Roots of Yggdrasil is a unique roguelike city/deck-builder where you hop between the post-Ragnarok fragments of the Nine Realms as you try to rebuild humanity. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Roots of Yggdrasil Review Overview
What is Roots of Yggdrasil?
Roots of Yggdrasil is an indie roguelike deck-builder that weaves together city-building and strategic resource management in the post-apocalyptic ruins of the Nine Realms. You step into the role of one of the Scions from Sunna’s crew—the last mortal survivors of Ragnarok—on a desperate quest to endure the aftermath of the world's end. Sailing across the sky in a floating longship, the crew anchors their hopes in "The Holt," a sprawling haven where they establish settlements and stage expeditions in search of a path back to Asgard. Their mission: to restore a shattered world and rise from the ashes of destruction, as was foretold before the sundering of Ragnarok.
Roots of Yggdrasil features:
⚫︎ Unique blend of deck-building and city-building mechanics
⚫︎ Fully customizable hub world with incremental bonuses
⚫︎ 4 playable Scions with unique passive and active abilities
⚫︎ 4 unique house types for every expedition
⚫︎ Roguelike metagame progression
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
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| $12.99 |
Roots of Yggdrasil Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Truly Inventive Game Design A New Look for Ragnarok Fun Island Renovation at the Holt |
Too Reliant on RNG Unbalanced Scion Abilities |
Roots of Yggdrasil Overall Score - 78/100
Like the roots and branches of the World Tree that stretch across the Nine Realms, Roots of Yggdrasil boldly branches out, blending elements from various genres to create something not only new but great. As with any ambitious fusion, there are a few missteps—the fragmented story, imbalanced cards, and average audio being the most noticeable. Yet the game earns high marks for its daring approach, venturing into uncharted territory. Much like the survivors of Ragnarok, the potential for greatness is undeniable, and with continued development, it could grow even further.
Roots of Yggdrasil Story - 7/10
While I appreciate Roots of Yggdrasil's optimistic and vibrant twist on the typically grim depiction of Ragnarok, the story, much like the Nine Realms it’s set in, feels a bit too fragmented to fully piece together. The stakes don’t feel particularly high either, which slightly undercuts the tension in the narrative. That said, the dialogue is well-crafted, and I’m always a fan of creative spins on familiar myths and legends.
Roots of Yggdrasil Gameplay - 8/10
Roots of Yggdrasil earns plenty of points for innovation, skillfully merging elements of deck-building roguelikes, city-builders, and even a touch of Tetris. The design is impressive, but there’s something to be said for balance. Currently, RNG feels a bit too dominant, and the pace of progression is slower than I’d prefer, occasionally bordering on incremental.
Roots of Yggdrasil Visuals - 8/10
I’m a big fan of the visuals in Roots of Yggdrasil, which embrace a heavily-outlined, graphic novel style reminiscent of North American comic art. The scrapbook-like UI pairs perfectly with the vibrant, saturated colors of the 3D models, creating a cohesive aesthetic that beautifully reflects the game’s upbeat and hopeful take on surviving Ragnarok.
Roots of Yggdrasil Audio - 7/10
The audio in Roots of Yggdrasil fits well with the game’s themes of rebuilding and its Norse mythology roots, enhancing the overall atmosphere. However, it falls short in a few key areas. The absence of voice acting is noticeable, especially in a game that would greatly benefit from it. The soundtrack, while pleasant, lacks variety, with the same handful of tracks repeating over the course of its lengthy runtime. It’s not bad, but I can’t help wanting more of what the game does well.
Roots of Yggdrasil Value for Money - 9/10
Roots of Yggdrasil is priced at an affordable $13, offering a great deal of fun and replayability for what feels like a bargain. While the game does struggle with some balance issues, I expect these will be ironed out with future patches, further boosting its value. As it stands, it’s not quite the ultimate steal—but it’s pretty close.
Roots of Yggdrasil Review: Branching Out in All the Right Ways
Having experienced Roots of Yggdrasil during its Early Access playtest, this isn’t my first time exploring what the game has to offer. Reflecting on my initial review, I was eager to see how the title has evolved with its 1.0 release. My biggest concerns back then were its unfinished feel and the card balancing issues, which I hoped would be the first things addressed. While I’m excited to dive back in, especially given the game’s creative twist on the roguelike deck-building formula, my expectations are high for noticeable improvements in this more-or-less final version.
Let’s start with what Roots of Yggdrasil does best: its creatively designed gameplay. It’s not easy to sum up in just a few words, but I’ll try. The main goal is to reach Asgard, or another key story destination at the end of a run—known in-game as a "loop," but more on that in a moment. To get there, players must navigate the Ginunggagap, the void between realms, by hopping from one fragmented realm to the next. The catch? Your flying longship never has enough fuel to make the full journey. To continue, you’ll need to bloom Yggdrasil saplings scattered across each realm fragment using the energy they provide—called "Eitr"—to fuel the ship for the next part of your adventure.
