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God of War Ragnarök - Information Thread, update: initial OpenCritic reviews of Valhalla DLC posted

Commissar SFLUFAN

By Commissar SFLUFAN
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stepee

stepee

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Posted

Man that last two hours of the main game is just some of the best shit there is ya. I have those two important side quests to do still but I’ll probably do those tomorrow. Crazy good game though yeah, definitely helped round this year out to be less lackluster. Would be my GOTY if it wasn’t for Elden Ring just being something else and this being closer to something I played before. That’s just giving Elden Ring it’s due props though, this was phenomenal as a sequel.

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SaysWho?

SaysWho?

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2 minutes ago, Firewithin said:

trying to tackle some side quests finally as im about 75% through main story right now.  i just did the couple desert side qeusts where you free the space jellyfish or whatver they were called.  that was a wonderful visual once completed. 

 

Hell, it was a wonderful visual when you get halfway through it and see part of the change. Funny how different it is when you first get there.

 

Not every realm does it, and I'm sure they'd have to have done much more work to do it with every realm (and for some realms like Helheim, it wouldn't make sense to produce big changes), but it is cool that you can see tangible changes if you work on the side quests in places such as Alfheim and Vanaheim, 

Spoiler

specifically the optional part of Vanaheim, which is a damned crazy battlefield when you first get there but calms down the more you improve the place.

 

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stepee

stepee

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I did those two important end game quests and that was a nice last line. I guess the thing I missed at the end was

when Loki Loke pushes Kratos into the escape portal, what was up with that? It seemed like he was going to face Ragnarock or maybe sacrifice himself or something but then he just wakes up and it’s all good? What did I miss?

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Bacon

Bacon

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Posted
10 minutes ago, stepee said:

I did those two important end game quests and that was a nice last line. I guess the thing I missed at the end was

  Reveal hidden contents

 

You didn't miss anything. That part was just bad. 

 

As I have said before, the ending was really cool when you don't have time to think about it and are living in the moment. In retrospect there are a lot of flaws with that whole last chapter and it is full of clichés used poorly. Still pretty great in the moment tho. 

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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Posted
1 hour ago, stepee said:

I did those two important end game quests and that was a nice last line. I guess the thing I missed at the end was

  Hide contents

when Loki Loke pushes Kratos into the escape portal, what was up with that? It seemed like he was going to face Ragnarock or maybe sacrifice himself or something but then he just wakes up and it’s all good? What did I miss?

 


As Bacon said... with spoilers for almost all the endgame content....

 

Spoiler

You didn't miss anything.

 

I think the ending works best when you're going through it first and everything is popping off; hence my earlier comparison to a JJ Abrams movie. I don't know that the ending "works" at all when you stop to think about it. It works fine in the moment when you can't wait for the next bit. It's still emotionally satisfying but a lot of it is kinda flimsy especially given that most of the stuff leading up to that is pretty tight.

 

But I guess Ragnarok just got dealt with offscreen? Freyr dies for like... no good reason? In the time he has to say goodbye he couldn't have gotten himself and other people out? The entire security of Asgard is dependent on nobody asking a dwarf to make a button? Surtr refuses to help you then just... changes his mind for no reason other than that the plot needs him to? Unless you do everything up front, Atreus leaves before he bothers to clean up the realm tears he was obviously bent out of shape about having caused? He doesn't stick around to see if Brok will have a funeral? If you go to Jotunheim after doing a bunch of extra side stuff Kratos has... shockingly little to communicate to or about Atreus? He has some nice moments with Agrboda, but like... he's not there with her? After the ending where it's clear that she's a main part of the reason Atreus is leaving? Yes she needs to take care of her grandmother, I get that, but that he'd leave Kratos for them to go on their mission and then they'd split seems contrived.

 

This stuff is just so weird. The spear is so cool and there's so much attention to detail... it obviously calls back to Kratos being Spartan, it has the combined brand that the brothers rejoined from the first game. They reference Deimos, who originally was just on the PSP! Shit like that. Then it's all unexplained mask this, giant stuff that, whackity schmackity doooooooo, I gotta go dad, byeeeee

 

In any other game I probably wouldn't care at all, it just feels out of place with the 30+ hours that precede it which has SO MUCH put into it.

 

Unrelated, but I had an extremely stupid theory about where the game was headed for like... 75% of the game. This ended up being wrong, naturally. Spoilers.

