The Banner Saga is a tactical role-playing game that is inspired by its predecessors, such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Shining Force. In additional to its battle system, the game also boasts a robust conversation system, where the player can make choices that has an impact on outcome of the game.
Dialog Choices
One of the big draws being touted about the game is the fact that the choices made during bits of dialog will affect the story. For example, you are presented with a choice to either go to check out a bandit group's fort or continue along to the town you originally chosen to go to.
If you go check out the bandit's fort, you might be ambushed and lose one of your party members permanently. If you chose to continue along to the town, then all of your characters will be safe. It's these kinds of choices that make an impact on the overall story of the game.
Travelling
When you are outside of combat, you travel from place to place in a caravan-style group. While doing this, there are two main stats that need to be monitored at all times, which are Morale and Supplies. Even when travelling, you will happen upon random events that will present unto you a choice to fight or not.
Picking something like fighting will not throw you into an actual battle, but you will be required to make choices. Depending on your choices, some of the characters in your caravan may be killed and/or supplies stolen. Additionally, you may gain more people or supplies with your choice.
Supplies
You have a lot of people in your caravan and each one of them needs to eat, which is where Supplies come into play. As you travel, your Supplies will decrease and if they reach zero, then the people in your caravan will start to die off. To get more Supplies, you either need to find them or buy them in towns with Renown (the in-game currency).
Morale
Morale is basically keeping the people in your caravan happy, which can directly be related to Supplies. If your troops have high Morale, that can directly affect their performance in both large-scale battles, as well as the smaller skirmishes. It also affects characters in the smaller battles, where the higher the Morale, the more Willpower (see below) they have.
Camp
One of the options you can use when travelling is to set up camp, where you have some options to perform. Resting will pass one day's worth of time and raise morale, but supplies will decrease. You can also set up your characters, like equipping them with items or increasing their stats/abilities with Renown.
Combat
This section will deal with the combat in the smaller skirmishes. You can only bring a total of 6 characters into battle, although there are 25 total in the game. Before delving into the specifics of battle, an explanation on the various stats for each character needs to be addressed.
Character Stats
The following are the stats a character has and can improve with Promotion, using Renown.
- Armor - Armor is extra defense against attacks. Strength - Armor = Damage inflicted.
- Strength - Strength is both your attack power and HP. Losing all your Strength will make them unconscious.
- Willpower - Can use this to move further, hit harder or use special abilities. Note that Willpower doesn't replenish on its own.
- Exertion - Denotes how much Willpower can be used on each turn.
- Break - Denotes the amount of direct damage you can do to Armor.
Battles
Battles are done in a turn-based fashion, with the order the units move shown in the bottom left corner of the screen. On each turn, a character can both move once and perform an attack (if within range), either normal or special ability. When you attack, you are able to attack the enemy's Strength directly or weaken their Armor, making it so they take more damage.
Whenever a character loses all of their Strength in battle, they will become incapacitated. If this happens, then that character will not be able to participate in upcoming battles until he/she recovers, which might take a few days in-game.
Renown
Renown is the in-game currency in the world of The Banner Saga, and is used for many things. Obviously, you can use Renown to buy things from shops, such as items to equip to your characters, or even Supplies for your caravan. In addition to the above, Renown can also be used to Promote your characters, which level them up and allow you to place more stats on them.
