On the 14th, I visited the Lionheart office in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, and played the new game "Valhalla Survival" for about 50 minutes. "Valhalla Survival," produced and distributed by Lionheart, is a mobile roguelike hack-and-slash game based on Nordic mythology. The game begins with the onset of Ragnarok, leading to cracks in the world and the emergence of void creatures. As Loki kidnaps the queen of Midgard, the heroes of Valhalla respond to Odin's call and embark on a journey to rescue her.
As emphasized by the production team, the stunning graphics immediately captivated the attention. Lionheart explained that they wanted to differentiate themselves by releasing a game with high graphic quality in an otherwise casual mobile gaming market dominated by lighter genres. The graphics depicting over 200 monsters pouring in from the surroundings overwhelmed the players. Being developed on Unreal Engine 5, the game featured intricate movements.
One of the standout features of "Valhalla Survival" is the ability to play with one hand. The game is designed with a vertical interface, allowing even adult women to play it one-handed on a Samsung Galaxy Flip model. Enemies approaching automatically attack, so players can evade monster attacks or collect items by moving only their thumbs. However, players may experience fatigue in their hands after over 30 minutes of playtime.
Players can choose one of the classes among warrior, sorceress, and rogue to participate in combat. The warrior, armed with a sword, is specialized in close combat with strong health and defense. The sorceress uses a staff as her primary weapon to cast dazzling spells, while the rogue employs a bow for high attack power to quickly eliminate enemies.
"Valhalla Survival" effectively leverages the characteristics of the roguelike genre, allowing players to feel a sense of accomplishment by creating their own strategies. The roguelike genre can be simply described as a game where dying resets progress to the initial setup. Players can combine 20 active skills and 12 passive skills for synergy. For instance, by selecting the sorceress who has lower defense compared to her attack power and learning skills to reduce health burdens, players can eliminate monsters with ease in the later stages and enjoy the allure of "hack-and-slash."
"Valhalla Survival" consists of 120 stages, with each stage designed for a playtime of 10 minutes. Lionheart explained that the game was created to be short and intense in response to the recent trend of short-form content. The production team noted that they aim to present "the game that leaves the strongest impact in 10 minutes" through "Valhalla Survival."
However, as the game progresses rapidly from the start, existing casual game players accustomed to puzzles or web board games may find the difficulty to be high. During the experience, game enthusiasts skilled at skill combinations achieved stage 5 within 50 minutes, but beginners barely surpassed stage 3. Whether general users, unfamiliar with the roguelike genre on mobile, will engage with paid content and contribute to revenue remains a challenge. The production team is also considering additional developments based on other platforms, including a PC version.
"Valhalla Survival" is scheduled to be released simultaneously in over 220 regions globally, including Korea, the United States, Taiwan, and Japan, on the 21st. The game supports a total of 13 languages. As of the 19th, it has achieved 5 million global pre-registrations.