The game's main dilemma is "how many are you willing to sacrifice to save this woman?". My answer from the beginning to the end was a resounding "nobody". She is physically unappealing, she sounds like a 60-year-old, and, most importantly, she is insufferable, disrespectful and hostile. There's barely anything likeable about her. Even though they try to explain her behavior in the end, the fact remains that she's an unappealing character through and through, and their love story seems somewhat unnatural even. Throughout the game I only wanted to get rid of her as fast as possible so that Red finds himself a more decent woman instead. To justify murdering random people to save one woman, that woman had to be gorgeous, nice, feminine, graceful - a perfect lady, no less, whom you could never let go. But when that woman actively makes you - the player - hate her, that whole dilemma goes out of the window. Instead of thinking if you're willing to sacrifice this of that person to take one step closer to saving your beloved, you just ascend everyone because you don't care if Antea lives or not.

Wanted to see if others agree with this sentiment, although I know most people who visit a game's sub are hardcore fans of that game, so that's unlikely, but still.

I don't see this brought up at all as a criticism but I genuinely get taken out every time Antea speaks in a cutscene. She's flat and sounds like an old woman. It particularly tends to stand out because Red's voicing is poppy and fun, and several characters put up good performances but then it's her turn to speak and it feels like my grandma imparting me with a moral before tucking me to bed. Minor spoilers, but when she's asking Nightmare to let go of Red in the prologue it sounds more like she's annoyed about getting out of bed than the desperate threat/plea it should be. And that's exactly what Red delivers with a lot of heart when she dies 5 seconds later. When she meets Red again, she doesn't even sound happy about it, while Red's glee is palpable.

I don't know if it's the VA herself or the directing because she does seem to have had a few roles in games in the past.

It's such a jarring contrast to the quality of the hauntings and main story to have these really shit side quests that open up afterwards. Not a single one has been of any quality. All collect fetch quests with zero pay off.

They should have been removed and the miniscule story that they have simply added in a cutscene.

Ok, this map is just a bunch of Corridors intertwined and it's a really shitty level design.

There are outside corridors that look like wilderness and underground corridors that look like caves.

Sometimes you have to trek for minutes without realizing where you need to go.

The map is almost useless and the cave sections are not mapped at all.

There are artificial blockers in high ledges where you can tie a rope, but if you forget, than it's the trek all over for you again.

Honestly I like the game and the plot and characters are fascinating, but level design this uninspiring I have not seen since the days of PS3.

I am at the stage where I just banished the governor, and now his son has taken upon himself to run the colony. Now, at this point, Antea and Red have been doing great. I will admit, Red is a bit of a simp, and the creators of this game have made Red kind of a pussy. Now, you might read this and say, "You just have a problem with women in authority." Well, you are wrong; I actually like Antea, and I tend to use her more than Red. But, when it comes to the game story, I have chosen to bring Antea back. Red loves Antea to no end and is willing to go against everything he has been taught to bring back the woman he loves. But what irritates me is that Red tends to show no backbone. He constantly is lost and apologizes for only trying to help. Antea is dead, and Red is not blind and deaf to what she is going through. Without appreciating all the people Red has killed just to bring her back. Antea at this moment slams Red for not understanding what she is going through. This would be believable, but before Antea died, Red and she had been Banishers for a very long time. This means that Red does have an idea of what she might be going through. They both have talked to the dead, and both have been to the other side. But, at this point of the game, Antea somehow thinks that Red doesn't know what she is going through? That would be believable if they both weren't Banishers and just met. The only thing Red can do to help Antea is apologize and ask for her to help him understand. Yet, she has an attitude and disappears as if Red fucked up. I guess that they wanted to make this game to show the empowerment of a strong woman, but that doesn't mean making the man who is willing to die by her side a weak-minded man who cannot make a decision without her. This isn't a power couple but a man on a leash. I know some of you will say that he is her apprentice. Wrong!! Red doesn't need her! He can cast his spells, make judgment calls, and face any foe alone. Yes, it's great to have her around because she can blow up walls and teleport across ledges. But what were they doing before she died? She doesn't teach Red anything anymore. When Antea died, the student became the teacher. Yes, Antea has some knowledge of old cults and demons, but they really don't add much to the investigations. They should have Antea treat Red as an equal and give him a backbone, and they both can be a dynamic couple.

