I feel like the team uses "punishingly brutal" as a smokescreen for unjustified design choices which contribute no fun to the game.

No matter how hard you work, how powerful you get, you're constantly suffocating in valheim... suffocating under lack of stamina, even just to run around. suffocating under limited navigation options, limited inventory slots, limited time-limited buffs from food and powers...

See, Mistlands has all this cool stuff. But no mechanics that make it easier to enjoy all that stuff. in fact it seems like all the Mistlands mechanics are drawbacks.

Ok, welcome to our breathtakingly beautiful new land... that you can't see or move around in. you can do magic, at the expense of being able to move or survive. you can craft a bunch of new items... at the expense of desperately needed storage capacity... everything in Valheim seems to burn the candle at both ends, where's the lesson? where's the challenge?