
There's evident potential in Troll and I. Initially developed as part of a crowdfunding program run by Square Enix, it is an intriguing action game starring a Scandinavian boy named Otto who, after finding his village aflame and being separated from his mother, stumbles upon a large creature during his hasty retreat into the forest. He discovers soon enough that the creature is gentle, which leads to what should be a grand adventure to stop unsavoury beasts that flow out of cracks in the ground and a group of hunters on the lookout for your large friend.
Alas, it was not to be. Troll and I has the soul of good game within it, but its myriad bugs and odd design choices keep it from bearing itself to players.
The game very much feels like the product of the early 2000s - ambitious, but residing in an in-between space from the low-res polygons of the late '90s and the more detailed graphics we expect nowadays. There’s definition there, but characters look like plastic action figures and textures are blurry. The voice acting has its moments, but more often than not it sounds amateurish and insincere. Yet barring all of this the environments are still interesting to explore and Otto and Troll’s burgeoning friendship feels plausible, even though there’s little setup to it happening.

While the presentation smacks of old technology, the gameplay itself takes a step back in a way that might make it tough for many to appreciate what Troll and I is trying to do. Character movement is plodding for both Otto and the Troll, although the latter seems particularly slow. This is punctuated with moments where you must press a button for contextual movement that seems off by a few seconds and, more frequently, watch Otto cut a spear out of a branch or watch him climb on Troll - these moments ruin the pacing to an already slow experience. Combat also takes a - ahem - hit with an arbitrary combo system, a finicky parlay system and a very disconnected Troll. Watching the giant swipe enemies aside should be more satisfying than it is, but the sensation is missed.
Most of the game has our heroes trudging through the forest, with intermittent moments of exploration sprinkled in for good measure. You can forage for parts to craft new weapons, healing items to mend your wounds and an assortment of collectables that flesh out the story or allow you to expand Otto and Troll’s abilities. It’s in these pockets where the promise of Troll and I peeks though, although they are few and far between. What makes it a true travesty is that the crafting system is rather pointless, as the different weapons don’t do much beyond having more damage attached to them or having colour-specific spear tips to destroy blockages; the game's rules have little coherence, as the Troll should just be able to smash through these obstacles.

You can play Troll and I cooperatively if you so choose, but splitting the screen makes an already rough experience even more jittery, and there are never moments where you need to use both characters in tandem that would make co-op truly worthwhile. You’ll still have to slowly use Troll to help Otto travail the terrain in order to open paths large enough for Troll to climb through. Again, this sounds like a great concept in theory, but it is hampered by either half-hearted programming or the reality that the game is intended to be played solo.
At points these shortcoming can be overcome with the right state of mind, but they add up. Between this and the sheer buggy nature of the experience (including a game-halting one that forces you to hard reset your Switch) it’d be surprising if people can look past it all.
Conclusion
For every intriguing idea that Troll and I presents, there are a couple of design choices or technical issues that will aggravate players. It’s ugly, clunky and bereft of certain amenities that players take for granted in this day and age. With so many games out to garner people’s attention, Troll and I isn’t as user friendly or quickly appealing as it needs to be in a flooded space. If you are someone who can look past technical hurdles there may be something worth divining here, but as a whole Troll and I is difficult to recommend.
Comments 56
Passss, it's sad too because the game sounds interesting on paper. Just another example of a good idea with bad execution.
A shame it didn't work out. It's a cool idea.
Why are people surprised? Lol
Troll and I wasn't a good game to begin with. I remember watching people on YouTube playing the game and it looked broken. Troll and I is a good game to play while you're drunk, with a group of friends 😂
Whoever designed the troll really knows how to make characters look disgusting and creepy. Not a good idea putting this guy front and center onto the boxart, no matter what this piece of garbage may be called. Unless, of course, you have a horror game at hand or want nobody to buy your game.
Kotaku made an article about this game and the fact Nintendo Switch gamers are encouraging people not to buy it. It was a funny read.
Actually quite a generous score from what I've read - the devs might use this for their promotional material!
"If you are someone who can look past technical hurdles there may be something worth divining here - 4/10 - Nintendo Life!"
Plot twist: The kid is actually the troll and the giant is just a really tall hairy hippie. Throughout the game, the kid (who is an expert internet troll) annoys you by mocking you and following you everywhere.
@roy130390 It all makes sense now...