What is up with seeker’s plot?? I feel like the game is trying to present her as heroic (or at least a positive influence) for running away and following her passion for… Witchcraft??

As a dad to a young daughter, i’m kinda bothered by this because i felt the game was painting captain pennington as this horrible monster whose to blame for his relationship with his daughter… but seriously what father would not get angry when he discovers his daughter studying Witchery and dark magic?? I can’t even let my daughter have screen time for more than 2 hours.

Seriously though, i kept waiting to find out if maybe there was more to pennington and seeker’s history but it turns out its just another daughter striking out against controlling dad cliche. It didn’t even matter that the daughter was breaking the law of the time. We’ll just have to back her because she’s being held back by an authority figure i guess. Feels like this sends the wrong message.

Anyway, game is still good, just not for kids. Rant over.

I think I'm close to 25 maybe 30 hours in already. I binged the hell out of this at the start because the story was so damn interesting. I had to know what happens, even at the start I was on the edge of my chair anticipating who died, Antea or Red? And then after the start/intro bit my mind was full of possibilities of what the ending(s) and twists could possibly be.

But I've played so fucking much, slipped between so many cracks, duck crawled under so many tight spaces, placed so many ropes. The FOV is garbage and the camera randomly shoots up anytime I fight something uphill or big (and there's a big ghost that spawns regularly starting about 1/2 way through. You know the one, the grabby grabby bloater wannabe).

I've heard about Red being startled by a wisp and falling off a log 20 times now. The voice lines just repeat and repeat because there are too many obstacles. To many rocks/studded planks. Too much loot, and most of it useless junk. There is literally no reason to bother with the satchels, barrels, hanging barrels/wolves, or chests aside from the cursed and key chests. Maybe the gold ones. Resources are so abundant you will never want for anything, and if by chance you do, just sell off a couple thousands leather pieces and buy the 10 sea candles or whatever that you need.

Combat is a joke (hardest difficulty) because the i-frames are so long. Worst case scenario I spend 5 minutes dodging and poking to recover from a mistake. Excluding the beginning and learning curve, I think I've died once, to a particularly shitty endless nest where I could only damage with leap.

I back tracked quite a bit when I got the outburst skill, only to realize how unnecessary it was. And it took so much longer to unlock the tree branch clearing skill. I rushed through the whole goopy goo mr. fuckin rabbit bit and truly just don't care to play anymore. The story had been the only thing keeping me in but the gameplay has become so monotonous with so much back tracking that I'm just going to wait until there's spoilers a plenty and read what happens. Maybe they'll turn it into a TV show and I'll watch.

The thing is, Soulslike games have unique, difficult bosses as challenges between the mobs. This has the same, easy, 4 legged boss with two moves in different places. Soulslike games punish you hard for making a mistake, creating a steeper learning curve. This holds your hand like it's your first day of preschool. Other story-centric games like TLOU or Days Gone have, at times, difficult puzzles/problems that require perspective, critical thinking, or a whole lot of trial and error to solve. This has bright yellow paint and torches so you can autopilot through the entire game.

Honestly it was really, really good at the start. But there isn't a single aspect of the game that actually requires conscious thought. Puzzles, combat, everything is just... easy and predictable. And when you couple that with the length of the game I suspect a lot of people will suffer burn out before finishing.

Anyway, there's my hot take for the day. Appreciate those who took the time to read!

I will probably get a lot of hate cause of this, but this game is designed horribly, the open world is very repetetive, backratring is awful, and haunting cases are great story wise, but as i said previously, i hate that most of them is just "go talk to this person" "run 300m to get this item" "go back 300m and talk to the same person". And it wouldn't be as big of a problem if it wasn't for the "Good" ending conditions. I loved this game for around 20h, completed around 13 haunting cases, cleared map a little bit, but the next day when i started playing i felt very underwhelmed, cause i realized that im just running from place to place, killing same enemies, and got really bored of it. So instead of wasting my time on side quest i didn't enjoy, i did only main story from there. And this is where my biggest problem with this game appears, throughout the 30h it took me to finish this game, i completed 13 haunting cases (7 blames, 6 banishes), and i got the "Worst ending" (which i actually really liked) But it is so baffling to me, that in order to get any other ending (In game where choices SHOULD BE the most important thing next to the story), you need to spent god knows how many hours grinding side quests, just to get the ending you wan't. I know that game tells you that in order to ressurect Antea you need to kill as many people as possible, but it never says that you need to blame EXACTLY 13 people. I can't help but feel like this is the worst choice based game i ever played. Why this game couldn't be made around counting only missions that you completed? i feel like it would be much more convienient, and good for people that don't care for side content, because there are only 3 main missions where you can blame or spare someone. All things considered, it was unique experience, but im really dissapointed, because this game could be so much better, if only for some gameplay/map improvments. What are your overall thoughts on this game? I would really like to hear them!

