Norse Mythology: The Most Favored RPG Game Concept

How many mythologies do you know? There is Roman and there is Greek and I am not sure if you knew Norse. You know Thor right? He is the hammer-wielding Norse God of Thunder.

This is the most favorite mythology in the gaming community. If you heard Neverwinter Nights? I totally forgot if I finished the game or not that was 2003 - 2004 when I played Neverwinter Nights. There is this character there Freya, which is also known in Norse Mythology.

Though Neverwinter was never about Valhalla (or is it), Wizard of the coast still puts a little element of Norse Mythology.

Norse Mythology is a body of myths in North Germany. It is consists of tales, Gods, and deities from folklore, manuscript, and several archeological discoveries. Several Gods that we already know are Odin, Thor, and Loki but the core of it is just too many to name.

Back in the first Playstation that Sony made, I played “Valkyrie Profile”. Based on Norse Mythology which you collect the soul of warriors to protect Valhalla. The main character which you control is Lenneth, a Valkyrie task to collect souls of warriors to protect Valhalla from Destruction. I finished that game with a good ending. The boss is not that hard, but the stages are hard. Turned-based / platform game wherein you need to jump and climb walls to get some artifacts in hard places of the stage.

After that Valkyrie Profile, I guess it became hit somehow, it was followed by other Valkyrie Profile series and the last was Valkyrie Anatomia which is a mobile game. There is also an attempt to relive the original Valkyrie Profile on Playstation in the mobile platform. It is a premium game called Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. Lenneth is the main character but I am not that quite sure if it is indeed exact but based on the screenshot it seems like it.

Ragnarok which I also play on PC, the first MMO that I played is also based on Norse mythology. Ragnarok or the doom of the Gods is an event wherein Valhalla will be destroyed.

I am not sure what charm made by the stories of Norse Mythology that a lot of game theme is based on that particular mythology. The tales of courage, love, and sacrifice evolved in the stories of Norse Mythology.

A fan of good storyline myself, in all of the games that I mentioned, I fell in love with the story behind it. Neverwinter nights is like a novel of superb plot twists. Valkyrie Profile as well, even though the stages were quite hard,  you don’t give up the fact that you wanted to know what happened in the next scene.

Last Cloudia there is a place in the World Map called Yggdrasil Tree. The Yggdrasil Tree is the one that connects the nine realms. In Thor: The Dark World the concept of the Yggdrasil Tree is the main plot of the story. It is about the phenomenon called Converge, wherein the connection between Worlds is thin, and when it aligns it creates a portal to other Worlds. That connects to the tree where all worlds connected in the Yggdrasil Tree. Last Cloudia has also Norse element to it.

Similar to the Avengers of Marvel, we are curious about how different types of heroes come together to unite and reach a common goal. No matter how different the characters are, there is something on each of the souls the Valkyrie collect makes them special. Yes in Valkyrie Profile there is always a story behind each soul you collect. Before you collect their soul there is always a cut scene or a beautiful back story.

What does Norse Mythology differ from any other mythology? Roman Mythology is famous for their gladiators, wars, and politics but there is no good you can take out of that. Though Greek has a very good story, Greeks’ famous stories were about wars as well but we can be also reminded about other things probably not good for a game plot I guess. That is why the two are more popular in strategic games, similar to Clash of Clans.

Norse Mythology elements are more popular in RPGs because there are a lot of story plots that can be connected to the already pre-existing Norse Mythology concept. Maybe game developers can twist, mix, and match the characters but it all comes down that the main hero needs other characters to reach the goal, hence collect other characters to be his ally.

What is your favorite Norse themed game?