When comparing The Banner Saga 2 vs To The Moon, the Slant community recommends To The Moon for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Steam with a rich story?” To The Moon is ranked 4th while The Banner Saga 2 is ranked 53rd. The most important reason people chose To The Moon is:
The main story is actually told backwards, ala the movie Memento. While not the most original concept, still a cool way to tell a story. In the end there is quite the happy ending that will result in many tears being shed.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Helps you to learn the gameplay thoroughly
Tactical RPGs can be really intimidating, especially if you're just starting out. The tutorials often blaze forward, causing you to miss important mechanics. Luckily, Banner Saga 2 tries to alleviate this by adding a trainer NPC who will give you challenges. These involve performing various combat exercises, helping you to solidify your understanding of the game and even learn something new.
Pro Solid tactical combat
Even though Banner Saga 2’s turn-based combat system is fairly straightforward. You and your opponent take turns in moving and attacking with units on a tactical grid. Each unit has its strengths, weaknesses, and set of unique abilities that you need to consider.
For example, archers can attack from far away but they have low armor, so you can’t leave them out in the open. Another example are the Varl, very durable and strong melee units that occupy 4 tiles as opposed to 1. This makes it trickier to position them since more enemies can stand next to them and attack them.
This creates combat that is not too simple but still has enough variety and strategy involved to feel rewarding.
Pro Great hand drawn graphics
Banner Saga 2 environments, characters, and animations are all hand-drawn. This includes your caravan as it marches over a snowy hill, passing trees and houses in the distance. The various viking-esque soldiers, centaurs and other mythological creatures, swinging axes and thrusting spears on a worn out bridge. Even the very detailed character sprites as they discuss matters with extremely serious expressions. Everything just feels like you’re watching an animated movie, which is something almost never encountered in a game.
Pro Cute story told backwards with an unexpected happy ending
The main story is actually told backwards, ala the movie Memento. While not the most original concept, still a cool way to tell a story. In the end there is quite the happy ending that will result in many tears being shed.
Pro Well written characters
As the story progresses the characters attitudes and emotions change in response to the ever evolving story. This makes fro what is a very well written game that makes the story and characters seem genuinely real.
Cons
Con HP damage based attacks cause one-dimensional tactics
A unit's current number of hit points equals the damage it will deal to an enemy. Because of this, the best strategy is always to hit all enemy units in a sequence, so they inflict as little damage as possible. Any other strategy is too risky and can backfire way too easily, limiting your creativity.
Con Incomplete story
To get a full and satisfying story, you’ll have to play the entire Banner Saga trilogy. Banner Saga 2 on its own feels like you’ve suddenly started reading a book from the middle. There are a lot of characters you know very little about, making it hard to understand their motivations. The on-going events are not explained fully. Even the ending is not a satisfying conclusion but just a setup for the next arc.
Con Gameplay is lackluster
The actual gameplay of the game consists of tile flipping and a few other mini type games.
Con Too short
Averaging play at around 4 hours to complete the game is quite short, good thing there are a bunch of free DLCs released that extend the gameplay.