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Banners of Ruin is a roguelike, deck-building game of turn-based, tactical combat featuring anthropomorphic animal characters in an urban, fantasy setting. Your goal is get justice (or revenge) by progressing through the city of Dawn’s Point to take down the House Ender, a ruling group that has misused its power and destroyed and displaced your people, the followers of Blackchurch. Banners of Ruin adds a team-based, tactical component of positioning to the type of gameplay seen in Slay the Spire and the early goings of Inscryption. Doing so gives a methodical feeling to combat and progress through the lanes of cards that represent the map the city. As with those other games, maximizing the action economy is essential to success in Banners of Ruin. Progress in each section of the city culminates in a boss fight before progress can be made deeper into Dawn’s Point.
Roguelike
Many of the problems with this game are the same problems that players will experience in similar, roguelike games. The randomization can lead to frustration and redundancy, which, given how long some playthroughs can last, might cause a player to feel like a lot of time is being wasted with almost nothing to show for the effort. Unlike some of the more action-oriented roguelikes, such as the critical darlings Hades and Dead Cells, this game doesn’t have permanent increases to your characters. Since you start from scratch every time, it is easy for players to feel like they are treading water with no sense of meaningful progress or even much in the way of development to make subsequent playthroughs less onerous. While there are a variety of character types, there is not as much build variety as a player might initially suspect because late game enemies and bosses require specific strategies to overcome their enormous advantages.
Later playthroughs, even after a first successful run, introduce different variations. New story missions open. Bounty hunters appear and can create dangerous, boss-style encounters with little warning. Oaths and Challenges add new permutations or potential unlocks. These developments along with the basic challenge of the game will have to be what motivates a player to continue. The characters are serviceable but one-note, and the story is obscure and mostly confined to the margins. This situation, though, doesn't need to be a negative takeaway.
Teamwork
The developers,Montebearo Limited, are a team of three core individuals. The overall art direction and functionality of the game is a testament to their skill, dedication, and effort. This tiny group of indie developers has largely succeeded at a time when most AAA studios fail to launch even a minimum viable product and are too busy trying to reach into the pockets of the audience to take more money than actually make a game. Blame poor management and greedy executives who have nothing but contempt for the people who buy their products for the current state of the industry. Montebearo, thankfully, has none of those qualities. Whatever the limitations and criticisms of the game, they have managed to do their job and showcase their vision and talent. By keeping the experience focused and built around a core idea, the team put out a good, playable game.
Available on Steam, Good Old Games, Epic, and Nintendo Switch, often discounted from an already reasonable price of $20 (USD), Banners of Ruin is worth the purchase of anyone interested in tactical, turn-based roguelike games.
© 2023 Seth Tomko