The final installment of the award-winning RPG, The Banner Saga, will be launching this year! We kick off the road to launch with a series of vignette trailers highlighting influential characters in this epic Viking saga. Varl loyalist, Fasolt is the first warrior we review. What are his true motives and will he turn his back on civilization in their greatest time of need in revenge for wrongs past?
As a mysterious cosmological phenomenon that has been part of The Banner Saga since the first game, The Darkness is a major part of the plot in this third and final chapter, as you might expect. One of your caravans is literally travelling through it, and so the characters escorting it will be regularly attacked by soldiers that The Darkness has warped and mutated.
“Everything you are going to be fighting is going to be nasty and weird,” Arnie Jorgensen, co-founder of Stoic, says. These enemies are based on foes you have fought before, but their purple, ragged skin indicates that The Darkness has turned them into something much more fierce. “They have new passive abilities since they've been warped,” he adds. “They have heightened statistics.”
A fight in Darkness-covered lands is characterised by more than fearsome foes, though. “It's a race against time because The Darkness is encroaching,” Jorgensen explains. “In combat there is actually now a turn counter, where literally in each fight you are racing against the clock as well. If the turn counter reaches zero, another wave attacks you.”
This means that the enemies present on The Banner Saga 3’s chess-like battle grid at the start of combat are not the only enemies you have to worry about. As the Darkness counter runs down, new creatures will deploy onto the battlefield, which offers an additional challenge to deal with - especially in situations where you have been unable to clear the grid of all pre-existing enemies.
“If you clear the wave before the counter reaches zero you can flee,” Jorgensen reveals. “If you really love combat, you can fight longer and try to get an item from one of the minibosses in the next wave.” Battle is a risk/reward situation in most RPGs, but Stoic’s new ideas for The Banner Saga 3 appear to be toying with this dynamic in even more thrilling ways.
While the series has always promoted character synergies, The Banner Saga 3 is pushing that even further by taking The Horn away. This news will likely alarm fans, as the magical device has been key to being successful in combat for two games now, allowing you to grant extra willpower to characters after a kill. Replacing it is a system that lets characters themselves buff others with extra willpower, meaning positioning on the field is of paramount importance. For example, a character with the ability to sing of your heroic deeds will inspire units in close proximity to them.
Further battle changes are introduced via new characters, such as the witch Alfrun. “She's the first character who can give strength to another character,” Jorgensen says. “It's a bit overpowered, but in The Darkness you're going to need it.”
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Stoic are aiming for a cataclysmic, last-stand-of-humanity conclusion for The Banner Saga, and that comes through with the changes to the game’s battle system. It seems safe to assume Stoic will deliver the same heavy sense of apocalypse with the narrative, so have plenty of pick-me-ups at the ready for when The Banner Saga 3 releases this summer.
Pre-order Banner Saga 3 on PC/Mac today and get the “Dredge Ally Pack” to help you complete your final journey. This special pack includes the exclusive playable dredge character Kivi (Stoneguard Rank 10 Hero) with tank combat ability. It also includes his Sculptors Tools which grants the passive ability ‘Return the Favor’, exclusive Dredge Heraldry and heroic title ‘Shield Clever’. The pack also includes an exclusive Banner Saga 3 ‘overture’ track by Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory.
Banner Saga 3 will launch on July 24, 2018 on PC, MAC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and SWITCH. Pre-order the game on PC/MAC today
Run from the Darkness, keep your party ahead of the onslaught. Survival Mode tests your tactical mettle in a series of escalating battles. Choose and promote your party members carefully as combat deaths are permanent. Can you keep your heroes alive, win all battles, and survive?
Features:
Choose from 43 of your favorite Banner Saga characters!
Collect 30 different Battle Items to help endure each challenge.
Wave Battle - Insane difficulty battle through multiple waves! Reinforce mid-battle with heroes from your roster!
Collect 12 new achievements as you demonstrate your tactical prowess.
Play in Easy, Normal, or Hard difficulty modes and see how you rank in 7 different leaderboards against both global players and your friends.
Take up your axe and enter the Eternal Arena! Quick play in new, unique challenges! Customize your own maps, rules, and enemies to create unique tests of skill. Become the stuff of legends by conquering the weekly tournament and competing against the world for the high score.
Features:
Eternal Challenge: Come back every week to compete in a tournament with a global leaderboard.*
Arena Mode: Design your own battles, pick the enemies, and change the rules in this spellbinding sandbox mode.
Play with all the 46 characters, plus all enemies, and battleboards from the entire Banner Saga Trilogy and refine your party tactics.
39 new achievements (including 3 hidden ones)!
3 new leaderboards.
*Online Internet connection required to participate in recurring leaderboard challenges.
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