Bannerman

Bannerman is a bizarre little game that ultimately annoyed me. I'm going to address the elephant in the room first. Bannerman is a game about "skill-based combat inspired by historical swordsmanship" with very little actual swordsmanship in it. There is a lot of walking to the right; even more back-tracking to find switches, some re-walking to the right after death and a hell of a lot of getting shot by archers. Relatively there's not a lot of sword fighting. Let's break the above down a bit; I'll get to the archers later. Bannerman is a game about flipping switches until the correct sequence is found to open a gate; allowing the titular bannerman to proceed (to the right). It's not always clear what a switch does so there is quite a lot of running around trying to work out what changed after a switch is pulled. The bannerman runs slowly; and keys don't register as pressed after events. This makes running around a lot more tedious than it should be. The bannerman also turns...

A smart sword combat side scroller, made by someone who knows their stuff. This is not a mindless hack and slash adventure, but one which requires pateince to learn the mechanics based on historical techniques. They dudes who developed this really did their research and it shows. It has a cool retro art style and is a joy to play. Well done Armitage Games!

Awesome side scrolling combat adventure game. Music really pulls you into the mood of the game. Difficulty scale is reasonable and mistakes punished so you learn. Overall good game!

The concept, the setting, the art and the music are truly great. The developer must be hugely talented and genuinely fond of his game. The swordfight is exciting and challenging but feels clunky at times if a keyboard is being used. Much to my disappointment, Bannerman seems to have been aimed largely at gamepad devotees. What made me give this game the thumbs down is a complete absence of a save/load option and those annoying level restarts. Are you serious? You need to exit the game and go about your chores or you lose a fight, and when you launch the game again and press continue, you have to start afresh and get through the whole level again. If you haven't got a job, have got plenty of free time and don't find it dull to play the same level several times in a row, Bannerman might be a good choice for you. However, I consider the absence of save/load, which was done on purpose, unacceptable. Still, it's a unique game, and it's very rare to come across such a game nowadays.

Great and challenging game. I loved the combat and the music is fantastic. I found out about this game through the creators youtube videos of the process that went into making the game. Pros -------- -Combat -The combat was difficult but very rewarding when you start to take out enemies with out taking damage and dodging arrows perfectly. One thing I love about the combat is that it can be very punishing if you try to rush through it or are frustrated from a couple deaths. If you take a breath and relax and focus on what you are doing then some fights become much easier. There are some a few upgrades you can find as you play and you have 2 options when you find them and you can only choose one which lets you sort of create your play style. -Music -The music is very imersive and really sets the mood. I have actually got the version of the game that comes with the soundtrack and love it. -Art/Animation -The pixel art and rotoscope animation were great. I really liked ...

I liked the game at first, I thought it would be like a 2D Chivalry. It would have been awesome if there was some sort of arena, challenge, survival mode if all you wanna do is get good at the combat. The game gets boring really fast, at first I endured it thinking it was gonna get better. The story isn't captivating, its decent but not interesting. I feel likethey were trying too hard to be in-depth especially with that painfully long 5 minute "nightmare" level. Skills and technique upgrades are scattered throughout the map of that level, and because the game being hardcore linear you WILL find them. No quests, no side quest, no alternate mode, no multiplayer, no challenges only main story singleplayer. You will play this only once and that is it. Had potential but not anymore

A game that satisfies 2D combat styles that I've looked for, for a long time. Many 2D games have a combat style that is simply just button mashing. Though sometimes this game can drive you to a button mashing madness which only leads you to a swift end. You must employ calculated strings of attacks and blocks, and dodges and retreats. Admittedly, it's not perfect, as there are patterns that the AI follows that you can take advantage of. But overall, I found the game pretty challenging, and I beat several levels with my heart pounding with only a shred of life left. The work and thought I had to put into beating the opponents made for very satisfying victories. The art style for characters is very reminiscent of older classic games (Prince of Persia, Flashback) which I absolutely loved. The backgrounds were generally good, and I felt like the level designs were pretty good too. Not a huge fan of the gore and strange darkness of it, but I suppose you could argue that it wasn't any pr...

Were the game $5 I'd be more forgiving. The backgrounds repeat often; the exact same flip a switch then run back to surface race right go down flip 2nd switch. Now you can go back where you started. He can only go up or downstairs in one direction so you have to maneuver side to side to get him to go anywhere. The swordplay is okay. Archers are way OP. You can only crouch and it only works for a fraction of a time, a second or two before Bannerman just stands up and gets shot. So far a huge meh.

This is actually two games packaged in one. The first is Bannerman: Sword and Steel edition, where you duel various enemies throughout the land on your quest as the Bannerman. This is actually pretty fun, the combat is clever in a simple way. It's not perfect, some of the timing feels a bit weird to pick up so there's a bit more muscle memorization than I'd like, but I definitely recommend it if you liked Nidhogg and don't mind a slower pace. The second is Bannerman: Knight's Errand edition, where you walk throughout the land on your quest as the Bannerman. At times, this feels like a glorified walking simulator, and even though the developer added some skipping mechanisms, you'll still find yourself walking, walking, and walking. I don't recommend this game, it's a bit unpolished with things like all the game actions (entering doors, grabbing items) forcing you to turn right before they start (it's only a few extra frames, but when you're doing things for the 99th time, it adds to t...

Bannerman is a pretty dark, 2D side-scrolling, souls-lite styled game, set in a medieval world. You play as a Bannerman (shock), AKA a Standard-bearer, venturing through the harsh, bleak world to reclaim the banner you lost in battle. That’s for the main game, anyway. There’s also a “Gauntlet” mode, which is more like an arena battle, facing you against multiple different enemies, one after the other. There’s a Steam leaderboard accompanying this mode to see who can clear the Gauntlet in the fastest time (I’m waaaay down near bottom of the board). One of the main things that attracted me to Bannerman to begin with was the graphical style. Fortunately, I wasn’t disappointed when it came to playing. The graphics were well suited to creating the dark, depressing settings that persisted throughout the game. The music, created with various folk instruments, was also well suited in portraying the gloomy atmosphere as you progress on your quest. The Bannerman story was pretty ...