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/096/044/trollface.jpg?1296494117
The game in a nutshell
The character designs put me off long before we started hearing about how terrible it is.
Are you sure this isn't some Dreamworks Licensed game from 10 years ago?
@DiscoDriver44 that's how it felt to me!
What I expected from the other reviews.
I am 5 hours into the game. It is definitely riddled with bugs, BUT I like the game. I really do. I'm enjoying the adventure for what it is. It should have been marketed as an indie adventure game in the same way Papa and Yo was a few years ago. I paid full price and don't regret it. For me it is a 6/10. Not for everyone but there is a great game in here. I wish the internet didn't do what it does so well and make everyone point and laugh at things they haven't tried.
@DiscoDriver44 Oh that's why it looks so hideous! It all makes sense now!
Nintendo Life is very generous with their review scores. When they say a game sucks then you must know, that game is absolute garbage.
I feel bad seeing games with a lot of effort put into them score poorly. It's a shame because this game shows a great vision... unfortunately they just couldn't pull it off.
I hope the developers learn what worked and what didn't and use that to do better next time
"I want this on the Switch!"
Said no one ever
Great review but not surprised by the score.Shame.
Their mistake was making the Troll look less like the totally lovable Trico from The Last Guardian (ps4) and making him an abomination and totally ugly like a uhh..troll..
Why a four if it's that bad ? It seems like games get a couple of points for the sheer production of sound and image.
I knew it would suck, I KNEW IT!
@Grawlog My thoughts exactly. It is truly a shame when what might be a good game is derailed by a lack of resources. Lack of time and money obviously come down to that, but sometimes so does a lack of talent. I don't know if that's the case here, but it just might be that the studio couldn't afford to hire enough people with the necessary skills and had to rely on the people they had to do what they could, with unfortunate but entirely predictable results. Add to that being unable to afford time to polish the game and the need to put the game out to generate some revenue to keep the doors open, and it just feels like a perfect storm of problems that make each other worse than they'd be in isolation.
Then again, it might be that they just shouldn't be making games, which is a shame of an entirely different kind.
My co-workers and I thought this looked like crap when it was released for Xbone and PS4. This review doesn't surprise me in the least.
Give it a zero and why has it got a physical release when other far better games have not
Lol. Even 4 is too high a score. 3 would have been perfect.
@mercilessrobot I loved devils third. One of the best games on Wii U if you ignore a few bugs. People over look all the bugs in assasins creed or any Bethesda game. But games on Nintendo consoles are not allowed to be less then perfect. Heck, even duke nukem forever was well worth the $20 I paid for it.
Oh well, was actually hoping this would somehow get fixed for the Switch. Now back to waiting for Hollow Knight and flipping Death.
I already played through The Last Guardian, which this seems to be geared towards that audience. That game had a big budget, YEARS of development, and even that had its problems. Maybe this type of game just isn't that easy to pull off? A shame the team couldn't work out its kinks. It would've been better than putting out a half-baked attempt, and may have even been fun.
"The game very much feels like the product of the early 2000s"
This is the perfect description for this game's visuals. I agree whole-heartedly. I look at this and almost think I'm looking at an old PC or Xbox game.
It's a shame how badly this product turned out to be. The premise was interesting.
@Nolan420 but they gave it a 4
@Donutman I loved Devil's Third and I'm not ashamed to say it.
i'm guessing the 4 is because...
Voice acting is mostly ok - 1
Game is playable (tech issues, but not broken) - 1
Game has intriguing concept (if not execution) - 1
Pity for a team trying their best and falling short - 1
4/10 but please try again! learn some lessons, take another crack at it!
Damn not even the PC and Switch could save this buggy port.
@Grawlog Yeah. Indie developers like this team may have big ideas, but without the resources and experience, they are unlikely to be able to come close to achieving them. Indie games tend to do best when they are focused.
I seriously think the troll looks like E.T.'s head on bigfoot's body.
I downloaded this game 2 or 3 days ago. I agree with the review score. The game has promise, but just fell short. The controls are fairly cumbersome. The voice acting & story are decent enough. The graphics are sub-par, but passable. The frame rate occasionally stutters. When climbing (especially with Troll), it gets a little frustrating at times because of how slow the characters move. Overall, it is beginning to get a little tiring & repetetive. Not sure if I'll end up finishing it, or not. The fact that autosave points are not more frequent means that when you die, you may have to restart too far back that you might not feel like trudging back through cumbersome areas — at least that's how I feel.
