I wasn’t really looking forward to playing The Banner Saga 3. Not because I didn’t think this turn-based tactical RPG would be wonderful, but because we’ve come a long way from the days when it was mainly about humans and tree-sized Vikings fighting metal dudes from the hills. Back in 2014, we were squarely in the realm of Nordic-themed fantasy.
So much shifted toward the end of The Banner Saga 2. Stoic Studios’ game was never a cheery one, to be sure; in fact, Game of Thrones occasionally feels like a comedy in comparison. It’s a world where the gods are dead; where the sun sits motionless in the sky.
And now there’s a single human city left. A gigantic purple nothingness chomps up the Nordic landscape’s fjords and fields, and the formerly familiar and comfortable gets twisted into the stuff of nightmares. Through it all, the world’s people waste time in bitter, selfish squabbles while the world itself dies around them. I don’t know about you, but I like for my fantasy games to serve as escapes from reality.
