Jotun: Valhalla Edition

Great game. I struggle with really difficult titles, but I found I could manage past the frustration with this one for simple reasons: the art and the mythology. If those things interest you, then you will likely enjoy the game. The mechanics are simple - some would argue too much, but I liked them. If you have no interest in the art style or mythology, you probably won't be that interested in it. Me, personally, I have read through the artbook of the game a few times. Love it.

Jotun is a beautiful game. Everything is hand drawn and well animated. The narration and story telling is also well done. The only gripe I have about the game is that the game itself is kinda boring, with the only driving force being interesting boss fights. The bosses are massive and impressive. Titans that take out more than half your life if you're unlucky enough to be hit by one. Thankfully they are slow and predictable, with the only problem being their AoE. Aside from the bosses there are a few dungeons you need to go through, most of which are just exploration with environmental obstacles. These dungeons give you health upgrades, runes and a little narration. The problem with Jotun is its basic combat. You have a light slash, a heavy slash and a dodge roll. The light slash does pitiful amounts of damage to a boss and cannot connect into a heavy slash (as in there are no combos except for chaining it into another light slash). The heavy slash has a hold and release sort of weight to it which I never really cared for, but it does good damage and is great against bosses. The dodge roll has no stamina backlash so you could do that the entire time, even though it's not that effective. To make combat interesting you have runes. Spells that can buff you or debuff the enemy. Spells that can heal you, make a clone of yourself to get away from enemies, a shield to protect yourself temporarily, strengthening spells to make your attacks stronger, etc. These can turn the tide of the battle and make boss fights much better. All in all Jotun is a very pretty game with shallow combat that's only redeemed by the bosses and runes.

Something to unpack here, it's just not very good. This game is made very well but it is more of an experience. I saw this was being given away for free on GOG I think the time when Sundered was able to be pre-ordered. I thought it may be kind of a stripped back experience of Sundered but I was wrong. Other than the Artstyle of both games they are very different. It isn't a very hard game you may only die by the bosses maybe because of something unexpecting to happen but thats it. Combat is fine but very bare bones. You only have a fast attack and a strong attack with a few different powers given to you by the gods. Thats it. I like the artstyle but that has to be it. Even if you really want this game I implore you to not get it at full price. Maybe wait for a sale or have a friend give it to you or play it with someone that already has it if that is possible. Honestly after about 3 hours I kinda capped out on it because it became a slog to get through. You may get something out of it but I honestly couldn't.

The game is short which is not a bad thing, I like it. I finished it in four and a half hours. It tells a story about a viking & norse mythology. The game is mostly walking around solving puzzles, the puzzles are not hard. There are six boss fights and they are not that hard either. It's a beautiful atmospheric game that I think is worth the money and time.

Obviously it is a gorgeous game, but it's like the game was created solely to show off the artwork. I spent most of the time wandering aimlessly, not really sure what I was doing or where I was supposed to be going. The controls are clunky, with you being able to only do one of three things at a time - attack, dodge, or move. Don't even get me started on the heavy attack, which makes you stand still for two seconds before the actual attack - which only hits what is directly in front of you. The options seem to suggest holding down the heavy attack button increases the power of the attack, but it seems to just make you wait longer. Another poor gameplay design is the enemies - there are only bosses. This worked for Shadow of the Collosus, but those boss battles felt epic and required strategy. The boss battles in this game either feel ridiculously easy or terribly frustrating and require nothing more than moving in close, hitting, then retreating. As dull as that sounds, the clunky controls make it even worse. As if that isn't bad enough, once engaged you're stuck fighting that boss. There's no retreating to explore other areas in the hopes of finding a power you might need for the fight. There's no multiple saves. You either beat the boss or you restart the game. There's also a story here that is pretty hard to follow, even if you're familiar with Norse mythology. Maybe it makes more sense once you get further into it, but I wasn't going to keep fighting that one boss. Not with those controls. I would have given it one star but it really does look amazing. It's too bad the same effort wasn't put into the rest of it.