Quick Look: The Banner Saga: Factions

So for two dollars you don't even get enough renown to upgrade one character once?

Man, I'd hate to be playing against @patrickklepek online during a Quick Look.

The F2P is actually really good. It is about 6 games worth of renown to upgrade upgrade a character and 2 games if you want to get a new one, which you don't do that often since there is a team limit. The rate at which you unlock dudes isn't that much different than a standalone single player TBS. In addition, you are generally matched with players who have a similar amount of renown in their team and if they have more you get a bonus for playing them.

There really is no reason to spend a cent unless you want cosmetic stuff.

You ever known someone that died from cancer? If you don't, you will one day. No need for such comments here, asshole.

Hand-drawn animation look is awesome.

that seems a little harsh for suggesting a game that might make him better at these kinds of games that he seems insistent on playing now...

As a fan of Japanese turn-based strategy role-playing games, I like the look of this game but goddamn is it ever slow and boring. A zoom-in for the attack animations would be a nice touch, and you'd think they would have worked in some height variations to the terrain, I don't know if that's in this version or not but it would certainly help to break up the field.

Aha! You're totally right. Fixed.

You can't move after you attack? Jesus. Tactics Ogre (which came out on the Super Nintendo like 20 years ago) is light years ahead of this game in every respect but graphics.

Paying real money to quickly upgrade your troops is also really gross.

I messed with it a bit and it seems pretty cool (also it helped that I was doing well), but I'm far more interested in the single player game than this F2P deviation.

It's not pay to win because all you can buy is experience, and you get matched up with people of a similar experience level in the matchmaking anyway. You level up too slowly without spending cash though unfortunately.

@plasticpals:

I feel that not being able to move after you attack gives it a lot of depth. You can't hit people without exposing yourself and as a result your positioning matters a whole lot.

Someone compared it to chess, which I kind of agree with. The mechanics are very simple but the limitations that come with that give the game boundless complexity.

Miss...miss...miss. bullshit!

Lets not hang this guy too long and end the turn.

Thank you Jeff.

Patrick please! You don't have to front load all the explainations in 5min.

Quick Look: The Boner Saga

Really excited for the full game release because I have no interest in the multiplayer aspect. And, man, the game is gorgeous.

Huh, Patrick seems really bad at judging percentages. 20% chance attack missed? Bullshit!

And from watching the match, it seems like the random number generator here is [I]actually[/I] random, rather than being fudged the way a lot of games like Civilization do.

And I don't understand why he keeps moving his characters in front of the other player's, rather than flanking them when he had the chance.

The game looks a lot more like Heroes of Might & Magic, rather than Fire Emblem, too. (though I have not played HoMM - I've only watched Dave's Quick Look)

Pretty basic looking gameplay, but if it's free to play might be aight. The art is really pretty though, I have to say.

Woah, the art style is incredible. Really striking. Colour me interested for the upcoming singleplayer game.

Looks pretty cool. I think I read somewhere that you are only matched agasint guys exactly the same level as you... so if you spend, you won't crush people who haven't. If anything, someone who spends will be at a disadvantage against those who grind because the one who grinds has more experience playing the game.

Haven't watched the quick look of this game yet but 90% of the time if your attack with a chance to miss in this game you are really terrible at the game and have probably failed to understand the core mechanic of the game. You need to weaken the enemies armor as soon as possible because for every point higher than your strength the enemies armor is it adds 10% chance for your attack to miss. If your strength (which doubles as your health) is higher than then enemies armor you have 100% chance to hit. All this is explained in the tutorial... Simply put, if you find yourself missing in this game you are playing it wrong.

Wow really digging the art style, reminds me of 80s and 90s cartoons... :-)

edit: just added it to download Que in Steam!

They are making another Planescape: Torment?! WHY THE FUCK HAVE I NOT HEARD ABOUT THIS BEFORE? The first 10 seconds of this quick-look made my month.

Anyone else getting a Rankin-Bass, Lord of the Rings cartoon vibe from the visuals?

Spiritual sequel, not direct or literal sequel. Torment: Planes of Numenor, I believe is the name.

