God of War Ragnarok Thread

CriticalGaming

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Also, I want to know what attracted Freya to Kratos in the first place when the man communicates in grunts and threats of violence. Was being a great warrior enough? There might be some lore I've forgotten,
If i had to guess. Prophecy. The giants seemed to have Kratos in their visions coming to midgard and doing shit. So perhaps she attached herself to him because she knew their baby and him would be important.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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One of the many insightful comments -
Rich Vestal3 weeks ago
I was watching an interview with the lead writer on Ragnarok and he said that one of Barlog's main story points was that Brok had to die. When he asked Barlog why it was that Brok specifically had to die Barlog's response was "because Brok is the family dog."

That's why it hits you so hard.


 
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PsychedelicDiamond

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This is the first time I've been playing the new God of War games. I started the 2018 one a while ago and then dropped it because I found it hard to adjust to some of the gameplay differences between it and the earlier ones. Mainly the lack of a jump, which I had some real trouble getting used to. There were so many times when I wanted to close the distance to an enemy with a jump before I realized, right, we can't do this anymore. Now, having given it another try, I warmed up to it when the combat opened up a bit and I started to adjust to it.

I mean, there are many ways in which these games are a departure from the old GoW trilogy in regards to pacing, narrative, presentation and everything but I like to think of myself as open minded when it comes to these things. As long as I don't end up with something like Zelda: Skyward Sword, I'm happy getting something different. GoW 2018 had some bold decisions, mainly starting what is pretty much a redemption arc for Kratos who, by the end of the old trilogy, was probably one of the least sympathethic player characters in any high budget game.

Putting him in the role of a single parent was certainly not an obvious place to take the character and you really gotta give the writers some credit that he managed to come out of it with his dignity intact. I felt the game occasionally kind of acknowledged that there is something inherently comedic to that entire premise but it was still something I could accept as an evolution of the series. I ended up enjoying GoW 2018 quite well. I think the actual action was easily on par with that of the old games. And the entire single shot approach to cutscenes provided some visually breathtaking sequences.

Ragnarök so far seems to improve on the previous games mechanics in most ways, but is also the kind of sequel to obsessively add more capital S Stuff, a lot of which feels a bit like bloat. I'm saying this having just finished a segment that has best encapsulated my two biggest issues with the game so far. The second sequence in which you control Atreus, the one that introduces a love interest for him. One being that a lot of the dialogue feels modern in some of the worst ways. Atreus usually gets the worst of it, talking way too much like a modern day teenager. His dialogue with Angrboda gets... pretty painful. I'm probably meant to find the awkwardness endearing, but I mostly found the awkwardness awkward.

The other problem is that the segment seemed to go on forever. The word "indulgence" comes to mind. It's the sort of thing that made me wish the game would just get on with it already. A writer could, surely, explain to me how every single bit of it is important for Atreus' character development. And an editor could surely explain to them how some of it just wasn't necessary.

I don't begrudge the series for taking a plot heavier direction, but in Ragnarök that newly found plot focus sometimes seems to be at the detriment of its virtues as an action game. An impression I never got with the 2018 game. I don't think Ragnarök is bad or anything, I just question some of its priorities.
 
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BrawlMan

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I'm saying this having just finished a segment that has best encapsulated my two biggest issues with the game so far. The second sequence in which you control Atreus, the one that introduces a love interest for him. One being that a lot of the dialogue feels modern in some of the worst ways. Atreus usually gets the worst of it, talking way too much like a modern day teenager. His dialogue with Angrboda gets... pretty painful. I'm probably meant to find the awkwardness endearing, but I mostly found the awkwardness awkward.
You're not the only one. Though dialogue most people didn't have a problem with. The sequence with Atreus and Agabroda goes on for way too long, and could've been cut down, or just been cut-scenes. It's same problem a lot of Sony games have on repeat playthroughs or even the first time through. Enough with the sake for "IMMERZIAN!". Rangarok I will play again when they add the NG+ update. Sucks they couldn't have it at the start and the made the same mistake as God of War 4 in that regard.
 

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Having finished Ragnarok it seems like Surtr really got a raw deal. He basically gets forced into dying for the sake of the attack on Odin, and then halfway through it turns out that he not only wasn't necessary to the attack, but actually needs to be stopped. His contribution to "saving the realms" is invalidated. He dies for nothing, kills Freyr in the processes, and the only person who mornes his sacrifice is his wife, who he has been apart from for hundreds of years. No one else even really mentions him after Asgard falls.
 

