. Increasing this stat allows the player to use more Willpower per action, but of course also uses up Willpower quicker.
- Break: Break is the amount of natural damage to armor. When the player chooses to attack armor, this determines how much the enemy’s armor will be reduced.
- Supplies: Supplies refer to food or water to feed the members of your caravan. The more clansmen, fighters, and varl you have, the more quickly your supplies will be drained.
- Renown: Renown is received by killing enemies in combat, completing NPC interactions with particular choices. As mentioned before, it is used both as currency to purchase items and supplies from markets, and as XP to level up characters.
- Morale: Morale determines the amount of willpower you have available for your characters in battle. It is itself determined by previous wins and losses, days spent resting, in a village, or out of a village, and certain dialogue choices and game events.
2.6 Conflicts
The overarching conflict in The Banner Saga is between the player’s caravan
members, who are struggling for survival, and the bandits and Dredge who seek to
kill them. Sometimes the bandits may become party members later on, but the
inhuman Dredge, who are encased in thick black armor which must be whittled
away before they can be killed, remain a constant threat throughout the
game.
2.6.1 NPCs
As in life, NPCs do not always say what they mean and even if they do, what they
want might directly conflict with the player’s goals.
2.6.2 Strength versus Armor
Both in terms of which the player decides to increase when leveling up, and in terms
of which to attack during combat, strength and armor represent a constant
trade-off. Increasing armor might mitigate damage, but it also limits one’s own
ability to do damage, while increasing strength increases both damage and
health, it does little to prevent the character from being knocked out during
battle.
2.7 Boundaries
Due to its limited scope, The Banner Saga features a large number of boundaries.
The number of NPCs that it is possible to interact with is severely limited and
controlled. The player might be able to interact with at most three NPCs at the same
time. These are mostly static images of characters with light animations during
the dialogue; outside of dialogue interactable characters are buttons with a
portrait.
In towns, similarly, there are at most three locations to interact with at any given
time. Towns are not explorable, but are instead mostly static backdrops with two
or three interactable buttons disguised as buildings scattered throughout
them.
The world map features a large number of locations which the player may click on
to gain more information about them and their history and lore, but outside of a few
dialogue choices, the player cannot influence where their party will progress to
next.
There are no money or loot rewards from battle, and similarly no upgrading your
character’s equipment and selling the old stuff.
2.7.1 Leveling
Characters may increase their level to 5, after which it makes more sense to have
lower level characters deliver the killing blow.
2.8 Outcomes
At the end of the game, there are two basic outcomes, but the player’s caravan may
be in several different states, depending on how long the player has spent traveling,
how well they have managed supplies, which NPCs they have helped and
how, etc. Losing a battle does not mean the game is over in most cases.
The player may lose some morale and have characters become injured, but
usually the game continues and the player must deal with the new negative
circumstances.
3 Dynamic Elements
Due to the boundaries mentioned earlier, The Banner Saga seems to feature limited
dynamic elements. There is no day/night cycle, no stealth, no crafting, there
are no political factions to align oneself with or to oppose. There are no
buildings to construct which lock or unlock unit development or research
branches.
With that said, there are dynamic elements in terms of combat affecting the
caravan’s morale and the caravan’s morale affecting combat. If the player
wins in combat and avoids injuries, the caravan’s morale generally increases,
which gives the characters a boost in willpower for the next combat. If the
player loses, this reduces caravan morale and may decrease the character’s
willpower in the next combat. The player’s performance in combat will also
determine the amount of injuries the characters sustain, which in turn will affect
the number of rest days needed to heal them, which will affect food and
morale (the later could be positive or negative, depending on where the player
rests).
There are further dynamic elements which are harder to quantify directly. The
player’s dialogue choices definitely affect the morale, amount of supplies, number of
warriors available to fight, and number of clansmen to feed. The problem is that it is
not exactly clear how these decisions affect them. The game shows you that after a
decision your morale has improved or worsened, but it is not clear why this is the
case, so the player cannot understand how to make better decisions in the
future.
3.1 Patterns
This section focuses on game patterns as discussed by Ernest Adams and Joris
Dormans in Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design.
3.1.1 Dynamic Friction
The main quantifiable pattern is dynamic friction in the case of the increasing
number of kill and amount of Renown needed to level up a character.
4 Dramatic Elements
The dramatic elements are probably some of the strongest parts of The Banner
Saga.
4.1 Characters
There are a few dozen characters in The Banner Saga, and most are well-developed.
Many of them have a story arc over the course of the game, during which they
change and grow. There are Ubin, Hakon, and Iver, immortal varl who have seen it
all, Rook and his daughter Alette, who he tries to protect, Ludin, the prince to the
kingdom of men, who nobody really likes, and others.
4.2 Story
The story follows two caravans, led by Hakon and Rook, respectively, along their
journeys. They are both fleeing from Dredge, and the player must guide them to their
destinations. The player must decide how to do this, either by trying to help as many
fellow travelers as possible, leaving behind the old, sick and weak, being vicious to
outsiders while protecting one’s own, or by sacrificing one’s caravan for the good of
one’s fighters.
Eventually, Hakon’s group finds a mage named Eyvind, whose companion,
Juno, is at first believed to be dead. Hakon’s group and Rook’s group meet
in a city called Boersgard. There, Juno joins them and they find a way to
defeat the leader of the massive army of Dredge that threaten the lives of
all.
4.3 Attitude
The story contains some humorous elements but these are bleak and bitter. The tale
told is one of hardship endured, for no reward except to survive another
day.
5 Conclusion
The Banner Saga is a low-budget title which features interesting story-telling
mechanics and a few innovations on the tried-and-true turn-based combat from
isometric RPGs of yore. By forcing the player to make decisions and live with the
uncertain consequences, it creates the sensation of being a new leader, responsible for
the lives of those following you. Although limited in scope, it uses these decisions to
make the player care about the caravans struggling to get by in a disinterested and
sometimes openly hostile world.
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