Cool puzzle platformer, and I love the spritework and creativity! The last level was definitely brutal, had to reference the comments to see that enemies could press buttons, and still heavily struggled because I didn't realize the melee enemy could walk off of platforms, so the last laser enemy felt like the answer and had me barking up the wrong tree for like 15 minutes, but we got there in the end.
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The Locked Valkyries's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Jury - Game Design | #1 | n/a | n/a |
| Jury - Asset Implementation | #4 | n/a | n/a |
| Audience's Choice | #5 | 3.721 | 3.721 |
| Jury - Player Experience | #10 | n/a | n/a |
Ranked from 86 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Something that I think would make the gameplay flow a bit better is if there were 2 buttons used to swap between characters rather than having to cycle through them. The robots are taking my heart pick ups!
Submitted
Winter ElfVery fun premise, excellent homage to The Lost Vikings. Great use of the jam theme. I enjoyed the gameplay variety and the different strengths and weaknesses of each valkyrie, though there were some moments I found frustrating, and not in a good way. Also, the lack of sound effects hurt the experience just a bit. Overall very nice work though!
My personal tastes lean away from experiences where I can get through a level and discover that I’ve made it impossible to continue, especially when it’s because I was too good (i.e., in the case of this game, I destroyed all the robots in the last stage). I know that’s kind of a matter of preferences, and in your game’s case, it’s honestly a minimal problem, since there’s a big friendly “press R to restart the level” reminder on screen, and the levels aren’t ever so long that it’s really painful to use it, but the frustration that does exist mostly comes from how long it takes the slower characters to get where you need them to go. That’s not really a problem on its own (it’s fun to accept that this character is slow because her legs are bound, or this one because she’s literally hogtied inside a weird cage thing), so it only becomes a pain point when it’s combined with a mandatory restart. In my humble opinion.
That's fair! It's similar frustration to the original Lost Vikings game that inspired this one.
I'll consider if there's a good way to get around that without breaking the core game design. I see the final level as a sort of "bad ending/good ending" scenario, but it's forcing players to get the good ending, which is an experience that could be improved.
Excellent, The Locked Valkyrie's is for sure the closest to the theme of the jam. Great Stuff
Submitted
The Lady of AppalachiaGreat idea and fits the theme perfect. Only annoying thing for me was I fell into a hole with the 2nd girl and couldn't get out. Had to redo the entire level which made me realize that you often have to cover the same ground 3 different times. Maybe a way to have them travel as one would be nice.
Submitted
Stakes and SteedsGreat idea and fits the theme perfect. Only annoying thing for me was I fell into a hole with the 2nd girl and couldn't get out. Had to redo the entire level which made me realize that you often have to cover the same ground 3 different times. Maybe a way to have them travel as one would be nice.
Submitted
Stakes and SteedsThe Locked Valkyries - a sister game to the excellent The Lost Vikings. Our three valkyries are trying to escape yet another laboratory using the power of friendship (especially in the final area, where we recruit a robot to the team to finish the game).
An interesting take on the puzzle-platformer genre. It’s a shame there are so few levels, but respect for the idea and the nostalgia
A simple yet fun experience, especially at the end where it tricks you into a softlock, forcing you to find an alternative solution to the level.
Although the button mapping is a bit weird and the pacing starts to feel slow in repeated runs, it doesn't stop it from being a good puzzle game. Plus, the sprites and overall retro aesthetic adds a bit of charm to it.
Overall, you did a good job here, buddy! :)
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