Quick Review: Jotun: Valhalla Edition

There’s been no shortage of games inspired by Norse Mythology – and today's game is one of them!

See Thora? She's on the mountain, down there.
This is the first of loads of gorgeous sights.

A creation of Quebec indie studio Thunder Lotus Games released on September 29th, 2015 and the result of a successful Kickstarter, Jotun (:Valhalla Edition for the updated rerelease that came out in summer of 2016, and was free to download for whoever owned the base game) is the story of Thora. Named after the well-known God of thunder, Thora, despite a proud upbringing and a fierce spirit, ingloriously died on the battlefield. Therefore, to prove she deserves to enter Valhalla, she must impress the Gods by collecting the runes and defeating the titular elemental Jotun across the realms using Ginnungagap, the gateway between them.

That... is a lot less pretty. But just as impressive!

I have gained the spell of a very temporary speed boost.
Not faster enough nor long enough for it to be significant,
in my opinion.

Thora’s physical capabilities are surprisingly limited. She moves around with WASD, swings her axe with Left-Click, can do a charged axe attack with Right-click, and can dodge-roll with Space. As she progresses through her journey, she’ll find giant statues of Norse deities granting her abilities that can be activated by pressing F, and we swap between these abilities with Q and E. The first is a basic heal spell obtained from Frigg, and two I unlocked were a temporary shield granted by Heimdall, and an explosive decoy clone summon granted by Loki. The powers do fit the Gods we get them from, that's cool.

Be careful when using those, however – Thora only has a maximum of two charges of each spell. When she interacts with Mimir’s ponds, very few per area (I’ve seen two max), she’ll fully heal her HP and recharge her spells. These ponds also serve as checkpoints.

Hello. It's me. I'm smol. Big man, give me my HP back!

I mean... compare the scale of the thing back there with the
little human sliding down the roots at the forefront.

The gameplay isn’t all that peculiar, so the game instead aims to wow through its presentation. It’s entirely hand-drawn, and all of it looks absolutely great. Our heroine of course, but also the enemies and bosses. And the environments as well; frequently jaw-dropping, and such ginormous setpieces that the camera regularly has to pan back so that we can take in just how big everything is around Thora. The detail, the beauty, the sheer size… Shout-out to a moment where, while sliding down the roots of Yggdrasil, Thora can for a time see Nidhogg in the background, the dragon munching on the roots, as per the myth.

…Oh, yeah, in case the story and features didn’t make it clear, this title fully embraces its Norse mythology feel, from the Game Over screen saying “You failed to impress the Gods” to all of the narration and dialogue being spoken in Icelandic (….I mean, of course it’s not Old Norse, but we’ll gladly settle for something close enough).

Okay, who pissed off the dwarves? ...Looks like I did.

Okay, I'll fully admit, this battle was too tough for me.
I'm not against trying it again someday, though.
Either way, we yet again get a good feel of the difference in
size and sheer power between the two. Thora is barely visible!

The battles against the Jotun are incredibly tough and basically require your use of all the spells you’ve learned up to that point, while the realms themselves, while not devoid of combat, are a lot more puzzle- and exploration-focused. The pause menu, reached by hitting Esc, shows a handy map of the current realm, but not where Thora is standing or how to get everywhere, so a tricky part is to decode it while exploring. At least, the map shows checkpoints, the location of the deity statue, and other required elements for the current puzzle. The hazards in both realms you must complete before battling the boss tend to return during the fight, so you have some idea of what to do. (Just swinging endlessly at the Jotun won’t suffice, they’re smarter than that!)

In short: Gameplay is nothing we haven’t seen before (and Thora being so slow makes things a lot harder). That said, it’s a treat for the eyes, puzzles are clever, challenge is definitely present, and there are tons of little touches for aficionados of Norse mythology. Worth owning and trying, at least.

Jotun: Valhalla Edition is available on Steam for 14.99$.