 

Spoiler

So at the start of the game, Thor fucks with the game over screen. I thought that was just the game being cute with player expectations up until you fight with "Vanadis," which is Freya in Valkyrie mode. Vanadis is one of Freya's many names in Norse mythology, and it's clear in hindsight that it's just the dev's being cute, like the Thor bit. BUUUUUT despite knowing Freya and the Valkyries well, Mimir DOESN'T know who "Vanadis" is. So unlike most of the other bosses, where Mimir would know the name of something to justify the game naming an enemy (he literally calls out the names of the Berskers, and he knew the Valkyries from the first game), or the fight against Atreus as "Bjorn," which just means "bear..." I figured that the realm tear Odin looked into was a portal to the "real world" and between the meta game stuff and Loki being... Loki, that Thor essentially acknowledging the existence of the game over screen and Freya being called one of the names from Norse mythology associated with her IRL that we'd have some 4th wall shit going on.

 

But no, I'm just dumb. :p

 

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legend

legend

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Posted
1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:


As Bacon said... with spoilers for almost all the endgame content....

 

  Hide contents

You didn't miss anything.

 

I think the ending works best when you're going through it first and everything is popping off; hence my earlier comparison to a JJ Abrams movie. I don't know that the ending "works" at all when you stop to think about it. It works fine in the moment when you can't wait for the next bit. It's still emotionally satisfying but a lot of it is kinda flimsy especially given that most of the stuff leading up to that is pretty tight.

 

But I guess Ragnarok just got dealt with offscreen? Freyr dies for like... no good reason? In the time he has to say goodbye he couldn't have gotten himself and other people out? The entire security of Asgard is dependent on nobody asking a dwarf to make a button? Surtr refuses to help you then just... changes his mind for no reason other than that the plot needs him to? Unless you do everything up front, Atreus leaves before he bothers to clean up the realm tears he was obviously bent out of shape about having caused? He doesn't stick around to see if Brok will have a funeral? If you go to Jotunheim after doing a bunch of extra side stuff Kratos has... shockingly little to communicate to or about Atreus? He has some nice moments with Agrboda, but like... he's not there with her? After the ending where it's clear that she's a main part of the reason Atreus is leaving? Yes she needs to take care of her grandmother, I get that, but that he'd leave Kratos for them to go on their mission and then they'd split seems contrived.

 

This stuff is just so weird. The spear is so cool and there's so much attention to detail... it obviously calls back to Kratos being Spartan, it has the combined brand that the brothers rejoined from the first game. They reference Deimos, who originally was just on the PSP! Shit like that. Then it's all unexplained mask this, giant stuff that, whackity schmackity doooooooo, I gotta go dad, byeeeee

 

In any other game I probably wouldn't care at all, it just feels out of place with the 30+ hours that precede it which has SO MUCH put into it.

 

Unrelated, but I had an extremely stupid theory about where the game was headed for like... 75% of the game. This ended up being wrong, naturally. Spoilers.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

I think a lot of your points are fair, but I think there are a couple events that have reasonable explanations to them.

 

Spoiler

Re: Ragnarok being dealt with, I think there just isn't anything to be dealt with. They came to learn that Ragnarok would *only* destroy Asgard. With Odin (and Thor for that matter) out of the way, Asgard's fate was sealed, but the rest of the realms would go on regardless of doing anything. So there's nothing really more to do other than evacuating the people who were at Asgard, which they made clear was a priority earlier. So it ends, and yeah, Asgard is gone while the other realms remain as expected.

 

Re: Surtr, he doesn't just change his mind for no reason. The reason he didn't want to help you was because he wasn't willing to merge and kill Sinmara for it. He didn't care about himself dying. When Kratos goes to leave, Surtr looks back at him as he departs and notices the Blades of Chaos (because they're on Kratos' back so he didn't really see them before that). That's when he realizes there is a way to start Ragnarok by only sacrificing himself and not her.

 

You can see the moment when he notices the blades here:

 

 

 

 

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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38 minutes ago, legend said:

 

 

I think a lot of your points are fair, but I think there are a couple events that have reasonable explanations to them.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Re: Ragnarok being dealt with, I think there just isn't anything to be dealt with. They came to learn that Ragnarok would *only* destroy Asgard. With Odin (and Thor for that matter) out of the way, Asgard's fate was sealed, but the rest of the realms would go on regardless of doing anything. So there's nothing really more to do other than evacuating the people who were at Asgard, which they made clear was a priority earlier. So it ends, and yeah, Asgard is gone while the other realms remain as expected.

 

Re: Surtr, he doesn't just change his mind for no reason. The reason he didn't want to help you was because he wasn't willing to merge and kill Sinmara for it. He didn't care about himself dying. When Kratos goes to leave, Surtr looks back at him as he departs and notices the Blades of Chaos (because they're on Kratos' back so he didn't really see them before that). That's when he realizes there is a way to start Ragnarok by only sacrificing himself and not her.

