God of War: Ragnarok: Kratos and the Dad-Feels 2

farley3k wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

Ok, much as it pains me, the purchase of Ragnarok has been postponed to the end of the year while I sort out some irl jobs I should have tackled long ago. I get to look forward to playing the game for a couple of extra months.

Take some consolation in the fact that it will be cheaper by then.

True!

I don’t want to hear about how great it is when I can’t play it yet. Too late.

Dyni wrote:

This tweet from Gene Park might be the most exciting praise I've seen for the game yet:

God of War Ragnarok has finally dethroned The Witcher 3 with the best side quests I’ve played in an adventure game. The game’s coolest fights, most heartfelt stories and grandest areas are in the side quests. Do not skip them.

That's one hell of a statement, if that's true I'll be enraptured with getting every single bit of story & lore out of Ragnarok.

A couple of the Kinda Funny crew said the big moments came fast & furious in the story, going onto say the game could have been paced better. It sounds like taking your time to go through the side content could remedy this.

The other thing that keeps popping up is that normal is too easy, which I've heard from multiple reviews now. I'll go hard to make sure I get a good challenge from the combat.

The rumblings I've been hearing are the GoW:Ragnarok is a much larger game than the original. This is an incredibly exciting bit of news for me as I LOVED the first game and was sad when I platinumed it with nothing left to do. So even MORE game to chew on for 6-10 months sounds like a great sequel.

Really looking forward to the game, and…. still trying to get over the heartburn of a $70 game.

If I can avoid the hype train, and this forum, maybe I’ll hold out until a price drop.

I’m not sure if I’m going to watch this or not for fear of spoilers but Alanah did some writing on the game and I’m sure I’d enjoy hearing her reaction to the incredible reviews it’s getting. Anyway, I’ll park it here while I decide.

Edit: I listened to this episode. It was Alanah and Austin only and a fantastic listen, as always. No spoilers (I should have had more faith) Alanah mentions an insignificant and obvious visual detail of a character who is obviously in the game but who I haven’t seen yet. That’s as close as it gets.

there have been some reviews suggesting that the default difficulty is too easy but having spent a couple hours playing tonight at higher difficulties, raising it only seems to take the enemies from spongy to annoyingly spongy without actually making them more of a threat.

My son woke up at 6 to play a bit before school. I hope it is good. The last game he really was hyped about was Cyberpunk and ....

The first couple of hours have been great. The writing & performances are so damn good. The combat, movement, vaulting etc feels more fluid than ever & I love the jump off the ledge ground attack, very satisfying.

The

Spoiler:

Fenrir scene actually had me tearing up, my goodness no video game ever does that to me. It was so well done.

The scene in the house with

Spoiler:

Thor & Odin is just a master class in building tension, letting moments of silence really set in & it literally had me hanging on every spoken word

What a start, incredible!

Officially jealous over here. It’s going to be great to revel in everyone’s excitement for a while though.

ruhk wrote:

there have been some reviews suggesting that the default difficulty is too easy but having spent a couple hours playing tonight at higher difficulties, raising it only seems to take the enemies from spongy to annoyingly spongy without actually making them more of a threat.

I hopped into this for about the first hour last night. I mostly wanted to get through whatever mandatory tutorial they had. I was surprised (unless I quit too early), that there didn't seem to be much of one. If so, I guess that is what I will be doing tonight. Just a gorgeous game.

Man the writing and voice acting and characterization is SO GOOD. Just absolutely giddy with excitement.

Sorry for the double post! But I just have to gush a bit more! I’ve never seen a game so contextual combat as well as God of War. When fighting

Spoiler:

Thor

the constant chirps and comebacks that ARE CONTEXTUAL! just heighten the combat and boss fight so much more. Whether it’s the “can’t fight without your axe!?” when you try to hold triangle to recall it, or the “Show me the real God of War” and the “there it is” when you enter L3+R3 rage mode just wow. Actually made failing the fight a bunch of times fun because I’d try different things and get different contextual taunts and the feeling of your opponent egging you on is SOOOOO GOOD!!!!!

Guess I should avoid this thread until I pick it up. Good spoiler tags but I know I want to play so might as well not risk it

I will put is spoiler tags although it is just complainng about poor character models

Spoiler:

I was really disappointed in how plastic Freya looked. There is so much detail in Kratos, Atreus, etc. that I was shocked and how fake she looked, and even walked. Now maybe is is supposed to be a dream sequence where she doesn't look proper but it was not up to the standards I expected.

