A bunch of answers, sorry for the delay, had to sleep a bit So the game has a stats page to check your former scores. It does not have a cooperative AI because it doesnt need any. It's a coop game, you either play solo with one god, or with many (six). It can be played as a solitaire, or you pass and play with your friends. You'll fight against the game rules (the baddies' cards) either way. There is a steep learning curve I presume, and it definitely helps if you play some games solo before you explain it to others. (GS took me a day to grasp everything, of course I wasnt familiar with the concept). The board -- as beautiful as it is -- can be intimidating, but after some plays it just clicks. The in-game tutorial wont help you a lot, you have to read the rulebook and check some youtube videos from the original game. There are some informative ones out there. About retina I dont know, you may be right; the game looks stunning as it is. Lets hope the graphical overhaul won't screw the nice 80MB size of the app, and wont cause any slowdowns on older devices ;
Another thing. It definitely helps if you realize that there are nine regions on the board, and you can choose from nine actions -- three actions per round. Some of those are for long-term strategical advances (like getting some guys to fight on your side or leveling up your weapons against the baddies -- think about the Buddhas in Ghost Stories), some are for immediate effects (pushing a god back a bit on his track). So it's nine things, three of those can be done per rounds (/per baddie card). I hope it helps.
I got to play a few games last night, and for the most part, I think this is well done if you know what you're getting into. A very good point of reference would be "Ghost Stories", both in game mechanics and general polish of the app. The app itself: I've never played the physical version of Yggdrasil, but based on the pictures I've seen, (like Ghost Stories) this app does a good job recreating the graphics of the board game. As previously mentioned, it's not Retina, but it still looks good on the new iPad - it's nice and colorful, and I had no issues reading any of the text. Since it's primarily just a static game board with a few moving sprites, I wouldn't think a retina update would catastrophically increase the file size. Also as previously mentioned, there is no online mutliplayer, but that seems fine considering the type of game this is - cooperative games require a lot of verbal coordination, and probably wouldn't work well playing with folks without some form of communication. The "tutorial" isn't much of a tutorial, but rather a series of helpful hints to get you started. It doesn't really walk you through turns or tries to explain "why" you would want to make a particular kind of move. On the positive side, it does have pop up reminders you can turn on and off during the game to remind you what each area is for. My recommendation: read the included manual first (as it's not accessible during the game for some reason), then try to play the game in "tutorial" mode to feel your way around and learn what everything does. The english version has a fair number of spelling typos ("ennemies") The game has Game Center for score leaderboards, but unfortunately no achievements. Though, similar to the Nightfall app, you can unlock the promo heroes by meeting certain types of conditions, which is a great touch. The game iteself: As I mentioned earlier, the closest gaming touchstone to this that I can think of is Ghost Stories. These two games have a great deal in common, and I think if you have some familiarity with Ghost Stories, you should be able to pick this game up fairly quickly. On the other hand, if you don't have that familiarity (or worse yet, no familiarity with the general mechanics of cooperative board/card games), it's going to take you some time to figure out what you need to do, as it can initially be a bit overwhelming. When each player has a total of 9 different activities they can choose from for any of their (typically) 3 actions each turn, it can be daunting. But once you wrap your head around what each thing does, things become more focused when you realize only a handful of those 9 different actions make sense at any given time. Coop games require the players to work as efficiently as possible while hoping it's enough to overcome the randomness of the enemy deck/combat dice rolls. As with most cooperative games, it can be difficult, especially as you increase the number of players. Your luck drawing enemies from the draw deck and for your combat rolls will vary, so you're most likely not going to win every game. Your best bet for the first couple of games might be to try choosing two players, and it'll take a little time before you figure out how to be most efficient. Once you get past the hurdle of figuring out what the purpose of everything is, the game is straight forward. Based on what I played last night, the difficulty seems to be in line with that of Ghost Stories, even though I feel like you do have a bit more flexibility with choices in Yggdrasil, which I like. Do you enjoy Ghost Stories? If so, don't hesitate to pick this up. Yggdrasil is probably a bit more "family friendly" (Ghost Stories has a good bit of violent imagery, which may not suit kids younger kids) and has a bit more flexibility in action choices (not restricted by location for certain actions as in Ghost Stories). A fun game that's a great deal at $6, considering the physical game goes for $40 to $50.
Thanks for the thorough write up WoP ! I'm gonna pick this up tonight fer sure after I cash in some Viggle points for an iTunes card. I really like the looks of the wide variety of available moves to consider each turn. Watched several vids on the physical version yesterday and think that'll help ease me into it. (as an aside, thanks to you, I'm pretty sure I'll be hearing Pictures of a City and Cadence and Cascade in my head allll day long again!)
Thanks for the review WOP. Love Ghost Stories, so you have pushed me off the fence. Must get this one!
Yeah, I'm in, thanks for that confirmation! I find games like these are almost like an adult activity center: with all sort of little sub-tasks to keep you busy and your mind sharp.
ah memories hmm it looks good but can't tell about gameplay. would love to check it out and play but i don't think I'm ready or willing to take the plunge yet. maybe in the future or after i hear a lot of impressions.
