I’ve heard some folks say there are too many video games lately primarily based on Norse mythology. As MassivelyOP’s resident Norse delusion nerd, I disagree; what we’ve got is a glut of is video games that lazily slap some Norse branding on with out doing any precise analysis into the mythology.
I didn’t have quite a lot of hope that Kakao Video games‘ just lately launched cellular and PC MMORPG Odin: Valhalla Rising would reverse this development, however a look on the lore on the sport’s official web site did present what gave the impression to be a higher degree of faithfulness than most, so I gave it a spin.
Simply entering into the sport proved more durable than it ought to have been. Character creation is incessantly disabled because of the servers being over-crowded, and even as soon as I lastly might make a personality, I confronted prolonged server queues. Primarily based on group chatter and my very own experiences, I discovered bots appear to be a number one trigger for the over-crowding, which doesn’t encourage confidence.
There are 4 lessons to select from — priest, rogue, sorceress, and warrior — and they’re gender-locked, with warrior as the one male choice. I doubt this was a nod to authenticity, however to play satan’s advocate, you might argue that is devoted to historical Norse tradition, because it did have pretty clear gender roles. Struggle was the function of males (because it has been in lots of cultures), and magic was thought of a female observe.
However there are nonetheless loads of exceptions in historical past and mythology. The Valkyries had been feminine warriors, the goddesses Freyja and Skadi had been each recognized for his or her ability in struggle, and archaeological proof has confirmed the existence of flesh-and-blood shieldmaidens, as nicely. In the meantime, Odin himself was a person who practiced magic, regardless of its womanly associations. There’s additionally no historic argument I can see for rogues being a feminine class.
I selected priest, as I believed or not it’s enjoyable to play a spiritual class that attracts its inspiration from pagan religion relatively than the Abrahamic themes utilized by related lessons in most video games. In observe, I didn’t discover this priest felt a lot completely different from customary priest lessons, although I did see them summoning photos of the World Tree in some trailers exhibiting higher-level gameplay, in order that’s cool.
Upon zoning in, I instantly acknowledged that Valhalla Rising was designed as a cellular recreation first. Auto-play is meant to be the first means of interacting with the sport, with the choice to set all your talents and potions to auto-cast. Nonetheless, you too can flip these items off and simply play it like a traditional MMO, although auto-pathing to show in quests is tough to get away from as there’s no quest markers on the map I might see.
What did shock me is that it is a conventional tab goal MMO with auto-attack and every little thing. I simply naturally assumed {that a} flashy Korean MMO launched in 2025 would have motion fight.
Most likely probably the most distinctive mechanic of Valhalla Rising is its avatar system. Avatars are type of like character skins, however in addition they have stats, they usually decide your subclass, so you possibly can change subclasses simply by swapping out avatars. Confusingly, there are additionally purely beauty skins that may overwrite the looks of your chosen avatar.
I used to be pleasantly shocked to see that not less than up to now, the avatars and skins really feel fairly authentically Norse-themed, and most are usually not overly sexualized for feminine characters, which appears like an uncommon degree of restraint from a Korean studio.
Avatars are primarily acquired by a gacha system, so I think about that would be the focus of the sport’s development and monetization. You will need to notice you should purchase “pulls” with gold earned in-game, however after all you too can dump as a lot actual world money into avatars as you please.
The same gacha system can also be used to accumulate mounts, and mounts do present small stat boosts as nicely, so there’s an impetus to gather them past the beauty. Valhalla Rising affords each floor and flying mounts, however freeform flight doesn’t appear to be attainable. As an alternative, flying mounts can be utilized solely to glide brief distances, they usually function a part of the animation for quick journey.
The sport’s opening cinematic units up the principle story as what appears like a comparatively devoted depiction of the parable of Ragnarok, the story that each Norse-inspired recreation appears to hyper-focus on.
You’ll not be leaping into epic struggles between gods off the bat, although. The early quests are so dedicated to bog-standard MMO tropes it feels nearly quaintly charming. You get in a shipwreck, lose your reminiscence, and find yourself serving to native farmers cull animals.
The principle story quests are totally voiced (although high quality is inconsistent at finest), and I did discover the NPC outfits and general artwork design as soon as once more felt surprisingly devoted to historical Norse tradition. The one exception is the character faces, which have that overly polished look that each one Korean video games appear to have. The graphics are a bit dated, however nonetheless nice to have a look at, and the music is sweet.
The welcoming environments and sheer Norse Vibes stored me buzzing alongside for some time. There are worse fates than cosplaying a Valkyrie whereas bonking goblins in a pleasant sunny discipline. The extraordinarily traditional MMORPG recreation design even felt pleasantly nostalgic for a time. However ultimately the painfully generic quest design, toothless enemy mobs, and boring tab goal fight left me struggling to seek out the motivation to proceed.
The underside line is that Odin: Valhalla Rising largely appears like a generic temport, but it surely does appear to have put a shocking quantity of effort into respectfully depicting its supply materials, so I’ll give it some credit score for that. I don’t need to play extra of it, however I’m additionally not offended by its very existence like I’m by another allegedly Norse-inspired video games I might identify.
