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

About 16hrs in. Have been taking my time with the side quests. Still continue to get new features/powers unlocked. I can see why some reviews suggested that they threw in too much stuff.

Agree that the help is a bit too fast on puzzles.
Some of the one-liners/visual gags make me chuckle out loud.
Story so far is interesting. Not as interesting as the first one, but we shall see...
The Atreus story line is a bit slow/longer than needed. I would have tightened/cut some of the parts.

Absolutely beautiful game. Audio is amazing as well, especially with a good pair of headphones.

I'm certainly going to drain the side-quests etc.

If you liked the first one you will definitely like this one.

Love the callbacks to ancient Greek stories and myth. Kratos is the Forrest Gump of Greek history!

He even throws an "If" in there...

As for the fast help on the puzzles, it would be more fitting if it were Mimir doing it all the time, instead of say Atreus or Freyr (especially when

Spoiler:

at first she is very mad with Kratos, and considering killing him

)

Mimir thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, of course he'd be telling the brute Kratos about how to open a door.

I'm really digging this game. I'm about 10 hours in, and I feel like I'm going pretty slow, doing every side quest and checking everything out. I just got back to base camp after rescuing a certain someone, and now I'm exploring a snowy area.

The first couple of hours didn't really grab me. It wasn't until I got to that more open-worldey area and some side quests opened up for me, weirdly.

Parking this here for some time in the future.

Regarding Atreus did anyone else

Spoiler:

sit there watching the screen for about 10 seconds the first time it give you control of him outside Brock & Sindri's house?

Spikeout wrote:

Regarding Atreus did anyone else [...]

I did exactly that, just last night. It felt weird.

I am still loving the game but last night one of the boss fights really reminded me that they kinda stink at boss fights.
I know I am not a great gamer but I have played enough Dark Souls to know that boss battles should be about more than bullet sponges with unlockable attacks.
The exploration, normal combat, story, etc. all top notch but every boss fight is just something to suffer through.

I'm finding "optional" bosses, a little more varied?

I think what may make even those bosses feel "samey" and just damage sponges is that the blue, yellow, red circles that lead the various types of powerful attacks make the counter move too obvious. I'm paying more attention to the circles than I am what the attack is doing. In say an Elden Ring, you have to pay attention to the actual animation and react appropriately, so in that game you actually see how the boss is acting and watching the entire enemy model instead of just looking for prompts.

In GOW, if I see the blue circles, I just hit L1 twice quickly... red circles, I dodge, yellow circles... consider parrying (but usually just dodge). I have no clue if the enemy is raising its left hand, its right hand, is about to kick me, jump in the air, or about to shoot something out of its head... it's almost like a QTE fight with some extra swings sprinkled in between. If you took those circles away, and relied on the player to learn the attack visually, I think it would certainly be challenging, maybe even more souls-like, and give the "illusion" of some significantly varied bosses like we have in Souls games.

That doesn't mean this is ez mode... I find myself dying, particularly to the optional bosses (rifts, berserkers, draugr) plenty of times.

Spoiler: Best quote?
Freya wrote:

I am tired of all your enlightened platitudes today. Can you please just shut up and kill things?

Another good one

Spoiler:

Father, will I ever grow a beard like yours?
No.

I just finished the main story and completed a lot of side stuff. System says 30 hours played.

I've completed 25/36 trophies so definitely more to find.

I loved everything about this game, possibly the best game I've ever played.

My favorite one-liner:

Spoiler:

Mimir: Hey you could try a stealth approach in the next life threatening situation
Kratos: No

That's brilliant to hear mrwynd! I'm about 18 hours in now & just at the end of

Spoiler:

Ironwood. The boss fight with Angrboða's grandmother Grýla was very creative. I loved the whole theme of destroying the cauldron in a giants kitchen with tables you can climb onto or oversized cups to hide behind. Grýla can't take anymore souls from those poor animals & she damn well better not hurt them again. It's hard to have any empathy for her at all when she's been so cruel to the animals in the forest.

I beat my first Beserker on the weekend. It took me over an hour (playing on Balance) and I had sore fingers the next day. I had to change up my whole loadout for it.

No way am I finishing this in 30 hours.

I'm close to 30 hours, and I feel I'm not quite 2/3 through.

I guess Berserkers are the new Valkyries. I've not defeated one yet.

Still digging in (it's been busy). Should I concentrate on leveling the gear I get, or should I hoard resources to level up the stuff I will get later in the game?

