Stoic Studios’ Banner Saga 2 is gaining a lot of positive critical praise for being a well told story with great moral decisions and a punishing turn-based combat system. There are some gameplay walkthroughs that have already gone up, giving gamers an idea of what the gameplay is like under various conditions and with specific characters.
YouTuber Serious Gaming has a 15 video playlist featuring the Banner Saga 2‘s story from start to finish. He imports his game from the first title where he chose to have Rook lead the people instead of Alette. You can check out the playthrough below.
You can move characters around the tiled battle map, with the yellow region being the farthest extent that they can travel between rounds. If an enemy has high armor, you won’t be able to dwindle their HP down until you get their armor low enough, so it may require a few rounds to chip away at their blue armor bar before you can dish out some mean damage on their health points.
Just like in the first Banner Saga, it’s possible to purchase supplies and gear in between narrative segments and battle sequences, with points to be handed out to the main characters, supplies to be rationed and some equipment to be purchased to help you along the way.
Eventually you’ll get to your first real battle where you can select from your roster of heroes to make up for a part of six. Just like in the first Banner Saga it’s possible to arrange the turn order for who goes first and how they’re utilized on the field.
Later in the game players will learn about things such as utilizing shield walls, as well as making good on battle formations to lessen damage or prolong the lives of your troops.
Throughout the game there will also be various battle challenges that must be completed to earn more Renown and upgrade your heroes.
A large majority of the game will be the small event scenarios that players encounter where decisions will need to be made that can improve, damage, save or harm the traveling caravan (or ships).
In one particular scenario you’ll come across a burning village where they’ll ask you to investigate. If you choose to investigate the village you’ll be robbed by bandits and lose supplies, so it’s best to ignore the smoking village when you encounter it.
Shortly thereafter players will have to deal with another battle against the Dredge coming off a close encounter with a waterfall.
In the segment where a Dredge assault takes place between the raging river and an army of Dredge, players will have to make the tough call of either giving up the supplies to use them as barricades to dwindle the Dredge forces, or just go all in on the assault without the barricade.
The barrels – if you so choose to use them as a barricade – will show up on the battlefield, working as a slight obstruction for the enemy to maneuver around. They can help in singling out and dwindling the enemy forces instead of having them crowd you. Tactically, it’s better to use the supplies as a barricade.
Later in the game players will take command of Bolverk and Folka and the rest of the Ravens as they make their own way. You can take on another combat challenges before heading back on the travel path.
If you’re looking for a completely alternate playthrough featuring Alette and the hardships that she and Egil face, you can check out a complete gameplay walkthrough from RabidRetrospect Games, which features the entire title played within the span of seven hours.
The Banner Saga 2 is available right now for the PC and will launch at a later date for the Xbox One and PS4.
