King's Field if it was super weird
Northen Journey is a an action adventure game in a similar vein to King's Field in that it is very difficult, requires a lot of navigation without a real map, and esoteric problem solving. There really isn't another game like this one, so if you are ready for a long and arduous journey, get ready for one you'll never forget.
I don't want to get into everything you'll be doing in this game so as not to spoil anything, but the bulk of your work will be killing enemies and retrieving items. You're often given vague clues as to what you need to do and where you can find things, but at most you'll get a nudge in the right direction rather than explicit explanations. This is to the games benefit and detriment, so your mileage will vary depending on how forgiving you are of this kind of game design. There were a few instances where I simply had to run around and search for long stretches of time to figure out what I was missing.
The atmosphere, soundtrack, and quirky characters all give this game a vide unlike anything I've seen before, and I've played my fair share of odd or smaller games. It's this old magic kind of feel, but combined with absolutely strange people and places making it feel more like a land of trickster fea than magical wonders.
The difficulty of this game comes from multiple sources. First, you don't have much health, you need for find pickups to restore your health and they never respawn so there is a limited amount to find (same with ammo for your weapons). Next, there are TONS of enemies and they are very difficult to dodge, especially in groups. If you lose track of an enemy, they will inevitably hit you, I don't know if they move faster off screen or something, but attacks you can usually dodge when looking at them will ALWAYS hit you from behind. Finally, the weapons you have all have unique ranges and dropoff as well as aiming reticles, making it EXTREMELY difficult to aim. No joke, the MOST frustrating and annoying thing in this game is fighting some of the bosses because you'll be given a new weapon and have NO idea how to properly use it. The final boss has this same issue and I SWEAR the weapon had a semi-random shot pattern. There were many times when I thought I got the hang of how a weapon worked only for it to not work consistenly the next time I tried to use it, and it REALLY get's under your skin. There's also limits on the saving system which will make certain segments even more frustrating.
However, this game is meant to be difficult, so if you aren't OK with dealing with annoying enemies and sometimes unfair fights, you're not going to enjoy this. If that sounds like a fair trade for an incredibly unique gameplay and story experience, I highly recommend giving the game a try.
