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[Oublieux]

Interesting quote from a developer in the comments section of a Rock Paper Shotgun article; it's in regards to the animation:

"We’re designing all the scenes at 2731×1536 to account for Retina Displays which are 2048×1536, but we want to support a wide screen mode as well. We will then be taking the textures down for smaller resolutions. The animated characters are all done as vectors so there will be no change in their line weights. The environments are all painted so reducing the textures only serves to tighten them if anything."

 

[Lotto]

A friend gifted this to me yesterday and it looks great. Very nice OT too; I'll probably dive into it tomorrow when time permits.

I backed this, and wow, I need to grab it! I hope people enjoy the crest I made, I worked really hard on it:

Any other GAFers make crests?

Damn that's awesome. Coelacanth's are great and you managed to knock it out of the park with the game's current aesthetic.

 

[minimumhippo]

This is a question regarding what I assume to be the final battle in the game:

Spoiler

is there really no way to rest before the fight against The Bellower? Some of my people are hurting! I had to use a lot of my renown on supplies since Rook's caravan was barely hanging on towards the end so I wasn't able to level up as much as i'd like. Finding the second part of the fight difficult. Am I supposed to focus on the bellower again or do all the dredge have to die? Going to try it some more when I get home today.

 

[cluto]

This is a question regarding what I assume to be the final battle in the game:

Spoiler

is there really no way to rest before the fight against The Bellower? Some of my people are hurting! I had to use a lot of my renown on supplies since Rook's caravan was barely hanging on towards the end so I wasn't able to level up as much as i'd like. Finding the second part of the fight difficult. Am I supposed to focus on the bellower again or do all the dredge have to die? Going to try it some more when I get home today.

Spoiler

My dudes were also injured in the final battle. It took me more tries than I'd like to admit, but only focusing on the Bellower in both stages of the battle worked for me. Once you kill him, the battle ends, so you don't have to worry about the other enemies.

 

[Haunted]

I haven't played a story of this magnitude since Infinite Space.

Early GOTY 2014 contender? Maybe.


I wish some of the "army" battles would've been visualised a bit more.

Spoiler

The first battle against Bellower at the bridge felt grand because of the surrounding armies being depicted clashing on the map

, but usually they're not leveraging the potential scale and even encounters with supposedly thousands of fighters involved end up feeling like any other regular small skirmish.

Though just looking at the credits, you have to respect this as a great achievement for a small team. Three designers, a handful of voice actors, a dozen animators and Austin Wintory responsible for the music.

 

[minimumhippo]

Spoiler

My dudes were also injured in the final battle. It took me more tries than I'd like to admit, but only focusing on the Bellower in both stages of the battle worked for me. Once you kill him, the battle ends, so you don't have to worry about the other enemies.

Thanks! This will be helpful.

Early GOTY 2014 contender? Maybe.

I agree with this. Considering I knew nothing about it a few weeks ago, this is the biggest gaming surprise for me in a while. It reminds me of my younger days, walking into a store and buying a ps1 game on the box art/description alone. I bought a ton of crap but every once in a while I would buy a Suikoden II or a Final Fantasy Tactics. Those moments are worth putting up with the crap.

 

[Sotha Sil]

Absolutely outstanding so far.

 

[dk_]

Gamestop provides you with a Steam key right?

 

[Haunted]

Gamestop provides you with a Steam key right?

says "Requires the Steam client to install and play" on the product page, so I'd assume so.

 

[Ryne]

Any idea if I will ever be able to purchase the Tryggvi DLC at a later date? I assume he is a sort of "unique art" character? Whether or not he is vital to the game, I want the option.

Apparently not.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/237990/discussions/0/648816743133455443/#c648816743137807703

This is a pre-order exclusive and will not be availble as DLC.

How are you guys handling your renoun? Having to use it to spend on everything is kind of hard for me.

And I also don't really like the mechanic of less enemy characters = more attack turns. I haven't wrapped my head around it yet, and keep killing people.

 

[Corto]

Apparently not.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/237990/discussions/0/648816743133455443/#c648816743137807703




How are you guys handling your renoun? Having to use it to spend on everything is kind of hard for me.

And I also don't really like the mechanic of less enemy characters = more attack turns. I haven't wrapped my head around it yet, and keep killing people.

I'm wasting it left and right. It might be coming to bite me in the ass further along but for now I'm buying supplies and items to all my party.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Oh my God this gets very hard very suddenly.

 

[Sotha Sil]

I'm wasting it left and right. It might be coming to bite me in the ass further along but for now I'm buying supplies and items to all my party.

I had the "sure, food would have been nice, but I really wanted that sweet sweet level 4" talk with my starving caravan last night. Aaaawkward.

edit: btw, congratulations SanaeAkatsuki, your crest is definitely one of the best; noticed it instantly.

 

[CHC]

It reminds me of my younger days, walking into a store and buying a ps1 game on the box art/description alone. I bought a ton of crap but every once in a while I would buy a Suikoden II or a Final Fantasy Tactics. Those moments are worth putting up with the crap.

