![]() Watson proceeded to pump three willpower (the max for any of the classes I saw) into a single attack and take aim for strength. So back to my archer, who at this point was probably cursing whatever bumbling sky deity (hint: me!) led her to this grim fate. In my experience, it's not a great idea to be stingy with the stuff. Once it runs dry, it's gone for the duration of the match, but it's also crucial to victory. Basically, every character has a small pool of it (think six or seven points, maximum) and it can be poured into special attacks, moving a couple extra spaces, or giving normal attacks a little extra oomph. See, that feeds into Banner Saga's other completely brilliant tweak to the rusted mechanical innards of this genre: willpower. Generally speaking, it's best to attack armor directly first, then go for the kill. So it's a balancing act, and as long as an enemy's armor amount is higher than your strength, the most damage you can deal is one. In short, though, losing all of it is fatal, and losing some takes big chunks out of how much damage a character can deal. Armor, of course, dictates how much damage a character will take, but strength itself is a little more complex. So here's the thing about that: Banner Saga actually treats strength and armor as intertwined health stats. Watson's archer opened fire on mine, opting to bypass armor and leave a bolt quivering in my archer's strength stat. At this point, many of the aforementioned attacks, abilities, and stats once again caught my eye. I didn't even notice the Devil's Own Timepiece until my 45 seconds had already whizzed by, and my archer was in serious trouble. ![]() And then, suddenly, my turn flat-out ended, and my archer was left totally exposed. Even early on, though, I had quite a few offensive options, so I decided to study up on them. I decided to advance my archer so as to make my opponent, technical director John Watson, think twice about charging into range with his two colossal melee brutes. But then I made my first moves, and things got hairy. ![]() I positioned my four units on the snow-engulfed battlefield, arranged them in a traditional "melee business in the front, squishy party in the back" formation, and indicated that I was good to go. On first approach, The Banner Saga felt just like any other turn-based strategy RPG. Well, I guess I was sort of glad they let me win that first match. But then the battle began, and I saw multiple health stats, positioning bonuses, class-specific passive abilities, countless stats, and and and. In other words, my skills as a turn-based tactician are not to be trifled with. I spent more than 200 hours with Final Fantasy Tactics as a young aspiring world-conqueror. I mean, for one, I wanted the real Banner Saga: Factions experience - not a dumbed-down, edge-rounding journo-friendly edition. In that moment, his comment sort of riled me up. "Let's let him win," art director Arnie Jorgensen said with a smirk. For now, though, here's what it's like to actually play the game. Next week, we'll be posting interviews that cover everything else: how Stoic plans to handle microtransactions, the developer's philosophy toward class balance, how matchmaking will work, gobs of details on the single-player campaign, and tons more. Inside, you'll find my hands-on impressions. First up, The Banner Saga: Factions, a free-to-play multiplayer spin-off set to launch in November. So, in an attempt to make this digestible, I've broken it up into parts. ![]() More importantly, the four-man squad of former BioWarians spent hours showing and telling me every last detail about their upcoming hand-drawn turn-based epic, The Banner Saga. OK, it was more of a paper-walled one-room office, but still. I recently ventured to the definitely-not-cold, completely-un-northern reaches of sunny Austin, Texas, where Stoic welcomed me into its Kickstarter-funded Viking castle with open arms.
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