Stoic Studio announced today that the follow-up to The Banner Saga ($9.99), their lush, Ragnarok-themed tactical RPG, is coming to all the big non-mobile platforms some time next year. The sequel will be called, unsurprisingly, The Banner Saga 2, and it should start where its predecessor left off: in the beleaguered city of Boersgard, with Bellower’s corpse smoking in the cold wind.
Ok, so it may not start exactly right there, but the team at Stoic are working to make sure all of your choices from the first game carry over to the second. Last month, Stoic co-founder Arnie Jorgensen told me that his team “want[s] the whole series to feel like one sweep. All three games should feel like one continual game, without any hiccups between them."
To celebrate today’s announcement, Stoic released a new trailer. Eagle-eyed fans will spot at least one new faction of fighters, as well as familiar faces like Hakon the Warmaster, the presumptive heir (if I remember my lore correctly) to the Varl leadership.
“The critical reception and widespread fan appreciation for The Banner Saga is overwhelming and humbling, and has the team at Stoic dedicated to delivering a fantastic sequel with The Banner Saga 2,” said Jorgensen in a press release. The game is set for release next year on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
A representative from Stoic’s PR partner confirmed to me that the game is also headed toward mobile, but he couldn’t give me a timeframe or say if the release would be simultaneous across different platforms. The Banner Saga was first available on PC in January 2014, but wasn’t released until October on iOS tablets. Still, Stoic Studio consider The Banner Saga for iOS the definitive version of the game: “It’s a better experience on tablet now than you can get on the PC or Mac," says Jorgensen.
Stoic hope to reveal more information about The Banner Saga 2 after the holidays, but until then, you can read our retrospective profile of Stoic Studio and The Banner Saga, which covers everything from wide-angle aspect ratios to indie iOS development.
