Jotun: Valhalla Edition

Jotun is a good game with an amazing art direction, a nice narrative and interesting boss battles, but it's partially ruined by the lack of rhythm during the exploration and the abuse of a boring backtracking. Keep an eye on it, and give your money to Thunder Lotus Games as soon as Jotun will go on sale.

Jotun: Valhalla Edition is a throwback to retro gaming in terms of both art style and gameplay. While the minimalist design manages to offer quite a bit of variety, the lack of combat and exploration options becomes evident rather quickly. Still, anyone interested in Norse mythology mixed with retro gaming and old-school art design will enjoy Thora's ascent into Valhalla.

The gorgeous scenery and animation combined with the amazing, authentic audio make its bosses something that should be hoarded like Fafnir's gold. Even though the gaps between bosses leave more to be desired with disappointing exploration, Thora's tale is one that manages to enter Valhalla's gates with an adequate amount of flying colours.

Jotun is a stylistically impressive and complete game with great Norse imagery, interesting boss fights and solid gameplay.

Considering the premise and the presentation, I sincerely expected more from Thora's Odyssey: the atmosphere might be there, the overall style might be fascinating and some ideas might be interesting, but that is not enough to truly impress the gods when the core gameplay is a bit lacking and never fully satisfying.

Jotun just falls short of receiving that higher recommendation. It’s enjoyable yet clearly inconsistent, despite its great use of setting and some terrific boss fights.

With a hand drawn art style which needs to be seen to be believed, Jotun plays an enjoyable game of killing Icelandic gods. Unfortunately the short playing time and lack of real replayability stop this game from reaching it’s full potential.

Those looking to explore a lore-filled world heavily inspired by Norse mythology and packed with gorgeous hand-drawn animations will be hard-pressed to find better. But with the limited scope for the interactive aspects of both the exploration and combat, Jotun never quite reaches the heights of Valhalla, instead providing a mediocre experience that inspires as often as it bores.