
In the last two weeks I finally got my rear in gear and completed my long game for May. Turns out the road to becoming a hero is long and full of accidental missteps. Good thing I brought my broadsword. Possible spoilers ahead!
Heroine’s Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok is a point-and-click RPG inspired by Sierra’s King’s Quest and Quest for Glory. Steeped in Norse mythology, you take on the titular role of a heroine rising to meet her destiny of saving the world from destruction at the hands of an evil frost giant. The game presents three classic tracks to specialize in: warrior, rogue, or sorcereress. Shock of all shocks, I opted to go for the warrior class. I’m a fan of carrying a big stick, what can I say?

I knew I would be in for a time when the opening scene showed me getting wasted by this lovable goof of a two headed minion, Thrivaldi.

While not groundbreaking, I found the story compelling enough to see it through to the end. I enjoyed meeting and conversing with the NPCs across the map, from the whackadoo wizard to the pompous dark elf who met the pointy end of my sword. It was very satisfying chaining side quests together to progress the story. I was overall pleasantly surprised by the art, music, and voice acting quality.
More of a knock against me than the game, I ended up relying heavily on guides. Some of the puzzles were not intuitive to me, or I was trying to solve others in a style that wasn’t going to work because I had selected warrior. I also turned the difficulty down, because I was in no mood to manage my basic needs for food and sleep. I’m on a quest, damnit, one cannot be bothered with such trifles! It also consequently made me stupidly powerful, which I wasn’t mad at if I’m keeping it real.
The biggest nitpick for me was the movement speed. It took forever to cross a screen. Combat encounters were tedious because I had to wait for an enemy to tag me, get into position, oh surprise more enemies, I had to now get in position, then I could attack. I was grateful indeed that there was a fast travel mechanic…eventually.

Having run the gamut once, would I replay it? Yes, but not in the immediate future, not while this backlog initiative is so young. Taken as a whole, I would recommend this game if:
- you grew up with point-and-click adventure games, or are curious to try the genre
- you like loose retellings of Norse myths
- you’re not ashamed to use guides if you get stuck on obtuse puzzles or nearly box yourself into an unwinnable situation
Truly, for the price of free, the only thing you have to lose is time. Well done, Crystal Shard!
Developer: Crystal Shard
Publisher: Crystal Shard
Platform: PC
Time to beat: 9 hours
