In our Steam review of Jotun, we mentioned that the game was “unmistakably polished” and a “meditation on scale.” A year later, and on new platforms, that hasn’t changed. In fact thanks to seeing the game on bigger screens and with more controller options, we’re more confident than ever to recommend the gem.
When Thunder Lotus Games released Jotun on Steam last year, fans almost instantly craved to see it come to consoles. Now that it has, the port is as faithful as possible, skipping and skimping on nothing in the process and including the Valhalla mode that was subsequently added to the game. Jotun plays like a 16-bit era action exploration game, exposing players to seemingly huge worlds and difficult challenges. It’s not a horribly difficult game, but it does demand a classic sense of dedication. As protagonist Thora, we die often while we traverse poisonous swamps or face monolithic beasts. But, death is just part of the learning process; we tweak our strategies, take a different path, and try again until we figure out how to push forward.
Taking place from an overhead view, we follow Thora as she explores the world around her. She needs to defeat jotun, mythic Norse giants, in order to impress the gods and make it into Valhalla. The game unfolds a bit like a difficult Mega Man game, in which we can take on the game’s six worlds in any order we deem best and capture that world’s jotun’s powers. If one path is too arduous or battle too laborious, we can back out to the hub and try another. The worlds themselves aren’t actually all that huge, but smart design makes us believe they’re bigger than they are.
The striking visuals are one of the aspects of Jotun that have become better now that the game is on consoles. The imagery is all hand-drawn, and looks beautiful on screens 42 inches and bigger. On my decent 55-inch TV the colors are vibrant and the contrast is terrific, making for the kind of artwork that causes us to pause a game, get up from our couches and walk up to see details even closer. While we see these details on computer monitors, there’s still something kind of awe-inspiring when on a big screen. The jotun themselves are perhaps even more monstrous and imposing this way.
The games’s meat and potatoes, the one-on-one battles between Thora and giant jotun, haven’t been lessened in difficulty for the influx of new players. The only change is perhaps the distance from our eyes to the screen, so planning for that scale shift is perhaps slightly necessary. I love to re-experience the battles that make the game so good on PCs, and with a good sound system they can be all that more impressive.
The game has minimal issue on consoles from a performance perspective; framerates hold up and controls are accurate and precise. The game performs great on the Wii U in which we reviewed it, with perhaps the only drawback being the lack of ability to play the game solely on the Gamepad. Instead the map is always displayed, and God powers can be used just by tapping on the screen.
Thunder Lotus Games have done a great job of translating the Jotun experience from PCs to home consoles, and in some ways made the game even better by putting its gorgeous art on a bigger screen. It’s still the same challenging, compact experience, so if you’ve enjoyed it already it won’t be anything new, but for many who haven’t had the chance to try it, it will have been worth the wait.
This port review is based on a retail eShop code for the Wii U sent by the publisher to SideQuesting. Jotun: Valhalla Edition is now available for PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and Steam.
Dali has played Jotun sparingly on PCs, but enough to make a solid comparison to this console version.
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