Jotun: Valhalla Edition

This game is SO SLOW.I would walk, and it would be like 10 seconds to just get across one screen in a whole area. Want to do a heavy attack? Try waiting 3 full seconds for it to strike. Want to hit a boss? You'll walk up to it in 3 seconds, and then it'll slowly pull away, making it impossible to hit, and it'll take another 5 seconds to continue walking until you can hit it. I found the abilities to be quite useless. I only used the healing, which by the end only recovers about 1/3 of your health (with 3 uses, you can roughly fill your health bar all the way back up once), and Mjolnir, which basically shaved off a few hits during boss battles (and since each attack sequence took anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds, it was a big time-saver). But because it only worked with heavy attacks, you had to basically be on top of it where you could trigger it AND get a heavy swing in before the boss moved again, which was very rare. I don't recall wasting so many limited-use abilities as I did in this game. And I tried triggering the other abilities, which mostly didn't really do anything useful. The shield, for example—if you needed it, you were probably dead, anyway. For some reason, I wanted to be able to recommend this game because I'm a softie for pretty indie games with worlds that bring to life cultures and myths. But, man, it was almost like they didn't respect my time with this game. I wouldn't mind walking far distances if it was scenic or I felt like things were far away, but sometimes I'd walk for a minute or two only to be staring at my character moving slowly across a nearly blank screen the whole time.

Nice school project

Be patient. Animations take time, but are stunning. The artwork is the game’s main selling point, for sure, with an almost Studio Ghibli aesthetic. Everything is hand drawn and painted, and it shows. There is no slow down, and the reams of enemies stay on screen even once defeated, thanks to it being an animation rather than physics. The quality is outstanding, and coupled with the contemporary yet historically appropriate music, the whole game is an utter joy for the senses. Gameplay wise, those of us who enjoy fast-paced combat might start off a little frustrated with how slow things move. The first boss can be a chore, until you figure out your pattern and stick to it. The heavy axe chop attack takes a long three seconds to charge, so use it wisely. There isn’t much in the way of a tutorial, but it’s not really necessary. The mechanics and items that are important to know about are explained in the story, and combat buttons are simple. As I said, it’s all about exploration and making sure you’ve covered the map. The five levels are all part of the larger story, and there’s an overworld of sorts, meaning you can choose which order you’d like to complete the levels. There are also maps of each area, detailing the discoveries you have made, and the ones you are yet to find. Coming into this game, I was aware that it would be a serious take on the story, and it’s evident that great care and love has gone into making it believable and enthralling. Part of the way Thunder Lotus Games has done this is to have the voice acting done in Icelandic, despite their roots lying in Canada. It’s a pretty bold move – reading subtitles might put some people off – but it only adds to the feel of the whole game. It’s hard to find Old Norse speakers who can also deliver lines with the emotion and beauty that Jotun has; though I can’t state that for a fact, as I’ve never tried to find someone who can speak Old Norse in such a good way. Icelandic or Faroese is the closest language to Old Norse according to Wikipedia, but regardless of citation, it sounds wonderful. It’s almost like a hand drawn Shadow of the Colossus. It manages to feel as epic whilst being a 2D top-down affair, and draws me in in just the same way.

Simplistic and overly so, I was not walking into a 5 hour game expecting depth but even then I'm highly disappointed. The bosses are cookie cutter the attacks are heavily telegraphed and I found almost no joy playing this game. The art looks nice though.

Bom, gostei bastante de jogar!

Good short game. S+ Tier Art style. S Tier Music. 1 level could be better but the rest were great. Another level had a bug that required a restart but that's an outlier. Mechanics felt highly responsive and there was animation cancelling, though cycling powers mid combat feels clunky; it should be just number keys instead (with an option to scroll through accessibility settings if needed). Teaches Norse mythology which is cool. Narration was great throughout 9.35/10 will recommend.

lo siento es muy bonito pero es tan aburrido de jugar...

Visuals and narrative are appealing, but the game is really boring to play. Its slow paced combat and exploring makes going through the game a chore.