God of War: Ragnarok

Oh hey, Freya’s here! Oh and she’s pissed! I guess we did kill her son.

Oh come on, out of the gate this game is already pulling at the sympathy strings, Atreus gets to shephard his favorite wolf into death as Kratos balks about training.

Hack and slash combat that uses R1 & R2 as heavy attacks takes a lot to get used to. Blocking makes sense in my mind to use the shoulder buttons for sweet combos I really feel the face buttons are better suited. Nevertheless it won’t take too long to get used to.

I don’t know why Kratos is so unwilling to take this deal, feels like he’s ready to just be an asshole again, for the story!

Going from Ninja Gaiden 2 Black to this is boss whiplash. The first boss fight with Thor had 3 health resets and fought over multiple landscapes. Narratively they wanted these fights to last a specific length so it doesn’t feel as meaningful to me, this is the kind of game that doesn’t really care hw much damage you are doing, the fight is going to take a specific amount of time because they have a narrative going on throughout.

At its core, now, God of War is a cinematic experience first, and then a game. That shouldn’t necessarily downplay those experiences because some of them are great (like when you die in Thor fight and its on the ‘Game Over’ screen, Thor says “oh no! We’re done when I say we’re done” and he brings you back to life).

So far I’m enjoying this game MORE than the previous entries. I took care of a few “favors” for Mimir and so far they were more fleshed out and interesting than the sidequest stuff in the first game. I’m also wondering if this is going to be a bit more linear than the previous game, as it seems like I’ll be able to exhaust this area, and then we’ll move on to the next. That would be a nice change of pace.

So far, the build I've been focusing on favors parries and elemental damage. I think the game really wants you to parry so I'm forcing myself to do it. I play enough character action games, I really should be practicing my parries more and this game doesn't give you strict combos, so this feels like a way to extend my combat enjoyment.

CYBERBUFFALO SAYS:

Howdy Folks! Be sure to sell your shattered runes! They server no purpose other than money!

This game is feeling linear in a way that I like. But I have to play as Atreus for a section and I don’t like that. Boo! Don’t switch up my characters to make me do stealth missions. Just don’t do it!

Okay I was being presumptuous, Atreus has his own moves and combos and actually plays pretty well. I like his dodge that has him flying through the air with his bow readied and time slightly slowed down. Between this and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, maybe I’m starting to turn around on games that force character changes on you?

David Cage controls, beyond QTE have infested this game No point to the “platforming” because there is never risk, its just cinema

Met Angrboda. Liked her, loved the way she fought, could play entire game about throwing intense colorful powder at enemies while dancing and singing. The walking around and talking while doing chores, while a staple of this extended series, get old fairly quick. Because you are still doing little fights here and there and running away from the conversation to solve a puzzle and open a chest. It feels disjointed. The game is trying to make every single conversation poignant and meaningful to the point where none of them are. Its hard to listen to Kratos talk about the death of his first wife and child, the moment is cheapened by hearing grunts, groans and screams because I am throwing my chains at bramble. This feature/mechanic/mainstay/whatever-you-want-to-call-it was starting to overstay its welcome before Ironwood, but now that I’m beyond that and trapsing around Vanaheim with Freya-Hawk, a woman intent on killing me, where every single thing said is intense and dramatic, it’s turning to comical, and I know that’s not what the creators were going for. This is yet again another big Playstation title that wishes it were a movie.

As much as it seems like I’m complaining about this game, I am mostly enjoying myself. The last few days I’ve been cleaning up side-quests and exploring the new areas that have opened up. I do like running around the more open areas solving puzzles, fixing the crater and collecting treasure, but the combat is getting so bad that I think I just need to head to the finish line. I hate running into a dead-end gulley and spawning a random group of draugr or satyr and have them kick my ass over and over again. These medium level guys take so. many. hits. It’s frustrating! And the possible health drops are just that, a small drop in a rather large pool that very much needs filling.

