Northern Journey Review 

Northern Journey on Steam - store.steampowered.com/app/1639790/Northern_Journey/ Maybe the real treasure were the spiders we found along the way.

Interestingly, the developer of this game made a vlog about his development process, and indeed his hobbies include hiking, scuba diving, and archery. He even went so far as to photograph native plants where he lives and turn them into the textures and foliage you see in the game. It's remarkably genuine. The developers' name on youtube is Slid Studio btw.

The solo devs are like the wizard of the game dev community, i cant understand how they do what they do! an i both fear an respect there insanity.

As a Norwegian I don't understand why I gave this game a pass until now. Looking at this it seems the dev nailed the creepy factor of Norwegian folklore and nature. It's something often lost in translation when Scandinavian folklore creatures gets represented in games and media, even trolls are supposed to creep you out and not just be a dumb giant brute. So fun seeing domestic devs actually representing Scandinavian folk tales correctly, with this game, Bramble and Through the Woods.

I LOVE when folklore is portrayed as a balancing act between creepy and quirky

another evidence that art direction and aesthetics will always be more important than graphical fidelity.

4:31 “there will be no more living or airbreathing spiders” I am deeply suspicious of how specific this statement is. Edit: AND I WAS RIGHT TO BE

Happysad isnt something the dev came up with btw. It is a direct translation of a norwegian expression that describes a type of mood that sits in a very strange place, swinging from being kinda depressing to oddly funny/happy. I don't think it is something you would find in a dictionary, it is more like a weird slang term, but you can find it used in articles of newspapers now and again when reviewing some peculiar media.

One part I liked about this game is that it didn’t go for usual Viking fantasy tropes but instead it’s more dark and mysterious Nordic folksy style that I like a lot more.

It can not be overstated HOW MANY SPIDERS ARE IN THIS GAME IT IS SPIDERS ALL THE WAY DOWN

I love Nordic settings. They manage to strike an incredible balance between "Beautiful fairytale wilderness from your grandmother's old story books" and "Mushroom induced nightmare damned by your ancestor- FUCK ME WHAT IS THAT?!"

Ever since Pathways Into Darkness the "I've got a bone to pick with you!" is possibly beating Electric Marv for space in my brain. I love it.

The Ring death screen gag made me laugh way too hard

I played this like a week ago. It instantly jumped to my top 3 games of all time. truly unique, inspiring and extremely atmospheric game. Sometimes I feel like I can "smell" the rainy forest you walk thru. Soundtrack is aslo solid 10/10. Mindboggling how a one man, without previous experience could create all that.

A quick google search of “most common Norwegian spiders” has shown me why the creator would despise them and wish to see arachnidcide Edit: half the the comments are talking about spiders being cute and the other half are people wanting spiders burned to death. Perfectly balanced.

10:30 I think it's pretty cool that when the witch falls she starts to flip end over end. Y'know, like she was affected by momentum and gravity? Too many games just have falling animations like an old-school Mario character, ramrod straight as the plunge into the unloving abyss.

Bro I've been WAITING for a big RU-vidr to do a video on this game. The single person who made this game deserves so many accolades for making such an interesting, unique, charming, and extremely fun game. Very stoked that you made this video. Northern Journey was my favorite game in 2021 and one of the best gaming experiences in my life. It satisfied this intangible, nostalgic itch while also providing a constantly evolving and surprising experience that made me happy to turn every corner to see what was next.

Man...Ring really left its mark on you didn't it...that bit near the fates especially.

I literally just finished rewatching the Ring review before this went up, so I was READY for that death screen

Mandalore mentioning Outer Wilds AND 13 Sentinels both being his favorite games to go in totally blind, which were completely the same as my own choices, made me love him more than ever :D

Oh hey Northern Journey! Stumbled across that game a bit over a year ago - the dev is one of the most helpful and forthcoming individuals I ever had the pleasure of troubleshooting with. When I had some issues with my resolution settings he and I had a quick back-and-forth and he immediately came up with a fix on the Steam forums, all-around a great guy. Really happy he's getting such a hefty PR push! Especially since he's got another project in the works at the moment that looks really promising.

