A while back I bought Banner Saga on sale on steam and recently I bought it again from the google play store. The visuals looked great, like an old Rankin Bass cartoon and I assumed it would have a turn based play style, like the old Lucas Arts game Gladius and Nintendo's Fire Emblem series. Well, I guess I was completely spoiled, by those now decades old, detailed, play mechanics found in Gladius and Fire Emblem. Don't get me wrong, Banner Saga looks and sounds great, so I know they didn't cut corners on development, but the game is so much simpler and less detailed than I expected. No attack bonus for hitting enemies in the rear is a HUGE one for me, no weapon range indication before finalizing movement, the game uses a slow single point interface (touch screen), no submenus and a VERY thin equipment list, makes it feel like the "New Easy-to-Master" edition of Dungeons & Dragons to me. Frankly it plays like an old Games Workshop board game with an interactive story book component, as opposed to the more complicated turn based strategy games I'm used too. After taking a hiatus from video games the last few years and now spending some time with this game and Terraria, I really feel like I haven't missed much in the last few years. These simple games being made now, based on watered down play mechanics taken from tried and true, more complex, older games, feels sort of like we're going backwards like Windows 7 back to 3.1. Am I imagining things or is this the trend going forward?
Wow, not thoughts on this. I find it to be a profound change in play mechanics for turn based strategy games.