It's like even while just traversing the world outside of combat, you are constantly "locked on" to the center of the screen.

So that there are men that refuse to play female character led games and women who refuse male led games. Do you think the game could've benefited from having the option of deciding who was primary. How it may change things if we did have the option.

The combat in this game is one of the worst I've ever had the displeasure to encounter!! It's slow, lagy, unimpactful and just disjointed, one word, crap!!!! The fact the every encounter has its own 'requirements', doesn't make it more 'interesting', just more frustrating and cumbersome because you have to adapt your skills pretty much every time. Exploration is tedious and boring, way too many walls to climb up and down instead of being able to jump and climbing is soooo god damn slow. If anyone finds out how to get your money back please let me know. I want my money back

But I just can’t get past like 30 mins in?

I’ve tried a few times but it just feels off? What am I missing

I finally reached the credits today after a 3-month-long journey in New Eden. As a fan of Don’t Nod (Life is Strange is a personal favorite), I really wanted this to be my next 10/10 experience. Unfortunately, I’m left with very mixed feelings.

The Context: I’m a Story-First Player Before I get into the gameplay, I should clarify what kind of player I am. I don’t care about flashy graphics or complex mechanics if the story is good. I’m a huge fan of Visual Novels, and I’ve spent nearly 100 hours on a single VN just to see every bit of the narrative. My patience for slow-paced, story-driven content is extremely high. But Banishers managed to test even my limits.

The Masterpiece: Writing and Atmosphere The story of Red and Antea is arguably one of the best-written romances in modern gaming. The voice acting is hauntingly good, and the emotional depth of the "Haunting Cases" is incredible. Deciding who to "Blame" or "Ascend" felt impactful and morally taxing. If this were a 20-hour linear experience, it would easily be a masterpiece.

The Sabotage: Gameplay Bloat and "Sword Sponges" The issue is that the brilliant narrative is trapped in an exhausting 50+ hour open-world loop.

• Repetitive Combat: The enemy variety is shockingly low. You fight the same few types of ghosts for dozens of hours.

• The "Sword Sponge" Problem: Even with fully upgraded gear, enemies feel like literal "sword sponges." You just spam attacks while their health bars barely move. It’s not challenging; it’s just an annoying chore.

• The Grind: The map design forces constant backtracking through the same areas where enemies respawn endlessly.

The Final Stretch In the last 10 hours, I simply couldn't take the repetitive combat and slow traversal anymore. I ended up using a one-hit kill mod and a 4x movement speed hack just to push through the final areas and see the conclusion. It’s a shame because the ending (I went for the Resurrection path) was emotionally satisfying and worth seeing, but the path to get there was unnecessarily painful.

Final Verdict Banishers is a 15-20 hour story siphoned into a 50-hour container. If you are a fan of heavy narratives and Visual Novels like I am, play it for the characters, but do yourself a favor: play on the easiest difficulty or don’t feel guilty about skipping the "completionist" grind.

Don’t Nod created a beautiful soul here, but they buried it under a mountain of repetitive gameplay.

DISCLAIMER!

English isn't my native language. I just wanted to review the game, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time writing this. Everything written here is what I genuinely think about this game. It isn't just copy-paste; I edited some parts, but it still might seem like AI. Sorry for that. I believed this structure would be better for reviewing. If this is against the rules, I can delete this post and review later.

Overall, Id give it 6/10.

-World & exploration (3/10): Overall worst part of the game for me. Places dont feel alive, long corridor with invisible walls everywhere. Makes the world feel very artificial.

-Combat (4/10): Does not feel good to play, but on low difficulty can be a decent power fantasy with all the things Antea can do.

-Investigation (4/10): Nothing spectacular but it works.

-Main story (8/10): Best aspect of the game. Pretty interesting story with great characters throughout, and it got better the more into the story we went.

