Master K Review: Vikings of Midgard

[Master K]

Yes, the title does not lie. This is actually my review of Fenrir-Lunaris's legendary game, Vikings of Midgard.

The title screen shows a dithered tree scene, with all the main characters, Bram, Kitt, Frumpy, Night, Hilda, Eric, Styrge, Olaf, Renard, and the mysteriously cut character, Xephes (More on her later). A calm music plays.

The game starts with a rant from the DARK ONE, which sort of breaks the fourth wall. Then, the real intro begins. It tells of how the speakers grandfather told him stories of heroes who went out into the world like Vikings. The camera scales Pantopican Tower while this is happening. Then, it shows a picture of the DARK ONE, saying how bad of a failure would drive a hero to the darkness. Then, it goes on to Freki the Wolfling Ninja, being summoned by Lord Odin. He asks her to find him a hero to investigate Ironwood Forest. She eventually meets Bram, a brigand. Along the way, the team expands to Kitt the Warrior, Frumpy the, erm, large Missonary, Night the Shameness, Styrge the Elf, Eric the Bard, Hilda the Valkyre, Renard the Beastmaster, and Olaf the Beserker.

This game, in every aspect, is truely amazing. Let me adress everything seperatly.

Story
The main story is to stop the DARK ONE, Cthulu, who kidnapped Lady Freya, who wasn't really kidnapped. Every character has a backstory, no matter how small. Bram is a brigand that has been implyed to have done several adventures before VoM started. Kitt doesn't have much of a past, nor does Frumpy. Styrge is an elf who tried to cut down the special tree in Ironwood Forest during the God War, hoping it would cut off magic. She was incredibly guilty about it. Night has the most complex history. She is actually a creation, or doppleganger, of Hati, the wolf who chases the moon. There is actually a whole sidestory dedicated to Hati and Night bonding on the moon. After that, Night regarded Hati as a mother, and Hati regarded Night as a daughter. Hilda is one of the Valkyres serving Odin. Olaf is a has been champion of the Vannheim Arena. Eric doesn't have much of a history either.

Anyways, after Cthulu's defeat, everyone splits up. Chewie the hamster unleashes Hati, Skoll, and the Managarm and opens up Helheim's gate, which prompts Freki to try and and gather everyone up, after being rescued by Renard. Then, they go to Helheim. They find Lady Freya, who wasn't really kidnapped. The team then goes up Pantopican Tower, and then go to the final boss in the Crystal Abyss that is opened up by Kyle's actions.

Gameplay
Overall, pretty decent. The battles in the beggining are tedious, but it gets easier later on. Money in this game is easy to come by. Everything is generally cheap, and decent armor is available later on. Every character has an 'ultimate armor' that can be bought in Helheim's shop, or found.

Learning attacks via story things is something pretty cool. Random attacks can be learned in the darndest places. Vulpes shop is a place where four characters can learn an attack each. Though, not many attacks can be learned through regular leveling up.

Graphics
The graphics of this game are stunning. Absolutly stunning. The maps are well laid out, and the maptiles themselves are awesome, and destroy the grid in many places.
Enemy graphics are amazing aswell. Some of my favorite enemy graphics include Azatoth the final boss, Tztulcha the Lady of the Green Flames, Shub-Niggurath the Purple Cloud, and many others. Each enemy is pretty unique.
Attacks are amazing looking too. I only wish I could create attack graphics that good.
Heroes graphics are also pretty amazing.

Loose Ends
By loose ends, I mean stuff that never got used, or is just a general mystery.

If you poke around in the editor, you shall notice that Hati had her own hero graphics made for her, and Kyle and Triangle man have hero graphics, and that there was meant to be 9th character to the main cast, Xephes. Her hero graphics were not complete, strangly. In one of the screenshots, you can notice Xephes in the second hero slot. She had her own character portrait, special attack (Ressurect), and a character bio page. I finished her, however, and edited her into my game.

If you poke around in the background and enemy stat sections, you will notice that there was supposed to be some sort of fight on a massive Lord Broaste. There were three screens: One for the Lord Broaste fight, one for a fight with Neke, Josef and Slither, and one for a fight with Gahn and Seraph.

I also found graphics for a monster I call 'Activated'. It appears to be the activated version of the Deactivated monster. It never got used.

Vannaheim, the Jade Fields, and the Crystal Abyss are all, aparently, unfinished. Will Fenrir ever finish them?

Conclusion
In conclusion, this game is truly amazing. The graphics are top level for an OHRRPGCE game, the story is compelling, and the music tracks are also very good. Thankfully the tracks are available to all. It is a good flagship game, because everyone should play through this game at least once.

[ncw64]

I was just curious as to what version you used when you played through? Did you encounter incomplete areas in the Thure and such or was it just a weird bug for me?

[Master K]

Zenzizenzic flagship version.

I encountered incomplete areas such as a house in Thule, Vannaheim was massivly incomplete, the arena fights were incomplete, and so on.