 

You can see the moment when he notices the blades here:

 

 

 

 


 

Spoiler

Re: Ragnarok, yeah fair, I still think it’s a lot of buildup to something that ultimately kinda fizzles. So much of this game is about Kratos and Atreus taking accountability for what they did across two games that Ragnarok destroying Asgard and killing Freyr happening at the very end feels kinda unmoored. Kratos and Atreus are indirectly responsible for Freya’s brother dying and given how the game starts and where their relationship ends up, that is really just hand waved away in comparison. It’s acknowledged but feels like lip service 

 

Re: Surtr, yeah I mean it’s not literally no reason, it’s just wildly convenient. There’s even the whole “please don’t let my wife merge with me” or whatever line in there that’s not relevant because she never materializes. There’s just so much happening in the back part of this game that isn’t given time to develop or breathe and this is one of them 

 

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SaysWho?

SaysWho?

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People are finding cool details. Here's a non-spoiler one:

 

hiwpu6kmdz1a1.jpg

 

These are: 

 

The Sunrise of Nothingness (Horizon Zero Dawn)
Large Society Ground Orb, The Performance (MLB: The Show)
We Who Remain, Part The Second (The Last of Us: Part II)
Tool and Bang (Ratchet & Clank)
Afterlife Abandonment (Death Stranding)
Visions After Rest (Dreams)
Spirits Within Walls (Concrete Genie)
Celestial Construct (Astro's Playroom)
Upon Pursuing A Place Not Marked On Maps (Uncharted)
Trip (Journey)
Eastern Specter (Ghost of Tsushima)
An Organization: In The Future (The Order: 1886)
Sanguinity (Bloodborne)
The Dead Do Not Ride (Days Gone)

 

There's this little thing which is just cool attention to detail:

 

 

 

And this is a spoiler but Photomode means people are catching it!

 

Spoiler



nzycjc5b864a1.jpg

 

BIG spoiler, cool detail:

 

Spoiler

 

 

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best3444

best3444

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Posted

I'm now 12 hours in and I'm literally exploring every nook and cranny of each area. Holy shit, @Bacon was right. There are chests EVERYWHERE! :lol:

 

My first playthrough I missed so much shit. My character is getting much better armor and the sense of discovery is so fun. 

 

Still at the point where I'm at this game is a 9.5 but I'll be interested when things slow down to see if it effects me as it did on my first playthrough. 

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best3444

best3444

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Jfc, 20 hours in and I barely scratched the main story. I've discovered so many new large areas with a ton of secrets. This game is massive! I'm really appreciating this game more than ever now. After I completely dissect this game and beat it again, I'll reevaluate my GOTY. I just played 4 hours straight. 😆 

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BloodyHell

BloodyHell

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On 12/5/2022 at 5:56 PM, Kal-El814 said:


As Bacon said... with spoilers for almost all the endgame content....

 

  Hide contents

You didn't miss anything.

 

I think the ending works best when you're going through it first and everything is popping off; hence my earlier comparison to a JJ Abrams movie. I don't know that the ending "works" at all when you stop to think about it. It works fine in the moment when you can't wait for the next bit. It's still emotionally satisfying but a lot of it is kinda flimsy especially given that most of the stuff leading up to that is pretty tight.

 

But I guess Ragnarok just got dealt with offscreen? Freyr dies for like... no good reason? In the time he has to say goodbye he couldn't have gotten himself and other people out? The entire security of Asgard is dependent on nobody asking a dwarf to make a button? Surtr refuses to help you then just... changes his mind for no reason other than that the plot needs him to? Unless you do everything up front, Atreus leaves before he bothers to clean up the realm tears he was obviously bent out of shape about having caused? He doesn't stick around to see if Brok will have a funeral? If you go to Jotunheim after doing a bunch of extra side stuff Kratos has... shockingly little to communicate to or about Atreus? He has some nice moments with Agrboda, but like... he's not there with her? After the ending where it's clear that she's a main part of the reason Atreus is leaving? Yes she needs to take care of her grandmother, I get that, but that he'd leave Kratos for them to go on their mission and then they'd split seems contrived.

 

This stuff is just so weird. The spear is so cool and there's so much attention to detail... it obviously calls back to Kratos being Spartan, it has the combined brand that the brothers rejoined from the first game. They reference Deimos, who originally was just on the PSP! Shit like that. Then it's all unexplained mask this, giant stuff that, whackity schmackity doooooooo, I gotta go dad, byeeeee

 

In any other game I probably wouldn't care at all, it just feels out of place with the 30+ hours that precede it which has SO MUCH put into it.

 

Unrelated, but I had an extremely stupid theory about where the game was headed for like... 75% of the game. This ended up being wrong, naturally. Spoilers.

