No Spoilers Official GOD OF WAR: RAGNARÖK Discussion

Game is a masterpiece, sure it has annoyin negatives and some bloating. They nailed the end game content, the acting might be even over TLOU level holy crap. I wonder what Miyazaki could do with a similar budget, and tech.
 
Just decided to plug ahead with the story because I was getting way too sidetracked lol.

Finished last night, could not stop playing and wrapped at 2:00 am, haven’t done that in forever. What a masterpiece. Completely agree with @jojoRed that the last act is god tier. The writing here is stellar. I feel like the middle dragged a bit but I also think I contributed to that by doing way too much side stuff instead of leaving most of it to the end. I couldn’t help myself though. Exploration is crafted exceptionally well and I thought it was much more natural than the first game.

Kratos’ character continues to develop thanks to Christopher Judge’s fantastic performance. Atreus growing throughout the story was handled really well, much less of annoying brat which was nice. Brok and Sindri really stole the show in the one, hilarious and heartfelt at times. All of the Aesir were great. I thought every performance, Thor, Odin, (won’t get into more for minor spoilers), all killed their respective performances.

Combat is so, so much better. The
Spear
became my immediate new favorite. They built on what they did in the first game to fantastic results. It felt familiar in keeping the same weighty feel but much more dynamic.

I think that really sums this game up. It’s so much more dynamic than the first game. Everything just feels ratcheted up several notches. Santa Monica proved again why they’re one of the best out there.
 
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Playing pretty slow, so trying to avoid threads to avoid potential spoilers.

Defeated the Nidhogg and freed my companion. Cleaned up the area then went back to the desert area that can be traversed with new story abilities/items. Was Getting absolutely stuffed by these two Genghis Khan looking dudes that I pulled out of a rift. They could two shot me from full health and must have played them like 20 times before I finally strung together a good run.

The story and acting in this game are just unreal. The conversations and emotion is crazy good. Very few games I've played over the years that I look forward to dialog and story moments just as much as playing the game.
 
This game might have the greatest story ever told and the greatest acting ever in the medium. I dont give a shit. It's fucking boring. The game play is trash. I don't want to fight another fucking wave of the same enemies from the last game. I dont want to press X to do the thing anymore. I dont want to play this game. Between this and God of War 2018 I'm convinced these are the two most overrated games of all time.
 
Hitman81 said:
This game might have the greatest story ever told and the greatest acting ever in the medium. I dont give a shit. It's fucking boring. The game play is trash. I don't want to fight another fucking wave of the same enemies from the last game. I dont want to press X to do the thing anymore. I dont want to play this game. Between this and God of War 2018 I'm convinced these are the two most overrated games of all time.
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Alright already, we get it.
 
I think a game that has the combat/build system of fromsoftware + the puzzles and storytelling of GOW might actually be the perfect game.
 
I'm pretty deep into the story with a major event happening last night right before I turned it off. Had I known going in, I would not have played on GMGOW. I was already in so deep that I didn't want to turn it off. The game is such a crazy grind. No boss or area has took more than say 10-15 tries, but some of the things in the game are just too annoying to handle. It's a shame they didn't spend more time labbing this mode considering you're playing as the GOD OF WAR.

As soon as I wrap up, I'll share my overall thoughts.

The Crater
This area was insane, there is so much content here. It felt like a mini Elden Ring area. Open world, random encounters, puzzles, new and old enemies. One of the best GOW levels I've played.
 
SwamiLeoni said:
I'm pretty deep into the story with a major event happening last night right before I turned it off. Had I known going in, I would not have played on GMGOW. I was already in so deep that I didn't want to turn it off. The game is such a crazy grind. No boss or area has took more than say 10-15 tries, but some of the things in the game are just too annoying to handle. It's a shame they didn't spend more time labbing this mode considering you're playing as the GOD OF WAR.

As soon as I wrap up, I'll share my overall thoughts.

The Crater
This area was insane, there is so much content here. It felt like a mini Elden Ring area. Open world, random encounters, puzzles, new and old enemies. One of the best GOW levels I've played.
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That’s disappointing to hear. Makes me reconsider another play through on GMGOW because of how massive this game is.

Challenge is fun but hacking away endlessly on something usually isn’t.
 
Dizzy said:
That’s disappointing to hear. Makes me reconsider another play through on GMGOW because of how massive this game is.

Challenge is fun but hacking away endlessly on something usually isn’t.
Click to expand...

