Our former editor, Katharine “Thorsbane” Castle, has long since left those pompous shores for the sunlit heights of Eurogamer, where consoles multiply like rabbits but her legacy endures. For example, she’s the reason I’m familiar with and excited about Roots of Yggdrasil, a roguelike deck-and-city-builder in which you play as a squad of Vikings in a flying ship, landing on floating islands to quickly establish a settlement and gather some magic before the apocalypse—known here as Ginnungagap, a swirling purple void—falls upon them.
Katharine called it a “true growler” before its Early Access release in January, comparing it to both Dorfromantik and The Banished Vault—a chalk and cheese comparison if I’ve ever heard one. Well, rejoice, you perverted chalk and cheese mixers, because Roots of Yggdrasil now has a 1.0 release date of September 6, 2024.
“We had another patch planned before the release of version 1.0, but as we were working on it, we realized that combining all the changes into one made a lot more sense,” the developers of ManaVoid Entertainment commented in post on Steam. “That means the next patch is going to be BIG.” Here’s what you can expect: modern events, including modern characters to trade words from biome to biome, and modern runestones you can apply to add keywords to your cards. For example, if you attach “Retain” to a card, it will remain in your hand until the end of your turn.
There will also be modern building cards, such as the Raid Camp and Wagon Builder, as well as a fourth playable Scion to unlock, with its own story and quest. Existing characters will receive endings for their story quests. Quality of life improvements include organized Scion notes when preparing for each run and a clearer representation of whether your Scion or House will level up if you succeed in a trial.
They’ve also rebalanced the Holt environment, which serves as a persistent and evolving set-up for this particular roguelike. “Overall, we felt that progress was a bit too slow, as well as too restrictive,” the developers explain. “Expect fewer requirements for Holt buildings in the future, and more ways to earn Amenity Tags. We also don’t plan on cleaning anything up, so if a building you place gets rebalanced, you can simply remove it and replace it somewhere else if you prefer!”
All of this comes with a warning that the game will go up in price “slightly” when it leaves Early Access. But there’s also a launch discount, so hopefully you won’t be hurt if you wait until September. Has anyone played it recently? How has Early Access been since Katharine?
