Of course, the various collectible powers the brilliantly conceived boss encounters both help to conceal this shallowness to some extent, but there’s no denying that the combat side of things feels slight at best.Įlsewhere, Jotun does little to tempt players back to its story campaign. At its core, the combat in Jotun veers far too much toward simplicity, with Thora only ever using an axe and boasting a couple of different strikes and a typical rolling evasion move. Vanquishing each of these foes also serves a further purpose too since with each fallen titan, a piece of Thora’s backstory is revealed, that while not quite a stellar tale on its own merits, nonetheless succeeds in cementing the brilliantly realised Norse atmosphere yet too quicklyĪs resplendent as Jotun undoubtedly is in many respects, the Thunder Lotus Games product certainly has a few chinks in its armour. In addition, each of these boss fights are multi-phase affairs too, with the declining health bar of each boss triggering additional powers and abilities that challenge the player further, and in a manner similar to Dark Souls, these boss fights never feel unfair, which naturally makes the inevitable initial defeat far less frustrating than it would otherwise be. Jera, the sprawling and grotesque boss of the Nature realm for example, uses toxins that can choke Thora, but so long as she stays in the vicinity of cleansing purple flowers, the poison will not affect her a trick that the game teaches the player prior to the encounter with the earthly titan. Not just wonderfully realised from a visual standpoint, the bosses in Jotun do that great thing which all videogame bosses do where they force the player to call upon their knowledge of the mechanics of that particular section, rather than introducing something totally new and jarring. They’re a beautifully realised lot too, with Don Bluth style art direction being underpinned by some superbly extravagant flourishes of animation, these towering fiends are as much fun to watch as they are to fight against. A group of gargantuan, screen-filling marvels, their unearthly stature is emphasised by the fact that the camera pans out so far that Thora becomes almost a speck when stood in their vicinity. Stunning art directionĬlearly the stars of the show though, are the titan bosses that make up Jotun’s dastardly cast of villains. Away from the pursuit of these runes, each of the areas in Jotun’s realms encourage exploration on the part of the player as health-boosting magical fruit can be discovered as well as, more crucially, a range of godly powers such as Freya’s speed, or Loki’s ability to create an explosive decoy that can buy you precious seconds to escape from a group of enemies. There are certain rules in place that govern progression in Jotun however, since before Thora can tangle with the titan that rules each area, the requisite number of runes must be collected from other locations within that domain. Certainly, without these elements, each level would arguably feel far less eventful than it currently does though the easily digestible duration of each world ensures that any sense of boredom is unable to set in before you are able progress onto the next area. Whether you’re dealing with ferocious snow storms that must be weathered, taking on an army of crazed, rock-lobbing Dwarves, or evading a screen-filling sea creature that bursts through ice glaciers in an attempt to feast on Thora, each and every world feels fresh and the challenges feel equally so by proxy.
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