The previous was the last game I finished. What a great game with the leveling and difficulty options. My real hopes are a Laufey spin off/prequel game. That would be freaking awesome.
I am going to hold off and playing Ragnarok until Christmas. Wife needed an idea on what to get me .. Oh well, I will have to wait for just another 6 weeks. I can do this lol
On GameStop's website for the PS4 version, someone asks if it's a free upgrade and Gamestop responded that it is. It's not. It's a $10 upgrade fee. I haven't seen them backtrack yet.
>> I have a jotnar edition preordered but I’m considering canceling. Those damn boxes
>> are too big and I honestly don’t love this franchise that much.
>
> Didn't you hate 2018? I recall you crap talking it a lot.
I didn’t hate it. It was definitely above average. Just hated that it got voted as the greatest game of all time in that vote off IGN? Did. That’s a travesty to gaming.
>> I've avoided the $70 next-gen tax so far, but this one will be a test of patience.
>> Maybe there will be a minor Black Friday discount.
>
> This game is absolutely worth the cost of admission. I doubt there will be any sale
> for it on BF given its popularity and release time.
Probably combo sales if anything (B2G1, that sort of thing). Shooting for 50ish so it can more or less be a wash on resale. No game is worth $70 to me since there are always a dozen or so others that I can play while waiting.
Waiting on physical here, and probably until post vacation (heading to Disney this weekend)... sucks, but hoping to get caught up week of Thanksgiving.
Been playing it. So far it is cinematic heavy but lots of bosses. Nothing wrong with it but it’s not the greatest thing ever- yet. Feels like a Norse mythology / True romance mashup with this acting and the lines. Lol.
@MrBean Looks like you might be able to take part in both the Epcot food & wine (and maybe Kenny G or Sugar Ray at the free Epcot concerts if you like either of them) and the Christmas stuff, so pretty good timing! I still miss the school bread from Epcot Norway and catching the Epcot Dennis DeYoung concert on a cold (for Florida) night with hot chocolate. I don't know if they still do it, but Hollywood Studios was completely covered in Christmas lights when I went. The pay separately Christmas parade was definitely worth doing, too.
@MrBean If it's like when I went the concerts should be near the back of Epcot (maybe close to Japan?). You line up a little before the show (maybe a half hour) and then it's just general seating. It's not closed off or anything. You can check the schedule for the specific dates you'll be there. Avatar land looks really cool. It's amazing how much stuff they keep adding.
@Feeb It is. Definitely one of my fonder memories.
Didn't mean to hijack the thread! Is the game in pretty good technical shape? I remember the first game didn't need too many patches. Work gets really busy starting in January so it's tempting to jump in now.
Got my Jotnar, holy hell, this is a pretty badass box! Tons of trinkets ... all of which, will stay in the box because I'm out of g'damn room - but Mjolnir found a spot hidden behind my monitor.
This is definitely one of the more impressive CE's I've ever seen. How the box opens, how there are hidden compartments, the quality/look/feel, I'm pretty damn impressed.
I thought I didn't get the Vinyl, nope, hidden! Pretty cool.
Against my better judgment I went ahead and bought a copy. I hate to say it but it's kind of boring. Hopefully it'll pick up but so far it's just been a ton of rudimentary puzzles that Sony is terrified of you solving on your own. Between this and Forbidden West it's like they've tried their hardest to prevent a game from getting in the way of the story they want to tell.
Yeah God of War is way better than HFW. Mimir does eventually give you hints but it's nothing like Aloy talking to herself. Also I just prefer the semi open world aspect of God of War
God of War is definitely a much better game. Mimir and even Atreus are just super quick to chime in on every puzzle. Maybe it's somewhere in the billion accessibility settings, but I couldn't find a way to make them tone it down. Speaking of accessibility so far fighting trash mobs is a lot more enjoyable one down from the base difficulty. They aren't so spongy that way.
I’m still not overly impressed with the combat gameplay. At times it feels a bit tight and restricted. That’s one thing HFW does better imo. That one feels like it forces you to improvise and learn more- at least on the higher difficulty- and you have so many options. These are quite different games though so I’ll take both.
I like that part of leveling up skills is actually using them. Kind of makes you realize what you've been neglecting in combat. I'm not too wild about a tight third person camera with enemies spawning behind you constantly, though.