Not necessarily about Banner Saga, but this sentiment is why I love Steam. You really nailed the way it feels to find something good and unhyped out there.

 

[Sotha Sil]

Not necessarily about Banner Saga, but this sentiment is why I love Steam. You really nailed the way it feels to find something good and unhyped out there.

Yeah, exactly. Great art, a cool gameplay video, a list of features... any under-reported gem can catch your eye. Really refreshing.

 

[Lime]

I'm really impressed by this game so far. Excellent atmosphere, great music, nice difficulty, sufficiently engaging combat. I only wish the dialogue writing was a bit better.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

Hmmm... tempted to pick this up since I remember almost backing this when it was on Kickstarter.

Is the story/dialogue aspect of it any good? Are you a fixed main character like Shepard in Mass Effect or can you create your own player character? Do you have many chances to affect the story /plot via dialogue choices with branching narrative or is it mostly like BioWare where they just give you the illusion of choice?

 

[Corto]

Hmmm... tempted to pick this up since I remember almost backing this when it was on Kickstarter.

Is the story/dialogue aspect of it any good? Are you a fixed main character like Shepard in Mass Effect or can you create your own player character? Do you have many chances to affect the story /plot via dialogue choices with branching narrative or is it mostly like BioWare where they just give you the illusion of choice?

I'm at the third chapter and I've played as two fixed main characters until now. There seems to be two big story arcs that will meet at some critical point but I don't have any previous knowledge of that, just a feeling from the story so far. There are some very critical choices that can affect your own party composition, your clan size and morale, that will affect your supply consumption, resource management and even tactics/strategies on the battlefield, if you for example don't have access to a specific unit. That said, I don't find it too deep in the combat department, I would point you to Expeditions: Conquistador if you would like a bit more strategic/tactical challenge, but surely I don't find that bad at all in TBS. I'm enjoying it greatly for what it is. It's entertaining, and challenging enough to pull you through its motions. But as I said I'm still on the third chapter.

 

[minimumhippo]

Hmmm... tempted to pick this up since I remember almost backing this when it was on Kickstarter.

Is the story/dialogue aspect of it any good? Are you a fixed main character like Shepard in Mass Effect or can you create your own player character? Do you have many chances to affect the story /plot via dialogue choices with branching narrative or is it mostly like BioWare where they just give you the illusion of choice?

I'm enjoying the story a lot. If you explore and read the map on your own you can tell they put a lot of thought in to the lore and I'm interested to see where they go with it. The dialogue ranges from serviceable to excellent. It's mostly unremarkable but it's not offensive either.

The characters all have their own personalities and you play as specific characters that you can't customize (aside from stats).

The question on if choices matter is tough to answer at the time. There are certainly some choices that will lead to character deaths, supply loss, etc. Mostly effecting your caravan and not the entire world.

In Mass Effect, a lot of choices played out like this:

"I'll never give you the blueprints!"
Choice 1."okay sorry to bother you"
-"You are so nice! Here are the blueprints"
Choice 2."meh"
-"your indifference intrigues me. Here are the blueprints."
Choice 3."go die"
-"You are so rude. I'll give you the blueprints if you go away."

There seems to be some of that in this game but it's hard to tell until I replay it, which I plan to do in a few weeks.

 

[Lime]

Does anyone know if there's any penalty for the characters you lose in battle other than the injury thing? Do they lose XP or anything?

 

[Corto]

Does anyone know if there's any penalty for the characters you lose in battle other than the injury thing? Do they lose XP or anything?

As far as I know they just lose Strength until rested, decreasing their health and damage dealt on each attack.

 

[dk_]

Great game so far. Buy it!

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Sotha Sil, this is a complete and utter derail, but I had to search your avatar on Tineye, and ended up spending an hour reading about Jodorowsky's Dune project, so I just wanted to say thanks, heh.

 

[SJRB]

Downloading right now!

 

[Maybesew]

I've only had a couple characters promoted, and I have assumed that its best to put the early points in strength. Any reason not to?

 

[Mudcrab]

So far I've lost three characters due to my poor decisions. They were all dear to me and their loss pained me. I love this game.

I've only had a couple characters promoted, and I have assumed that its best to put the early points in strength. Any reason not to?

The green chain stat is very useful. It increases the amount of will points you can use during a single action.

 

[studyguy]

Man, rolling through the Varl's first few chapters makes you feel like you're on a warpath. The human side of the campaign chapters it's like MORALE IS WEAK, ALMOST NO FOOD, NOFUNALLOWED. Poor humans, I just want to protect my daughter!

 

[Alastor3]

I've only had a couple characters promoted, and I have assumed that its best to put the early points in strength. Any reason not to?

I put my points in armor break since Dedge have a lot of armor points

 

[sflufan]

So far I've lost three characters due to my poor decisions. They were all dear to me and their loss pained me.

Take comfort in that they are feasting with Odin in the Halls of Valhal...oh wait, the gods are dead.

