Today we're going to talk about some of the big news for God of War: Ragnarok and what just happened, guys, I feel like we've been waiting for the release of the DLC and now it's right in front of us, it's so unreal, and a big thank you to Santa Monica Studios for doing a great job with this DLC. I'll try not to praise it too much, because I've been completely blown away. That ending, the rhythm of the story, the music, the gameplay loop, the moment of surprise, every part is crazy.
Like most of you who have played DLC, you might be wondering how we got this thing for free, they can charge $20 or even $30 at all, and I think we'll all be very happy with the experience.
In today's video, we're going to talk about some of the big updates and news for God of War: Ragnarok. Valhalla, there was a new patch coming online the other day, and we're going to talk about some details. In the DLC there are small hints of what we might get in God of War 6 and in addition to that we have a mysterious tweet from the senior writer of the Santa Monica studio that also hints that the story is not over yet, so we are going to talk about what that means. We've got a lot to talk about, so check out the video section to optimize your viewing experience. Without further delay, let's get started!
Well, before we get into some details and references that hint at the future God of War, let's take a look at the patch notes that have recently gone live. There are some much-needed bug fixes in this patch, so we're going to go through everything, and of course there are video chapters, so you can jump straight to the part you want to go to, but let's start with the bug fixes for the movie first. They say this fixes an issue where the audio won't play and the characters will be out of sync in the first movie screen after death. Then in the movie frame, whenever the spear's particles appear, they are completely removed, which should help increase the immersion. Now in terms of gameplay, this is probably the biggest update we've gotten. Now this DLC is a rogelike, or as Santa Monica's senior writer Orion Walker put it, a broguelike, and this DLC is going to be hard. If you've watched my streams, you know that I've been spanked many times on easy difficulty. They say they've lowered the difficulty of the first layer of combat in the show me will difficulty setting. Next, they added the difficulty of some arena challenges. They've made some tweaks to The Forum to make the difficulty more appropriate. They have slightly reduced the health increase and trigger chance when killing an enemy with a spear in Valhalla. They've made various combat tweaks and balance updates. They also fixed an issue where Kratos would not increase the value of opening a Greek chest if he gave up the reward choice after opening a chest with a brief echo. They fixed a bug when using a spear against Olmstinga. They fixed an issue where the fight would not end when the Immortal was kicked out of the arena.
They also fixed an issue where Tyr would suddenly disappear and never return. The next issue was that not all Hunter armor parts were available, and this problem has been resolved. Then there was the problem that if the nightmare was ejected from a mob, close to the border of the arena, the battle would not end, and finally on the game side, they fixed an issue where Kratos would mistakenly stay in Spartan Wrath when he interacted with the shield girl.
Moving on, there are some general stability improvements.
They fixed multiple crashes, including non-English language-specific crashes when opening certain cases or cracks and memory leaks on PS4. They also fixed an issue where Kratos would fall out of the world. They also fixed an issue where Kratos fell out of the world after passing through the Mysterious Gate. Finally, to improve overall stability, they fixed some issues where textures were not loading correctly when entering the arena.
Next is an update to the UI or UX. They solved a problem where in Time Challenge Trials, when it shouldn't, a message about an extended time would be displayed. There is also an issue where subtitles overlap with the UI in the merchant menu. They also addressed some cases where the navigation aids pointed to the wrong location. Another issue is that the timer overlaps with the warrior's soul's health bar. They also fixed some cases where the elite kill counter persisted after the timer expired. They've fixed the DoT damage burden so that it shows the correct duration in the description. They fixed an issue where the King of the Hill challenge timer and progress bar overlapped. They fixed an issue where screen readers would read the tablet reflection prompt twice in a row. Fixed some cases where subtitles were not formatted correctly.
One issue is that the UI for Flawless Kill and Flawless Parry Challenges is updated when Kratos is hit. Then my favorite thing is that they added a download and progress screen if trying to launch God of War: Ragnarok Valhalla before it is fully installed.
Okay, so I'd like to talk about this tweet from the senior writers at Santa Monica Studios, who said, "Do you really think the end of the film is the end of the story? Please, please. God of War, Ragnarok, Valhalla. "It certainly drove Twitter and the God of War community crazy and trying to figure out what that really meant. Is this a cryptic statement? Are they hinting at a future God of War? Could this be the future of God of War: Ragnarok Valhalla? Can we get a new update for the mode to offer a different story beat? This could be a situation where there's a big easter egg in God of War: Ragnarok Valhalla that we have to figure out?