The game is a lot more interesting now. Combat has a few new wrinkles to keep it fresh. Puzzles still feel contrived, and crafting is the same waste of time that it is in every other game that has it, but the plot and combat are very solid. I'm at a bit of a loss for how to allocate my XP. It seems like it doesn't really matter since the skills are gated by weapon levels. At any rate I look forward to seeing what happens next.
I came across a video of the cut scenes and I'm about ready to watch that instead as the story is the most interesting part. Hearing this opinions on gameplay really resonate with me as I don't have the patience for something that feels subpar (to me and me alone, NOT overall) anymore. I can't tell you how many games I pick up with the plans to play again because I loved the gameplay and they don't get touched by me. Again: definitely a ME problem and not reflective of others...
I think I'm closing in on about 20 hours and the game says I'm 21% complete. It's exactly the game I was expecting it to be, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. It's hard to complain that a game has "too much" but I do think they could have edited this down a bit to improve pacing. It doesn't feel like padding but it does feel like certain sequences are too indulgent and go on for far too long.
My only gripes are pretty small: -Some of the story bits are awfully lengthy and although really well done I sometimes just want to get back into the action.
-About 10 hours in there is a sequence that goes on for about an hour where you just walk-and-talk. I could not wait for this bit to end even though the narrative was interesting.
-I felt like battles were also taking too long so I bumped down the difficulty a notch from normal, and honestly it didn't change a whole lot except it seems like I do more damage so things are over a little more quickly.
And yes there is a menu setting to have your companion not give you puzzle tips.
I think I know what long part you're talking about. I thought that would never end. I'm not sure I'm on board with the major gameplay change in this one.
I'm regretting not replaying 2018 again... Feeling disconnected from the story (altho the YT video helped, I'm failing to remember most of it). Damnit.
these are spoilers, but vague as possible and nothing really specific
I dumped combat to Story Mode. It seems every new place I go, there's some new combat thing being introduced and I'm a bit sick of it. I'm here for the story.
The first game had a relatively small cast of characters... This is constantly introducing new people at a break neck speed and it's overwhelming, I guess?
> I think I'm closing in on about 20 hours and the game says I'm 21% complete. It's
> exactly the game I was expecting it to be, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. It's
> hard to complain that a game has "too much" but I do think they could have edited
> this down a bit to improve pacing. It doesn't feel like padding but it does feel
> like certain sequences are too indulgent and go on for far too long.
>
> My only gripes are pretty small:
> -Some of the story bits are awfully lengthy and although really well done I sometimes
> just want to get back into the action.
>
> -About 10 hours in there is a sequence that goes on for about an hour where you just
> walk-and-talk. I could not wait for this bit to end even though the narrative was
> interesting.
this I think was 7.5-8 hours for me, if it's this:
The part in Ironwood with the girl/riding on the animal thing? I liked it, but I'm here for the story. But my time is without any side content.
>
> -I felt like battles were also taking too long so I bumped down the difficulty a
> notch from normal, and honestly it didn't change a whole lot except it seems like
> I do more damage so things are over a little more quickly.
>
I dumped it into Story mode. that is why I'm playing this.
> And yes there is a menu setting to have your companion not give you puzzle tips.
Need to find this.... after 10 seconds they're telling me what to do.
>|
Some complaints on Ragnarok so far:
these are spoilers, but vague as possible and nothing really specific
I dumped combat to Story Mode. It seems every new place I go, there's some new combat thing being introduced and I'm a bit sick of it. I'm here for the story.
The first game had a relatively small cast of characters... This is constantly introducing new people at a breakneck speed and it's overwhelming, I guess?
Still enjoying it though.
I am only doing the main story though, if I do side content it'll be after I beat it.
I platinum the 2018 on highest difficulty and I only remember that last Valkyrie being very hard. The fights in ragnorok do feel much longer but also feels more balanced in my favor.
I was gonna play hardest most but lots of people seem to be complaining. Instead I went with the second hardest. Partially regret... But time will tell. Just had my first God fight.
@MrBean I completely forgot the story from the first game, too. The major story beats from the last game are being referenced in this game and I think "Wait, what, that happened?" That was a really good recap video, so thanks for posting that.