Additional thoughts on Combat

Kratos has practically NO i-FRAMES! The dodge roll leaves you open for a hit, your special attacks, with big animations that take forever to perform, completely vulnerable! And you cannot cancel them. I often find, in especially tense situations, that I will be trying to dodge and then attack, but I’ll press both buttons triggering one of these moves and OOPSIE Kratos is dead!

Since the beginning I’ve been using the parry shield, and I’ve gotten pretty good with them too. But .. what’s the point? I was fighting the Hateful a the crater and he has a yellow move that if you parry, buddy your timing best be on point because you still have 3 more hits to parry direct in succession. A successful parry doesn’t mean a guard break, or a stagger, or a stun. A successful parry also doesn’t really give you an attack boost. So it’s almost never worth doing, at least in the situations I’ve found myself in. I should just be using that huge blocking shield and dodging attacks. There is no reward for a parry!

I’m now at the point where Atreus is heading back to Asgard to help Odin. We’ve killed Heimdall who – wait a minute, we need to talk about the Heimdall fight.

To Kill a Mocking God

The heimdall fight was TOO DAMNED EASY. This god that has never been touch, has never felt pain, that knows your attacks before you even make them, fell without killing me once. A pair of dreki is by far the harder. I think I understand this, though, since the story is paramount they want you to be able to get through it even on the balanced difficulty. The games that I’ve loved in my life have found a balance between challenging you and making that challenge feel meaningful to the game (Drakengard 3 ending E anyone?). So Heimdall, a god everyone is afraid of falls easy, because that’s not part of the challenge, that’s the story. The challenge is all the extra curricular stuff, the favors and sidequests that are optional. I wish they had made the story more cohesive with the fact that you are a damned god and heimdal is a damned god! But alas, here we are. Okay, on to Asgard to find a mask.

And that’s a wrap on God of War: Ragnarok!

Oh boy what an ending! No, sorry, you misunderstood me. Oh boy, what? An ending? WHAT HAPPENED? We spent a lot of time being worried about Ragnarok and being prepared for Ragnarok and then it was we are trying to prevent Ragnarok and then all of a sudden Ragnarok is a giant monster and we made him and he’s on our side. There is a lot of whiplash in the way this game tells a story. It purposefully keeps information away from the player but the reason for this is unknown to me.

• Ragnarok itself, the war, the end times, felt unerwhelming. I also don’t know why we made such a big deal out of needing Sutr to find the flaw in the wall, so much so we decided to disrupt an eternal’s entire existence, when Sindri could smack a tuning fork at it. Nothing seems hard in this game, unless you are fighting a berserker or something.
• Odin being Tyr the entire time was genuinely shocking. The death of Brok even moreso. I understand Sindri’s reaction, but I also think it is well within his character to forgive “The Crew” for this misdeed. But maybe he’s turning into the big bad of the next game.
• Atreus’ tendencies towards doing good and being good natured feels forced. Why is he so invested in Thor? Thrud and Sif turning on Odin was also so very convenient and out of spec. Not once was it hinted that Sif was unhappy with her lot.
• We spent so much time talking about, researching and finding that mask and in the end he just broke it up and sent it away. What does it do? Who knows. Why was it there? Doesn’t matter, apparently. That, to me, was the by far the greatest let down. You cannot show me a cool, mysterious mask and not let a single person try it on.
• Odin’s boss fight was good and it was fairly challenging. Though would have been a lot cooler if he put on a mythical mask and went insane, right?

SPECIAL SHOUTOUT! I just want to take the time right here to point out how great Richard Schiff was at playing Odin. He took the perception of Odin, the big, evil, monster you’ve heard all these terrible stories about and turned him into a pragmatic rich guy. I loved it and thought Schiff brought him to life wonderfully. Congratulations, Richard!

In the end, everything is just kind of fine. Asgard is gone, plummeting from the sky into Midgard (oops). And Freyr is dead for some reason (there was absolutely no reason he couldn’t have escaped). That leaves the prophecy, why is Kratos not dead? Why is Atreus not holding his lifeless corpse and screaming! Well it turns out there was one more Jotnar shrine conveniently placed near the war camp. Hidden from them, it shows something! And Loki is going on an adventure to do something. I legit don’t understand where he is going.