40 Best iOS Games Of All Time
By Nick Tylwalk
20. Banner Saga
Release date: October 2, 2014
Developer: Stoic
Publisher: Versus Evil
Banner Saga was part of the second wave of mobile gaming in the sense that it was highly anticipated way in advance of its release. Financed initially through Kickstarter, the game made its way to PC first thanks to a successful crowdfunding drive and some publishing help from Versus Evil.
Why were people so enthused about it during development? Part of it was the pedigree of its developers, guys who branched out on their own after working together at BioWare. The visuals also captured the imagination, because they looked like what would have emerged if Don Bluth and his animators had toiled over an epic work of dark fantasy.
And Banner Saga is definitely dark. Its story is intelligent and uncompromising, and in a nod to the studio’s BioWare roots, it’s one that can be directly affected by the decisions made by the player. The strategic combat is an important part of the mix as well, not the deepest system you’ll find in a tactical RPG but one that still has you carefully considering your moves before executing them.
Really, the only common criticism of this game is that it felt too much like the first part of a larger saga, which, of course, it was. If the second or third parts of this planned trilogy can improve upon the base laid here, we could be talking about a candidate for the best iOS game ever made.
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