@Kommie I agree about the combat. I thought I more or less had it down and then another skill tree pops up. Most of the time I forget I even have the L1 + X ability. I'm still not even sure what the frost/immolate status is, what it does, or how to tell it's active other than an icy or fiery looking enemy. I mostly tend to fling my axe at stuff and punch it until the stun insta-kill bar builds up. I also don't think there is an option to turn off NPC hints. You can lengthen puzzle timing windows, but there's nothing about NPC hints from what I can find. It seems like they're extremely impatient/helpful on the mandatory puzzles but a bit more hands-off on the side content.
I do kind of like exploring a map and doing side content, but I almost laughed out loud when an in-game character actually said "We don't have the tools to do this yet." If you know what it is why don't you tell me what I need to get past the stupid wind coming out of rocks or the golden glowy rocks? I don't really want to go back through everything all over again when I get whatever ability it is. There's no way I'm going to remember where they all are. I don't guess I'm really missing much since 90% of the treasure chests are token amounts of money or crafting mats. Hopefully optional bosses aren't gated behind my extremely poor memory.
Absolutely loving this game. The deeper dynamic between Kratos and Atreus is making a great story so far. At first I wasn't a huge fan of playing as Atreus, but after the second round, it's growing on me. Nice change of pace with a different strategy.
I don't remember the first one having this enjoyable of a leveling system. Love that you can level the skills themselves and put modifiers on them.
Anyone else focusing on Luck gear early on? I'm passing up on other great stats in favor of luck. Gear is all L4 at the moment.
Game feels like it's gonna be pretty big. I've gotta be closing in on 20 hours. I am definitely not looking forward to the back tracking. Wonder if we'll get a better fast travel or mode of transportation. For now I'm taking notes on all the crap left behind.
Definitely don't click if you haven't found out more about Lokis story (his second time in control).
1) Chasing Angroboda as a wolf was quite fun. Love that he's learning to control his power. 2) The grandma fight was surprisingly fun (albeit easy) 3) Do you really think they're gonna kill off Kratos?
@MrBean I've focused mostly on luck and strength, to the extent that I can. You abandon any and all builds you have when you have a chance to swap out for higher level gear, though. I've got one set (Lunda's?) that does poison/augments poison/barehand so I huck my axe (with a stun-boost augment) at an enemy and punch it until I stun/insta-kill it.
@Orlandu yeah I was assuming that'd happen at some point. Just seems like you need a ton of money and xp for all the additional leveling so sacrafcing stats now in favor of luck. Playing second hardest difficulty, die here and there, but nothing overly difficult. Kinda wish I did hardest, but don't want to hate the game.
You get a good amount of XP just for progressing story, so that hasn't been too much of an issue for me. I don't bother leveling equipment/handles/whatever since I assume they'll be obsoleted as I go. Does luck improve XP gain? I can't even remember.
Luck helps more with getting critical hits and some other attack effects. That's all I've seen it mentioned for but getting those things to activate more often makes a huge difference. I've focussed mostly on strength and luck as an effort to quicken battles.
As far as armor leveling up...I've pretty much had the same setup the entire game. Completely unmemorable pieces but instead of crafting other items I always just upgrade the current item since the specs are always better. I have an insane amount of crafting supplies that are useless at this point as there's no reason for me to craft something and then still need the special materials necessary to upgrade those to the same level I am now (most things are level 5-6 or so). I feel like this bit is kinda broken as those special things that let you upgrade armor gets harder and harder to find, even when you only need 2. So after hitting level 3 or so with something it doesn't make sense to just start over with a new piece since it drops down your character's level which impacts all kinds of stats.
Is anyone actually changing out their armor regularly?
I beat it... I'd maybe give it a 8/10. A lot of stuff about the ending I didn't like. And it used a really annoying trope from JRPGs... Sort of. Hard to explain without spoilers. There is some post game stuff I wanna do but might wait a bit.
I'm kind of just ready for the game to end. I think I'm nearly there. I honestly don't care about a big optional area that just opened up. Huge disappointment of a game, especially since I liked the first Dad of War.
I'm going to post everything behind a spoiler. Major spoilers here
Combat gets tedious but my main issue is the story stuff.
Lots of new characters are introduced at a high rate.
"Tyr" I mean Odin pretending to be Tyr, Freyr, new dwarf guy with a yarmulke, Thor, Odin, Blonde kid friend, Giant girl, Thor's daughter, wife, Heimdall, and really none of them get any time to shine.
Thor feels useless, more or less. And is basically a slave to Odin. He dies by Odin.
