I know I'm very late to the Valheim party. I'm playing on PC but hadn't picked up the game until last week. I thought I would share some appreciation from a newbie's perspective.
I built my first karve and was having a blast exploring and sailing. (I have a sailboat with a tiller, and find the game sailing mechanics to be excellent.) The sailing/ocean theme music is so majestic!
Without any spoilers, let just say I had a mishap and drowned. I was disappointed but knew the game billed itself as a "brutal exploration and survival game", and I was taking on big risks with a low (Black Forrest) level character. Here's the coolest thing though, the game was tough but fair and with some time and effort I was able to recover everything I had lost.
So while the game design gave me an appropriate come-uppance for over-confidence, the main thing I lost was time… and the entire experience felt both epic and rewarding.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/125rekw/an_appreciation_for_tough_but_fair/
