Intro
The game begins with Thora, a young Viking warrior, caught in a storm at sea. The storm destroys the ship and Thora and her men go down. Thora explains that, that day, the god of the sea took her down. As she sinks the light fades and everything goes silent and dark. Death had come for her.
Thora Awakens in Yggdrasil, the connector of the 9 realms. As she looks out, she pauses taking in the view of the realms and sets out to prove herself to the gods and regain her rightful place in Valhalla.
Gameplay
The game is a top down action adventure game. Throughout your journey you will be going from realm to realm collecting runes. Every time you collect 2 runes you will face a Jotun, A powerful giant of that realm. The Jotun are the key to redeeming yourself, you must slay all of them to prove that you belong in Valhalla.
The game is broken up into 5 parts and each part has 2 Runes in 2 realms respectively that you must collect.
Realms
Every 2 realms have an elemental theme which ties them together. The first is a woodland theme, next is a mine theme, then and Ice Theme, followed by a Heavens theme, and lastly a Volcano Theme. To collect the rune in each realm you have to make your way thru the realm to the rune. Now this game has something very unique and that is the way that it challenges you. Unlike most traditional games the environment and the elements are often times your main adversaries. It’s really unique and cool. For example, in one world you have to make your way to the rune while avoiding Poisonous spores, while in another level you have to build the constellations in the stars while avoiding lightning strikes.
That’s not to say there are not any enemies, often times the enemies themselves are unique. In one level you’re on a massive tree. The tree is so big that you seem like an ant crawling around on the branches and leaves. At first glance the level seems simple. All you have to do is make your way to the top to get the rune, but on the way their you find a giant hawk with another bird sitting on its head. As you continue you see a shadow loom over you as it swoops down to take you out. The level suddenly becomes a game of cat and mouse as you make your way to the rune while avoiding the eagle.
Apples and Powers
Each realm has many hidden secrets and powers to find. On every level there is a tree with a golden apple. These apples increase your health. All over the level there are also statues of the Gods. When you find one, that god bestows their powers on you to help you in your quest. There are many powers you can get like a health spell, invincibility spell, speed spell, strength of Thor, decoy spell, and the spear of Odin. Getting all the spells is very important because they will be key in the major battles against the Jotun.
Bosses and Combat
There are 5 major Jotun you must face and this is where combat really takes place. To face and defeat these Jotun you must use good timing, along with you spells that you have gathered along your quest and a bit of patients. Thora has 2 attacks, a light attack and a heavy attack. You have to choose which to use wisely. Light is quick but it barely hurts the Jotun while the heavy does massive damage but its super slow. Along with you attacks you can also dodge roll to move away from harm.
The first boss is the plant giant, then the shield giant, followed by the ice giant, then the lightning giant, and finally the fire giant. Each fight is unique and requires their own strategy. As the bosses go on they get harder and harder. Each boss is more aggressive and challenging then the last. Bosses have massive health bars and as you chip away their health they change their tactics. When a boss changes its tactics you quickly have to learn and react to what they are doing. Another cool thing about the bosses is that no 2 bosses feel the same so each one is exciting. Boss fight are tough because of how much more the Jotun can take then you.
The key to winning against the Jotun is having patience. Knowing when to strike and when to back down. During boss battles is when you will also test you spells because they are super helpful to defeat a Jotun. The cool thing is that you can choose to not use the spells but if you use them wisely then they will prove invaluable.
Art and Style
The Jotun and the world in the game look absolutely AMAZING. The art style is beautiful. It has a sort of hand drawn cartoon style. The Jotun have this sort of sketched look to them and when they move the animations look amazing. The Jotun much like their realms follow an elemental theme and this helps theme fit in their realms.
Each realm looks unique and some stand out so much because of the color and design in the worlds. Art direction is a huge reason why I like indie games and this one does it fantastically. As you move around the world the camera pans out to give you these wide and beautiful shots of the game. It’s cool because it also serves to give you some context. These wide shots show you just how small you are in this land of gods and giants and yet Thora pushes on to prove herself.
SPOILERS from this point on. SKIP to the conclusion if you don't want to be SPOILED!!
Story Continued
As you slay each Jotun you get more and more of the story. Thora stops and explains who she is and where she comes form. Thora is the second born and a woman so she is naturally not the favorite, but Thora explains that all her life she worked, trained, and fought hard to gain the favor of her father. As time went on her father noticed and rewarded her by choosing her to take his place as the clan leader. Thora’s brother which was the first born became very jealous of her. One day during battle Thora watches as her father was cut down, and standing over him was her brother. In a fit of rage and sadness Thora killed her brother to get revenge. After avenging her father, she took her place as the leader, but one day while out at sea she died in a storm. Thora always expected to gloriously die in battle, but the sea took her in a dishonorable way. Now Thora is fighting once again to gain her place in Valhalla where she belongs.
The pacing of the story is done fairly well. You never feel like you’re getting bored from story moment to story moment because of the amazing world building. What makes is so cool is that it is all about Norse mythology. Growing up I was always into mythology so I was having a blast with how much was in this game. You can tell that every choice was made with the mythology in mind which I think was a great choice.
Odin
As you beat the 5 Jotun you are greeted by the all father Odin, and he congratulates you, but tells you that there is one final test. You must face the all father and beat him to go to Valhalla. This boss fight is tough! No doubt about it. In this fight you will have to be a master at planning, attacking and using your spells wisely to beat him. It a fun fight that will really test you. Once you finally beat Odin the game ends gloriously with the Valkyries coming down to open the path to Valhalla.
Nitpicks
As you can probably tell, I really liked this game, and in all honesty I had very few problems with it. They are so minor that their really just nitpicks. My major issue was with the map in the game. Each realm has a map but the problem is that you have to constantly bring it up to orient yourself and get a feel for where you are at. Now this is not a huge issue but I did find it annoying. I felt like I was always checking my map to see where I had been and where I needed to go so that I could try to find all the secrets on the map. I would have liked a mini map but at the same time I totally get why there isn’t one. If there was one, then those moments of discover would not have been as impactful to most players. It would seem more like things to collect as opposed to things to find. But, like I said that was just a bit of an issue for me.
Conclusion
In The end this game is “Very Good”! I would definitely recommend it. It just does everything so well. It’s fun to go thru this journey with Thora in such a beautiful and cool world filled with awesome creatures and worlds. I notice that as the days go on I think about just how good the game was more and more. One other thing I noticed that I had not thought about until I beat the game is that this game really does not have puzzles which is very interesting because these types of games usually do, but I think it’s because of the feeling they wanted to give the player. The feeling of a journey, and the feeling of discovery.
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