To bloom these saplings, players must construct settlements using their deck of cards, with each card representing a building. Careful management of the game’s three key resources—Supplies, Might, and Eitr—is crucial, as is the strategic placement of buildings, which fit together like Tetris blocks. Along the way, they’ll encounter a variety of other elements, like quests, draugr camps, choking brambles, gates, unreachable areas, and even NPCs, adding another layer of strategy to the mix and even weaving in some of the game’s storytelling.
This game offers a truly unique mix of gameplay mechanics that I haven’t quite encountered before. But how well does it all come together? For the most part, surprisingly well. The seemingly unrelated gameplay elements blend seamlessly, with no single feature overshadowing the others. The card design is top-notch, and the drafting mechanics are both frequent and varied, offering different rarities and removal options. The sapling blooming challenges strike a good balance between difficulty and fairness. NPC interactions feel fresh and useful, artifacts are cleverly designed, and the Tetris-like building system adds an engaging layer of strategy, requiring careful planning for optimal placement.
That said, the game's balance and progression leave much to be desired. In some areas, the balance feels completely off, and the pacing of progression is agonizingly slow. Each loop ends with a "Boss Level" of sorts, where the sapling objectives multiply, become significantly harder, and are accompanied by powerful curses and debuffs. After the first few loops, Asgard takes center stage as the final challenge—and while I admit this might be a skill issue on my part—it’s still an incredibly tough level to beat, especially since the Ginnungagap threatens you right from the start. A difficulty tweak or the addition of difficulty settings could go a long way in making this more manageable.
When it comes to the game's slow progression, the real issue lies in how little metagame currency you earn per run, especially given the amount of time and mental effort each loop demands. Don't get me wrong—I love how creatively the currency is used, and I'll dive into that later—but the pace at which you accumulate these resources is painfully sluggish. After three or four loops, your progress feels nearly stagnant, with only minor gains to show for all your effort. It's a frustrating contrast to the depth and complexity the game otherwise offers.
In terms of presentation, the game stands uniquely with its playful visuals and solid sound design, though its fragmented storytelling could use some refinement. Visually, the game takes on a style reminiscent of North American graphic novels, with bold outlines, detailed character designs, and a watercolor palette. I'm a fan of this aesthetic, much like I am of the audio, which—while competent—could benefit from more variety. Some voice acting would also be a welcome addition, especially as it might help smooth out the game’s disjointed narrative.
The story unfolds through environmental context, scrapbook-style cinematics, and NPC dialogue. While the first two methods work well enough, the dialogue system leaves room for improvement. Similar to Hades, unlocking new dialogues requires multiple loops and is tied to significant gameplay rewards. Unfortunately, this approach leads to a fragmented narrative, and a stronger throughline connecting these interactions would help the story feel more cohesive.
As for the game’s 1.0 build, it’s a bit of a mixed bag—both significant and underwhelming. On one hand, the presentation has gotten a major upgrade, shedding its early-access playtest feel in favor of better cinematics and improved graphics. The new content is a welcome addition, but for a full 1.0 release, I expected a bit more.
You do get a new scion, which introduces a fresh playstyle, along with a new house type, some additional artifacts, and a handful of new cards. But that’s about it. I would’ve loved to see a new game mode, more NPCs, or at the very least, a larger selection of new cards and artifacts to experiment with. It feels like a solid step forward, but not quite the leap you’d hope for in a game’s official launch.
And that wraps up my thoughts on Roots of Yggdrasil. The game certainly branched out in all the right ways, creating something fresh and engaging, though its overly fragmented narrative might benefit from a little pruning. Its fun atmosphere and unique gameplay mechanics set it apart, making it unlikely to fade into obscurity anytime soon. However, it still has some distance to cover if it hopes to fully rebuild the grandeur of the world before Ragnarok.
Pros of Roots of Yggdrasil
| Things Roots of Yggdrasil Got Right |
|---|
|
Truly Inventive Game Design A New Look for Ragnarok Fun Island Renovation at the Holt |
Truly Inventive Game Design
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the gameplay in Roots of Yggdrasil is incredibly fun, creative, unique, and overall, very well-executed. If I were to describe it—however inelegantly—as a deck-building, city-building, Tetris-style, island-decorating engine-builder, you’d probably expect a chaotic mess. Yet somehow, it all comes together beautifully.
What makes it work is the unconventional way these gameplay elements are implemented, well beyond how they’re typically used in other games. Take the Tetris-like city-building, for example. There are no roads to manage, and while houses are shaped in specific ways, the game is quite forgiving about where you place them. But when it comes to special buildings like Barracks, Markets, and Wells, you’ll need to factor in things like effectivity radii and specific prerequisites—bringing to mind mechanics from a game like Islanders. So, traditional city-building techniques don’t apply here, and that’s what makes it so refreshingly different.