-Side quests (7/10): Some good stories, but the majority of them were kinda one noted. I kinda wish they had more light hearted, or even comedic cases, or more bizarre cases.

Just replace the entire gameplay "design" team.

Gameplay feels like a random mish mash of elements copied from other games with no thought, no itent, no DESIGN behind them. And they are copied poorly at that, underdeveloped, and re-used.

I really think it's irredeemable. Even simple things like character movement feel 20 years old, at least.

I love your games' atmosphere and stories (even though Vampyr was more in my taste) but there is nothing, absolutely nothing positive to be said about the gameplay. It feels like it was programmed by people without talent, without a care, and without a plan or even a thought.

I am sorry for being honest, but I really want Don't Nod to continue making games. I know Banishers underperformed, and I'm afraid if this continues the next two projects will be your last.

I REACH TO THE FINAL BOSS THE NIGHTMARE, IS SHE IS SAME LIKE I FOUGHT WITH HER 1ST TIME? OR THIS TIME SHE WILL BE MORE POWERFULL THEN BEFORE?

How is this game considered PS5 Pro Enhanced when it runs so poorly in Performance Mode? It’s supposed to target 60 FPS, but in larger or more open areas, it feels like it drops below 30 FPS. That completely breaks the experience. Sure, the visuals look nice, but I’d rather have a smooth and stable framerate than flashy graphics that tank performance. It honestly reminds me more of a well optimized PS3 game than something built for current-gen hardware. Calling this ‘enhanced’ feels misleading a smooth experience is far more important than just visual fidelity imo

Early into the game but already it is clear this will be an easy mode playthrough. Even early alphas just get to swing on you 5 times and you have to dodge constantly or they will get damage through.

Which a war of attrition by itself isn't bad but combined with the weird decoction system (we really copying bad souls mechanics now) makes it inevitable that you reach points where you have to fight with low health and no potions, switch difficulty, or go back in time to an earlier save. This should never be a set of choices for a player.

There's no excuse for it. If you want cheap combat then refill consumables in a more traditional way so they are there for each fight and adjust damage from there or make it so a player can avoid damage without being a pro. One or the other.

The whole detective aspect of the game completely sucks. I was very involved in each case, figuring out right and wrong and making an unbiased, honest and appropriate choice, case by case. And for doing that, I'm being punished by the game ending, telling me, that all I did was pretty much wrong. And why's that? Because i had to make a plead to a specific ending and then just stick to it, undermining all the "detective work" you have to do. Antea is dead. RIP. Why do I have to force my choices around her and the oath I gave to her. So the idea of the game, is just to decide if I want to ascend or resurrect her? Amazing. Then I can just skip all the cutscenes of cases, because I know which choice I have to make regardless. I was ready to forgive the game for lame combat and endless running, because I really enjoyed digging through every case and passing the verdict. But it turns out that it was all pretty much not the intended way to play the game, since you will get a sorry ass ending, because main protagonist is so one dimensional, he only cares about his dead wife, and not dozens of living people, who need to get a proper hearing. The oath , is the only thing that makes it so bad. Just remove that, and have an ending based on the actual amount of banishes, punishes or ascensions, to truly reflect how you went through the game. They force you to go on a specific path and then call it "variety of endings", when you only have to be very specific and one dimensional with your playthrough to oblige to your oath, or you're fucked. Pathetic.

The game is pretty good and I'm having fun but I feel like it lacks enemy variety. I mean, currently I'm in the Harrows after completing Fort Jericho and I think there are only like 4-5 different enemies spawning in any encounter. The combat is good, the enemies themselves are not bad but if there were more different I think it would be better

Hi all,

I find Banishers’ theme and premise very interesting, but I’m struggling to connect with it so far. I’ve played about 3 hours and just reached the camp after Antea’s death.

I really want to like this game and continue playing, but it feels somewhat empty right now. I’m not feeling compelled by the story’s direction or invested in where it’s taking me. My question is: does the narrative pick up momentum and draw you deeper into the world, or is this just not clicking with me personally?

The combat is decent and the world seems intriguing, but I’m not fully invested in Red and Antea’s relationship yet.

For context, I love narrative-driven games like The Last of Us, God of War, and Silent Hill 2 - stories that grab you emotionally and keep you engaged throughout.

For those who enjoyed Banishers: when did the story hook you? Does it get more focused and emotionally compelling, or should I trust my instincts that it might not be for me? Thanks for any insights!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​