Went into this game with no expectations last year and it ended up ascending to one of my favourite games of all time. I’m so happy that Mandy is gonna give so much exposure to this game and it’s hardworking dev!!

So glad to see someone cover this game. I played it over a year ago after i saw Duskdev recommend it. Totally enthralling despite the jank. Whats wild is that pretty much all the assets were created from scratch by the solo dev. He went out and made textures from the environment around him in norway. Then in unreal he painted all the lighting manually. Its insane.

This is one of the only review videos where I've stopped it after the first portion so I could buy and play through the entire game before finishing the video. Thank you so much for bringing this game to a broader audience. It was an absolute joy to play, and your review was on point.

He did it! I'm so happy he finally covered this, its such an underated gem

I played this back in winter 21-22 and been wishing it would get more exposure because it really deserves it, so happy to see Mandalore give this some spotlight.

I stumbled upon this game by accident last year. One of the best accidents ever. The atmosphere, the music...I love this game and I still can't believe it was made by a single developer. True definition of a hidden gem and I am so glad that you covered it. Thank you.

Ahh, yes. I’m an hour into the game and I really feel the magic. Maybe it’s just the knowledge that one dude made this, but it really has that special something. Thank you as always for a wonderful review. Also. That Ring 2 death screen… I watched the video after a doobie and I just had a sickening whiplash of “AHHHHHHHH”s and “Walsung. Erda now wants you to find a piece of the Norns' thread.”s… This stream is the reason why you went from Good, to favourite content creator for me. So just thanks. I appreciate it. Before finding you I really didn’t find any good games to play. Anyways. Have a nice day, whoever you are, reading this.

Honestly, I'm just really surprised by the fact that this is not the first time I've heard of this game. I had completely forgotten about this so that was a weird Déjà-vu moment.

The first ~hour of Northern Journey feels like having a nightmare about a ps2 game, and I mean that in the best possible way. Everything just feels so off, like reality has shifted a couple feet to the left, and it makes even the peaceful/serene parts of the game feel really ominous. It's such a unique atmosphere that I don't think I've seen in another game.

Ok so i saw this review and became obsessed with this game. To preamble, i love games and ive always wanted to make one one day. I read up on this guy and saw a little bit of his vlogs. Its incredible how many things we have in common, but most importantly he lives in a place that seems a lot like where i live. Ive loved where i live for my whole life but I'm about to be priced out of living there and will have to move to a new country so that my kids can grow up somewhere stable. Hearing about this guy's journey has inspired me to do the same thing so that i can combine my love of home and video games into something like his. He even made one of my favorite kinds of games, which is adventure/zelda/metroid-esque in the sense that you come to an obstacke that can only be crossed by something somewhere else. I played this game finally after rediscovering this review, and i have become completely obsessed with it because of how doable this guy made it seem (naiveté at play on my part here). Now i go on walks and just make sure to capture everything that feels like my home to me so i can digitize it and make it into a virtual home away from home. And the music! JFC! The music is so far off and away from anything ive really experienced in a game before that i have the track for deadwell and greenslit playing in the background. I run it on our discord whenever the boys and I get a server of valheim running. Its the first game in a long time to pull me in and trade a few pieces of its soul for mine before letting me go again. I want to areplay it immediately, but I'm just going to leave it until i forget most of it and then come back. Pro tip: absolutely attempt to collect every single red health upgrade flask you can. You start with 100 health and there are 40 to find. Look behind every tree, look to the edges of every ledge. Theres one massive consequence for not finding all by the end and it might annoy or disappoint you. Scroll down for the spoiler. It unlocks a powerful weapon to use on the final boss, and he's a massive pain otherwise.

I remember seeing IronPineapple check this game out and it looked so interesting! Glad to see it's truly a gem.

I watched the first two minutes of this review when it first came out, saw the little burrowing goblin guys and instantly knew I had to buy it. I just finished my first playthrough and wow is this game amazing. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! It's been one of my favorite gaming experiences of the last few years.

Honestly, I'd say being a one man team here likely helped keep the ambiance as coherent and clear as possible, one of the rare cases where it works.

Well, I got about 5 minutes into the video and stopped it to immediately go buy this game I've never heard of! Seldom has just seeing a few short clips of a game immediately hooked me like this.

