The Banner Saga 3

Probably one of my biggest gaming diappointments. I love the first two Banner Saga games. They are not only beautiful games aesthetically but also have a deeply emotional story which deals with topics such as grief, depression and the small beautiful moments one can find even in a breaking world, all while shaping the world and characters based on your decisions. And let's not even talk about the wondrous world and lore, filled with details and mithology that expands in a natural way with each entry. Unfortunately, the third game of the trilogy is terribly disappointing on a narrative and technical level. My main issue, though, is how the whole project was managed by Stoic. I was one of the original backers for Banner Saga 3 and it had a pretty successful campaign on Kickstarter, more than dobuling the campaign goal. In fact, Stoic even said that, since development was going smoothly, the game would actually launch sooner than expected, various months in advance, actually. And then, the game's launch came, and it was plagued (and still is) by bugs and technical issues that were not present in earlier entries. I have a big tolerance of bugs and I totally understand that in a series with so many different factors and decisions throughout the trilogy, it must be hard to keep track of everything, but there's no excuse for the game to still be in this state after all this time. At launch SPOILER [spoiler]my main character even died due to a bug when importing decisions from Banner Saga 1 and 2 (the dredge baby) [/spoiler] The game has baffling design decisions, such as how you actually miss essential scenes on the late stages of the game that show the fate of certain characters and plot lines if you do well enough with time and resources [spoiler]when you have to reach Arberrang[/spoiler]. You have to actively waste resources resting on camp and have time advance artificially if you want to watch these scenes. Moreover, the game just ends, abruptly, with no room for breathing nor even showing the fate of the characters who have been accompanying you throughout these 3 games. At launch, many people were requesting Stoic to even add a few slides at the end describing the fate of our companions (like other games such as Ash of Gods did post launch, for example), but they refused to do so, saying that it was a creative decision. A bad excuse for simply not caring enough about fans who have been supporting them throughout the whole trilogy. I guarantee you, it's no creative decision, the game just ends, and you get NOTHING about the characters who have accompanied you and have been invested in throughout the trilogy. Honestly, all of these things reek that they ran out of money from the campaign and were forced to release the game early, since all these technical issues and narrative and design holes do not seem like part of a smooth development, as they called it. The worst part, for me, is the dishonesty of Stoic. Not only the game was not ready to launch and lied about it, they also abandoned the development without fixing a lot of the bugs and dismissed all feedback and suggestions. I can't possibly believe that a few lines of text under the sprite of a character would be expensive or costly in any way (I'm not even talking about doing different slides depending on decisions like Supergiant Games do, just one, with no variation, would be enough). It's been 8 years since the game launched and they haven't addressed any of this nor have any intention to do so. They have now moved on to their new game, Towerborne, so it's obvious they have no intention of fixing the third game. Nevertheless, I think it's important to call them out for their attitude and work on this game. It's a terrible shame, since the first two Banner Saga games are probably two of the best indie games you can experience, and inevitably Banner Saga 3 leaves a sour aftertaste after 2 incredible games.

[h1] This is a review for the entire Banner Saga series. [/h1] The Banner Saga is an incredible series. Unlike many choice-driven games, the decisions you make actually carry weight. Small, seemingly meaningless choices can lead to massive consequences entire games later, making every decision feel tense and important. The worldbuilding is deep and unique, supported by a compelling narrative that I honestly have never seen executed this well before. Combined with the gorgeous hand-drawn art style and fantastic soundtrack, the series creates an atmosphere that feels special. [b] There are, however, two major flaws with the series: [/b] [h3] Combat: [/h3] The turn-based combat is both very fun and strangely designed at the same time. Damage is directly tied to a unit’s remaining health, and turns always alternate between you and the enemy. As a result, if you want to play “optimally,” you’re encouraged not to kill enemies immediately. Instead, the best tactic is to weaken every enemy to 1HP before finishing them off at the end. Otherwise, the strongest enemy units end up taking more turns. It’s a very odd system for a tactics game and sometimes makes combat feel more like solving a math puzzle than making strategic battlefield decisions. Despite that, the combat is still enjoyable enough that I can mostly overlook the weirdness. [h3] Banner Saga 3 Problems: [/h3] This is the real issue with the series. Banner Saga 3 is plagued with bugs and crashes. I personally have a very high tolerance for bugs but it is almost unplayable. Every loading screen feels like a gamble. I am not exaggerating when I say any time you encounter a loading screen, the game has a 1/4 chance of crashing/freezing. I had to replay a single battle FIVE TIMES just to make it past the post-fight loading screen. By the end, I probably had to redo nearly half the fights in the game at least once because of crashes. What makes this even worse is that Banner Saga 3 contains multi-phase battles with additional loading screens in between. If the game had manual saves, this would be manageable. Instead, you are forced to keep rebooting the game and brute-forcing your way through until you finally get lucky. The craziest part is that the first two games ran perfectly fine for me. Banner Saga 3 is not fundamentally different from them, which makes the state it was left in years after release feel completely unacceptable. The only reason I managed to push through Banner Saga 3 was because I was already deeply invested in the story and characters after the first two games.

