Northern Journey is such an incredible game, playing it literally changed my life (not due to the quality of the game, but the experience of playing it was very important). It's a game that has the "best worst combat" that I've ever experienced. The movement feels loose, it kinda felt like I was playing a source game at times. The environments are so incredible, the entire game feels like a dream, and it's very aware of that. Just an amazing game and something that everyone should experience, I don't see enough people talking about it.

Northern Journey calls itself a "happysad game". I think that is all you need to know to describe it. A fairytale that is not tragic nor happy, its just a story of a lone adventurer that gets involuntary involved in a dispute between two magical beings. We are not saving the world, but this flute player wont let me leave until I solve his problem, so off I go on an adventure! Just a glimpse in to the life on this island somewhere in north. It makes me happy to traverse this island and discover its many inhabatants and secrets, it makes me sad that I will have to leave once I am done. The adventure wont last forever and I will miss that damned flute player, even if he is the sole reason for this inconvenience in my travels. I eventually got used to living on this island and I started to like some of its parts, but now I have to seperate myself from it again. It will become yet another fading memory of life. Reminds me of going on some roadtrip. You go somewhere and you like it there, but there is this omnipresent feeling that you will have to leave again soon. Or maybe just a nice walk in nature where you put yourself in a totally different headspace for an hour or two. Happysad perfectly describes this game and life in general, at least from my perspective as a melancholic loner that gets easily attached to places. Last time a game had such an effect for me was Grow Home, that game also felt very "happysad". And of course games like Hollow Knight or Souls games but in those, there is some big "evil" that we have to overcome that kinda distract from this fairytale like premise of "once upon a time in this strange magical land". Media doesnt make me cry, but that ending scene where you play the song on the gifted flute from the flute player made me shed a single tear out of this "happysadness". Life goes on...

i've had this experience before where i''ve found a game hypnotically interesting without having any words to describe why. theres a game i believe is called "destination sol", where you fly around an open and vast world in a spaceship and you can mine asteroids, fight other ships, trade items and land on planets. i never really engaged with many of the main mechanics of it that much, i just loved flying around and seeing everything. this video reminded me of that game, and that time where i'd try out random indie games i'd never heard of just to see what they were about. and you've for sure sold me on both momodora (as i love pixel art, metroidvanias, and the overall aesthetics of it looked so cool) and northern journey (as i am norwegian), so thanks! awesome video

Salt and Sanctuary is special to me in a way I can't describe. I guess the biomes look very similar to something I fantasized since I was young.

Gravity Rush. You'll never find a similar game. Also, it has fantasy language which is cool.

Also yay an actual good youtuber that actually cares about the things he talks about. Subscribe

Rain World falls under the same category for me

Oh, Momodora, I still remember that fight with Pardoner girl (red sword one) in church, and armoured knightess last words... Music was calm and so soothing. One thing - if you no-hit kill Bossgirls then they drop unique items, and some are straight broken. If you have sweet spot for indie games with simillar music/battle vibe then: -"Skul: the hero slayer." Roguelite, nice music, good fastpaced fights, nice story. -"Valdis story: Abyssal city" is really hidden gem. Music is godly. Battle system way better that in "Salt&Sancruary"/"Vigil Longest night" or any other Dsouls-like metroids. Closest to Dark Souls 1 worldbuilding (all enemies have lore approved positions ans reasons to be there, depressive vibe and optional straight lore in descryptions). But there are some things without "must have" instructions (max lvl is 20, but for killing every boss with S-rank style you have stats as reward - finally after years with DMC & Souls, Every 5 points in stat you will have passive effect that changes with your Good/Neutral/Evil setup, stat bonuses for Luck are not linear... and a lot more). Amazing game. -Salt&Sancruary"/"Vigil Longest night" are okay. But their worldbuilding kinda... meh. -"Axiom Verge 1" is masterpiece. If you want 90s "Alien" thriller vibe plus minimalistic old Metroid gameplay - yes, yes, yes! Watching any story summary on youtube is mistake, even if all lore digging was done properly - it is way worse then your manual journey, even if you miss some things. And that sountrack... oh yeah. -and one last random recommendation - "Chrono ark". I wanted some simple indie cardbuilder after overhyped AAA packs of shit, and i picked Chrono ark. At first storyline was so cringe, but music and gameplay carried at first. And man, story is VERY impressive. Plus interesting boss desighns /mechanicks. And who ever expect fully animated anime fight during card battle. Insane. Game was developed by small team in China, there was fanmade (but fine) translation to eng, but tranlation was done when all already forgot bout Ark. Really interesting expierience. Well, usually ppl hate advices, so there is zero chances that anyone tries to play games from this list. Cyberpank, Witcher, Elden and Genshin want a lot of HDD space. Good luck~

Dude I definitely get what you mean! One such game for me is the Witch's Isle. Such a great atmosphere and story, multiple endings as well

Me when I escape to Norway

I'm glad you included the song from Whiteleaf memorial park in the momodora ost segment, it's just so bittersweet to listen to, like hauntingly melancholic and just perfect for it being a graveyard, I feel it's probably one of the best songs in game for how much mood it brings, I remember just sitting in cat form looking at the large water area of the park and just vibing for a while to the song, it's such a special game

Momodora mencioned

Momodora reminds me of alwa's awakening, another pixel metroidvania. Alwa's awakening was given away for free a while ago, I didn't expect much since free games don't always have the best quality and I'm not a big metroidvania fan anyway, but I ended up really loving the retro-inspired soundtrack and it was a solid metroidvania to boot with interesting powerups and tons of secrets, I played through the whole thing then went and bought the sequel.

Great video! hope that you get a lot more views on it! :)

I honestly loved northern journey so much I felt bad for buying it on sale and grabbed a copy for two friends. One friend I found out later had arachnophobia but neither friend was willing to even try the game so unfortunately they are both missing out. I actually have that momodora game in my library already (no idea from when) but I always chalked it up to being just another generic metroidvania. I will give it a try on your recommendation

Momodora 4 is the second best metroidvania, only next to Blasphemous.

Northern Journey, journey that is north wards. Journey Northern it is very cold in the north. And the freezing winter is chilling bones Journey to the North. It is a Northern Journey. Journey to the north. Freezing winds and death in North Land. Journey to the north. Northern WInter. Journey to the freezing lands of the North. Northern Journey. Far beyond the North Waves. On the high northern seas. We have found our way. The shadowing voices of our gods. SInging on the calling winds. Where the cold waves and the longboats brought us far. The saga of the warriors from Northlands. Speaks of greatness and strength. The saga of the warriors from Northland. Are the saga of many great a man. Northern Journey is pretty good if you wanna play as a bumbling Viking most likely high on shrooms, which would explain why everything is so weird, throughout the whole journey. A Northern Journey. This is not ai generated, or is it? Also the music in the game is closest to the "Dungeon Synth" genre, as far as I understand.

huh, I wonder why my comment keeps getting deleted...oh well.