I absolutely love your content man. You give not only detailed perspectives but also cover the important points that show why to play these games. It has inspired me to try and shown me so many different games I missed or never gave a chance. So yeah I appreciate you and your passion and just wanted to say thanks!

Ah yes *looks out the window* finally a realistic depiction of Norway. The annoying thing about Mandalore uploads is that I immediately have to pause them, buy, play through the game, then finally resume the video : P

I bought this based on this video and I'm currently about 4 hours in - it's so wonderfully immersive and the environment and sound design is immaculate. It does such a good job of drawing you in with how beautiful it all is, so that when an area is dangerous, unknown or scary, you really feel it. This is honestly my favourite feeling in games and it's incredibly rare and hard to do. Thankyou so much for putting me up on this, I would never have found it otherwise!

Really glad you covered this game. One of the best games of 2021, it deserves more attention.

Another video by Mandalore, another new game added to the library, always a pleasure!

So cool seeing someone covered this. I randomly stumbled across it one day, and I knew I wanted to stream it on twitch. It's was the first game I actually somewhat played as a series, and finished on stream

Someone said it long ago, if you are working with constraints as long as you stay consistent within a framework, you have developed a style. I hope to see more from this developer!

I did enjoy the flute player saying his goodbye as I rowed away. Caught me off guard there

I'm so glad you're reviewing this game. It's such a bizarre hidden gem, I love it.

You've easily sold us on this, Mandy. May the exposure and funds bless the creator of this newly found gold crown! 10:28: Oh, nice to see that Ring screen back.

Hey, I just want you to know I appreciate you and these videos. Your work on the Marathon videos with the voice acting and whatnot was legendary. You brought to life a 30 year old game in a way that was mindblowing. Keep it up, big guy.

Been awhile, looking forward to watching the new upload. Thanks so much for the effort/time you put in to make this content, it's really appreciated.

I'm so happy to see you cover this game! It's a real gem and does atmosphere masterfully. The descent into the lake and the bog sequence had me more tense and frightened than many proper horror games.

The moment the vocals hit in Greenslit I legit just stepped back and watched the waterfall for a while. Few games I've played have accomplished such magical moments with nothing but sheer atmosphere.

Been waiting so long for you to play this and I knew you would, let's go!

Great to see this here, man. I got this game last Christmas and it is just an absolute vibe. From the animations of every tool/weapon you get your hands on, to all the really unique enemies that I want to eviscerate as soon as possible, to the comforting sight of a rough stone structure in the middle of nature. This game is something special.

Finally. Never thought I would see the day Mandalore reviewing Northern Journey. Such a hidden gem.

I never would have thought that 13 sentinels would appeal to Mandalore

The content is so good that it is impossible to miss a single video of yours 😘🥰

Thanks for your reviews, mate. I'm a long time subscriber, yet first time commenter, though i watched almost all of your videos and liked every single one of those. You deserve praise for your effort and for the fact that your reviews are of such quality

Wow that game is an amazing effort for just one guy. That’s insane

Ultimately it was the copious amount of bugs and such in the store page screenshots that dissuaded my purchase so nice to see a review on it.

I just wanna say your vids are some of the best on YT. You can cover games that I've neither heard of nor have any interest in, but the way you cover them is entertainment in itself.

Thanks for the great video! Have yet to play this game, this is the second video I've watch on it. Need to add it to my backlog.

I would have never even consider to play a game like this. But Mandalore, you just really sold it so good i just need to give it a try. I've Nearly choked by the fall at 10:30 . That was unexpected.

An awesome game. Glad to see it get some of the mandalore love.

I love when you make a video about a game I've never heard of that looks like exactly the kind of thing I'd enjoy

The Ring Game Over screen jump scare got me good

With the gaming industry becoming more and more about extracting money, it's good to see artists creating their vision. Thanks for highlighting this, I think independent game developers will become more and more important as corporations ruin video games.

One of the best indie games I've played. The atmosphere is unlike anything I've ever seen in a game. And the soundtrack is wonderful.

