History VideoGame / TheBannerSaga

* ViolationOfCommonSense: Base damage is equal to hit points, in an aversion of CriticalExistenceFailure. The turn system has each side alternate moving one unit at a time, in a fixed order, regardless of the difference in team size (so long as both have more than one alive). Consequently, the best combat strategy is wounding all enemy troops before killing any of them and suicidally throwing your injured into the fray.

* ViolationOfCommon: Base damage is equal to hit points, in an aversion of CriticalExistenceFailure. The turn system has each side alternate moving one unit at a time, in a fixed order, regardless of the difference in team size (so long as both have more than one alive). Consequently, the best combat strategy is wounding all enemy troops before killing any of them and suicidally throw your injured into the fray.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted for once, as the unit's strength, whether allied or hostile, is equal to their health. The more wounded they get, the less damage they'll be able to deal, generally making them nigh-useless at low health (barring special abilities and armor breaking). Each side also alternates moving one unit at a time, in a fixed order, regardless of the difference in team size (so long as both have more than one alive). [[ViolationOfCommonSense Counter-intuitively]], the best combat strategy is to wound all enemy troops before killing any of them and suicidally throw your injured into the fray.

* AnyoneCanDie: The majority of the cast can be killed in some way or other, depending on the player's choices. There is at least one occasion where the player is forced to choose which main character(s) live and which die.

* DentedIron: Cemented through gameplay. Characters have a health and armor stat. Bringing down the armor stat makes it easier to damage their health. As pretty much all Dredge have heavy armor, it's required to invoke this on them to succeed.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted for once, as the unit's strength, whether allied or hostile, is directly tied to their health. The more wounded they get, the less damage they'll be able to deal. Thus, the best combat strategy is to wound all enemy troops before killing any of them. Conversely, your heavily wounded soldiers become nigh-useless, and it's better to suicidally throw them into the fray rather then letting Dredge cripple more soldiers.

[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/banner_saga_3696.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:225:Only the sun has stopped]]

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

A sequel, ''VideoGame/TheBannerSaga2'' has been released as of April 19, 2016. The final game in the trilogy, ''VideoGame/TheBannerSaga3'' has been Kickstarted and is set to be released in 2018. Stoic has also said that if the trilogy is successful, they might make more games in the setting.

* ActionGirl: All of the women archers, of course.
* AllThereInTheManual: There's tons of lore and world building on the map that you're given in the game, and characters are given backgrounds on their character pages. There's also a lot of information that is only given if you inspect the godstones.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Dredge, who don't even speak. They just attack. [[spoiler:Turns out, they must have had a reason for going to war each time.]]
* AmbidextrousSprite: Played candidly throughout the series. The most noteworthy example is [[spoiler:Iver/Yngvar, after he [[AnArmAndALeg loses an arm]] in the battle with Bellower. It's his left arm according to canon and cutscenes, though it switches depending on where he's facing in battle/conversations.]]
* AnAxeToGrind: Rook has one as his melee weapon, with a bow for distance. Many other characters have a one-handed version.

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Hakon's caravan arrives at Boersgard just when it looks like the city is about to fall to the might of Bellower.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Dredge army has been broken due to the defeat of Bellower, but it came at the cost of either Alette or Rook, not to mention any other party member that died along the way.]] And while we're at it, [[spoiler:Bellower's not really dead, he's just tricked into thinking he is.]]
** Plus, the world is still ending [[spoiler:and there's some sort of Evil Giant God Snake revealed.]]

** GlassCannon / SquishyWizard: The Archer and Mender; have the lowest strength and armor but the highest willpower, mostly skilled with range combat.
** FragileSpeedster / JackOfAllStats: The Raider, Landsman and Spearman; possesses average strength, armor and willpower, and mostly skilled with melee combat.
** MightyGlacier: The Varl Warrior; possesses the highest strength and average armor, but among the lowest willpower aside from the Varl Shieldbanger.
** StoneWall: The Varl Shieldbanger; possesses the highest armor and average strength, but, as brought up, the lowest willpower.
* CrapsackWorld: The copious amounts of information available on the map paint a picture of a joyless world that is downright hostile to life in most places, and merely survivable at best. And now that world seems to be coming to an end, as the sun freezes in place in the sky and the human and varl kingdoms are being overrun by dredge [[spoiler: who, it transpires, were [[InvadingRefugees driven out of their own lands by some yet-to-be-explained creeping shadow]]. Oh, and what appears to be the World Serpent is roaming about casually destroying ''entire mountains''.]]

