¿Copy of The Banner Saga?

[Vrykolakas]

Have you guys anything to do with The Banner Saga from Stoic Studio or are you just copying their style and gameplay?

[Sneaky Seal]

Originally posted by Vrykolakas:

Have you guys anything to do with The Banner Saga from Stoic Studio or are you just copying their style and gameplay?

Hi there!

No, we're not related to the Banner Saga or Stoic Studio. Though they are aware of our game (we've reached out to them early on) and wish us best of luck with it.

As for the game - it does have a similar visual style and core gameplay elements (such as the global map or tactical combat), but you can't really say these were pioneered by the Banner Saga. Moreover, if you get more specific - you will see that we have our own, more detailed and less stylized, visual style, different combat system with our own ruleset and addition of a card game elements.

Of course the game also has its own lore, world, story and characters. We're also working hard on adding more variety to the story, lots of choices and consequences, as well as various endings - to provide better player's experience and more replayability.

Overall, if you did like Banner Saga - you will probaby like Ash of Gods as well. If you didn't for some reason - you might find some new things in Ash of Gods that you will like.

[Sira]

Are you not afraid of the legality of this?
Sorry but after watching the trailer, it seems like a total ripoff.

[Giopeppe]

It's not, no more than every 3D FPS is a ripoff of another one.

- It has its own lore and original story (a bit longer than a single BS title), with a different setting: not really "vikingish", with less if any norse mythology influence, more "slavic" with a medieval western european influence;

- Different mechanics in tactical battles: no dice rolls (only fixed amount), use of battle cards mechanic, different turn order, different stat systems and ability trees, of course different chars with different classes and skills;

- Different story telling.
BS has a more linear approach: you have side quests and events that require a choice that could affect the game, while moving on main plot, like on a line from "A" to "B" (with a change of perspective when you switch caravans).
AoG is much more webbed and rogue-likish: for every single "team" (there are three) you have a series of "set" locations you must visit (for example a specific city) but the path to them could be very different. It's much more branched. At every step you need to choose a road to follow and you usually have two or three options each time, and i mean not only choice in dialogues, but literally roads on the map.

Do you know the mistreated Skyshine's Bedlam (that use the same engine of Banner Saga, while AoG is based on Unity)? Well, the movement on the world map is more similar to the one on that game than to the Banner Saga's one.

It's much more like a gamebook (do you know Lone wolf?) or an heavy branched interactive novel;

- No caravan management (no "clansmen" and "fighters" or similar mechanics).

Of course there are also similarities:

- Both are quite lower fantasy: there isn't ludicrously astonishing magic sparklings everywhere (BS is quite peculiar with his Norse setting, while AoG is a bit more Gothic/Dark fantasy, vaguely in The Witcher's style) and, but i am not completely sure, there aren't any sragons nor a Dragon's Queen :)

- Both have a story telling similar to interactive visual novels;

- Both have tactical RPG combat;

- Both make use of rotoscoping and have 2D hand-drawn charchters, animations and backgrounds with a huge influence from classical animated films (Banner Saga main artist has a really nice hand inspired by Eyvind Earle, while AoG seems less "Earlish", with a bit more classic and realistic style, like in the shape of trees for example.



In the end, if we consider that Banner Saga revamped and mixed together a couple of genres (Tactical RPG, like Final Fantasy Tactics, The Oregon Trail mechanics for the caravan part and so on), we could say that AoG is of the same hybrid genre of Banner Saga.


If you consider "Planescape: Torment", "Baldur's Gate" or "Fallout" ripoffs of each other (depending on which one was released first), then it is a totally different perspective.

[Sneaky Seal]

Originally posted by Giopeppe:

It's not, no more than every 3D FPS is a ripoff of another one.

- It has is own lore and original story (a bit longer than a single BS title), with a different setting: not really "vikingish", with less if any norse mythology influx, more "slavic" with medieval western european influx;

- Different mechanics in tactical battles: no dice rolls (only fixed amount), use of battle cards mechanic, different turn order, different stat systems and ability trees, of course different char with different classes and skills;

- Different story telling. BS has a more linear approach: you have side quests and events that require a choice that could affect the game, while moving on main plot, a line from "A" to "B" (With a change of perspective when you switch caravans). AoG is much more webbed and rogue-likish: for every single "team" (there are three) you have a series of "set" locations you must visit (for example a specific city) but the path to them could be very different. It's much more branched. At every step you need to choose a road to follow and you usually have two or three options each time, and i mean not only choice in dialogues, but literally roads on the map.

It's much more like a gamebook (do you know Lone wolf?) or an heavy branched interactive novel;

- No caravan management (no "clansmen" and "fighters" mechanics).

Of course there are also similarities:

- Both are quite lower fantasy: there isn't ludicrously astonishing magic sparklings everywhere (BS is quite peculiar with his Norse setting, while AoG is a bit more Gothic/Dark fantasy, vaguely in The Witcher's style) and, but i am not sure, there aren't Dragons and Dragon's Queen :)

- Both have a story telling similar to interactive visual novels;

- Both have tactical RPG combat;

- Both have use rotoscoping and have 2D hand-drawn charchters, animations, backgrounds with a huge influences from classical animated films (Banner Saga artist has a really nice hand inspired by Eyvind Earle, while AoG seems less "Earlish", a bit more classic and realistic in the shapes).



In the end, if we consider that Banner Saga revamped and mixed toghter a couple of genres (Tactical RPG, like Final Fantasy Tactics, The Oregon Trail mechanics for the caravan part and so on), we could same AoG is the same hybrid genre of Banner Saga.


If you consider "Planescape: Torment", "Baldur's Gate" or "Fallout" ripoff of each other (depending on which one was released first), then its a totally different perspective.

Giopeppe, I am just going to point people to your post from now on