Röki

Röki was something I stumbled upon completely by accident. It seemed to have the two things I love the most about video games, heavy lore and good artwork, so I purchased it. I was not at all disappointed.

The game was centered around a family of three: Tove, her little brother, Lars, and her father, Hendrik. The family dynamic presented at the beginning of the game was not a happy one. Tove and Lars’s mother was absent and her father seemed to be in a drunken stupor, leaving Tove to be the caretaker of the household even though she was only a teenager. One night, they are attacked by a large monster. This beast kidnapped Lars and took off through a portal in the middle of the forest. Though Tove tried to follow, she did not reach the portal in time. Tove found herself in the forest alone, but it was not quite the forest she knew. The bedtime stories that her mother used to tell her are suddenly very real. The forest and its inhabitants were weakened; in order to rescue her brother, Tove had to first help the inhabitants of the forest and awaken the three guardians of the forest.

The strength of familial bonds was one of the two core ideas in the game. Much of the game is focused on Tove and Lars. They were portrayed as a typical sibling pair: Lars was the troublesome younger brother and Tove was the responsible older sibling. Though Tove was exasperated with some of the things Lars did, she was always trying to help him. Once Lars was kidnapped, Tove ventured through the unknown to find him. It was her determination to find and rescue her brother that got her through many frightening moments. Later in the game, their father woke from his unconsciousness to find his children missing and his house destroyed. He then set out to find Tove and Lars, determined to be a better father. It was Hendrik’s bond with Tove that resulted in him finding and helping her through the final challenges to get to Lars.

Tove had to face many dangerous things, both from physical and mental threats, to get through the forest and wake the guardians. This embodied the second core idea of the game, facing one’s fears and one’s truths. While Tove fought some monsters in her own way throughout the game, the most potent and memorable moments of the game were when Tove had to face her fears and sort through her own memories to find the truth of past events. Her mind was as much her enemy as the blight affecting the forest was.

The artwork for the game was beautifully done. Though the style was minimalistic, it still conveyed the story and that atmosphere wonderfully. The music of the game was soft for the most part, but it changed when the atmosphere got tense. While my mind wanted to rush me through the game due to the sense of urgency the story presented, the music helped slow things down so I had a chance to fully enjoy the game. Puzzles and logical thinking were the core mechanic in the game. The puzzles were wonderfully done; even though I had to stop to think a few times, they were never so difficult that they felt impossible to get through. The game was very heavy in Nordic folklore. Unlike some games that required the player to have some knowledge of the real lore to fully understand the events in the game, Röki explained all the prevalent folklore the player would come across. My only annoyance with the game was that it had a fixed camera angle, something that I personally don’t care for.

Röki was a good game with a nice message. I found it enjoyable and I would happily play it again. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a nice game with a good story and beautiful artwork.