* CutsceneIncompetence: [[spoiler: No matter the state of the archer who shoots Bellower, whether they be behind a bunch of Varl with shields raised, Bellower will always find a way to grab him/her.]]
* DarkIsEvil: [[spoiler:There is a vague "darkness" consuming the land from the north, so dark that it even scares the Dredge and the world-eating serpent.]]
* DecapitatedArmy: [[spoiler:Once Bellower falls, the rest of the dredge following him retreat and go their separate ways.]]
* DentedIron: Cemented through gameplay. Characters have a health and armor stat. Bringing down the armor stat makes it easier to damage their health. As pretty much all Dredge have heavy armor thanks to being made of stone, it's pretty much required to invoke this on them to succeed.
* DivineAssistance: If you play your cards right, you can get an item from every single Godstone, including some unique level five items.

* EliteMook: Any enemy Varl, and all large-sized dredge. The Dredge themselves have an additional special class, the Sundr, who have special names like Razer and Bellower.
* EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: If what the serpent says is true, the creeping darkness that's driving the dredge south will cause this. The serpent doesn't want this because ''he's'' the one that's supposed to destroy the world eventually.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler:The dredge are not exclusively male.]]
* EvilCounterpartRace: The Dredge are supposedly the result of a jealous god twisting men and Varl in to monsters, specifically to oppose the two races. [[spoiler:Downplayed since the Dredge aren't exactly evil.]]
* EvilTwin: The dredge are one to the varl and humanity, having been "created" by another god that was jealous of the Loom-mother. The dredge also have one to the menders, in the form of their stonesingers, which seem to also be part of some kind of priesthood.
* FieryRedhead: Played with in the case of Alette. She refuses to StayInTheKitchen like the other girls of the village but becomes very close to breaking down when she and Rook encounter dredge in the forest near Skogr.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The game will often subtly hint at the long-term consequences of any major decision that needs to be made. For instance, [[spoiler:Onef will invariably betray the player if recruited. This is hinted at both by his class name -- "Backbiter" -- and by pre-order exclusive Tryggvi near the start of the game, who will tell the player, "do not trust a man, just because they have faces and use their mouths. A man will look at your (''sic'') right through his helmet and lie."]]

* GodIsDead: All of the pantheon has died somehow (they apparently all killed each other) and now the sun has stopped in the sky.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Hogun and Mogun, the twins, can be distinguished because Mogun has a scar across his face. Yrsa[[spoiler:, and in some cases Oddleif,]] also has a scar across her face, though it isn't as pronounced as Mogun's.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: There are no easy choices. Men and Varl do what they can to survive, and sometimes this appears to conflict with your own needs, but there are no 100% right answers.

* InvadingRefugees: [[spoiler: The dredge are being driven out of their homeland by something only known as "the Darkness" and have no other choice than attacking settlements and caravans if they don’t want to starve.]]
* ItCanThink: Dredge seem to just be mindless monsters at first, and you learn that about their complex society as the game progresses.
* LawOfChromaticSuperiority: Bellower, a massive red dredge known as a Sundr that is also apparently immortal. There are also the red slag slingers, who are more powerful than their other variants.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The iOS version suffers from this

* OhCrap: The caravan flying the Banner of the Prince has a collective one when they crest a hill to see that [[spoiler:Grofheim, capital of the varl, has been besieged and destroyed by the dredge.]]

* OneGenderRace: The varl, since each of them are made individually by Hadrborg, the god that created them. Now that Hadrborg is dead, no more varl will be made. [[spoiler:Averted with the dredge. Everyone only sees the males, which are normally the only ones that go to war.]]

* {{Pyromaniac}}: How the varl, who apparently are mildly pyrophobic, view siege archer Yrsa, given her slightly unsettling presence and [[KillItWithFire preferred method of battle]]. Her conversation with Hakon suggests she might be playing it up a bit just to mess with them, though.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Banner of Skogr (i.e. Rook's party), since it is a caravan of starving refugees and whoever is crazy enough to join such a group.

* SceneryGorn: Various scenes of destruction, such as [[spoiler:the serpent bringing down mountains and the view of the burning ruins of Grofheim.]]

