God of War Director on Why Ragnarok Will Finish the Norse Saga

By Rollin Bishop

Following the first real look at God of War Ragnarok thanks to the trailer from the recent PlayStation Showcase 2021, a large number of details about the video game have already been quickly made clear. For example, there was the first look at Thor, and the acknowledgment that God of War Ragnarok would actually finish the Norse storyline for the franchise. God of War Ragnarok director Eric Williams previously indicated that with a title like "God of War Ragnarok," Ragnarok itself had to be included, which basically wraps things up, but God of War (2018) director Cory Barlog also recently offered an even more direct explanation.

"I think one of the most important reasons is the first game took five years, the second game, I don't know how long it's going to take but I'm just going to throw out that it's going to take close to a similar time, right, to do this," Barlog stated during an interview with YouTube channel Kaptain Kuba, "and then if you think, 'Wow, a third one in that same,' we're talking like a span of close to 15 years of a single story, and I feel like that's just too stretched out."

"I feel like we're asking too much, to say, the actual completion of that story taking that long just feels too long, and given sort of where the team was at and where Erik was at with what he wanted to do, I was like 'Look, I think we can actually do this in the second story,'" Barlog continued. "Because most of what we were trying to do from the beginning was to tell something about Kratos and Atreus, that the core of the story's engine is really the relationship between these two characters and the complexity radiates out like ripples in a pond. And we could make it an ocean and have those ripples just go for thousands of miles, but is that necessary and is that beneficial, or are we feeling like, you know what, it's just spreading it too far apart, the ripples get too far apart, and you sort of lose the plot a little bit."

You can check out the full interview for yourself, with the relevant bit starting at around 15:16, below:

God of War Ragnarok is currently set to release for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2022. As for the God of War franchise from Sony's Santa Monica Studio in general, the latest and greatest title is available for PlayStation 4 and as a backwards-compatible title on the PlayStation 5. It also just so happens to be included in the PlayStation Plus collection. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the God of War franchise right here.

What do you think about what we have seen so far about God of War Ragnarok? Are you excited or bummed to learn that God of War Ragnarok will conclude the Norse storyline? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!

[H/T VGC]

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