Roots of Yggdrasil Preview

Roots of Yggdrasil centres around the survivors of Ragnarök — the end and rebirth of the nine worlds, according to Norse mythology, brought on by an epic battle of the gods. Using a deck of cards that changes per turn, your goal as the player is to find a place safe from the turmoil to rebuild the little piece of society you have left. 

Roots of Yggdrasil describes itself as a deck-led puzzle game, but I would describe it more as a strategy sandbox with puzzle elements. As you start the game, you are brought to various pieces of unconnected floating islands. Through creating certain buildings, you generate points like “population” or “mightiness”, which you can use as a currency to either reconnect the different islands and expand or go exploring for new lands. 

Buildings have placement restrictions, determined by different factors such as distance from certain other buildings (which will give you a penalty if you ignore), supplies, or simply where you have the space. Running out of space was a problem I kept knocking into. As my settlement grew, it constantly needed upgrades. It's important to note that upgraded buildings don't replace your existing ones, so things get tight. Which buildings you can place to begin with is determined by what you pull from your deck of cards. After each turn, your deck will reshuffle itself, allowing for different choices as to what you can place down next to further your goals.

The puzzle aspect becomes apparent when you're given bigger objectives. You'll eventually be tasked with having to get power from the saplings of Yggdrasil. The way you do this is by slowly connecting things source to source, sort of like a magical powerline. But first, you have to unlock certain buildings so you can meet the specifications for drawing new upgrade cards for your deck. If you place things correctly and squish in what you need, each new connection will allow you to get closer and closer to the sapling. 

The art style of Roots of Yggdrasil is hand-drawn with a slight smattering of 3D transitional effects. Through this, players will experience cutscenes and meet the characters surviving and trekking through this new world. It also gave a quick way to run through the exposition that always has to be spit out in rapid succession with this kind of game. 

Roots of Yggdrasil is going to be a game detail-oriented casual players enjoy the most. Even in its simplicity, it can become tedious, but in a way that a certain niche of players will love. The theme gives it a unique twist from other similar strategy games, and the art style also gives it a nice personal identifier.