Few 2014 releases made a bigger impression on us than The Banner Saga, the Norse-inspired tactical strategy game from Stoic. Between gorgeous artwork, an award-winning soundtrack and an engaging story, there really wasn’t much not to love about Stoic’s Norse epic when it hit Steam.
So it was with a small amount of trepidation that I approached the Versus Evil booth, at PAX South, to spend some hands-on time with The Banner Saga 2. We’ve all played a sequel to favorite game that turned out to be worse than its predecessor. And it’s pretty much the worst feeling one can get from a new game. Thankfully, everything we loved from the original looks to be returning in the upcoming sequel, complete with a handful of new additions that should help The Banner Saga 2 compete with many of the year’s top releases. And Versus Evil community director Lance James says the content being shown at PAX South is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Banner Saga 2 picks up moments after the conclusion of its predecessors, letting players see the fallout of their final decision in The Banner Saga. In the demo build, players can choose which ending they’d like to see continued, but James says the final build of The Banner Saga 2 will automatically import your TBS save file. Many of the characters from the original will return in The Banner Saga 2 and will eventually be joined by new members of your caravan, including a new race called the Horseborn. The latest addition to The Banner Saga mythos is a centaur-like race, forced out of its own home by an unidentified evil, but Stoic isn’t ready to say how the Horseborn’s plight will impact your caravan.
The Banner Saga 2 won’t just update the series’ cast of characters. Big changes are coming to the game’s combat mechanics. For starters, Stoic is introducing new classes, along with new character abilities, in the upcoming Banner Saga sequel. TBS2 will also introduce new combat objectives, like defending a bridge or protecting a specific character, to give combat scenarios a bit more variety. Cover objects are now spread throughout each battlefield, too, and can be destroyed as needed.
“A lot of the biggest feedback that we got, from the first game, is that combat got repetitive and our tactics weren’t all that great,” James said. “Stoic made a lot of changes to the way combat works, and the way battle boards are set up.”
“There’s going to be more storytelling via the battle boards,” he added. “We’re hoping the environment, that’s both destructible and home to traps, changes combat.”
Unfortunately, the build of The Banner Saga 2 being shown at PAX South wasn’t especially long. Players are dropped into one-sided engagement that sees a member of the caravan valiantly fighting off an overwhelming number of Dredges, along with a handful of new enemy units I didn’t recognize. The encounter gives players a chance to experiment with some of the game’s new mechanics but there’s still no telling what Stoic has planned for the narrative in The Banner Saga 2.
Similarly, James says there’s still no specific timeline for the project’s debut. Now that The Banner Saga is available on just about every gaming platform under the sun, the Versus Evil community director says fans can expect The Banner Saga 2 to go multi-platform much sooner than its predecessor. It’s even possible we could see TBS2 released on multiple platforms on Day One. Sadly, there’s no word on when the game is going to be ready. Stoic is still aiming for an early 2016 launch but James says the studio won’t be releasing the game until they’re confident it’s ready for public consumption.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional The Banner Saga 2 coverage throughout 2016 and for however long Stoic continues to support The Banner Saga franchise in the years to come.
