Jotun: Valhalla Edition

Люблю Thunder lotus за отличную анимацию и музыкальное сопровождение, но их навигация, их сложность (до смешного безумная) оставляют впечатление досады от запоротого шедевра. Пройти это могут единицы мега ультра задротов. А если еще с ачивами типа "пройди всю игру не получив урона" или "не использовав магию" так и вообще не люди. Никогда не понимал такого решения разрабов. Ведь ваш продукт, над которым вы много работали, тупо не оценят 90 процентов игроков, потому что не увидят. Смысл это делать? Сделать сложно совсем не сложно, сделать балансово вот задача которую надо было решить. Но увы...

Beautiful art sitting on tedious gameplay. Jotun: Valhalla Edition is drawn beautifully, and the atmosphere that it's able to produce is extremely well done. Pan-out shots serve their purpose really well, as they make you realise every time the sheer absurdity of the enemies that you are facing and the environments that you are exploring. Voice acting pairs really well and adds to the experience. The UI and controls are also clean. And that's about all that's enjoyable in this game. I wasn't able to finish it due to how boring moving through levels was and due to how bad and frustrating the combat and movement are. Levels are huge and have great panels in them but are a chore to navigate. They are mostly empty, and there's no sprint button, so you are stuck wearing yourself out exploring them just to find the progression part in them. And good luck with that, since the map they give you does not help at all in locating yourself. Movement is as clunky as it gets. After dodging, you fully stop, making you vulnerable in that instant. But the combat isn't better. Attacking forces you to stay in place, and heavy attacks are unusable since they take forever to charge. The game mostly divides itself between 2 situations: huge empty areas and boss fights. There's no balance between moments of action. Boss fights were also not fun, as bosses were gigantic with huge hitboxes, cool attacks and massive HP for you to hack away slowly.

I really want to like this game, but It's a real chore to play. The movement is sooo slow.

I really want to like this game so let me say I would finish the game if it wasn't so slow. This is an exploration game with occasional combat, but it only has combat abilities and nothing to help explore... at least just give the player the ability to sprint when there are no enemies around. Sad that the care, passion and effort that went into the art is ruined by the lack of mechanics that would make it enjoyable to experience the game.

[b][h3]Красивая рисованная вручную анимация, озвученные пояснения от главной героини про различные частички скандинавской мифологии[/h3] — всё что можно получить, если как-то перетерпеть медленный темп игры и ватное управление.[/b] Длинные и пустые коридоры вместе с одинаковой скоростью бега создают ощущение медлительности игры, особенно учитывая большие расстояния между точками интереса. Из-за этого игра про битву с богами превращается в симулятор ходьбы, потому что кроме битвы с боссами после всей этой беготни драться с мобами дают всего в двух локациях. Попадающиеся по ходу игры способности особой разницы не делают. Игра достаточно лёгкая, чтобы забыть при первом прохождении об их существовании и затыкивать боссов обычной или заряженной атакой, если сможешь попасть по их хитбоксам. (\_/) (* * ) (__)

Devs dont you understand that you need to create a reasonble map location? I dont want to waste my time trying to decipher where am I. That game looks amazing but I not in the mood to keep walking around

I had left this game behind after 0.7 hours back then, because I tried proving myself vs. the 1st Jotun in the game, but I felt heavily limited/'h4nd1c4pp3d' by the [i]third person[/i]; i.e. the slow, clunky movement, but above all the stuck-in-animation-(heavy)-attack-waiting-time-before-effect ... Instead of difficult, I figured it would only be unfair instead! Now, due to some recent talk about Greek & Norse mythology with a friend, I felt a certain attraction to this game again and this time ar⌚und I went with a different approach and decided to eXPlore more before entering a battle. Quite successful, while I grew patient with the combat-shortcomings and became stronger with the available God Powers (and their synergies 💡). It was more of a breeze and less of an exercise in frustration and I, for one, mostly loved exploring these not-so-huge feat. very cleverly made maps; maze-like at times — as I saw people complaining — and no player marker, but it takes some memorization and I found them to be traversed intuitively. Some secrets to be uncovered, but definitely not impossible with a bit of 🗺️-reading 🕵️‍♂️ It's maybe a bit too late for it by now, but I also really like to praise TLG for their bosses/Jotuns that were never a trial-and-error fest for me, unlike in other games! School example, and adding to it, the fact that you can basically -HP a Jotun at any time and there's no waiting time before you can 'hit points' due to attack patterns/sequences — albeit the truth is, that you may be too slow/late at times, which will be the only bit of frustration I won't forget I had with the final boss/Allfather Odin. Nevertheless, with many of the appealing challenge-achievements, you'll eventually train your way to quick fights. 8.5/10 — Will maybe play a bit more, but got great value for m0ney out of this game already! Accompanied by heroic music btw, and it had gotten my special attention during gameplay 🎼

[h1] No amount of art can compensate for poor gameplay [/h1] I got the impression that the game was supposed to be a boss rush game, but there's so much exploring empty and unrewarding environments inbetween that it's not worth the effort. The art looks nice and clean and the boss animations look gorgeous, it looked like a lot of effort was put into it. The gameplay however feels sluggish and the movement outside of combat would benifit from a sprint ability to speed up exploring/ backtracking. I am again reminded that graphics only enhances the value of what the gameplay should offer. But no amount of art can compensate for poor gameplay.