God of War Ragnarok: Everything We Know About the God of War Sequel

The most substantive God of War Ragnarok trailer was shown during the PlayStation Showcase 2021. The trailer, which gave us our first look at Ragnarok gameplay, clocks in at three minutes and 13 seconds. Check it out below:

God of War Ragnarok Story

This section contains spoilers for 2018’s God of War.

Here’s the official synopsis for God of War Ragnarok, which takes place a “few years” after God of War:

Fimbulwinter [the great winter] is well underway. Kratos and Atreus must journey to each of the Nine Realms in search of answers as Asgardian forces prepare for a prophesied battle that will end the world. Along the way they will explore stunning, mythical landscapes, and face fearsome enemies in the form of Norse gods and monsters. The threat of Ragnarök [the final destruction of the world] grows ever closer. Kratos and Atreus must choose between their own safety and the safety of the realms.

Santa Monica Studio has largely remained tight-lipped about story details, though director Eric Williams shared a new facet of the sequel will be Kratos grappling with the fact that his son is Loki, and that his wife withheld that information from him. Ragnarok, like its predecessor, will once again balance fantastical setpieces with smaller scale “slice-of-life” moments.

Returning characters include Kratos, Atreus, Freya, Mimir, Brok, and Sindri. New characters include Thor, the God of Thunder; Tyr, the Norse God of War; the dwarf Durlin; the giantess Angrboda; and Odin, chief of the Norse Gods.

We also know players will be able to visit all nine realms in Ragnarok, compared to only six in God of War. The three previously unexplored realms are Vanaheim, Svartalfheim, and Asgard.

God of War Story Recap

2018’s God of War is set well after the events of the original God of War trilogy and takes our hero Kratos from the world of Greek mythology into the Norse. The game opens with Kratos and his son Atreus preparing a funeral for Faye, Kratos’s second wife and Atreus’s mother.

Following an unforgettable fight sequence with The Stranger (later revealed to be Baldur, the Norse God of Light), Kratos and Atreus embark on a journey to fulfill Faye’s final wish: to have her ashes scattered from the top of the highest mountain in the realms. And so begins the duo’s journey.

Kratos and Atreus encounter (and often fight) mythical creatures and gods from Norse mythology, all the while exploring their own interpersonal drama — namely Kratos’s shortcomings as a father and his hidden identity as a half-god that he’s chosen to hide in an effort to move on from the atrocities he committed over the course of the previous God of War games.

Aiding Kratos and Atreus on their quest is Freya, who we come to find out is herself a goddess and the mother of Baldur, with whom she shares a complicated relationship (to put it mildly). Kratos intervenes in their familial spat, killing Baldur to save Freya against her will. As a result, she vows to “rain down every agony, every violation imaginable” upon Kratos, setting her up as one of the two main antagonists in Ragnarok.

Kratos reveals his past to Atreus, after which they ascend the mountain and complete their quest by spreading Frey’s ashes. Atop the mountain, they also discover the Jotnar giants had foreseen their entire journey, and Kratos glimpses a mural of what may be yet to come: a dying Kratos being held by Atreus, a snake coming out of the latter’s mouth.

In one final reveal, we learn Atreus is, in fact, the trickster god Loki. A post-credit sequence then sets up Ragnarok’s other main antagonist: Thor.

The game is absolutely worth playing through yourself, for there are many more twists, turns, and memorable character introductions throughout, but for the sake of brevity, we’ve stuck to the most essential events. A more in-depth recap of the story can be found in the video below.

God of War Ragnarok Gameplay

As with 2018’s God of War, Ragnarok will ebb and flow between “big show-stopper bosses,” smaller scale brawls, and quieter moments between Kratos and Atreus. While that cadence will be familiar, the combat options within those moments have been expanded, as evidenced in Ragnarok’s gameplay trailer, which showcased new attack abilities for Kratos and a new Runic Summon for Atreus.

As listed on Ragnarok’s PS Store page, Kratos will have access to his Leviathan Axe, Blades of Chaos, and Guardian Shield “alongside a host of new abilities.” Among those new abilities is the way Kratos uses the Blades of Chaos for the sake of verticality: the Blades can be used as a grappling hook to scale heights (á la Halo Infinite) and close the gap between enemies (á la Mortal Kombat). See for yourself:

Kratos will also have a host of new Norse creatures to use those abilities on. One new enemy we saw in the gameplay trailer was a centaur-like creature called The Stalker (seen below). We also got a glimpse of the wolf-giant Fenrir in the most recent CG trailer, though time will tell whether he’s a friend or foe.

One last addition to traversal worth mentioning is the introduction of Speki and Svanna, the wolves seen pulling Kratos and Atreus across the frozen Lake of Nine in the aforementioned gameplay trailer.

The Stalker as seen in the God of War Ragnarok gameplay trailer

Latest God of War Ragnarok News

The most notable piece of Ragnarok news we didn’t cover above is the change in director: God of War 2018’s director Cory Barlog has handed the reins over to Eric Williams, a veteran of the franchise who’s credited as a designer on the previous game. Barlog says Williams was crucial in shepherding the series in its new direction, calling him the game’s “sounding board and also the boundary limit testing.”

Another change in the sequel is a bigger commitment to accessibility: Santa Monica Studio has promised over 60 accessibility options in Ragnarok, including full controller customization, automated movements (sprinting, vaulting, etc.), a navigation assist button, and improved options for subtitles.

Barlog has also confirmed Ragnarok will mark the end of the series’ Norse saga. It was something of a surprise considering the first game’s success, but for Barlog, it was a matter of not stretching the story out for too long over a trilogy: “We’re talking a span of close to fifteen 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… it just feels too long.”

Most recently we learned Dark Horse will release a God of War Ragnarok art book day and date with the game on November 9. The book features hundreds of pages of concept art, developer commentary, and other behind-the-scenes content.

During the development of Ragnarok, Sony also announced a God of War TV show for Prime Video. Little is known about the series, though it is said to be live-action. According to a report published in March, the TV adaptation may be coming from the creators of The Expanse.

For more, check out our breakdown of all four God of War Ragnarok editions available to pre-order.