The Banner Saga 3: The Defense of Arberrang


The Banner Saga Series:

The first Awkward Mixture article about The Banner Saga 3 announced the beginning of the end of a treacherous journey. It avoided any except the most obvious spoilers, but as the adventure continues, more secrets must be unveiled.  As the finale waits for the final, so the biggest secrets, the answer to the mysteries of the cause of the Dredge Invasion, the appearance of the Serpent, and the approaching Darkness, will be left unanswered until the last article.

The previous two games of The Banner Saga series allowed the player to partake in the desperate peregrination to the the human capital, Arberrang. While the main characters were the father/daughter pair of Rook and Alette leading their caravan to safety, both games included a second party, simultaneously fleeing danger. The difference between the third edition of the Saga series and its two progenitors is not the absence of danger, but the lack of retreat. The player still controls two parties (and they endure threat by an indomitable force), but Rook's company, which reached Arberrang at the conclusion of The Banner Saga 2, remains under siege (and therefore unmovable) the entire game. The other party, captained by the one armed Varl, Iver, but led by Juno, travels not from death, but straight into The Darkness.

This is no mere darkness, a lack of light, but The Darkness, a malevolent force. What does it do? It terrified the Dredge and drove them from their homeland (more on that next article). Creatures which remain in the Darkness without divine protection are Warped by its malign influence. Mindless, these degenerate monsters assault the living. With the remnants of Humanity, Varl, and Horseborn trapped in Arberrang, between the Sea and the Dredge outside the wall, and the Dredge pincered by the Walls of Arberrang and the encroaching Darkness, horror and death is everyone's fate.
One of the objects which grounded The Banner Saga 1 and 2 was the well designed map. It displayed every little hamlet, the major roads, the names of mountain ranges and rivers, and included at least a few sentences for each, describing their history or relevance. The map remains, but the developers would have been better replacing it. Rook is not traveling. Iver is traveling, but is under the earth for most of the game. Once he descends, his location is no long marked on the map. Even when Iver is traversing the surface, he resides in the Darkness. Any location covered by the Darkness, which accounts for over ninety-nine percent of the map, can't be clicked for additional information, and the names of the locations are indecipherable. Stoic should have replaced the world map with a map of Arberrang. It is a complex structure, and yet the player learns very little about it. From the limited information provided, the city seems to be constructed with a number of rings of wooden walls, like a poor man's Minis Tirith. The developer should have used a map to explain the conflicts between the factions, to display which forces control which parts, and indicate the the speed of the approaching Darkness. The Banner Saga 3 is barely a traveling game and doesn't need the same map as its predecessors.

There are a number of other changes. Rook's party has a supply value at first, with enough remaining from his long travel to survive for a month. Iver's squad, which is traveling, has no supply amount, because there are so few of them.
One of the innovations is a change in the use of time. The previous games both recorded the number of the days Rook's caravan spent traveling. The Banner Saga 3 replaces the number, and begins to count down. When the number is reduced to zero, the Apocalypse commences and The Saga ends in defeat. Presumably. Partway through the game, with the gates of Arberrang shut, the siege begins. With the remainder of all living creatures crouched in the city awaiting their doom, the game computes a calculation. The Banner Saga 3 tallies the party's supplies, Varl, fighters, clansman, and the condition of the city, and displays the number of days which the survivors can reject the Darkness. My initial number was 17 days. 

Then the player's perspective switches to Iver and his gang. No longer running from a foe, but led to a secret location by Juno, the races begins anew. With only one day to go, and no Tower in sight I despaired, but when time dwindled to nothing, defeat was not at hand. Instead, The Banner Saga 3 returned to the city of Arberrang, where Rook's party battles Warped and makes choices inside the walls. This back and forth occurs multiple times, with an ever increasing sense of desperation. In total, Rook amassed 28 days worth of time in Arberrang, over four periods. Iver only reached his destination with a day remaining. How many more attempts would the game have given Rook to eke out another day or two? Each time, as the days ran short panic reigned. Each time Iver was rescued by another desperate defense of Rook's at Arberrang.

Is it possible to lose at this point in the game? To beat The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, to survive 29 hours, and to fail in the last one? To see, Game Over, scroll across the screen? Or does The Banner Saga 3 always ensure the player reaches the Tower, with only one day remaining?

The Banner Saga 3 contains a few other surprises. For one, the intricate, beautifully depicted Godstones (the whole game is of course, still gorgeous) which the player passed during the course of The Banner Saga 1 and 2 are revealed to contain an ounce of magical power. And, in defending Arberrang, one notices there are scores of Menders. Previous impressions implied they were few in number, but a horde of them defended the walls of the Capital, keeping the Darkness at bay.
Since this article is mostly about the defense of Arberrang, (because this topic is mostly spoiler free, while the final article about Iver is replete with revelations), the topic of Rugga seems a worthy concluding topic. The perennial thorn (and if one isn't careful, sword) in Rook's side, he is determined to secure power for himself regardless of the pain inflicted on everyone else. He is like the unstoppable will of the developers, intent on making the player's life a hell, as he is almost impossible to defeat. Any decision regarding him always results in suffering. As the city falls apart, Rugga is still scrabbling, harming the city's defense to accumulate another scrap of power. One begins to believe that the death of the last remnants of humanity might be preferable to acquiescing to Rugga's rule over the remainder. The characters, not limited to Rugga, who are already plotting to secure their rank in a future which may not exist, are the most despicable beings in all of The Banner Saga series.

Next week, a final article to finally reveal the source of everyone's troubles. Iver will discover them all, and will he live to tell Rook, or take them to the grave?

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