This is the single greatest waste of time I have ever invested in a game/series. The first game alone is nice, but being punished for taking the 'honorable path' lifestyle applied to games makes this game a torture device of enjoyment. You need to physically numb your brain and neuter your very being to enjoy this hot trash. I gave it 10 years to come back and try again. To maybe just play the I want with saving and kicking butt, yet I am punished every step of the way AND THEN, AND THEN THIS FAEN CODSWALLOP OF AN ABORTED PLACENTA KEEPS CRASHING. Talk about this game to someone. Complain. See a therapist. But don't ever suffer a moment of this game in your life. You really don't need it.

Finished the game, only to get total green screen at the end cut scene not knowing what happened at the end. 3 game worth of choices to not know how things turn out in the end. I will never get this time back

Забагованное гавно, вылетает после каждого второго боя, из-за чего приходится переигрывать. Не тратьте своё время и деньги.

I absolutely love this game and series, but the amount of crashes is unacceptable. Hopefully at some point Stoic will patch these games.

[h1] 8/10 crashing down to a 4/10 [/h1] It's a great trilogy but unfortunately the non stop crashes of this game soured things. In 2026 there is no fix unless your fortunate enough to not have them. I was able to play on steam deck with 0 crashes so I recommend if you have a deck otherwise I don't think I would have finished this one.

