Nordic Ashes: The Complete Saga PS5 Review – A Radical Ragnarok Roguelite!!!

Developed and published by Noxfall Studios, Nordic Ashes: Survivors of Ragnarok is one of the stronger entries in the ever-growing “survivor-like” roguelite genre. The Complete Edition, or Complete Saga packages together the base game and its DLC expansions into a surprisingly content-heavy release that feels tailored for players who enjoy experimentation, grinding unlocks, and slowly becoming absurdly overpowered. 

At its core, Nordic Ashes takes the formula popularized by games like Vampire Survivors and injects it with heavy Norse mythology flavoring. Players survive increasingly overwhelming enemy hordes across maps inspired by the Nine Realms, while leveling up, evolving weapons, and building devastating character combinations. The game is less about intricate storytelling and more about atmosphere, progression, and the satisfaction of turning chaos into domination. Even so, the world-building gives the game a stronger identity than many of its contemporaries.

The game’s world draws deeply from Scandinavian mythological imagery. Each realm feels distinct, from icy wastelands and volcanic ruins to cursed forests and divine halls. While the narrative remains intentionally light, there is enough lore threaded through environments, bosses, relics, and character designs to create a cohesive sense of place. Rather than delivering lengthy cutscenes or dialogue-heavy storytelling, Nordic Ashes lets its world speak through visual design and progression. Ancient gods, monstrous creatures, and references to Ragnarok create an ongoing sense that the player is fighting through a collapsing mythological apocalypse.

The playable cast is one of the game’s biggest strengths. Characters aren’t simple cosmetic swaps. Each hero has a distinct weapon archetype (Relic), starting ability, and strategic focus. Some excel at area control, others specialize in critical strikes, summons, mobility, or elemental damage. Because each survivor has unique upgrade trees and mastery systems, changing characters substantially changes how a run unfolds. Unlocking new heroes becomes a core motivator, especially because later characters introduce increasingly complex play styles that encourage experimentation.

Feature-wise, Nordic Ashes, at base level, offers far more depth than its minimalist presentation initially suggests. Beyond standard runs, players can tackle multiple game modes including Adventure, Ragnarok, Nightmare, Custom, and Daily Challenge modes. The inclusion of customizable runs and escalating difficulty settings gives advanced players reasons to keep returning long after seeing the credits-equivalent content.

The roguelite systems are especially well designed in the core experience. During runs, players gather experience gems to level up and select randomized upgrades. These upgrades can modify attacks, summon effects, elemental damage, survivability, and utility perks. Outside of runs, currencies earned through gameplay feed into persistent progression systems. The Yggdrasil meta-progression tree in the base game acts as a permanent account-wide upgrade structure, letting players improve stats and unlock broader gameplay advantages across all characters. 

Character-specific mastery systems add another layer of progression. Individual survivors can unlock permanent enhancements and ascensions that push builds further into specialization. Combined with over 150 relics and a huge collection of unlockables, the game constantly rewards continued play. The progression loop rarely feels stagnant because there is almost always another weapon evolution, challenge, skin, or relic combination to chase.

A typical playthrough revolves around surviving timed stages while building toward a functional endgame setup before elite enemies and bosses overwhelm you. Early minutes focus on survival and positioning, mid-game revolves around assembling synergies, and late-game becomes an exercise in crowd management as the screen fills with enemies and visual effects. Boss encounters punctuate runs effectively, requiring movement awareness and build optimization rather than pure reflexes alone. A “full” completion path involves unlocking every character, conquering higher difficulties, mastering each realm, and experimenting with different build combinations across the game’s multiple modes.

Even with the robust offerings of the main game bundle already available, the Complete Saga dramatically expands the amount of available content. The bundled DLC adds a tower mode, significantly increasing variety across long-term play. This expansion feels less like an isolated add-on and more like an extension of the game’s core progression systems. The new Tower mode introduces a 50 floor roguelite Tower experience with perks that can be upgraded per floor, and branching timed rooms with even more relic upgrades, performance buffs, deity effect cards, and  room-to-room bonuses. The added content deepens the theorycrafting aspect considerably, giving veteran players more ways to break the game through carefully stacked combinations. There's even Diablo inspired difficulty tiers with harder to defeat enemies, and bosses as well as rarer upgrades/bonuses.

The Presentation ...

Visually, Nordic Ashes strikes a balance between a hand drawn art design and modern readability. Enemies remain observable even during dense combat sequences, which is critical for a game where hundreds of projectiles and monsters can occupy the screen simultaneously. The environments use strong color palettes and layered effects to create distinct realms without sacrificing gameplay clarity. Character animations are simple but expressive, and spell effects escalate beautifully as builds become more overpowered.

The soundtrack complements the Norse setting well, leaning into atmospheric fantasy instrumentation mixed with energetic combat themes. It may not be the kind of soundtrack players listen to outside the game, but it consistently reinforces the mood of each realm and helps maintain momentum during long survival sessions. Audio feedback is also excellent from a gameplay perspective, making level-ups, boss encounters, and powerful attacks feel impactful.

The Verdict ...

The Complete Saga is an impressive experience in that it understands what makes roguelite survivor games compelling. Such things as the constant progression, meaningful unlocks, and the thrill of creating wildly broken builds. Nordic Ashes refines the genre with an impressive amount of content, excellent long-term progression systems, and a strong thematic identity. The DLC elevates the package considerably by expanding nearly every system in meaningful ways instead of merely adding isolated content drops.

For players who enjoy replayability, the value is there. Between the large character roster, multiple modes, extensive relic pools, mastery systems, unlockables, secrets, and DLC additions, the game offers dozens, if not potentially hundreds, of hours of content for completionists and genre enthusiasts.

Ultimately, Nordic Ashes: The Complete Saga is best suited for fans of roguelites, survivor-likes, and progression-heavy action games. Players who enjoy experimenting with builds, unlocking endless upgrades, and chasing increasingly difficult challenges will get the most from it. Those looking for a narrative-heavy experience may find the storytelling too minimal, but anyone seeking an addictive gameplay loop packed with unlockables and replay value will likely find this one hard to put down.