![the banner saga 1 days map the banner saga 1 days map](https://images.gog-statics.com/6f1f54f16706d72f0983854eb1d724de6e3bea276386ff354b7d00aca3612127_product_card_v2_mobile_slider_639.jpg)
_ “The Banner Saga is a good game when it comes to it’s unique combat, art style, and atmospheric score but the awkward transition of the menus to console and the presentation of its plot hold it back from being great.” This led me to just rapidly moving the cursor all around whatever I was trying to select and rapidly pressing A to catch it when it briefly highlighted. This ends up requiring multiple tries to select it as your cursor comically slides back and forth over it highlighting it for a split second as if to tease you before ultimately ending up next to it. This becomes especially noticeable and frustrating when what you’re trying to select is so tiny that each press of the thumb stick moves the cursor too far. The map and settlement menus felt awkward, requiring you to use the thumb stick to drag a mouse cursor over to the different options on the map displayed by an often times barely visible text above it describing what it was. This was rare and only really happened when there was a large grouping of enemies very close together, but it was frustrating all the same, especially when that would have been a finishing blow. There were multiple instances where I thought I had one enemy selected but when I chose to attack I turned and attacked another one that had crept up in my range. You can really tell the game is a port as the controls feel more suited to a keyboard and mouse or touchscreen than a controller.
![the banner saga 1 days map the banner saga 1 days map](https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.d20.io/marketplace/1875152/CNQkG5SljaPCi4zwwddHsA/med.jpg)
Unfortunately, even when I tried to make it a point to pay attention I would end up returning to absent mindedly skipping parts again eager to get back to the action. These interactions usually lead to a choice that effects your supplies or morale or usually just leads to the next bout of combat. The other part of the game is an Oregon Trail style mode where your settlers travel for days and manage resources in between random interactions in the form of text based descriptions and dialogue.
![the banner saga 1 days map the banner saga 1 days map](http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot_070514_064917_PM.jpg)
I found this to be a neat choice for combat and often ignored an enemy’s health to focus on its armor until I could easily kill it with a single attack. The same applies to your party however, so you have to be careful not to receive too much damage and be unable to damage the enemy significantly. The couple times I had to restart a section and chose a different option, the pay off was entirely the same, so I’m not so sure it would have had a huge effect had I been paying attention anyway.īoth your party and the enemies have armor and health that can be targeted for attack, if you attack an enemy’s armor it has a 10% chance to deflect but it’s necessary because the lower an enemy’s armor stat the higher the damage when attacking its health will be, and the lower the enemy’s health the lower damage it inflicts upon attacking. This is a shame because the game boasts that depending on your actions, the story will play out in different ways, but because I kept absent mindedly skipping through the story I often had to take a wild guess at what to pick which kept it from really paying off. I found myself skipping past this to get back to the gameplay more often than not, the lack of voice acting and meaningful animation having ultimately failed to hold my attention. If the characters are doing something, then that also appears as text at the bottom of the screen in italics. This alternates back and forth with another slightly animated image of whoever they are speaking to. This means the plot usually unfolds through a person standing completely still, eyes blinking creepily as the wind blows the fabric of their clothes or their hair on occasion, their dialogue appearing as text at the bottom of the screen.