I think you just nailed it. With these kind of games the best part is the learning. I know I'll savour it as I can; that's what I did with GS, slowly raised the difficulty for myself. Can't wait the night when everyone's sleeping to try and hold back Fenrir and Loki! (The theme somehow stuck into my head: read through Norse mythology during the day. )
I knew that these types of games reminded me of something...and that's pretty much it One suggestion to the developer for the next update - please include the ability to zoom in on things, particularly the cards, chits, tokens. For instance, it's hard to read the iconography on the ice giant cards when they are in play, as well as read what's on the Ragnarok/Angry Enemy Cards for when you're trying to add cards for a higher difficulty. A double tap zoom would go a long way towards fixing that.
And while they are at it, why dont make this app universal? I secretly hoped this will be the case before release. I'd gladly play it on the iphone when I dont have the ipad on me.
It tells you how many fire trolls and Vikings are in the different islands. That's what the numbers under the different islands refer to.
Can anyone comment on the graphics on the retina screen? I was looking forward to the release since I've been keeping track of it on BGG but I could have sworn it said something about high resolution graphics
Game Impressions I finally got around to firing this up and it is a blast of icy Nordic winds (in a good way)! While there is a lot going on in the game and I failed miserably in my first attempt, I think it might even be easier than say Elder Sign: Omens to grasp. The time of Ragnarök is nearly upon us and it is up to your band of 1-5 chosen gods to hold Loki and crew back from reaching Odin's Palace. Each god has his own neat way of bending the game's basic rules in their favor BUT playing a game with more than 1 god just means the threat will advance that much quicker as the enemies advance each gods' turn. At the start of each turn the top card of the baddies is flipped face up. The card indicates which of the game's 6 baddies advances a space toward Odin's Palace. Besides simply advancing a space the baddy will trigger their specific effect (i.e. Loki will summon forth some frost giants, Hel will send some vikings to Norse Heck, etc.). To make things worse, the strength of the baddy's nasty effect is modified by how far down the track they are, so while initially Loki can only summon 1 frost giant when activated, if you let him weasel his way too far down the line, he might end up summoning up to 3 of those twits at a time. So your absolute primary responsibility is keeping the baddies from advancing down the track and to do this means battling them head-on. To battle one of these Super 6, you designate which one you are attacking, decide how many of your available viking you'll commit to the battle (each of them adds a one time use +1 to your roll), note the bonuses gained from artifacts on your active god you've forged specifically for this opponent, and roll your special die (with possible results of 0-3). If the combined value beats or ties with that baddy's defense value you'll push the baddy back a space otherwise nothing happens other than whatever vikings you committed will be lost. If only a few short you can always bring in some of your available elves which let you modify things just like the vikings but AFTER the die is rolled. "Hold on, Gek", you say, "this is only 1 of some possible 9 actions in the game, right?" You bet it is but I see the other 8 actions more as crucial support activities like recruiting vikings/elves, building artifacts, or fighting off Loki's summoned frost giants. Each of these nameless frost giants will either lock out your access to some type of game action in the game or grant one of the big 6 some additional power. Like one frost giant in my last game locked out my ability to roll a dice in battle, so if I wanted to be able to get the 0-3 bonus per battle the die represents, I had to bring over enough vikings to defeat that frost giant without help from the die. Another big aspect of the game is found in island management. The key to winning battles in this game is having bunches of vikings on hand. To do this you spend an action of having your Valkyries recruit warriors from one of the game's islands. The catch is that all of these islands are teaming with fire giants as well. When a Valkyrie recruits from a given island they draw a number random tiles from a bag, if they draw a viking they get a recruit but if they draw a fire giant it's just a wasted draw. A couple of your possible actions in the game entail increasing the population of vikings and or reducing the fire giant population on an island for future recruiting runs. Gotta go, hope this gave you a glimpse of the game mechanics, though!
Been playing this allllll day. I'm liking it a lot. Slightly typo strewn, as it is translated from French ... and at first the gameplay seems totally incomprehensible, but after a couple games it is pretty easy to pick up. Tutorial ain't great but the full rules are there and an always available help button explains all the areas of the board anytime you need a reminder. Attractive presentation that seems to be a fairly faithful recration of the physical game with not a lot of flourishes...for the most part pretty static except when it's time to make dice rolls. Only plays in Portrait. Lotsa choices to ponder per round with none necessarily always being the obviously "best" one. Difficulty scales real well with adjusting the cards and characters used in game, and it presents a really good challenge level. Dice rolls make chance a big factor - but you can limit that quite a bit by supplementing your rolls with bonuses. Then the enemy card draws make every game play out slightly different than the last. There's a very strong sense of urgency as the final turns play out trying to beat back the baddies on the board making it one you don't wanna put down...then you wanna jump right back into for payback when you get beat down. The solitaire play is GREAT, imo. Almost feels built for it and not like a concession to allow solo games. I'd definitely rec checking it out if it looks interesting to you, if you enjoy board games, and assuming $6 won't break you. Back to more !
Nice game. Plays just as well as the boardgame so far. Please change all spellings of "ennemies" to enemies. Thanks.
While not entirely sure, am I right in assuming your end game score is simply the difficulty of your chosen setup? Like if I manage to hold off the baddies and win in a game rated at 16 difficulty I would have a highscore of 16 points? Kind of like you're playing "Name that Tune"? Contestant: Bob, I think I can beat this game at a 48 difficulty. Bob: Okay, then prove it!
Okay, much better than I initially thought and nicely elegant. How far you keep them downwind is the real important thing and the extra added challenges you were willing to accept in the setup are a little bonus to your final score if you win. I really like how remaining vikings and defeated frost giants aren't counted as I could see something like a player loading up on vikings say right before the end JUST to boost his score.