@patrickklepek I'm gonna be critical here, but please don't take me as just another hater. People watch these Quick Looks for both entertainment and information. I understand that it might feel necessary to explain everything about a game to do it justice, but it's much more entertaining to watch somebody play something than hear somebody explain it. Just some food for thought, keep up the good work.

The moment this has a single player, I'm there.

Wow, this looks absolutely beautiful. Not really into playing it multiplayer but I'll definitely check out the single player portion when that comes out.

This is obviously just a way for them to make some extra cash. I'm guessing they asked for too little during the Kickstarter.

Regardless, they have apologized and at least tried to explain themselves, so that's something.

This is painful to watch. If you don't even know the basics of a strategy game it might not be a title to quick look. especially when you are going misrepresent it by doing so. just saying.

@gyrfal: Completely agree, see any Quick Look with Vinny behind the wheel for example.

This looks kinda cool, but F2P is almost always Pay2Win. I do need some new Tactics type game though.

Kinda sad I'm feeling more compelled to play this, than SimCity.

Fuck off EA

Jeff seems a little wooden here for some reason.

How dare they play a game.

I know, right?

anything less than 80% hit chance might as well be 0% in my book, I would try something else before taking those dice rolls

It isn't the same style of game, and it isn't trying to be. This has much more in common with something like Heroes of Might and Magic. Not all turn-based tactical games are cut from the same mold, and I really don't understand why people keep comparing this to Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, Xcom, etc. All of those games -- and this one -- are turn-based tactics games, but none of them are alike or trying to be alike.

Ah man why did you do a quick look so early, this is hardly even a game yet. They haven't added the leveling system for units yet, they haven't rolled out all the classes, they haven't implemented the single player aspect yet. Bums me out will never see a quick look of anything close to the finished project. They made the same mistake with that Krater game, quick looked way too early.

Every time Patrick wasted willpower on a 50% hit, I screamed at my computer. you should never rely on random hits in this game always attack their armor first!

I will preface this post by saying I am not a Patrick hater, but he has this horrible habit of getting quite verbose during quick looks. It is especially frustrating when he has spent very little time with a game before the quick look. One match and a clear misunderstanding of core game mechanics does not make for an interesting quick look. It makes for a gross misrepresentation of what the game is.

I like the way this game looks

This game looks incredible

/patrick hate

Best Goddamn Art Direction of 2013, folks.

Really dislike how they quick look this game with 0 knowledge of the most core mechanics of the game. Strength is not just health but how much damage you do as well, 4hp means you do 4dmg. Armor reduces your attack, so if they have 8 armor and you have 10str, you'll do 2dmg. Love giant bomb but this was just dumb.

This is pretty much all I played last weekend. I'd recommend playing the 30 second PVP matches since that rewards more renown (currency) and speeds up the turns a lot.

I don't understand why people are saying this has such a great art style. It looks like a bible cartoon to me. Looks really fun though.

Ok... I hate it when they do a quick look before they understand the game mechanics, but I honestly didn't expect them to do anything for this game at all, so I'm glad they're showing it off and have nice things to say. Now, as for people who actually might play it, THIS VIDEO IS NOT A VERY GOOD REPRESENTATION. But it's free, it's fun, and it's gorgeous, so if you want a little good advice going into it, look no further!

NEW PLAYERS: Tutorial is forced. It's ok, tells you some useful basic things, but it leaves a couple VITAL details out. Most notably how to use the Horn, and how miss chance works (in this game it should be avoided like the plague). All these details are found in two short tutorial videos that you can access from the main menu, on the button in the top right. Also if you have any questions about anything, the "?" button will usually explain everything about any given page. Definitely hit it on the unit stat page in the Proving Grounds and read up. Also, always play with health bars on. I don't know why Patrick wouldn't.

As for the Free to Play structure, don't worry about it unless you're interested in getting the Eternal Boost to support the devs. Everything else is a waste of money. Everything except some of the cosmetic skins can be accessed by playing, and since matchmaking will almost always match you with a team of the same power level, buying renown or units and upgrading faster will only get you matched up with people you probably can't handle at this point. Some people call it "Pay2Lose" for this reason.

Edit: Oh haha you can see me in general chat near the end of the video