The only big "Death" in this game is Brok and oh fudging boy did it feel cheap as hell. As it turns out, "Tyr" was really just Odin in disguise and once he finds out all the info he needs, he says Brok needs to "shut up" or some effect and kills him. It happened so quickly that I had to look up whether it was really Tyr or not. Cheap as hell. I know there is post-game content where you can find the real Tyr but I really don't feel like doing it right now. Sindri basically blames Kratos/Atreus for his death and hates you for it. There is a post-game funeral that I'll get to at some point with this, and this whole time after his death he's finally over his germaphobia and takes his gloves off.
Freya gets over wanting to kill you pretty quickly just because Odin is a bigger threat. You get her as a companion. The power of teamwork and all that.
But the game's main focus is the prophecy of Kratos dying, and that's where my main issue lies. The whole game they want to change this prophecy and they more or less do it simply because they are determined to avoid fate. Yep, that's fudging it. Just like in JRPGs where you win through the power of friendship, in this, you win through the power of teaming up with all your new allies and killing Odin. Literally, nothing clever happens.
Something to say in regard to the next part: Fenrir dies in the beginning and Atreus puts his soul in a Knife unknowingly. Later in the game, you fight Garmr who has no soul and Atreus puts Fenrir's soul in Garmr's body.
I'm a big fan of time-travel media and was expecting something cool or clever like: Kratos dies but they find some way to bring him back maybe via the giant magic trick and puts his soul in an animal and he's still alive or something. Or they trick Odin into thinking Kratos is dead somehow and they find some hidden prophecy page after this that shows Loki's cool treachery or something.
Nope, nothing as cool or clever.
You just win through the power of teamwork and determination.
The overall theme/reused phrase of "We must be better." Got a bit annoying as well.
I beat it at 21.5 Hours with no side content on story mode.
On all technical levels, it's a great game. Just the bad/not-so-great story drags it down so much.
The story feels a bit rushed just to get it out for Q4
I don't disagree with many of the complaints, especially Kommie's list. But I very much enjoyed my time with the game and for the 40h or so I spent with it, it was well worth the money.
I didn't bother to go for 100% but I did do nearly all side missions and that last post-game activity of finding 10 or so pieces of a thing. That required visiting some areas I didn't even see or notice, so I enjoyed that exploring a bit as it also resulted in new areas, many chests, and new fast travel points.
But I had no interest in trying to find all of the crows even though I was at like 38 or so.
Oh, nobody has complained about the wishing well yet. That was dumb.
Once you find this place you will start receiving crystals instead of dwarven steel and those other armor-upgrade components that are hard to get. You then throw the crystals into the wishing well and get loads of money and other things. It's certainly worth the effort but there was a specific point in the game where all of a sudden I stopped getting certain materials and instead got crystals.
It was pretty clumsy and at that point I was so powerful that none of it really made any difference. The first time I visited I had a ton of crystals though so I left with like 100k gold and enough materials to upgrade all of my current gear by 1-2 levels. But after that I never really needed the new things.
> I cranked up the difficulty and I’m loving the combat now. Too many shoot a target
> puzzles.
I started the game on Give Me No Mercy, kinda wish I woulda went all the way up to Give Me God of War, but heard it was pretty brutal. Don't have time lately to sit here and be pissed off at dying constantly.
No Mercy is pretty spot on. Some fights I'm totally fine, others take me a few runs. Yet, it's all timing and patterns, like most games. Overall I feel it's a solid balance with a challenge.
I did the first in hardest difficulty. Upped it on the sequel and that is my happy place. Very good, strategic combat system at higher difficulty. Reminds me of HZD, the Witcher 3 and other games where the hardest difficulty literally makes the game great.
Gdamn this game is surprisingly big. 40 hours in, still feel like I have a bunch to do.
Just did the running scene with Freyr, that was quite cool, wish it woulda been longer.
Had to skip a Beserker fight. Was getting my ass handed to me and gave up for now. First time in the game so far that I've struggled. He was a level above me and has a bullcrap AoE stomp that I can't seem to get away from.
Purple health bar berserkers aren't worth fighting. Better to come back after you level up. There was one fight against two at a time and just sucked. Kratos moves too sluggishly (especially if you have to quickly move backward) to have to fight perfectly against two aggressive enemies at once. Even the ones I beat I wouldn't consider fun fights. Mostly just dodge and chip damage fights. You can do all the Muspelheim trials in the mean time, though. Those are all pretty easy clears.