Хорошая добротная история, но не без проблем. Третья часть в плохеньком техническом состоянии (вторая чуть лучше, но тоже куча проблем), боёвка к середине второй части + третьей уже сидит в печёнках (а в третьей её реально много). Фундамент для интересной тактической составляющей есть, но не нашёл своего развития, всю глубину боёвки успеваешь увидеть за первую часть + пару механик из второй (третья считай, что ничего не добавляет (героические титулы не в счёт)). Классы откровенно скучноватые и в большинстве своём самым эффективным и прямолинейным решением будет просто загрузиться варлами в любой пачке и прокатываться катком по врагам (с вкраплениями лучников, копейщиков и прочих ради разнообразия), ткачи в боёке максимально скучные и заурядные и откровенно неинтересные с игровой точки зрения (так ещё и слабые), хотя по лору и в общем должны быть крутыми ребятами, которые влияют на ткань реальности, а по факту максимум будут заплатки на броню делать). В общем и целом по боёвке механика хода 1 через 1 (а не по инициативе) кажется интересной по началу, но по факту ввиду отсутствия разнообразия механик и тактической глубины начинает надоедать, билдостроение сложно грамотно делать, так как нет статистики - неочевидно что влияет на что и каким образом, нельзя ускорить анимации в боб. В худшем случае (особенно в 3 части) вас могут ещё и ждать вылеты на длиннющих файтах. Глобально интересная задумка, что ресурс получаемый за ваши моральные выборы (слава) + боёвки одновременно является и ресурсом для прокачки персонажей для упрощения боёвки так и ресурсом для закупки условных припасов, которые нужны для вашего каравана, чтобы глобально отыгрывать роль его ведущего. Но фактически ввиду куцости боёвки и неоднозначности многих вещей - самое очевидное это делать одну фулл пачку героев и их качать (особенно учитывая требования в определённое количество убийств на персонаже, что как по мне бред, учитывая что игра иногда будет пытаться наказать вас за то, что вы делаете только одну боевую пачку без персонажей-замен). Многие моральные решения сделаны неплохо и могут аукнуться даже в следующих частях (хотя реально что-то значащих решений очень мало, концовки предопределены, хоть и не однозначны, выборы влияющие на судьбу персонажей вообще зачастую не имеют логического смысла), переходы между частями плавные с переносом сохранений, тут вопросов нет. Советую попробовать первую часть, если понравится, то пройти вторую и третью за пару вечеров не составит особого труда. Игры проходятся быстро, история не успевает надоесть, есть отлично прописанные и классные персонажи. Интересный проработанный мир, расы, история, культуры для проекта который целиком (3 части) проходится за 20-30 часов. Если бы вышло какое-то переиздание включающее все 3 части разом, исправление всех багов, нормальные тактические инструменты (ускорение анимаций, статистика, проверка будет ли доставать умение если двинуться на определенную клетку), может даже переосмысление режима ходов 1 - 1 на классический (который здесь можно сделать через способность Рука (включить побоище, что всё равно странно работает)). Полностью переработать все классы, сделать персонажей реально уникальными в контексте статов, пассивок, умений (а то в данном представлении в бою вы никак не будете отличать 10 варлов, кроме пары, которые чаще мелькают в сюжете так как у них абсолютно одинаковые умения и статы (в зависимости от класса, но в принципе выбор тут очень сильно ограничен). А также возможно всё-таки поработать над частью моральных решений и выборов, чтобы они влияли на большее и их было больше. В текущем состоянии поставил бы серии 6 из 10. Первой части 7 из 10, мб 7.5, если есть пару вечеров и хочется стать участником самобытной интересной истории и повлиять на неё своими решениями, то советую попробовать. Тем кто хочет поиграть в добротную стратегию чисто ради проработанной боёвки - не могу рекомендовать или по крайней мере попробовать только первую часть и посмотреть как зайдёт.

An epic trilogy story, with the first two installments being excellent, but the third—this one—suffers from game-breaking bugs that make it unplayable. Right at the start, there's an unskipable loading screen that gets stuck; only by disabling Steam cloud saves can you get past it. However, after that, the game freezes on loading screens every 2–3 battles, forcing you to close it. When you restart, you lose at least one battle's worth of progress and the related story events, making the experience extremely frustrating. There are numerous posts on the Steam community about the same issue, but the development team has refused to release any fixes, citing that the game has been "stable for years." For these reasons, I can only give it a negative review until the official update addresses the persistent loading-screen freezes. Updated: The dual-narrative time design is quite interesting, but there are clear signs of rushed development. In the Chinese version, the end credits disappear, and just as I was getting immersed in the emotional resonance of the final black-and-white illustrations, the game abruptly jumps back to the main menu—this severely ruins the experience. I tried several times and it happened every time. Only after switching back to the English version was I able to properly view the full credits and illustrations. Given the series' poor track record with official Chinese localization, I really hope the development team will find a more reliable Chinese translation team next time. 史诗级的三部曲故事，前两部都非常好，但是第三部也就是这一部，无法游戏的恶性BUG十分严重。初期即有一个无法跳过的loading卡住，关闭steam云存档后才可以通过这里，但是之后游戏过程中每2-3场战斗就会loading卡住死机，强制关闭后重开游戏会丢失至少一场战斗和相关剧情的进度，游戏体验十分差。steam社区有大量关于同样问题的帖子，但是制作组却以此游戏已经稳定运行多年为由一直没有更新。出于以上原因我只能给予差评，直到官方更新修复持续loading死机的BUG。 更新通关感受：双线叙事的时间设计很有意思，但是有赶工痕迹。中文版结尾的字幕消失并且刚看到结尾的黑白插图正回味感动，就突然跳回主菜单界面了，非常影响体验，试过几次都是这样，切换回英文版才正常看完整制作名单和插图，结合这个系列糟糕的官方中文翻译质量，希望制作团队下次找靠谱的中文翻译团队。

i loved the other two and also this one. very cool how they keep expanding the game mechanics. im excited to see how the story ends also and look forward to many replays.