Went into it knowing nothing about the various mechanics of DnD, and although there is for sure a lot to take in I've found the game to be sufficiently intuitive that one can be thrown in the bath without feeling lost... Runs pretty smoothly on a laptop version of a 1660 Ti, that's some good optimization right there :) The characters are nicely fleshed out, and feel well rounded; you just want to keep discovering more about them and explore all the possible interactions between them and with the main story itself. Exploring every corner feels very satisfying as there is stuff to do, uncover, interact with around every corner. It had been a long time a game had pulled me in like this, and I can't wait to keep discovering more of what it has to offer. Five well deserved stars, shiny and glistening like a squid's tentacles.
It ticks all the right boxes for me: pixel graphics that remind us of the good old days yet with a richness and layering that gives this kind of visual style new life; lots of puzzling puzzles; a very nice musical score that adds to the atmosphere and has subtle reminders to Blade Runner; enough in-game lore for the player to build up his own sense of the world without overloading it with exposition and leaving some interesting mysteries floating in the air; last but not least a moving story that carries the game with a sense of purpose and pathos up until the end. Five full shiny deserved stars.
I was drawn in initially by the art style, something about the giant Jotuns animation has a Don Bluth feeling to it and that hooked me right away. The protagonists' quest towards Valhalla has indeed something quite cinematic at moments, with long quiet sequences where one can admire the beautiful landscapes interspersed with all sorts of battles, from the more tactical to the most frantic. Maybe the automatic zoom-in and out is at moments a bit confusing, though I suspect it also has its purpose to establish a sense of the vastness of the landscape and of the small (yet powerful) heroine in its midst. The narration is delivered in a 'Scandinavian' language and to me adds to the immersion with its sense of mystique, while the background story unfolds as one progresses. Maybe I would have liked to see a bit more of that beautiful animation style put to use for the ending, but all in all I loved to carry Thora through her journey. Five Nordic godlike stars.
