Banners of Ruin Review
Although there are maybe more than enough roguelikes, and the world is awash in excellent deck building battle games, there aren’t many decent RPGs featuring moody anthropomorphic characters (well, there are a few, but play along). I had high hopes for Biomutant, and look where that got me: hopes dashed. So, I was very pleased to encounter Banners of Ruin, which not only does some smart things with very familiar genres, it does so with an engaging cast of warring animal characters.
Banners of Ruin is a little like the savage political infighting and intrigue of Game of Thrones in a tossed salad alongside Monster Train or Slay the Spire. You play as agents of the Blackfoot clan, whose goal it is to topple the ruling House Ender and bring order to the city of Dawn’s Point. The story is intriguing and well written, if somewhat overshadowed by the game’s combat. At first you only have access to a couple agent characters but eventually your party will expand to six potential recruits, each from a different animal race including mice, beavers, bears, weasels, wolves, and hares.. As you explore the city and begin each new run, you choose from one of three encounter cards, and not all of them involve combat. Sometimes they will allow you to visit a merchant, or recruit new agents, or simply gain information. Your initial choice of encounter card begins a cascade of events that will either keep you moving to the endgame or defeat and a restart from the beginning. Happily, even failed runs reward the player with experience points and the ability to grow their abilities.
Twists on Familiar Mechanics
Combat encounters play out similar to many deck battle games, with a few smart variations. Each agent has a set of stats that will determine the types of cards they can most effectively play, and each also has race-specific armor and weapon cards. What Banners of Ruin adds to the deck-building genre is an extra layer of complexity and sophistication. It takes almost all the repetition out of the experience, as there are so many combinations of characters, cards and abilities it’s hard to get in a rut. Add to this the more-than-decent enemy AI, and you have an accessible challenge that takes a little time to fully understand but is ultimately rewarding and fun. In general, the game’s UI during combat is excellent and gives the player more than adequate information about upcoming enemy tactics as well as providing hover-over tool tips and reminders. While the tutorial is a little brusque and maybe even makes the game seem initially intimidating, everything is good once the story kicks in and you see combat in action.
It’s hard not to appreciate the game’s hand-painted art style, especially the rich detail on the cards themselves. The various animal characters really capture the essence of each clan. If there’s an aesthetic disappointment, it’s that the combat animations and stages are a little ho-hum and might be one of the weaker aspects to an otherwise visually appealing package. The game’s music is by Dan Farley and features orchestral samples blended with some subtle electronics. In general the music is a spare but effective element and sound design overall is fairly minimal.
Despite some bugs (unfortunately, not a playable race but the game crashing kind) and a feeling of complexity that might be off-putting at first, Banners of Ruin is a smart and creative take on two very familiar genres. With a world, story, and characters that are a refreshing departure from the usual dark fantasy tropes, and gameplay that is engaging and addicting, the biggest knock against it might be players’ potential reticence to dive into yet another deck builder/roguelike. That would be a shame, and anyone who has grown weary of the genre might be pleasantly surprised by Banners of Ruin.
***PC code provided by the publisher for review***
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