still conflicted on this entry in the trilogy days after completing it. in the grand scheme of things it is ultimately perfunctory; it furthers the groundwork laid in the first game and leads into the excellent finale. however, the banner saga 2 feels like the part in which the character work takes a backseat, all while the tactical combat layer suffers in scope.

it's understandable due to the narrative framing of this game. the end of things is coming. dredge are pouring out of every crevice of a world splintering apart. there's very little time to justify reflection, at least one might think. yet we end up getting new characters in the form of bolverk and rugga which push the needle forward, but never deliver a rich character layer themselves. bolverk almost reaches this with his role, his dreams about damnation at the white tower, about betrayal. in the end he actually attacks juno and iver, possessed by the presence of bellower. but it's precisely in the ambiguity of bolverk's autonomy that later leads to confusion in the trilogy's ending. the final setpiece's accompanying visuals are incredible, eyvind erupting with lightning and bolverk arriving with bellower's body, but the final mini-game encounter between iver and bolverk is tedious and to me embodying of the way that the combat became a bit gimmicky in this part.

in the other caravan, the decision from the first game and how its handled ultimately feels a bit lackluster, and i think that's true even unto the finale. having both played as rook and alette i feel like both games lack a deeper reflection on what has been lost respective to each character. for rook at least we feel the immediate loss, and there's even a dream sequence in which he sees alette and is somewhat able to confront the tragedy of it all. for alette the game focuses on her inheriting the mantle of her father's banner and what it means to lead. but none of this ever feels like it comes to a thematic end, subsumed instead in the total impending annihilation. again, it all makes sense narratively, but your connections to these characters depend on the little moments. like, when rook says that he doesn't want iver to go, simply because he's his best friend. more emphasis goes to rugga's character, a desire to add a layer of political intrigue into the game, and it largely works well enough. yet, is there a huge payoff to rugga's involvement?

and i wonder if a lot of this is a fear of the game feeling like a visual novel. visual novels even to this day are in a weird spot if not outright ignored generally and the time of banner saga's production was no different. the series overall really feels like it wants to deliver most things through combat or caravan UI. it's a curious thing to think about all this time after the fact.

as it all stands, i'm quite critical of this entry, but it's still a fantastic game and there's little in this space that competes.

I wasn't too sure what to expect going into the sequel to the Banner Saga, but it becomes clear after starting it up that each game in this trilogy isn't so much a standalone experience but a part of a larger whole. As such, the gameplay and user interface is virtually the same as the first game with a few tweaks here and there, in the same vein as an expansion pack for the original title. There are several new classes of fighters, and even a new race that have their own unique combat abilities that shake up the pace of combat.

There is definitely a LOT more combat in this game than the first, especially towards the end where you're going from one battle to another with almost no rest in between. I don't know if it's because of the choices I made it which got me into more fights, but I definitely preferred the more deliberate pace of the first game. The final battle in the first game was the toughest in the whole game, whereas in the sequel it feels like you're going against similar odds on a much more frequent basis.

Thankfully, the combat still feels engaging thanks to the new character classes, which allow for new types of combos and have the potential to cause a devastating amount of damage in a single turn if used correctly. Even after 20 or so hours playing these games, I still haven't quite mastered the combat but it's still a very addicting system. My frustration towards the end of the game was not really because the combat was bad but because I was itching to get to the ending and was annoyed that I kept being thrust into more battles.

I definitely have a bit of an issue with how Renown, the currency you use to buy supplies and upgrade your heroes, is balanced. I was delighted to find out that the amount of Renown you need to level up characters has been significantly reduced, but at the same time the Renown your earn from completing battles seems to also be a bit less than before (note that this was just a feeling, I didn't actually do any numerical comparisons but I swear I never earned more than 10 renown per battle). On the other hand, you can gain a whole lot of Renown (usually more than 20) just by completing training challenges (a very fun and welcome addition to the Training tent in your camp) or even making certain narrative choices. This definitely makes battles feel a bit less rewarding than the first game.

Speaking of the ending, the game doesn't really have one. Unlike the first game, which has a more definitive stopping point with all your characters together, this game ends with multiple caravans scattered across different locations, and I felt I had even more questions than answers compared to the first game (which left a lot of mysteries unsolved, but that felt more fitting since it was the first game in a trilogy). That's not to say that this game doesn't have any substantial narrative, far from it. The Banner Saga 2 feels a lot longer than the first, featuring way more characters and important revelations. But even after all we find out during the course of the game, the ending is definitely a case of, "Where do we go from here?" It doesn't make for quite a satisfying ending for this game, but it definitely makes me excited to play the final entry in the trilogy. I really hope that it can somehow wrap up all this complicated plot in a satisfying way.

One final note which is more of a personal nitpick, I wish that you could have more conversations and lighthearted interactions with your clan whenever you set up camp. There are instances in the game where you can stop the caravan to celebrate certain events, and I wish that this would unlock more conversations or funny little encounters in the same vein as Red Dead Redemption 2 or Dragon Age: Origins. In a game which is all about trying to get by while the world ends, some levity is needed to break the tension, and it's a bit disappointing that the game only provides this in the form of short bits of text instead of more substantial scenarios. It would also help players feel more connected to the characters (who really start to drop off like flies throughout the journey). However, I understand that this is ultimately an independent game that was made by just a handful of people, and that the resources to add more character interaction probably just weren't there during production.

What a cliffhanger ending! I LOVE the way this game breaks you into two parties. It gives you the opportunity to play with way more heroes than one team allows and Bolverk's ruthless berserker personality is so fun to play alongside the noble Rook. The mender storyline started off a little week but now that I have no clue if Juno and Eyvind can be trusted, it's really becoming interesting. The serpent attack, Rook realizing he has to fight Hakon, and the sky bridge are two of my favorite scenes in the saga so far