Jotun: Valhalla Edition (2015)

I step into the boots of a fallen Viking, cast into Norse purgatory and tasked with defeating towering Jotuns to earn a place in Valhalla. The premise is simple, almost ritualistic, and it fits the game’s tone perfectly. This is less about frantic action and more about deliberate confrontations, where learning patterns and respecting your enemy matter.

The hand-drawn art is stellar. Characters and animations burst with color. Backgrounds are especially striking, with hilltop vistas and frozen wastelands that feel lifted straight from a mythic tapestry. The presentation is elevated further by strong voice acting delivered in Old Norse, which adds weight and authenticity to every narration and encounter.

Boss fights are hard but fair, demanding patience rather than twitch reflexes. God-gifted powers add tactical depth and are genuinely useful in the right moments, though you can try fighting without them for the sake of achievements. The power-selection interface feels clumsy, because scrolling mid-fight breaks focus more than it should.

My girlfriend, who’s studied Norse mythology, enjoyed watching and reconnecting with runes and lore along the way. That shared sense of myth made the journey even richer. For the 3-4 hour run it offered enough for me, Jotun is a colorful and visceral offering in the mythological journey.

This game is a hand-drawn action-adventure game rooted in Norse mythology, the MC is called Thora, a fallen warrior seeking to prove herself to the gods. Its most striking feature is the gorgeous, animated art style that makes every environment and battle feel like a moving painting. The Icelandic narration and sweeping soundtrack add to its immersive and authentic atmosphere. What made me interested in this game was it's art-style, and I stayed because of the gameplay, even though I'm not a fan of the boss-rush genre, I quickly feel in love with this, and a couple of other similar titles.

The real highlights of the game are its massive boss fights against elemental giants, the Jötnar. These encounters are epic in scale, demanding patience and careful timing to overcome, somewhat like the Soulslike sub-genre titles. Between battles, exploration offers a slower pace, with vast landscapes to traverse, though some people may find these sections sparse or repetitive I quite like them since it helps out to balance the pacing of the frantic boss battles.

Combat is deliberately simple, with light and heavy attacks, dodges, and a few divine powers. While this keeps the focus on scale and spectacle, it can also feels somewhat clunky and limited, especially during tougher fights where precision matters. Overall, Jotun is a short but memorable experience, similar to a lot of other boss-rush games. It shines with its art, atmosphere, and sense of mythic greatness. For people who enjoy mythology and striking visuals, it remains a unique indie gem, a no-brainer if you like the boss-rush genre to any extent.

Innangard: The Icelandic voice acting.

Utangard: Activating different skills is a pain in the arse.

In Jotun you play as Thora who, after dying an inglorious death in a shipwreck, has been given a second chance to get into Valhalla by Odin himself. In order to impress the gods you need to defeat several jötnar, the the powerful inhabitants of Udgård and eternal enemies of the gods. As is par for the course, they are characterised as huge beasts (interesting note: although "jötunn" is almost always translated as "giant", jötnar are not necessarily big, and perhaps a better translation would be "devourer"). This battle between a small human and gigantic monsters lends itself perfectly to the main gameplay element: boss battles.

The problem is that I was never a fan of boss battles. For some reason they never really click with me and they often feel like a chore. So how is it that I (almost) finished a game that is (almost) entirely boss battles? The setting.

The hand-painted visuals are stunning and the sound design is stellar. I fell in love with the Icelandic-language retelling of the Norse myths and how each god fitted with the gameplay. Ithun's apples extend your life, Loki's attack deceives enemies, Odin's spear always strikes true. Each level is set in a different realm, which is beautifully rendered. The world hub is, of course, Ginnungagap, the yawning void from which everything came into being, but you then explore the frigid Niflheimr, the fiery depths of Muspelheimr, and the depths of Alfheimr. My favourite part, though, was climbing up Yggdrasil and seeing (and hearing) a cute Ratatoskr going up and down its trunk, no doubt delivering gossip to the various creatures of Asgard.

So good was the setting and design that it kept me hooked in spite of the gameplay. The combat is a bit stilted and slow, and the various boss battles are interspaced by exploration that was more difficult than it should be due to the lacklustre in-game maps. On top of that some of the boss battles feel a bit cheap, featuring almost undodgeable attacks and some stun-locking.

Fortunately, Jotun is relatively short so the freshness of the sound and visuals were enough to carry it up to the end. I whole-heatedly recommend it to anyone that either loves Norse mythology or wants to fall in love with it.