So, let's talk about the most likely scenario first, which is that when you make different attempts at God of War: Ragnarok Valhalla, there are some specific items in the game, such as the Captain's Key, Calliope, Lysandra Pendants, basically when you collect one of them, I believe there are three captain's keys, I'm not quite sure how many different items there are for each type, but basically every time you go through Valhalla, you collect one of the items, you get more story information. After the Valhalla credits, you can obviously try it again, because it's a rogelike, it's never-ending, it's all randomly generated stuff, so that's what I guess they mean.
This could mean something bigger, maybe Valhalla isn't the end of the story, they plan to continue the Northern saga, possibly in a semi-sequel to Atreus or in a future expansion. Before December, almost a full year, we all thought that our hopes and dreams of getting new content for God of War were shattered, Eric Williams personally told us that they had no plans for DLC, as I have said many times in my videos, this is typical marketing, obviously they don't announce if they have a plan or not, if it's something in progress, they don't tell us until it's ready, that's obviously the case. We now know that God of War: Ragnarok finally got DLC, and it's pretty good, so who's to say they can't do it again?
Kratos' story is technically over in Valhalla, but that doesn't mean there isn't more work to be done in the Nine Realms. Apparently we know that Atreus has rumors of a game with a semi-sequel, which I have covered several times on this channel. There are many insiders who say that Atreus's journey is not over yet, and that he may have just begun. There is a character development, and he has to go with Angrot to save the giants. So like I said, the senior writers in Santa Monica are probably implying that after the credits, the story isn't over yet, because you can also collect other items that will give you more clues to the story, which is probably what they meant.
Now things are a little bit exciting, and that's where we stir things up in this video, because the future of God of War looks bright. Now I'm going to mention some brief spoilers, so if you haven't finished the DLC yet, then I suggest you turn off this part of this video. I have a couple of other things to talk about, so you can skip this part.
Now we come to the very interesting part, the spicy part that gives us an idea of the future of Kratos. So if you play to the end, you know that Kratos is now the god of hope, and he sits on the throne of Ares in Valhalla. We know that Valhalla is basically a projection of his mind. We know this because he sees his past self, he sees the places he's been to in the past, especially Greece, which is basically a mixture of everything Kratos has been through. It shows the bulk of his entire journey. You can even see the pyramids in the background of some landscapes, obviously a lot of people think God of War 6 is going to take us to Egypt, but if you know the legend of God of War, you know that Kratos has been to Egypt before, so I know a lot of people think it's a hint of the future, but it's mostly a projection of his mind, like I said.
Now that Kratos has become a god, he finally sits on the throne of Ares at Valhalla, which is likely where Kratos was before the next game, God of War 6, takes place. I think the reason Kratos will stay at Valhalla until the next game is that they have a narrative reason to leave the Nine Realms empty without Kratos, so that when they do a possible semi-sequel game with Atreus as the main character, probably set within the Nine Realms, it makes sense, and that's why Kratos isn't there, because he's enjoying in Valhalla right now, and Atreus is on his journey trying to find the giant with Angroth. It seems to me that this is basically written on its own. Atreus had to go on a solo journey, unlike the last time he had Kratos to save him, this time Kratos enjoyed his throne in Valhalla, which was essentially the first time Atreus didn't have his dad Kratos to help him out of his predicament.
Another thing that this DLC does for us is that it gives some ending, or at least a partial ending, for Tyr's pose, and maybe a partial ending that only causes more problems. If you've been following me for a while, you know that we've talked about Tyr's poses in God of War: Ragnarok, such as the Japanese-style seated position, the Indian namaste, and other poses, most likely alluding to the Valhalla DLC and God of War 6. In Valhalla's DLC, you'll notice that Tyre has a variety of weapons, including Macuahuitl or Mesoamerican weapons from the Aztec or Maya, as well as the Egyptian weapon Khopesh, as well as the Japanese weapon katana, and finally spears and shields from Northern Europe or possibly Rome.
I'm not going to tell you exactly which myth or pantheism we're going to go next, but they seem to be taking us to play hide and seek. Guys, I don't really know where they're going to take things. But if those weapons or possible postures are some clues, then we can narrow it down to at least a few different possibilities as to which direction things might go.
There's one last theory I'd like to talk about, which is a relatively brief one, and one that I've just thought of. What if Valhalla could be a gateway to other realms? Imagine that we have to pass Valhalla and be reborn in one of these new realms, perhaps even Greek mythology. Instead of Kratos' ongoing journey, he is reborn?
I'm not going to lie, it's a pretty crazy theory. Like I said, this is what I just came up with. This may not be true, but I'm so excited about the future of God of War and I can't wait to return to Valhalla to improve myself and get better.