This is the first game I bought and played because of you and I don't regret it. It was an amazing journey, thanks for the recommendation Mando

this is why i love your channel, all the hidden gems

This game was my 2021 GotY and I keep thinking about it regularly. Just a fantastic game with no unnecessary padding. It's a shame the Norwegian game awards didn't give a crap about it. E: I love the OST so much and Slid has said that he basically just put together stuff that he thought "sounds nice" or something to that effect. Basically no idea about making music. :D

I'm glad to see Northern Journey getting more attention.

Great review as always.

Thank you for covering these smaller and more obscure games. They deserve the attention.

I'm glad me begging you to make a video on this game has finally paid off. One thing I really like about the game design of Northern Journey is how you can quick save at will but the game prevents you from saving in combat or in some hazardous sections of the game. I personally think this is a much more elegant solution than having irritating physical save locations like some retro fps titles are doing now.

This game is one of Steams true hidden gems and I'm really happy to see it getting more recognition. Despite some rough edges its a pretty unique experiance and truely does feel like a journey.

I do hope you get around to Dread Delusion and Lunacid when they release their 1.0 versions. In terms of low-poly indie open world RPGs in the style of Morrowind or King's Field in the case of the latter, they're exactly what you're looking for I think. Thanks for recommending this, btw. I had previously ignored it because of what looked to be floaty combat and the weird character models, but I'm definitely wishlisting this now. The atmosphere looks so good!

10:29 the ring nightmares... they will never fade, for it has been engrained fully in my headspace.

Im really happy you covered this game. I played it a few months ago, and I was absolutely captivated by it. Truely one of the best games I've ever played, and I just happened to buy it on a whim.

Finally! One of the most unique and overall best indie gems of the decade! So glad you played and liked it!

Loved this game when I played it last year, even the jankiness just kind of added to its charm. Having to get a feel for aiming each weapon was strangely satisfying, especially the slingshot; gave a feeling like you'd really mastered it when you could snipe things out of the sky with it. Surprised there aren't more FPS games, outside of milsims and the like, that do something similar.

This looks to be my absolute jam, thanks for the spotlight

What did we do to deserve 2 vids in less than 2 weeks! always happy to wait though because I think the time reflects your quality. Thank you keep up the great work.

Nordic Journey is an incredibly beautiful and immensely Norwegian game. We do not have the spiders. We are the spiders

This game is a textbook example of a hidden gem for me. One of the best games of all time for me. It really does so much with so little, I really hope we see more from the dev.

You literally released this review right after I finished my playthrough of the game!

I've been waiting so long for this game to get the recognition it deserves. Thank you Mandalore!

I would also like to recommend Pentiment by Obsidian if anyone else loves these kinds of immersive games with strong atmosphere. Such a delightfully colorful experience with a very bittersweet ending, and I was completely taken in from beginning to end.

I remember beating this game last year and my immediate thought being, "Wow, Mandalore's gonna have a blast with this one."

Hey Just came by to say hi and great vid btw! I patiently await your review on heroes 3! Have a Wonderful day!

Thank you for reviewing this one, this game is such a gem! Definitely needs more exposure.

The part with the frog had me dying 🤣

Dude, I JUST replayed this and I can't stop thinking about it. Dev is so chill, would mention bugs in the forums or get stuck somewhere and have it fixed sometimes in that same evening, on another level. Recently have been searching for something similar to scratch that same itch and atmosphere that this game has, and I really just come up short. This game is honestly one of my all-time favs, and I'd safely say it's a weirdo freak classic. The bloodbugs can smd.

This is so in my wheelhouse. Thanks for the recommend!

I find your reviews cold and calculated...that is a compliment :) best reviews on YT.

The deadly premonition music was such a throw back. Would be cool to see a mandalore video on the game.

Yessss, give this man your money, so he can keep making the weirdo RPG thing he started.

Incredible, this is so much like the concept of game I've been trying to flesh out and make. So much respect.

THANK YOU, this is so unique and refreshing-looking. I want this.

Can't play this. I tapped out when the spiders that jump at you appeared

Ah, yes, The :): Genre.

It was released! I remember hearing about this a long while back. Glad to hear you really enjoyed it and it lived up to the potential.

I am stoked you covered this game. Played this last year and even though I absolutely hate spiders, I had to see it through to the end. More people need to appreciate the work here.