The enemies felt spongy in a lot of cases, but I think it was more the ease of death that became frustrating. You're Kratos, you've annihilated an entire pantheon. You've taken down Zeus, Kronos, Hercules etc. When you get one shot by a worm it really takes you out of the experience. This leads to some areas bringing a huge amount of frustration. For instance
in The Crater you come across those two werewolves with the singing dude. You dock far across from the thing you need to kill first but to get there you need to rush passed the wolves. Problem is, they're fast as hell and will kill you in one hit.
Another thing, GOW:R really reduced the sizes of many of the arenas. You no longer have the option to gain some space, you're always in a position to get attacked.

When the small enemies kill you more than the bosses, it becomes a problem. One saving grace is that the arenas do take some planning before they kick off. It doesn't need to be perfect but you'll need to create a strategy. Like "I need to kill projectile enemies first" type of things. The bosses and elves are really fun in this mode as well.

With all of that said, here are some changes I think they could make:

1. Bring in more enemies with less health and damage: Instead of having 5-6 strong enemies who can one shot you, add more enemies that do less damage and take less time to kill. This could still create the risk of not killing enemies fast enough before you're overwhelmed and offer the reward of feeling like the GOW.

2. Reduce projectile damage both on Kratos and on the floor: These have killed me more times than I can count. When you see a yellow arrow and roll only to find one tracked you and you're dead. Every hit seems like it does the same damage regardless of the attack. It makes no sense that a projectile does the same amount of damage as sledghammer.

3. Make the armor meaningful for certain fights: If you're fighting two Dreki's with two different projectile properties, amor should be available to mitigate at least one of those afflictions. In GMGOW's current state you really have two armor options - DPS and Realm Shift. Both are glass cannon and don't offer much of anything in the way of actual protection. Same goes for poison.

4. Reduce overall damage but make attacks harder to telegraph: This should be a no-brainer but this could require much more dev time IMO.

I'm sure there's more that could be drummed up but tbh I was pretty bummed. Although there were times I felt the fights were earned, in most other cases I felt like I was being robbed over and over and the game became monotonous. GMGOW should bring the highest challenge but the sponges and always-on glass cannon builds get annoying.

Not feeling like a GOD was the biggest travesty.
 
Dizzy said:
Finished last night, could not stop playing and wrapped at 2:00 am, haven’t done that in forever. What a masterpiece. Completely agree with @jojoRed that the last act is god tier. The writing here is stellar. I feel like the middle dragged a bit but I also think I contributed to that by doing way too much side stuff instead of leaving most of it to the end. I couldn’t help myself though. Exploration is crafted exceptionally well and I thought it was much more natural than the first game.
Click to expand...

Glad you enjoyed the end content. Legit might be some of the best ever. God the visuals were stunning, but every moment was making me feel every emotion. I dont think Ive been taken on an emotional rollercoaster like I did with GOW.

Im compulsive when it comes to side content, and imo devs sould take into consideration how side quests will affect pacing. FF7R nailed this. Some sidequests are unlocked after a couple of main missions, but they all take about an hour to do. You can skip ofcourse but the writing is usually good, and it never feels like its dragging.

I wanted to finish every area before movin on with the story and imo that killed the pacing. I wish they took the FF7R approach.

SwamiLeoni said:
The enemies felt spongy in a lot of cases, but I think it was more the ease of death that became frustrating. You're Kratos, you've annihilated an entire pantheon. You've taken down Zeus, Kronos, Hercules etc. When you get one shot by a worm it really takes you out of the experience. This leads to some areas bringing a huge amount of frustration. For instance
in The Crater you come across those two werewolves with the singing dude. You dock far across from the thing you need to kill first but to get there you need to rush passed the wolves. Problem is, they're fast as hell and will kill you in one hit.
Another thing, GOW:R really reduced the sizes of many of the arenas. You no longer have the option to gain some space, you're always in a position to get attacked.

When the small enemies kill you more than the bosses, it becomes a problem. One saving grace is that the arenas do take some planning before they kick off. It doesn't need to be perfect but you'll need to create a strategy. Like "I need to kill projectile enemies first" type of things. The bosses and elves are really fun in this mode as well.

With all of that said, here are some changes I think they could make:

1. Bring in more enemies with less health and damage: Instead of having 5-6 strong enemies who can one shot you, add more enemies that do less damage and take less time to kill. This could still create the risk of not killing enemies fast enough before you're overwhelmed and offer the reward of feeling like the GOW.

