Norse mythology and games

Having just recently finish Hellblade ( which I have mixed feelings about) it rekindled my interest in how much I enjoy Norse mythology and subsequently, Vikings/Viking "culture"

It got me thinking about what games you guys and girls have enjoyed that featured heavily or even subtly on both because I would like to play more games on that subject. That's honestly one of the reasons I'm really excited about the new God of War(Thor?)

This is what I own

Age of Mythology

Viking:Battle for Asgard(underrated!)

Jotün

Hellblade

Skyrim

EDIT: Banner Saga 1/2.. idk how I forgot both of those...

(I also have Neil Gamens Norse Mythology book, which is also very good)

The Banner Saga?

Expeditions: Viking is a recent (low-none fantasy) rpg that takes a bit more grounded approach to that setting. It's not a perfect game by any means, but it has it's moments. It deals more with the Viking dealings with England rather then their mythology, tho there are bits of it sprinkled there.

Vikings: Wolves of Midgard is a Diablo-like that came out this year. It seems pretty ok, nothing spectacular but I have played the first level with each class and it seems fun.

A couple others came to mind:

Volgaar the Viking

The Banner Saga

The Lost Vikings

I was going to say this. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't

The Banner Saga as well

Wasn't Too Human kind of inspired by Norse Mythology?

I am sure it is as related as Marvel's Thor comics (or the God of War games), in the sense that many of the locations and characters had Norse names.

Haven't played a whole lot of it, but does Odin's Sphere count? Feels like it has it's own kind of spin on it I guess...

Rune!

It absolutely counts. It's obviously not 1 to 1 and it definitely comes off more fairy tale than myth but a lot of the characters feel like analogues to certain key figures in that mythology. Not to spoil the end of the game but I think it handles the depiction of Ragnarok extremely well based on my fair weather knowledge on the topic.

Valkyrie Profile Is full to the brim with Norse mythology. And it's one of my fav jrpg's from the era. The sequel VP 2 (ps2) isn't bad ether but the first game (ps1, psp) is better imo. There was a spin off for the ds as well that plays more like FF tactics too but ...it was less heavy in the norse myths. So I'd recommend the first one for sure.

Heimdall 2 on the Amiga. There was an original Heimdall game also, but I never played it.

I can't think of any other games than the ones mentioned where it features prominently. It's certainly around in everything, like how Tales of Symphonia/Phantasia uses Yggdrasil or Nidhogg uses.... well, Nidhogg, but it's usually not an important part.

@ravelle said:

Rune!

An especially timely example with this odd thing happening.

@glots said:

@ravelle said:

Rune!

An especially timely example with this odd thing happening.

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Oh yeah! I forgot about that announcement! Really excited to see what it will turn out to be, really enjoyed the original Rune with me brother, chopping dudes, eating apples and snakes.

Witcher 3 has a section that's pretty heavily viking inspired (although it wasn't exactly my favorite part of the game). I've also played a bunch of Northgard this year. Although it's still early access it's surprisingly good.

@hermes: It was basically Vikings as an advanced cyborg species, or something like that. Techno-Vikings, if you will.

The Settlers games had viking factions, though the single player campaigns primarily focused on Romans. They were a major inspiration for Northgard mentioned above.

There also were the Cultures games by Funatics, which focused on the Viking expeditions to America.

There was a shitty viking game for the PC called Sveakampen that was based on a perhaps equally shitty fictional viking novel by "famous" Swedish disc jockey E-Type. Maybe don't check that out, just some trivia for you.

The game based on Norse mythology I've played the most is probably Ragnarok Online. I have no idea how faithful that world is to that mythology though.

oh man, one of the first pc games i bought and BOY was it not good.

@ravelle said:

Rune!

@audiobusting: Well, I'm not sure there were Poporings in Norse mythology. Honestly though, I don't know if RO takes any large inspiration from Norse mythology other than in names and terms, like Ragnarök and Midgård. I played a lot of that game as well, but I can't say I remember much of the plot. Damn good MMO though.

Adding to the list, there are also the Konung games that I'm pretty sure take place during viking times in Scandinavia, or at the very least feature vikings.

There was a hack n slash from 2007 called Loki. I enjoyed it back then but looking on steam it has mixed reviews so don't trust me on this.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/7260/Loki/

@oursin_360: I never got really far into Rune but i thought it was pretty cool.

I was also really into Drakan: Order of the Flame. These 2 games are intertwined for me for some reason.

Haha, I tried to remember what that was, but couldn't find it. Also think IQ Media or Bonnier Multimedia put some Viking themed game out in the late 90's.

Thor got his own movie tie-in game at some stage way back when the Marvel experiment was still in Phase 1. I heard it was not that great and possibly not what you are looking for?

Max Payne... it's mention and has themes of it.

I haven't played it yet, but plan to, but I think Expeditions: Viking deserves a mention here. It's a historical Sim/RPG series. The first game, Expeditions: Conquistador, was really good and the second seems a bit less of a Sim maybe and more of an RPG. I've heard good things though.

The Great Whale Road is also a historical RPG with a similar thing going on that I haven't played, but looks pretty nice.

That level in Alan Wake where you visit the farm for the two members of the fictional band Old Gods of Asgard features a lot of Viking assets.

I'm going to check out the games that got mentioned.