* TheSiege: [[spoiler:The siege of Einhartoft by the dredge. Despite you even]] [[spoiler:[[GodzillaThreshold destroying the bridge to delay the dredge]], [[AllForNothing it falls even after several days of fierce resistance by the varl.]] The town of Boersgard is also put under siege, but here, unlike then, you have no way out.]]
* ShieldBash: The special ability of many of the shield-bearing units. Dredge Stoneguards have a particularly nasty area-of-effect one.
* ShieldBearingMook: Dredge Stoneguards, which carry giant tower shields in addition to their maces.

** Varl using two-handed weapons do bonus damage to enemies adjacent to their targets on a strength attack, which once again ignores armour. The Sundering Impact ability is all about this trope, specifically designed to do greater and greater splash damage at higher levels to punish grouped enemies.
** Humans of the Raider class can get the ability Grudge, doing strength damage and knockback to all enemies around them, and 1 point of damage for each tile they are knocked back. Naturally, the damage per tile ignores armour making the move viable even if the initial attack doesn't do much.
** The sequel introduces enemies and allies alike who can cloak themselves, making them invisible and can't be targeted, but the cloak is broken if they either attack, or take damage. All of the above abilities are indiscriminate, so they, and other abilities, are crucial when fighting these opponents as they don't rely on being able to target these enemies to hurt them.

* TimedMission: Food and caravan members are finite, so, you must hurry along.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: On the other hand, the game has no KarmaMeter, allowing you to act like a total dick to everyone around you with relatively few repercussions. May be [[JustifiedTrope justified]]: things have gotten ''so desperate'' that almost any action can be explained as "IDidWhatIHadToDo".

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: The Dredge and Varl are alike afraid of fire. This gives it a tenuous tactical use, as it can be used to drive or divert Dredge forces, but may also incapacitate Varl allies.

A sequel, ''VideoGame/TheBannerSaga2'' has been released as of April 19, 2016. The final game in the trilogy, ''VideoGame/TheBannerSaga3'' has been Kickstarted and is set to be released in December 2018. Stoic has also said that if the trilogy is successful, they might make more games in the setting.

* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler: Iver/Yngvar]] loses an arm as a result of trying to take on [[spoiler: Bellower]].

* UsingYourHead: Iver's special ability is to ShieldBash the enemy for armor damage and {{knockback}}. But after [[spoiler: losing an arm and being unable to hold a shield along with his sword]], he just does a headbutt instead.

* TheBackwardsR: A mix of fake and real runes on the map to make it look Norse. The real runes are often misused, however, such as Ur (ᚢ) being used as an N and [[RandomlyReversedLetters Lögr (ᛚ) being reversed]]. This makes the text more readable without knowledge of Germanic runes than with it.

%%** Certain characters can only be recruited by following a very specific chain of events.

A sequel, ''VideoGame/TheBannerSaga2'' has been released as of April 19, 2016. Stoic Studios has confirmed that a third game, which will complete the trilogy, is in development. Stoic has also said that if the trilogy is successful, they might make more games in the setting.

* AmbidextrousSprite: Played candidly throughout the series, though it really obvious in the case of [[spoiler:Iver/Yngvar, after he [[AnArmAndALeg loses an arm]] in the battle with Bellower. He can still swing an axe just as well with only one arm—just don't ask ''which'' arm it is.]]

* AmbidextrousSprite: See [[spoiler:Iver's lost arm]], Krumr's cloudy eye,

* ItCanThink: While the dredge seem to just be mindless monsters at first, as the game progresses their society becomes more complex and you learn more about them.

* GoodScarsEvilScars: Hogun and Mogun, the twins, can be distinguished because Mogun has a scar across his face. Yrsa [[spoiler: and in some cases Oddleif]] also has a scar across her face, though it isn't as pronounced as Mogun's.

* GoodScarsEvilScars: Hogun and Mogun, the twins, can be distinguished because Mogun has a scar across his face. Yrsa also has a scar across her face, though it isn't as pronounced as Mogun's.

* CutsceneIncompetence: [[spoiler: No matter if the archer who shoots Bellower is behind a bunch of Varl with shields raised, Bellower will always find a way to grab him/her.]]

* HalfHumanHybrid: The Varl were made as a combination of man and beast, probably yox. There are also the horseborn, who seem to be centaurs according to the rough drawings on the map.bit

* ForeignLookingFont: A mix of fake and real, but often misused (such as Ur (ᚢ) being used as an N), runes are used on the map to make it look Norse while still being readable.