“It Is The Nature Of A Thing That Matters, Not Its Form”
❗ One-Liner
Heartfelt and Beautiful. A culmination of 17 years of adventure, growth, and spectacular world-building.
💭 Thoughts
I have been a huge fan of the God of War series since its first installment on the PlayStation 2.
With God of War Ragnarok, all I can say is that Sony Santa Monica studio never fails to give us absolute blockbusters since 2005.
The game is riddled with action-packed gameplay and well-written characters all throughout.
When the game wants to be fun, it tickles you with quick-witted banter among its cast of lovable Norwegian Deities.
When it wants to be amazing, it slaps you with breathtaking, well-designed, absolutely GORGEOUS environments.
And when it wants to be endearing, it surely does deliver a couple of the most heartfelt, tear-jerking moments across all video games.
A masterpiece from start to finish.
Although close to perfection, one little criticism I have is that its pacing might have been a little rushed especially near the end of the game.
For instance, I was expecting a little bit more spectacle towards the final boss fights, in line with the recurring themes across the God of War games.
The final battle usually involves fighting at the back of moving dragons, huge interactive environments, and killing literal titans.
However, as with Ragnarok’s core plot of defying destiny, the game similarly subverted my expectations with its more grounded battles, which I guess focused more on character-building and narrative.
To be honest, I think some of these rushed story beats were probably due to the pandemic constraints experienced by the developers.
But nonetheless, given what they have, they still managed to deliver an excellent story.
The game’s discussion and exploration of generational trauma, the cost of war, nature and form, and following one’s destiny were all brilliantly told through the juxtaposition between the heroes and the villains of the story, which were both equally fleshed out with their own plot lines.
Also, I can’t overstate this enough, but the graphics throughout was so UNREAL. This is perhaps the most beautiful game I have ever seen. There were times I literally just sat still and enjoyed the beauty of the 9 Realms.
God of War Ragnarok is truly a good nod to one of the most iconic video game characters of all time – Kratos. After years of being called a monster, and years of nightmares, he finally found Peace, Acceptance, and Redemption.
Even after 40 hours of my initial playthrough, I still couldn’t get enough.
Truly a 10/10.