 

  Hide contents

So at the start of the game, Thor fucks with the game over screen. I thought that was just the game being cute with player expectations up until you fight with "Vanadis," which is Freya in Valkyrie mode. Vanadis is one of Freya's many names in Norse mythology, and it's clear in hindsight that it's just the dev's being cute, like the Thor bit. BUUUUUT despite knowing Freya and the Valkyries well, Mimir DOESN'T know who "Vanadis" is. So unlike most of the other bosses, where Mimir would know the name of something to justify the game naming an enemy (he literally calls out the names of the Berskers, and he knew the Valkyries from the first game), or the fight against Atreus as "Bjorn," which just means "bear..." I figured that the realm tear Odin looked into was a portal to the "real world" and between the meta game stuff and Loki being... Loki, that Thor essentially acknowledging the existence of the game over screen and Freya being called one of the names from Norse mythology associated with her IRL that we'd have some 4th wall shit going on.

 

But no, I'm just dumb. :p

 

The 

Spoiler

Tear is Mimirs Well from Norse mythology. There’s a slight twist on it, in Norse lore Odin traded his eye (which are all seeing) for a drink from his well of knowledge. In this, obviously he loses his eye peering inside, but it still lines up with Odin’s (“historical” Odin) quest for knowledge to prevent his own death.

 

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best3444

best3444

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Posted
23 hours ago, best3444 said:

Jfc, 20 hours in and I barely scratched the main story. I've discovered so many new large areas with a ton of secrets. This game is massive! I'm really appreciating this game more than ever now. After I completely dissect this game and beat it again, I'll reevaluate my GOTY. I just played 4 hours straight. 😆 

 

Well this is now in my backlog since restarting Elden Ring. I have too many games to play and need to take a break from Ragnarok even though I absolutely love it. I just don't have enough time with all these games. 

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CastlevaniaNut18

CastlevaniaNut18

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Posted

I’ve done 4 of the berserker fights so far. I broke down last night and changed the difficulty to easy for the last one I did. Probably do that for the rest, whatevs. I am gonna beat the game on normal, though.

 

Spoiler

About to start the war with Asgard. Poor Brock. :( 


I’m off for 4 nights starting Thursday, so I intend to beat it over the weekend. I want to, since I’ll be going to my parents’ for several days over Christmas. 

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SaysWho?

SaysWho?

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Posted
10 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I’ve done 4 of the berserker fights so far. I broke down last night and changed the difficulty to easy for the last one I did. Probably do that for the rest, whatevs. I am gonna beat the game on normal, though.

 

  Hide contents

About to start the war with Asgard. Poor Brock. :( 


I’m off for 4 nights starting Thursday, so I intend to beat it over the weekend. I want to, since I’ll be going to my parents’ for several days over Christmas. 

 

Spoiler

The "wonderful" thing about the Brok scene is there are clues throughout the game that Tyr is Brok. I don't know if you suspected anything or not (I didn't), but things like his name not having an accent over the 'y' when he spoke but having it when he was referred to, or calling Freya "Frigg" sometimes to twist that knife in her as her ex-husband, etc. etc.

I love a twist that doesn't cheat. At least Brok got that beautiful scene with Kratos and the spear.

 

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best3444

best3444

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Posted
15 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

What difficulty you guys playing this on? I have it on the next to hardest difficulty but may drop it.

 

I played it on whatever "medium" difficulty was. I rarely had any issues except for one boss. It's definitely easier than GOW 2018 imo.

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CastlevaniaNut18

CastlevaniaNut18

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13 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

You made a naming error, but yeah, I get you. Looking back now, you can see it. I didn’t at the time. 

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Kal-El814

Kal-El814

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Posted
17 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

 

I did next to hardest, which I believe was Give Me God of War

 

Pretty sure gimmie god of war is the hardest and you need to unlock it… gimmie no mercy is the hardest available from jump / second hardest overall, also what I say when someone asks me what N64 wrestling game I want to play

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CastlevaniaNut18

CastlevaniaNut18

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Posted

Beat it last night. Yep, this is going in my top 10 of all time. 10/10, just about perfect on every level. 

I’m still gonna keep playing to wrap up a few things. I did just about everything prior to finishing the main story. Just need to finish off the berserkers and close the remaining Hel Tears. And those remnants that popped up after the end. 

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best3444

best3444

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Posted
9 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

Beat it last night. Yep, this is going in my top 10 of all time. 10/10, just about perfect on every level. 

I’m still gonna keep playing to wrap up a few things. I did just about everything prior to finishing the main story. Just need to finish off the berserkers and close the remaining Hel Tears. And those remnants that popped up after the end. 

 

Be sure to do the two quests mentioned in this thread now that you beat it. The one should have been included in the ending. It's really beautiful. I agree it's top 10 of all time. 

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