GB Feature: The Banner Saga 3 Review

With the addition of our three-page critique of The Banner Saga 3, Steven has taken Stoic’s entire turn-based role-playing trilogy through the paces. Here is a little something he had to share about character development in the latest entry:

In The Banner Saga 3, you don’t create your own character. Instead, you make decisions for the main characters of the story as events unfold, and you also control them in battle. That means all of the characters are defined by a regular collection of RPG stats and abilities. For stats, they have Strength (which determines the amount of damage they do and also acts as their health), Armor (which protects them from Strength attacks), Break (which can be used to damage Armor), Exertion (which can be added to skills or attacks for extra damage), and Willpower (which powers skills and Exertion).

Along with the stats, characters also have multiple abilities. They start with one active and passive ability, and they gain a second active ability at level 6. Some of the abilities include Insult (which sends an enemy to the end of the initiative queue), Mend (which restores Armor), and Pig Sticker (which increases a character’s critical chance with the more adjacent allies there are). Depending on your decisions during the trilogy, you might have two dozen or more characters available, giving you lots of abilities to choose between when picking out the six characters who participate in battles for you. This sort of versatility and freedom of choice is always welcome.