So, overall, I would also rate this game 4/10. While I do find it somewhat enjoyable despite its flaws, it is beginning to wear on me. To sum it up in one word (I used it a couple of times already) — cumbersome.
And here I was waiting for the switch version to see if the trololololol would be better, I guess not, i'll do WAT RGT 85 said, and wait for it to be 5 bucks to "complete your switch collection".
@DiscoDriver44 It should've been "Shrek & I" it would've sold better and had been better ogrerall!
This game would be forgivable if it wasn't almost full priced. Who in their right mind would buy this, instead of coughing up just a few extra dollars and buying something that actually pulls this style of game off well, AKA The Last Guardian?
@KirbyTheVampire Some men just want to see the world burn...
And their wallets.
@Captain_Gonru They pulled an Ubisoft
I thought NintendoLife will give this game a 9/10... since they gave this score to so many Switch titles. Did Maximum games forgot to send NintendoLife a first class ticket and 5 stars accomodation for the visit to their office?
Yes that's right, I am trolling, that Troll and I.
Well yeah, mythologically, Troll is an ugly monster. But the Troll design of this game makes it even uglier. It would be cool if they design a "Troll" that look cool and badass.
About the graphics, feels outdated but for me, if it's a good game then graphic don't matter. Even stupidass graphics like Meat Boy, Minecraft or Shovel Knight, gets the best review.
Well, it's a pity.
A pity. The concept of the game seemed to be really cool.
Glad I got sonic mania instead
For all I've heard about this game, I wanted to be optimistic. But I can't deny this or any review. I will not buy this game on Switch. Period.
@audiobrainiac LMAO. I've seen many reviews about tech stuff in some games... and then when i'm playing it it's actually not that bad. You just need to take some time to get past that and it will work. Two Worlds 1 on xbox 360 is a good example. A lot of FPS dips and quite buggy. But after playing 30 minutes i didn't care anymore about them because i got used to it. That's what i'm questioning as well with some other games because of this. SO untill i've experienced my own i can't take blindly what "official" reviewers are saying. I won't let them control my mind and thinking the same as they do. Wake up
@Alucard83 hey believe me, I dont arrive at this conclusion blindly. I'm usually the guy who likes what most don't. But when an experience meets so many opinions this badly, it's a big red flag. I want to believe. But the this industry is ruthless. Just give me one good experience on this game, and I'll consider it...
This has too many frequent bugs of all kinds to be considered decent. I consider this broken and unfinished. Without an update I will try to forget about this otherwise slightly appealing game.
This game wasn't tested on just normal functionality by Spiral Games, Maximum Games, or Nintendo's QA.
If you need to hard reset your Switch to even bring the game to boot up correctly, there are some heavy code issues inside. And even then random freezes and "error pop-ups" that close down your game are persistent, not to mention audio distortion and other technical issues. I can't tolerate a game in this state. If they don't even begin to fix this, everyone should be very cautious about any of Maximum Games' future output. This is Top 10 material for biggest messes / most broken games that ever released on a Nintendo console.
I was originally going to get it, but after thinking about it and some of my laziness, decided not to get it. Very pleased in the end that I didn't get it.
Scores are unnecessary. Generally anything short of a 7 should be considered a fail and passed on by the gaming community. I think a simple:
You Must get this!
You Should get this.
Do Not get this!
Would be guidance enough.
Love the source material. Too bad they couldn't capture some of the magic of Troll Hunter.
It's a dang shame about the game. The fact this could've been good but hampered by crippling issues really sucks. I hope this doesn't become a regular thing with the Switch. People need to start delaying their games if this is going to be the final product. Just awful.
I wonder if I will be the only person to complete this 100%. I'm 9 hours in and think I'm getting near the end. Some of the later sequences are actually a blast. Anyway, thought I would post an update. Still like it and am going to go all the way through it and collect everything.
I don't see any information on a Nintendo Switch patch. I would want a patch before playing it.
@bert0503 The game is 90% off now, and still not worth it.
Just grabbed this for $5.99(AUD). Anyone else having massive issues with a real jumpy, slow and broken intro scene? Or is it just me and should re-download??
Update:
After it taking 15mins to get through a 5mins scene the gameplay is the same. So Jumpy and un responsive. Must be my download. Will re-download, fingers crossed.
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