Nevermind that then.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

Take comfort in that they are feasting with Odin in the Halls of Valhal...oh wait, the gods are dead.

Nevermind that then.

lol

 

[Deleted member 80556]

Take comfort in that they are feasting with Odin in the Halls of Valhal...oh wait, the gods are dead.

Nevermind that then.

Damn lol. Where do the souls go then, anyway?

 

[Z3M0G]

Discovered this today thanks to the Gametrailers review. Must buy!

 

[Mudcrab]

Take comfort in that they are feasting with Odin in the Halls of Valhal...oh wait, the gods are dead.

Nevermind that then.

Now I am dead and my soul shattered. Can't wait to play more!

 

[KOCMOHABT]

so apparently no characters died on my journey apart from the first, which i really thought was an outlook rather

Spoiler

The blond boy who tried to save alette. I did not know him, did not care. Almost at the beginning of the game.

 

[rakhir]

I was to greedy, i didn't want to lose anything, i was reckless, and the game punished me for this. I lost even more.

I love this game.

 

[Sotha Sil]

Sotha Sil, this is a complete and utter derail, but I had to search your avatar on Tineye, and ended up spending an hour reading about Jodorowsky's Dune project, so I just wanted to say thanks, heh.

Glad to hear it! It would have been such a glorious mess. Really cool that you were able to find the source (reverse search still amazes me)

On topic: I really love the fact that bad choices are not direct death sentences; setting yourself up for tragedy by respecting your character's (made-up) values and principles really feels great, as it's in total accordance with the theme. Great stuff.

 

[SJRB]

Just left Strand, this game is lovely. Sweet music, great artstyle.

Also makes me want to replay Skyrim, haha.

 

[Sera O]

I can't wait to dig into this one this weekend. I haven't been paying attention to it since Factions came out, and now it's actually released.

 

[Lime]

Damn, the story is appealing considering it as genre fiction. It keeps on giving and the pacing in each chapter, at least in terms of beginning and end, is damn good.

I might see this game as being in my top 10 of this year (although I'd love to be surprised by other games of course).

 

[White Man]

Drinky Crow bought me this for my birthday and I'm very pleased. I had never heard of it and I probably never would have heard of it otherwise.

 

[inm8num2]

Total Biscuit has his "WTF Is...?" video for TBS up.

 

[Ketch]

Only complaint so far (and probably what will make me stop playing until it is fixed) is the lack of subtitles during cinematics. Seems like a weird thing to overlook, especially since the characters don't use clear english.
I have a rather hard time to understand what is said and I have to focus too much to properly follow, ironically.

Bummer.

There's really only that one voiced animated cutscene at the very beginning. There are like 3 or 4 more voiced lines of narration that serve as chapter intros, and that's it. Everything else is text, no VO. So while subtitles wouldn't be a bad thing, it's a tiny itsy-bitsy miniscule portion of the game where they're needed... we're talking less than 5 minutes of the 10 hours I've already played.

 

[inm8num2]

#3 top seller on Steam currently.

 

[SteveWinwood]

So I can't find anything about it on the interwebs, but have they said when parts 2 and 3 are projected to be hitting? Next year for the 2? I'm wondering if I can wait that long or just pick this up now to experience mighty viking adventures.

 

[Alastor3]

So I can't find anything about it on the interwebs, but have they said when parts 2 and 3 are projected to be hitting? Next year for the 2? I'm wondering if I can wait that long or just pick this up now to experience mighty viking adventures.

im guessing, part 2 at the end of the year since they have the engine, art, etc. and part 3 mid 2015.

 

[epmode]

#3 top seller on Steam currently.

Hooray!

This is one of those games that's worth a buy just for the art. Seriously, it's astonishing.

It's nice that there's a good game behind it too.

 

[Corto]

#3 top seller on Steam currently.

It's surprising to see this faring better than Broken Age sales wise. An unknown developer versus a well loved one with a solid past history in the genre creating some of the genre (PnC games) hallmarks. I'm rooting (and pledged) for both but I would expect quite the reverse scenario honestly.

 

[Zeliard]

Damn, this game makes for one hell of a first impression. Gorgeous both visually and aurally and the combat has some very clever mechanics.

*dives back in*

 

[SteveWinwood]

It's surprising to see this faring better than Broken Age sales wise. An unknown developer versus a well loved one with a solid past history in the genre creating some of the genre (PnC games) hallmarks. I'm rooting (and pledged) for both but I would expect quite the reverse scenario honestly.

Well Broken Age still isn't avaliable, it's just a pre order.

Also going by my friends list everyone backed Broken Age so they don't need to buy it now

im guessing, part 2 at the end of the year since they have the engine, art, etc. and part 3 mid 2015.

Thanks, I'll probably just buy it now.

 

[Panda Rin]

For those who finished the game already, I'm stuck at a part

Spoiler

Waiting for Juno at the sunken town. Should I just leave, or can I rest until she comes? I've already lost people because of resting in the town for a few days.