A New Look for Ragnarok
Ah, Ragnarok—the doom and gloom of the end times, retold countless times, most recently in Sony’s God of War: Ragnarok. In recent recountings of Norse mythology, it's rarely painted as a pleasant concept, yet its deeper significance often gets lost in modern retellings. For those unfamiliar, Ragnarok isn’t just an apocalyptic event; it’s a rebirth of the Nine Realms, a cataclysm designed to cleanse the past’s sins and give survivors the chance to rebuild.
Roots of Yggdrasil offers a fresh take on this myth by setting its story post-Ragnarok. Instead of focusing on the inevitable downfall of the gods, the game’s core conflict is about rebuilding after their fall. This twist shifts the narrative from the usual tense, hopeless march toward the end to one of hope, where the future is uncertain but full of promise.
I’m a fan of this brighter outlook towards the end of all things and I think the game capitalized on this concept in the best way possible by focusing its gameplay on building and expansion instead of war and strife like every other game with Ragnarok in mind.
Fun Island Renovation at the Holt
The Holt, your group’s hub world, is a shining example of creative game design that deserves more recognition. While much of your metagame progression takes place at the greenhouse through a traditional tech-tree, The Holt offers a refreshing change of pace. Here, you spend time enhancing the area with houses, resources, and decor. Though this might initially seem like a frivolous use of supplies, the refurbishing process is far from just aesthetic. It unlocks new gameplay features for future loops and provides incremental bonuses that gradually stack up, making each loop more rewarding.
The redecoration aspect also cleverly mirrors the game’s city-building mechanics. Placing buildings and resources requires strategic thinking, as certain prerequisites must be met, and buildings need to be within specific ranges to be effective. This adds another layer of strategy to the game. However, the method of acquiring these building fixtures isn’t without its drawbacks. You obtain them by purchasing card packs with blueprints, leaving the contents entirely up to chance. This randomization can be frustrating and brings back some unpleasant memories from my Hearthstone days.
Cons of Roots of Yggdrasil
| Things That Roots of Yggdrasil Can Improve |
|---|
|
Too Reliant on RNG Unbalanced Scion Abilities |
Too Reliant on RNG
One of the game’s key balancing issues stems from its heavy reliance on RNG. It’s a tricky line to walk, especially given the clash between two of the game’s major genre influences: the unpredictability of deck-builders and the city-building genre’s need for consistency. It’s hard to strategize where to place your buildings when you have no idea what card you’ll draw next, what card you’ll draft afterward, or what curveballs the game will throw at you.
That’s where much of the game’s challenge lies, but the RNG can feel overwhelming, especially when you factor in that the realm fragments you’re building on can shift, and border expansions can completely recontextualize your previous choices. This randomness is baked into the game’s core mechanics, so it’s not something that can be easily fixed. I’d just suggest tempering your city-builder expectations—otherwise, you’re bound to feel some frustration.
Unbalanced Scion Abilities
Each of the game’s figurehead characters, or Scions, which you select at the start of every loop, brings a unique set of abilities that largely shape the focus of each run. For instance, Thrasir excels at city-building, while Lif is all about resource gathering. Having tried all the different Scions, I can say that while their abilities are varied, the power gap between them is quite noticeable. Thrasir is simply unmatched—his kit is consistently useful and effective. In contrast, Lif feels like a chore early on, as she requires a lot of mid-loop setup to become viable, making the beginning of each run a real grind. The newest Scion, Eir, introduces an interesting but frustrating dynamic—though I suspect her higher difficulty is intentional due to her playstyle
Is Roots of Yggdrasil Worth It?
Worth A Shot Now More Than Ever
Roots of Yggdrasil has come a long way since its early development stages, shedding the limitations of its initial versions and stepping confidently into its 1.0 build. Now fully developed, it’s the perfect time to dive into this game and experience its unique blend of Norse mythology and strategy. And the best part? It’s priced at just $13, making it an incredibly affordable entry into the epic task of rebuilding after Ragnarok. Give Roots of Yggdrasil a try—you won’t regret it.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
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| $12.99 |
Roots of Yggdrasil FAQ
How Do You Unlock New House Styles in Roots of Yggdrasil?
New house types are unlocked through the game’s metagame progression, accessible through the Greenhouse at The Holt.
How Do You Unlock New Scions in Roots of Yggdrasil?
New Scions can be unlocked in Roots of Yggdrasil by completing story missions and unlocking kinships with certain characters. Some scions cannot be unlocked before certain story missions are finished.
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Roots of Yggdrasil Product Information
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| Title | ROOTS OF YGGDRASIL |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 6, 2024 |
| Developer | ManaVoid Entertainment |
| Publisher | ManaVoid Entertainment, Indie Asylum |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Strategy, Roguelike, Indie |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | - |
| Official Website | Roots of Yggdrasil Website |