Played the first few hours and ... yay. Looks amazing, sounds amazing, and I gots me some chaos blades.

And

Spoiler:

No, I do not want a snack

PlayStation Studios have created illustrations to celebrate Ragnarok’s release.

Can’t decide whether to be lucky or strong with my gear choices … normally I’d go strength every day, but am lured by the promise of more reward drops with luck.

EDIT: went strength, seemed fitting for Kratos, who has never had good luck. It was my first real upgrade/build choice! Gunna be a long game...

Not bad so far. Feels familiar. Should only get better.

I had my first tough encounter today. I'm playing on the "give me balance" mode. Switching to the parry shield helped me get through it (even though it wasn't upgraded as far).

EDIT: A new resurrection stone is 1500 hacksilver. That's 3/4 of my wealth right now so keep that in mind if you are thinking of using it.

I've been wowed by a sidequest.

The more I play the more I like it. It’s more of the same but it is fun. SQUIRREL!

Anyone playing on ps4? Impressions?

I’m going to be playing on PS5 when I eventually dive in but it sounds like the PS4 version is shockingly good. Here’s a Eurogamer article about the versions on older Playstations.

Aristophan wrote:

I had my first tough encounter today. I'm playing on the "give me balance" mode. Switching to the parry shield helped me get through it (even though it wasn't upgraded as far).

EDIT: A new resurrection stone is 1500 hacksilver. That's 3/4 of my wealth right now so keep that in mind if you are thinking of using it.

I've been wowed by a sidequest.

I’m finding the checkpointing is good enough that those stones seem unnecessary. Whenever I’ve died, I’ve restarted to just before the fight — time to maybe change gear or just retry.

I've just

Spoiler:

found Tyr in the mines, that was a fantastic area. I was expecting a personality very different to which I encountered. I actually love the angle they've taken with him. The time spent as Odin's prisoner, the mental/physical torture he's endured has him skittish, on edge & paranoid that Kratos & Atreus have been sent to mess with him even more. I expected a God eager for revenge, channeling his anger to use towards bringing Odin down, a quiet, reserved powerhose who was mentally insurmountable. Its great they've subverted my expectations, his longing for peace after seeing his fare share of violence throughout his life was another neat touch.

The favour in Svartalfheim called

Spoiler:

'The Weight Of Change' culminated in a cracking spectacle of the Lyngbakr surfacing from the water, chained down, his giant body an island of puzzles & combat encounters. It was ultimately very sad & showed you what evil Mimir was capable of in his younger days under his master Odin. The performance was great from Alastair Duncan in that you actually could hear the regret in Mimir's voice as he was reciting the story. He genuinely wanted the creature to be free but it being so used to it's surroundings just stayed were it was chain free. You could hear the panic in Mimir's voice as he asks why is the creature just staying put, guilt & redemption are no doubt the predominant feelings he's experiencing.

Great side content & unexpected to be fairly early in the game. I look forward to even more fleshed out stories that aren't part of the golden path so to speak.

Wow

Spoiler:

The Atreus/Loki sections have gone from "interesting change of pace" to dropping some impactful story beats. I just did the one where you meet Angrboda, spent half of it thinking "this is nice, can I be Kratos again?" then hit that last prophecy... and then later Agrboda tells him to keep it all secret and I got knots in my stomach

... more dramatic tension than I expected

Thank you Higgedly for the link.

I haven't wanted to hop in the discussion here much yet for fear of spoilers, but I did want to at least drop by to complain about one thing... why are my companions so annoying during puzzle solving?

I don't even have time to scan the room half the time before someone chimes in to give me a hint or tell me what to do. I finished my replay of the first game just a couple weeks before Ragnarok released. It didn't do this at all.

Why do AAA games keep doing this? It is so incredibly obnoxious. Please let me play your game! At the very least, there should be a way to turn this kind of chatter off in the options menu.

Okay, rant over. I'm enjoying the game immensely otherwise. I believe I'm about 15 or so hours in.

Dyni I agree 100% they are way to eager to give tips. For the tons of options they have for accessibility you would think they could have one for shutting up companions.