2. Reduce projectile damage both on Kratos and on the floor: These have killed me more times than I can count. When you see a yellow arrow and roll only to find one tracked you and you're dead. Every hit seems like it does the same damage regardless of the attack. It makes no sense that a projectile does the same amount of damage as sledghammer.

3. Make the armor meaningful for certain fights: If you're fighting two Dreki's with two different projectile properties, amor should be available to mitigate at least one of those afflictions. In GMGOW's current state you really have two armor options - DPS and Realm Shift. Both are glass cannon and don't offer much of anything in the way of actual protection. Same goes for poison.

4. Reduce overall damage but make attacks harder to telegraph: This should be a no-brainer but this could require much more dev time IMO.

I'm sure there's more that could be drummed up but tbh I was pretty bummed. Although there were times I felt the fights were earned, in most other cases I felt like I was being robbed over and over and the game became monotonous. GMGOW should bring the highest challenge but the sponges and always-on glass cannon builds get annoying.

Not feeling like a GOD was the biggest travesty.
Click to expand...

What pissed me off is counter didnt matter for most big bosses, they just continued their combos. And Kratos getting beat by scrubs and smoking Gods just kept taking me out a little haha. Oh Kratos cant punch through this tiny box to progress? Oh fuck another contextual button prompt...etc

That didnt matter in the last third though holy shit.
 
jojoRed said:
Glad you enjoyed the end content. Legit might be some of the best ever. God the visuals were stunning, but every moment was making me feel every emotion. I dont think Ive been taken on an emotional rollercoaster like I did with GOW.

Im compulsive when it comes to side content, and imo devs sould take into consideration how side quests will affect pacing. FF7R nailed this. Some sidequests are unlocked after a couple of main missions, but they all take about an hour to do. You can skip ofcourse but the writing is usually good, and it never feels like its dragging.

I wanted to finish every area before movin on with the story and imo that killed the pacing. I wish they took the FF7R approach.



What pissed me off is counter didnt matter for most big bosses, they just continued their combos. And Kratos getting beat by scrubs and smoking Gods just kept taking me out a little haha. Oh Kratos cant punch through this tiny box to progress? Oh fuck another contextual button prompt...etc

That didnt matter in the last third though holy shit.
Click to expand...
Funny you brought up FF7R. Ragnarok has been the first game since beating 7 remake that made me feel super invested in a story and not want to put the controller down. I’m really hoping we get a trailer at game awards for part 2. I want these types of games stick around forever. The day we get nothing but live service and pay to win nonsense is when I quit gaming
 
And that’s the plat done.

Fis5OBEUAAA0cql

Took me just under 55 hours to 100%. Not many games make me want to get a plat but this one’s felt natural and not in slightest tedious. Had an amazing time the whole way through.

What a fucking great game.
 
Finished the story on balanced difficulty, I've already done a lot of the side stuff so I guess like 8-10 hours to go until 100%.

Absolutely loved the game, pretty much everything about it. Combat, presentation, story etc. were all great, but what stood out to me was the side content which seems to be one of the biggest issues in the industry right now.
It felt so well implented and organic for the most part, and The Crater really elevated side content to a new level for me.
 
After reading what Swami had to say I think Give Me No Mercy is the sweet spot in difficulty. Gives you plenty of challenge but I was only ever getting frustrated against a tag team Berserker duo. They were purple to start so I might have been underleved but I hadn’t really had many problems with them until then so I threw myself at them until I got it done.

Outside of that I struggled on a few but that was me just sucking and not learning patterns. By the time I got to
The King Berserker and Valkyrie Queen
I was rolling pretty well and still enjoying myself even if I died.
 
what-wut said:
Alright already, we get it.
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God forbid someone actually have a difference of opinion around here. Or really, an opinion, if you ask me. I thought this was a discussion forum, not a safe space or GOW fan site.
 
Hitman81 said:
God forbid someone actually have a difference of opinion around here. Or really, an opinion, if you ask me. I thought this was a discussion forum, not a safe space or GOW fan site.
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Well you’re no longer adding anything to the discussion. It’s just whining at this point.

Move on if you can’t stand the game.
 
After a day 1, I'll probably start getting into this Thursday.

Might sell my PS5 after as it's not worth the 1-2 games/year with my Steam Deck.
 
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