Beyond that though, the gameplay mostly boils down to wandering around and finding whatever needs to be found. The combat system isn't good enough that it is entertaining when the big, fun spectacle of the boss fights is removed making the rest of the combat feel pretty generic and reliant on button mashing. Groups of bad guys rush Thora, she bonks them over the head with her axe, and this continues until the game gets tired of throwing bad guys her way. There are baddies here to fight as well, but these fights are far less entertaining. In order to actually go and fight the jotun, first Thora must make her way through some levels finding various trinkets to open up the boss door in addition to finding things like health power ups. Outside of the big boss battles, the game is a little bit of a drag. It feels rewarding when one of these monsters is finally dispatched, and the difficulty is in that perfect range of challenging but reasonable that makes all of these encounters genuinely entertaining. Each of these foes have very deliberate attacks that can cause massive damage, and it is incredibly likely that Thora will fall once or twice getting used to the basic attack patterns. The enormous earth elemental for instance sprouts vines from the ground that can cause damage, and her appearance is sort of reminiscent of an evil tree. The jotun that need to be tackled always take on the form of some elemental, with that power feeding into the way the creature attacks you. The screen zooms out to show the scope of the creature before her, and suddenly her odds of impressing the gods feel like they drop to the negative. There is a definite Shadow of the Colossus vibe here, and each of these enormous foes absolutely dwarfs the poor Thora. The boss fights here are incredible, both in terms of design and scope. Jotun: Valhalla Edition bills itself as an action-exploration game, but it is really best divided up as "incredible fights against enormous boss monsters" and "boredom". A simple tale, but a rewarding one, and it helps make the journey worthwhile even if you find more interesting plots elsewhere. The imagery is great, and the story is absolutely drenching with Norse mythology. Jotun: Valhalla Edition does a lot with a very little, and the story and imagery have a much greater impact than some games that actually tell a more complex or interesting story. It adds a level of authenticity to it, and the strong Nordic imagery really makes the game feel alive. The plot is simple and there aren't really any interesting twists or characters, but the voice acting is done entirely in Icelandic. The story itself is fairly forgettable, but what is engrossing is the job that is done weaving Norse mythology into the game. By doing so, she can prove herself worthy to the gods and get the good ending to her life.
JOTUN VALHALLA EDITION DWARF CITY HOW TO GET TO EACH PILLAR SERIES
However, she is given a second chance to impress the gods by defeating a series of jotun, or mythical Norse elementals. In order to get into Valhalla, someone needed to die a warrior's death that would impress the gods, and unfortunately for Thora, the heroine of Jotun: Valhalla Edition, she dies at sea. Impaled by six different spears as you simultaneously get set on fire and eaten by a rabid pack of starving alligators? Now we're talking. Dying of old age, surrounded by loved ones as you peacefully move on to whatever waits beyond this mortal realm? BORING. It wasn't enough to die to move on in the afterlife. Dying in Norse mythology was rough stuff, and not just because of that whole "dying" thing.