Game Review: Banner Of The Maid

Banner of the Maid

Nintendo Switch

Publisher: CE-Asia

Strategy RPG

There’s a lot of good strategy games out there. The X-Com series comes to mind at the forefront of my mind, with games like Crusader Kings, Stellaris, Total War, Into The Breach, and more not far behind. These are all great examples of strategy games. Hell, these are not only great examples of strategy games, these are great examples of games in general. Some of these are displays of the best strategy games in history. There are some amazing strategy games out there.

Banner Of The Maid is not one of those games. Banner Of The Maid is not one of those games at all.

Banner Of The Maid is sheer mediocrity bundled into one neat package. It’s an example of everything I dislike about strategy games, everything I dislike about games being amplified and injected straight into my veins. I really don’t like it, that much is apparent even from the introduction to my review. But the reasons why I dislike it are much deeper, stemming mainly from the appearance and how the game feels to play, and the fact it’s released in an already extremely saturated market to an audience of people that already have so many other options.

Graphically it’s usually the kind of stuff I really like from a game. Pixel art-esque graphical styles have always been one of my secret loves, something that usually puts a grin on my face. But here something eternally feels off. There’s nothing here that makes me smile, it’s a collection of blandness turned into a nice smoothie of blandness. It’s just dull, and there’s nothing worse than a game looking dull.

Well, there’s one worse thing that a game looking dull.

A game feeling dull to play.

In terms of gameplay, it’s as bland as the visuals. It’s what you’d expect from a strategy game except with none of the weight you’d expect from the aforementioned. Move units, attack enemy units, rinse, repeat, over and over and over again. It’s almost mindless, and it’s painfully boring to even the most hardcore strategy player. I’d much rather play something like Into The Breach, which actually needs strategy and forethought to work out what to do in any given battle. Here, you simply don’t need to think too much. As mentioned before, it’s just DULL.

I can’t recommend Banner Of The Maid to anybody. As a fan of strategy games, I was left sorely disappointed by this game. I really, truly wanted to enjoy it and find something worth my time in the game but it just never happened, nothing even approaching that happened. Banner of the Maid is a disappointing game that is above all else, extremely dull.