Level up the gear you’re using. Newer gear will generally start out at higher levels so you won’t have to worry quite so much about the lower-tier crafting materials.

Also, if you do favours and side stuff, you will get enough resources to upgrade a few sets of gear.

I enjoyed the gear that gave you a realm shift on dodges, then played around with vitality and strength sets, but am currently using a high cool-down build to pull out those runic abilities more often in fights. Makes a big difference, especially with enemies that have high status or launching resistances so you don’t get a window for normal combos.

I’m also considering upgrading the starter gear because of its late-level stats, although it’s hard giving up special abilities!

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Still digging in (it's been busy). Should I concentrate on leveling the gear I get, or should I hoard resources to level up the stuff I will get later in the game?

The higher tier gear will require unique resources to level up that you don't see until around the time you find or unlock the creation of that gear. After completing the main story I have continued to play and upgrade equipment. I have 4 maxed out sets and all of them required separate unique resources to upgrade.

I have officially completed Ragnarok at 100% and a Platinum Trophy. It's my first PS5 Platinum, I only earned one Platinum on the PS4. Going after achievements has never been my thing, it's a testament to how amazing this game is that I continued to go back to it until there was absolutely nothing left to do.

Final Hours Played: 47

Regarding the story ending:

Spoiler:

I liked not having a resolution for Sindri and the funeral for Brok was well done. Sindri shattering the stone was a cool way to have Kratos and Freya resolve their feelings and rise above being murderers out for revenge. It went well with Kratos stopping from killing Thor. The build up of making Odin seem not so terrible for a while as he hunted for the macguffin mask felt a bit rushed. I get the feeling they wanted to stretch that out more with Atreus/Loki but they would have had to add more to Loki's combat abilities. By the end of controlling him I was kinda bored with the bow and was itching to get back to my beefed up Kratos.

After the story ending:

Spoiler:

The Berserkers were a fitting replacement for the Valkyries. They did a good job of diversifying their timings and special abilities. The King at the end was especially difficult and once I figured out he was heavy on bifrost damage I had to learn how to avoid it and not to get hit soon after I was hit with it. He gives you the coolest Relic attack but I killed him last, after the Valkyrie so I had no one to use it on

I thought the trials themselves were fun but the way they did the combinations was dumb. I had to look up which combinations led to the final trials because I went into it just doing random ones and didn't know what I hadn't done in which order. It just felt like they had to find a way to give you more trials without making more actual trials.

Finding the real Tyr in the prison was awesome. I stumbled upon that area after going back to the raven tree and didn't expect it at all. That brings up something else - the Relic found in the prison isn't included in the map's progress. I completed all maps at 100% and my final trophy wasn't completed. I had to look that up too. The relic at the top of the prison is easy to miss and there's nothing in game to indicate what you're missing if that's the final piece.

I recorded one of the optional fights, I'll spoiler the Youtube link just in case:

Rolled credits on this over the weekend...

Great game.. still wont' unseat Elden Ring but its a close 2nd.

One of the things that blew me away... after I thought I was at the "OK get ready for the ending part now" stage of the game...

Spoiler:

You stumble upon The Crater area with like another 5-10+ hours of gameplay and sidequests... In a game like Horizon West, I would have skipped it, but this game is so much better I had to explore every nook and cranny of it

Carlbear95 wrote:

but this game is so much better I had to explore every nook and cranny of it

Some of the worlds (for me) are that way and others I never want to go back to because I found their layout unintuitive and I couldn't figure out where I needed to go half the time.

Finished the main path, saw credits and then

Spoiler:

Did Brok's funeral, and saw the REAL credits

Now I'm running around doing post-story stuff. On track to 100% this game, something I've never done before.

I think this will knock off Elden Ring for my GOTY. It's a photo finish, and they have different design approaches in many ways, but I think God of War clinches it. Less filler.

Also, the Horizon devs should be taking notes.

Spoilers after boss fight

Spoiler:

Beat Heimdall. I hate boss fights in general and GoW is no exception. I had to drop the difficulty, and look up how to beat him because it made no sense to me. In the original GoW the boss fights were cool because they were so epic - huge monsters, wild arenas, etc. The ones in the new series have been blah in the extreme. Just sponges. You avoid and chip away at them until a "next stage" where they get a new move set and/or most of their health back, then chip away again until about 1/4 heath when there is a QTE.
At least when you drop the difficulty it becomes easy to get past and then go on to the fun stuff.

farley3k wrote:

Spoilers after boss fight

Spoiler:

Beat Heimdall. I hate boss fights in general and GoW is no exception. I had to drop the difficulty, and look up how to beat him because it made no sense to me. In the original GoW the boss fights were cool because they were so epic - huge monsters, wild arenas, etc. The ones in the new series have been blah in the extreme. Just sponges. You avoid and chip away at them until a "next stage" where they get a new move set and/or most of their health back, then chip away again until about 1/4 heath when there is a QTE.
At least when you drop the difficulty it becomes easy to get past and then go on to the fun stuff.

