Jotun

From a fact paced platformer to the exact opposite, it's the simply named Jotun. I got this game for free, but I'll be damned if I remember how or when. Sometime in 2017, if I had to guess by the first achievement I got. I didn't give it a proper playthrough until 2019, but I only got so far for reasons I don't remember. It was fun, I know that, but why did I stop? Regardless, Jotun is a game about Norse mythology as we swing our axe around the realms of Yggdrasil and the gods. Although, there is an, thus far, oddly small amount of actual fighting.

The story starts off with a woman out at sea. Her boat gets caught up in a storm, and they both go down. She's prepared to meet death in Ran's Net (my keyboard only has English characters, and I don't know Unicode), but she wakes up in a lush forest somewhere. The only thing she has with her is her trusty axe. This scene is wonderful for an assortment of reasons. It sets the story, it gets us into the game quickly, and the narrator isn't speaking English. I don't know if it's Icelandic or Old Norse, but it's a language that very few games have ever localized. I, so far, haven't heard any true English words.
 
From here, she walks up to a cliff that overlooks the forest. We can see several areas we're about to traverse, a few landmarks we're going to, and a giant stone wall in the center. Most importantly, in the distance is the very base of a tree that is impossibly large. We walk across a nearby bridge, and the narrator tells us this is Yggdrasil, the world tree from which all realms have their roots in. And here's the first real taste of the marvelous artwork. It's hand drawn and beautiful. It's so detailed, vibrant, and I found myself just hanging out for a minute to take it all in. It changes based on world, a cave isn't going to be bright and fancy, but it's all still worth getting a glimpse of. The artist's hard work paid off, and I'm loving it.

This is the first level and the de facto tutorial. Our, til now, unnamed narrator has two attacks. A fast combo and a staling power move. The strong attack doesn't seem that good, but it clears the roots blocking our path forward. She also has a dodge roll. In time, she'll learn a few powers that she can use, as well. The first power is that of healing. Our main mission here is to trek through the forest to find three ghostly apparitions of someone, but we also gain the power of healing from a statue of Frigg. Hug the blue plants to avoid the poison and hit the worms before they hit you. Collect the three things, and the barrow below the giant stone wall of Patreon/Kickstarter donors will open up. Defeat the creature that spawns, which gets easier as it grows, and we can enter the first boss fight.

Inside we see our first healing pot, Mimir, which has something to do with a male narrator's voice. Based on the information, I assume the voice belongs to Odin as he guides us through much of the world. The incredibly creepy face of Mimir heals us, restores our limited God Powers, and acts as the checkpoint/bonfire system. Beyond this is Jera. Despite being the goddess of the harvest, there's nothing ripe about her. She's a bit of a monstrosity. She appears gluttonous and diseased, so I guess that's reason enough to fight her. Avoid her arm smashes, which always come in a pattern, and cut down the worms she summons. I Frigged my way through the poison and defeated her in two rounds. It just seemed easier. After she falls, we're teleported to the primordial soup that the Vikings call Ginnungagap.

This is the central piece of Jotun from which all other areas are accessed. The game, or at least as far as I got, functions much like the prior world. We enter, walk/fight/collect our way through, defeat a boss, and collect their Rune. Each level contains a power up based on a certain Norse god. I got Loki and Heimdallr thus far. There are Iduna's Apples as well, which allow you to gain more HP. Both bosses I've fought use attacks similar to their levels. If you're killing a million dwarves and avoiding falling rocks, guess what you'll be doing against the boss?

Each time you return to Ginnungagap, we'll learn something about our main character. Her name is Thora, and she's named after Thor. She took the legends that inspired her and tried her best to become the greatest warrior in the land. Because of this, her father, the village leader, overlooked her older brother and named her leader when he died. This brought about scorn from the older sibling... So, while we get backstory on her, I have to wonder about the reasons why we're here. Why are we killing the gods? Did we survive falling into the sea? Why is Odin guiding us? Some of the questions are fine to ask early on, but seriously, why are we killing these guys? I doubt a harvest deity is evil?

The music is wonderfully appropriate. The forest was a calming stroll that undermined the danger, but it sounded not unlike Skald or Hellung. There is an orchestral vibe to it, which kinda threw me off, but when we fought that mini-boss, I could hear the drums sounding more like someone hitting deer antlers or a shield. And then the actual boss music sounds more similar to what you'd expect Viking music to be. There are a lot of horns and drums in the soundtrack, and, after playing the whole game, I'm not sure how the Germanic influenced it all. I'm not saying there's none, but I'm feeling like this belongs as set pieces in a blockbuster movie. It's still great, don't get me wrong. It's most likely atmospheric and sets the mood of freezing my face off in 966 perfectly. But what do I know about music, ancient or otherwise? It's enjoyable, and that's all that matters. I added a good chunk of it to my Spotify playlist.

The only thing I don't like about the game is how slow Thora walks. I'm getting 60 FPS, which is rare for me, but she still moves...actually, she moves like a normal human. It's other games that have ruined movement for me, but I guess it's Jotun's sin now. Regardless, the worlds are massive affairs, and there's an oddly small amount of actual combat, so the game feels slow and tedious from time to time.

Jotun is an educational game about Norse legends. It doesn't go into much detail usually, but it covers a wide array of topics. Did you know Vikings had their own constellations? The most in depth it gets is on the creation legend featuring Ymir, Odin, and his two brothers. Odin has brothers? But during this journey, we'll get a basic understanding of the gods and their roles, learn more about ancient customs, and see into the life of our MC. I'm curious who she is, why we're here, and what'll come after. There's only dive worlds, so it's a pretty short game but worth the time if you've got a day free this weekend.