BrawlMan

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Like last time, NG+ should not take this long to come out. I know there will be a bunch of new rewards and content, but it sucks it takes this long for what is a mandatory feature that should be unlocked from the start after beating the game. I just came off of Hi-Fi Rush, and it has tons of NG+ content immediately after beating the game your first time through.

For those that don't want to read. Short version; date is Spring of this year, but not actual month and day. I'm assuming in the middle of April.
 
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BrawlMan

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Have it in my watch list, thanks. Amazing how late to the game Gameology can be sometimes though, no pun.
They had done a Ragnarok video before with the Martial Artsists react (something they did two months ago), so they're not that late in the game. I do say that sometimes they jump on to things late, because they're always going for what's out or current at the moment. I've noticed it with their uploads. It's not constant basis, but it is noticeable.
 
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Missed this but didn’t see it posted here -



My biggest problem is it added more but did less with it.

What I wanted most were more epic feeling boss fights like the old games. What we got was more…idk, more varied bossfights. IE not ten trolls and some dragons. But even then they still were often spongy drawn out hack fests.

The characterization was incredible and probably outdid the first with additions like Thor and Odin, but there were also the tediously meandering Atreus sections. It’s also weird that the game was bigger but felt more linear and shorter if you cut away the story sections. The ending, for being bloody “Ragnarok”, felt more like window dressing + Thor again and an Odin fight that was more meh than Zeus from GoW 2 & 3.

As an aside I haven’t felt compelled to go back to it for Platinum after the true ending, because even dropping the difficulty to Story or whatever there are still a ton of spongy A-Holes to deal with.
 

CriticalGaming

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What I wanted most were more epic feeling boss fights like the old games. What we got was more…idk, more varied bossfights. IE not ten trolls and some dragons. But even then they still were often spongy drawn out hack fests.
I think this comes from the different focus for the new series of GoW games. But even then if you look at the old GoW games there was always like an opening boss that was on an epic scale, but the majority of everything else was barely a boss and usually revolved around a gimmick instead of actual combat. Each game basically had an epic boss at the beginning and one at the end, making them more memorable.

I don't really think there was any real spongy problem in these GoW games, maybe on the hardest difficulty I suppose.

The ending, for being bloody “Ragnarok”, felt more like window dressing
I think that was the point if I'm honest. Kratos is basically doing everything he can to NOT do the Ragnarok thing, until he is essentially forced to do it in order to stop Odin's madness. However RAgnarok is not intended to be this apocalypse, it's a scare tactic to get to Odin and stop him from doing worse damage. And in that way the Ragnarok thing is a sort of red herring.
 
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Missed this but didn’t see it posted here -



My biggest problem is it added more but did less with it.

What I wanted most were more epic feeling boss fights like the old games. What we got was more…idk, more varied bossfights. IE not ten trolls and some dragons. But even then they still were often spongy drawn out hack fests.

The characterization was incredible and probably outdid the first with additions like Thor and Odin, but there were also the tediously meandering Atreus sections. It’s also weird that the game was bigger but felt more linear and shorter if you cut away the story sections. The ending, for being bloody “Ragnarok”, felt more like window dressing + Thor again and an Odin fight that was more meh than Zeus from GoW 2 & 3.

As an aside I haven’t felt compelled to go back to it for Platinum after the true ending, because even dropping the difficulty to Story or whatever there are still a ton of spongy A-Holes to deal with.
Other than a lack of a jump button, I didn't have much disappointments with this game. I knew from the beginning I was just getting a better version of the previous game.

I actually like most of the boss battles in this game. I found most of the boss battles of Ragnarok better than the ones in the previous game and God of War III.

Enemies never felt too spongy for me, but I did a majority of the side quest to keep Kratos and Atreus above the required level. I played on normal too.
 

Casual Shinji

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My biggest problem is it added more but did less with it.
The big problem was they added more and so less could be done with it. GoW '18 is really quite a small game all things considered - It only has 9 real characters, 5 of which are plot essential, and only 2 of those 5 take up the majority of the focus. Ragnarok on the otherhand is absolutely drowning in characters that all take up so much of the story's time and dilute the conclusion of these characters in the process.