I agree

Spoiler:

most of the cool weapon skills (like grappling toward enemies, the stance change, or combos, or the "vacuum"/ shotgun spear power) don't work on the one-on-one bosses. With them, it feels like you get just enough time to sneak in a light or heavy attack before you have to dodge/parry. Late bosses in Elden Ring were the same.

That's why I ended up favouring a cooldown build, because at least I could use my runic attacks to mix things up. I had to use the realm shift armour to be able to finish the Beserker King and the Valkyrie fights, because I wasn't getting enough windows to attack otherwise (I didn't get good enough at parrying to use the parry shield). I found the Muspelheim combat challenges more satisfying than most one-on-one boss fights, because they were groups of enemies and you had to use Kratos' whole skill set. I also miss the days of fighting building-size bosses

That said, it's weird that my 2 contenders for GOTY are boss-fight heavy.

Also: 100% done last night. My thumbs need a rest!

I'm close to 40 hours, and I recently finished the boss fight listed above. All along the game, as you transition from one story beat to the next, they open up a side area. Generally they have taken 1-2 hours, with the knowledge that you will go back for some more cleanup late in the game. Now I've opened up an area that has revealed itself to take 4-5 hours. It's allowed me to max out a few of my items, and it's been fun, but it is huge.

I haven't really even touched the combat challenges yet.

I spent a lot of time with the game this weekend, and finished it up. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Story spoilers:

Spoiler:

The focus on generational trauma was unexpected, but well done. I'm glad this was just a two game series, and I feel the story improved in the second one. Some sort of side story with Atreus could be the way forward.

The combat was more frustrating to me, so once I finished the game, I dropped to story difficulty. Even with that, many combat challenges were annoying / difficult, so I've now completed most of the post game except for them. I've not fought the final post-story bosses either. Perhaps I'll go back to it to get the platinum, but at this point I need a break. Honestly, this is exactly where I left the last game.

I'm in Vanaheim now, doing as many of the side quests as I can. They've been pretty enjoyable so far, although the whole 'better than the The Witcher 3 side quests' thing feels very hyperbolic, bar that earlier spoilered side quest I mentioned there has been nothing remotely close to that quality in my near 20 hours of play time.

My biggest complaint would be the environments feeling so constrained. There are squeezing through gap segments all over the place, or lift a giant rock up to get to the next area. I don't know why it didn't bother me in the 2018 GOW (probably because it was such a fresh take on the series & smaller overall) but when I compare it to The Last Of Us Part 2 & Uncharted 4 it feels way behind in terms of sprawling multifaceted playgrounds.

The puzzles are a bit more fleshed out once you get into the game more but they still feel far too familiar to the last game.

I'm digging the combat, it's as brutal & satisfying as ever with the skills making it even more diverse once you unlock a handful.

I still can't wait to see where the main story goes. It is a cracking game but those downsides really stick out more than I would have thought.

Slowly but surely plugging away... just got through the first section...

Spoiler:

playing as Atreus

I feel like I have a ton left, but the Kratos I know would have...

Spoiler:

Crushed the head of the squirrel before he could crawl on him.

Finished it last night - what did you folks think

Spoiler:

For me the exploration was wonderful. I loved finding chests hidden around, new paths etc. The story was also great. What i really disliked (not surprisingly) was the boss fights. They are all just bullet sponges which require you to basically beat on them until they suddenly get back all their HP and you do it again!
I was a bit disappointed in Thor. They had that really great spot of him changing like Kratos but then killed him two seconds later. I wish they had done more for him, or at least not killed him so we could see more of him.
I feel very sad about Sindri. Sure he got "revenge" but part of the themes of the game is that revenge really doesn't help - or at least doesn't fill the void. So he is just a sad, lost, soul.
Speaking of souls - can Atreus just remove the soul from anyone when he wants? Seems a bit OP. Or was it that Odin was weakened?
Overall I loved the game and will go back to replay it but I wish they would rework their boss fight strategy a bit.