iPad 刚推出的时候^[4] ，我和 Alex Thomax、John Watson 两位好友还在 BioWare 工作。然后我们在 iPad 上发现了一个很棒的游戏——《超级兄弟：剑与巫术（Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery）》^[5] 。它的开发者是一支小团队，而当时我们几个已经做了整整 11 年的大型游戏开发了，都很希望尝试一点新事物。于是我们决定一起做一个小游戏，就我们仨。

I was working at BioWare with my friends Alex Thomas and John Watson when the iPad came out. On the iPad was this totally cool game called Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery, and it was done by a small team. After working in large game development for 11 years we really wanted a change, so we determined to do a small game with just us, three guys.

Arnie Jorgensen
Stoic 联合创始人

Arnie Jorgensen,
Stoic Co-founder

只可惜，《旗帜的传说 2》的剧情和前作相比略显逊色。作为三部曲的承上启下之作，它太过追求为终章做铺垫，导致无论玩家如何选择，某些事件也必然会发生。此外，节奏也较为拖沓，游戏的时长与前作相当，大概为 8-10 小时，但故事却没有多少真正的进展。

虽然剧情质量参差不齐，但这一作在玩法上有了很大的提升。原本单调的遭遇（encounter）^[6] 终于变得多样，不仅加入了新敌人、新角色，以及可破坏的障碍物，背景美术也更加华丽丰富。旅队管理方面也有改进，但仍然说不上有趣。

Stoic 自费制作了《旗帜的传说 2》，不过在开发三部曲的收官之作时，工作室再次回到了 Kickstarter 平台，在 2017 年 1 月发起众筹。此时已经不是众筹的黄金年代，项目仅仅筹集到 41 万 6986 美金，约为第一部的一半。但这也足够了。2018 年，《旗帜的传说 3》正式发售。

在这一作中，众筹的利与弊都显露无疑。本作的美术和动画堪称系列之颠，但作为解锁目标^[7] 的额外角色却较为生硬，像是被强行塞进了游戏里。实际上，整体而言，它的剧情比前两部都要差。如果说第二部的剧情给人一种“无事发生”的感觉，那在第三部里，“大事”可谓是一桩接着一桩，不给玩家留下半点深入探索的时间，而是用一场场战斗来“凑数”，以分隔各个事件、平衡游戏节奏。

Unfortunately, the story itself is a step back from the first game. As the second part of a trilogy, it’s so focused on setting up the finale that it ends up nullifying player choices in order to force certain events to happen. It also drags, having the same 8-10 hours length as the first game but very little real story progression.

While its story is a mixed bag, gameplay-wise the sequel is a solid improvement. New enemies and characters were added, bringing a much-needed variety to encounters, that now feature destructible obstacles and richer background art. The caravan management also saw improvements, but still fails to be interesting.

While the second part was self-funded, Stoic returned to Kickstarter for the final part of the trilogy. The campaign began in January 2017, already past the golden age of crowd-funding, raising $416,986 dollars – almost half of what they had achieved before. But it was enough, and The Banner Saga 3 came out in 2018.

The pros and cons of crowd-funding are heavily felt, as the series’ art and animation reach their peak, but the extra characters promised as stretch goals are awkwardly thrown in. In fact, as a whole, the writing is at its weakest – if part two felt devoid of important events, part three throws them one after another, with no time to really explore them, often just adding “filler” battles between events to balance the pace.

到了第三部，玩家已经拥有一大堆英雄了，但新敌人基本上只是给前作的怪物换了个皮，没什么挑战性，难以让玩家反复斟酌、全情投入。虽然战斗机制也有所创新，比如敌人会一波接一波地袭来，还添加了环境伤害，但这并没有为游戏增色多少。

游戏真正的进步在于取消了旅队^[8] ，取而代之的是一套能让两支队伍相互影响的系统。一方的行动、战斗和选择将会为另一方争取时间、完成目标。这套系统既提高了玩家的参与感，又和整个三部曲十分契合。它将整段冒险故事都囊括其中：你所做过的选择，各个英雄的生死，甚至旅队的人数，在这一刻都有着它们的意义。整整三部游戏，无数的选择交汇在一起，缔造出最终的结局——这种体验十分震撼人心，不可多得。就凭这一点，这个系列就值得一玩。

《旗帜的传说》第一部诞生之时，Kickstarter 风头正盛。这个独立游戏大胆地站在了行业常态的对立面，不仅采用了 2D 美术和动画、回合制战斗，还将重点放在了叙事上。它的成功佐证了独立 RPG 的活力，并且直接催生了一批战略 RPG 游戏，比如《塔海拉：星界帝国的回声（Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire，2016）》以及《诸神灰烬：救赎（Ash of Gods: Redemption，2018）》。纵然系列的第二、第三部并没有产生这么大的文化影响，但整个三部曲本身已是一部令人惊艳的史诗。对于叙事向游戏爱好者来说，这是个不容错过的好游戏。

By the trilogy’s finale the player has a massive rooster of heroes, but the new enemies are mostly just re-skins, failing to raise the stakes or challenge players. Similarly, new battle mechanics like enemy waves and environmental hazards don’t add much to the game.

The real improvement was replacing the caravan with a system where your actions, battles and choices with one party of heroes buys time for the other party to fulfill their goals. It’s a much more involved system and fits the trilogy perfectly, taking your entire saga into account – choices, the heroes that lived/died and even how many villagers your caravan had. This feeling of seeing choices across multiple games tie together into a conclusion is extremely powerful and rare, and that by itself might be enough reason to try the trilogy.

The Banner Saga first appeared at the height of the Kickstarter craze, a bold indie title going against all industry norms with its 2D art & animation, turn-based combat and narrative focus. Its success helped prove the viability of indie RPGs and was directly responsible for a new wave of tactical RPGs, such as Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire (2016) and Ash of Gods: Redemption (2018). The second and third parts of the trilogy didn’t reach the same cultural impact, but the entire saga is an impressive achievement and a must-play for fans of narrative-driven games.

__________

⁴ 译者注：第一款 iPad于 2010 年 4 月推出。
⁵ 译者注：这是一个 2011 年发售的动作冒险类游戏，在 iPad 上首发，后来也登上 iPhone、Windows 等平台。
⁶ 译者注：广义上，只要是有玩家参与的活动，无论是战斗、与重要角色进行互动，还是尝试解除陷阱，都属于“遭遇”（encounter）的范畴。狭义上，更常指战斗。
⁷ 译者注：即 stretch goal，也译作“进阶目标”、“延伸目标”等。在众筹项目中，指已筹集金额达到某个数目时可以解锁的内容。《旗帜的传说 3》当年众筹时就设立了数个解锁目标，如筹集到 30 万美金时为游戏添加生存模式；筹集到 40 万美金时，一个在第前作曾经出现的角色将会回归。
⁸ 译者注：实际上，《旗帜的传说 3》仍有旅队管理这一元素，不过相较前作已经大幅削减了。