Video games have been drifting further away from the expectations that come with the word “game.” In a game, losing is the end. You might be able to win next time, but it's a whole new game with a single new chance at success or failure. In The Banner Saga, failure is not the end. You have to deal with the consequences instead of starting over. Even here, you're not let off so easily. What constitutes failure and success? No matter what your answer is, you'll still probably fail.
The Banner Saga starts with ascending text that bluntly states “The gods are dead.” In this harsh and mythical Nordic landscape, nobody is infallible. The sun has also frozen in the sky, seemingly indicating that all the cosmos is subject to error. Amidst this turmoil, the player controls a handful of characters, each with their own caravan. The one you spend the most time as and will likely connect to most is Rook, a simple hunter who leads out of necessity. Rook has a lot of problems thanks to the dredge, a stone-like race that is suddenly returning to human lands in great numbers.
As leader of the caravan, he must keep his people in good spirits, fed, and alive. Battles can often be avoided, but loot from a successful battle can be spent to train warriors to be more successful later or on food for the clan. Food isn't just won or lost in battles as various encounters resulting in decisions (or disasters) will happen over the course of a journey. Morale can be impacted by food levels, but these decisions may also raise or lower the caravan's spirits which connect back to battle. On a more personal level, Rook's daughter is eager to help against the cold and savage dredge but prefers to not harm any humans or the human-like varl race.
Each problem leads to questions rather than simple solutions. Battle leads to casualties, but it can also lead to loot that can save lives. Do you fight or try to avoid the encounter? Welcoming starving people into your caravan can feed them but it will also strain your existing supplies, so who do you save? Your daughter doesn't want to fight other humans, but her participation may end up saving lives. Is her well-being more important than that of others?
No matter what your answers are, you'll likely still run into failure. The game is balanced to be tough and you won't have perfect information for a lot of the choices you make in your travels. Oftentimes you just have to go with your gut. However, there are very few lose/lose situations, so you can actually take ownership of your failures rather than chalk them up to impossible odds.
Developer Stoic ensures that you will do so too. A lot of these types of games tempt the player to reload a previous file when something bad happens, but that isn't the case here. The save system is never inconvenient in that you can always stop playing and pick it up again later, but it is difficult to create frequent save points in case you mess up. Even if you could, heavy losses are the result of a series of missed opportunities so it's murky business trying to figure out exactly where things went wrong.
How do we define failure and success? Some people will adhere to a moral code (make all efforts to avoid combat, do whatever seems to impact clan survival the most, kill as many dredge as possible, or whatever) over the course of their game and be content with the intention, no matter what the results bring. As for myself, I tried to end the game with as high of a population as I could but, looking back at my decisions, I see that I could have done better. There's no such opportunity with The Banner Saga itself right now. The ending brings more emotional weight than resolution of plot points. We won't know for sure how things wrap up until later games, although I suspect this first part of the saga will be seen as an odd ending point. Still, it's a hell of a ride.