The camera is tough. Locks on and won’t let you easily untarget so you can do the necessary run and kite required for difficult fights. Some of the runes are decent but I feel like with the rage I must use the healing to survive. Often feels like getting gud just means cheesing.
Ok, these late game Berserkers are getting annoying ... Assuming I need some better gear and higher levels. These rounds with 2-3 bosses in them are just annoying. The amount of effort to travel is also a pain. Wish you could fast travel without having to be at a gateway. Been doing a bunch of backtracking and feels like I should just keep going through the story and come back to this crap later.
I didn't bother with the Berserkers, I wasn't having any fun.
Once you beat the game you can continue playing and they add 1 more set of new collectibles. I found that going for that final set of items (they show on the maps) helped me find all kinds of new places that included other collectibles and chests. It was also then that I realized that I had collected some eggs or something that allowed me to activate a few portals that I hadn't been to yet. They helped me get to new places much faster.
This Svipdagar the Cold fight is driving me nuts. Died like 10x already ... I can take down the main guy, but then the two sisters go ape crap. I've gotten them down to like 10%, but just can't seem to finish them off.
OK ... gonna get Plat, new combo of gear, I'm unstoppable.
The Steinbjorn chest combined with Raven wrist/waist + Niflheim/Svartlfheim sets and Stunning Fang, Seal of RUnic Storm, and Stone Idol of Souls ... add in the Squirrel Summon, makes you pretty much a beast.
Might be the alcohol though, but I just rolled the last 3 Beserkers that were giving me a challenge.
Wel, that's super disappointing. Just maxed out all my skills (the labors to level them up) and that wasn't a trophy? Christ, that took awhile ... all 3 weps, fully maxed. Still have to craft skills for the spear, perhaps that'll be a trophy. Either way, that was too much work for nothin.
Damn, a fair amount of post game content! The challenging bosses are much more difficult without the Atreus squirrel summon ... abused the hell out of that and now I'm paying for it.
Also, the last two story battles, gdamn those were fantastic!
I did a lot of side missions early and really enjoyed many of them. I like that if people skipped them they can still give them a try after they beat the game.
> I did a lot of side missions early and really enjoyed many of them. I like that
> if people skipped them they can still give them a try after they beat the game.
Same, I did every single thing possible prior to end game. Now in retro, regret some of it, because I'm back tracking through the same stuff for like the 4th time! Still, good fun.
Kinda disappointed that the Remnants post game quest is kinda ... lame. I'm hoping the last one spawns some big boss or something because these are a snore fest. Was expecting a challenge at each.
Question: is it still not sexual like the previous Dad of War? That was my biggest culture shock was going from the old GoW games to Dad of War and being pleasantly surprised. My 11 year old son most likely isn't interested, but I didn't want to pick it up eventually and find out that you had sex games in it...hahaha.
When my son was very young, he really liked stealth games and we got the lately "Thief" title because it's been dirt cheap 1000 times. All was good until you are sneaking through a brothel :D
Just 100% it. This is another game that I feel like hunting trophies enhances it to its max. I felt like it was a solid 7/10 after story- but I think the post game stuff bumps it up to a 9 for me. Gloves come off on those last two fights. Overall I liked it better than 2018 but would say the camera and clunky way you drop targets to kite them really makes harder fights harder than they need to be. And there are some cheaply large AoE moves that you need a crystal ball to dodge.
Good stuff. I prefer ER and HFW pretty heavily but Ragnarok is a good one to experience.
I'd largely agree @Feeb. The post game was a bit too short and overall the back tracking was more annoying than fun. Should have had a better fast travel in post game to speed it up.
Really wanted more of the prison reveal, feels like that should have had more dialogue (assumed there would be more at Sindris, nope).
Also the crucible was way too easy which was unfortunate. The last two fights were great though.
It is hard to go too much into story detail without spoiling, so I won’t. Though it starts with Kratos and Mimir, other characters from Ragnarok with return along with other characters…not from Ragnarok. This is a dive into Kratos’ Spartan past in a way that is mostly buried deep within the new Norse games, like the Blades of Chaos under the floorboards. And when it rears its head, you will understand why this is essentially a must-play for any fan of the series, new era or old.
Oh, so it's actually more campaign? I only skimmed the details but it sounded more like a combat arena/waves of enemies kind of thing. I'd love to get more story.
