God of War Ragnarok

[Chadruharazzeb]

It doesn't know when to stop. 

[Sarlaccfood]

27 minutes ago, Chadruharazzeb said:

It doesn't know when to stop. 

Agreed. I found it super rough. “Here’s some random enemies in my sanctuary even though it makes no sense but I know you’re bored”

[NecroMorrius]

19 hours ago, Pob said:

To introduce techniques at a manageable rate and provide rewards for progression. 

So why bother making it a tree or multiple trees? Just make it a list. I miss having to actually craft a build.

[Thor]

9 minutes ago, Moz said:

So why bother making it a tree or multiple trees? Just make it a list. I miss having to actually craft a build.

Sorry Moz, but this is nonsense. None of the God of War games have ever been about crafting a build.  There are countless games out there with good combat, old and new, where you can craft a unique build. Go play Elden Ring for that. This game is about the story, the fact it has good combat is great, but it's secondary to the story. 

[PaB]

9 minutes ago, Moz said:

So why bother making it a tree or multiple trees? Just make it a list. I miss having to actually craft a build.

Play a game that lets you do that then. There’s plenty out there. 

[NecroMorrius]

6 minutes ago, Thor said:

Sorry Moz, but this is nonsense. None of the God of War games have ever been about crafting a build.  There are countless games out there with good combat, old and new, where you can craft a unique build. Go play Elden Ring for that. This game is about the story, the fact it has good combat is great, but it's secondary to the story. 

Are you joking mate, have you seen ANY of the systems in this game? It’s massively overstuffed with synergising armor sets and buffs, perks and so on. It’s absolutely about crafting a build. But what you can’t do is pick any of your talents or moveset, it’s all passive stats-based stuff. 
 

This isn’t really a GOW thing, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima and Days Gone all did it. Seems like a Sony first party thing. Give me interesting choices rather than the illusion of choice when deciding an order to unlock everything. 
 

Edit: to be fair to GOW, you can choose your runic attacks at least. Forgot about that for a moment. 

[Floshenbarnical]

I don’t want to put together a build, personally. I want to dive into a big crowd of people, dodge and parry every attack, and hit things really hard with my big axe. You don’t need to put a build together if you don’t let them hit you. Speaking of which, Wulvers can eat shit - finally figured out their attack pattern so I can deal with several of them at once and not be worried about it.

[Pob]

For your moveset, you need to choose your light and heavy runic attacks per weapon, runic summon, relic and shield. You can only have one of each equipped at a time. For stats, buffs and other special perks etc you chose your three armour pieces, shield ronds, weapon handles, buddy relics (can't remember exactly what these are called) and amulet enchantments. Quite a lot of build options, all told.

 

There aren't any options that lock off other paths. Is that what you mean @Moz? Having to commit to a style without being able to respec your build?

[stir fry]

I thought it was overdesigned at first as well, but by the postgame I actually thought all the RPG and loot aspects were pretty well thought out. But you really do need to set the difficulty for the mechanics to really mean much.

 

What build you go for will influence your approach in combat, albeit not by that much cause there's just a lot of skills in this game which are universally useful on any build. But some are pretty interesting, like ones which proc certain buffs if you use projectile moves a lot. There's one about using hand to hand moves which inflict poison I think, apparently it's busted as fuck. 

 

I don't think I have any complaints with that part, given the kind of game and broad appeal it's aiming for. It could never be like something like Nioh, which has all the depth and build tweaking/combat dance that some people ITT may be really looking for

[Majora]

You can choose a build to an extent. I mean, you can definitely unlock every single move in the skill trees and I agree it makes them feel a bit pointless. The whole point of having trees is surely specialisation in specific trees. There's no point in dedicated trees if you can unlock everything in every tree. It's an illusion of choice which Sony first party seem to love to have in their games for some reason.

 

But you can put together certain builds based on your armour and weapon mods etc. Eg If you get a certain optional armour set then you inflict poison every time you block an attack or attack bare handed and then you can have something else equipped which means that you inflict more damage upon poisoned enemies. So then you might want to equip the shield that blocks all yellow attacks rather than a partying shield for example. And since you inflict poison with bare handed attacks you end up throwing your axe when a fight starts and then wading in with your fists rather than dealing damage from range.

[Floshenbarnical]

Yes my brother in law is playing a poison build right now, he said it’s great for bosses and lieutenants etc but dogshit for crowd control, obviously

[Floshenbarnical]

I think I prefer the first cold GoW, but this is still brilliant

[gooner4life]

This is a bit special, completed the main story a few minutes ago. 
 

Lots of side quests to do now, but the story is excellent, the voice acting and animation and attention to detail are first class.

 

I really enjoyed it.

[Floshenbarnical]

Ok so one of the main characters has gone to a particular place and now it feels like a soap opera. There are too many characters.

[Flanders]

This game is structured in a very peculiar way, like a linear narrative action blockbuster spliced together with an open world game. I like both bits - I particularly like the side stuff which really does reward exploration - but I can’t help thinking I’d prefer the 10-hour version or the 60-hour version instead of the halfway house.
 

The two competing structures get in each others’ way in a manner that they didn’t in the 2018 game and I’m not sure why. 

 

One other difference is that it’s only playing Ragnarok that I’ve realised how far Last of Us 2 raised the bar for this type of blockbuster. Everything in that vein that’s come out since hasn’t seemed as good to me. 

[Sarlaccfood]

4 hours ago, Flanders said:

but I can’t help thinking I’d prefer the 10-hour version

Same, but I wonder if the £70 price tag makes the devs feel the need to stretch things out?

[Pob]

6 hours ago, Flanders said:

This game is structured in a very peculiar way, like a linear narrative action blockbuster spliced together with an open world game. I like both bits - I particularly like the side stuff which really does reward exploration - but I can’t help thinking I’d prefer the 10-hour version or the 60-hour version instead of the halfway house.
 

The two competing structures get in each others’ way in a manner that they didn’t in the 2018 game and I’m not sure why. 

 

One other difference is that it’s only playing Ragnarok that I’ve realised how far Last of Us 2 raised the bar for this type of blockbuster. Everything in that vein that’s come out since hasn’t seemed as good to me. 

Honestly, if Ragnarok had been The Crater bookended by a few hours of cinematic linear encounters, I would’ve been happy. The main story is far, far too long. You basically go everywhere twice. The first game was just right. 

[teddymeow]

Trying to beat the final two bosses.

 

Even on the easiest difficulty they are kicking my arse!!

 

Looking at the various combinations of armour, runics and artefacts to give me the best chance.

 

So close to the Platinum.

[teddymeow]

Oh. My. God!!!

 

 

[Girth Certificate]

The Wolf and the Bear and the Maiden Fair Freya

 

 

[Number 28]

I thought I'd go back to this for the platinum and consulted a guide to see which berserker fight is easiest, and... they can't be serious with #10 there? She constantly warps and whizzes around and fires shit at me, I can't tell up from down and Kratos is felled in 30 seconds. I was doing much better against the one they rank as the 5th most difficult. I think I just absolutely suck at parrying and shielding in general, the timing is all over. Also, the reload times on PS4 are painful and having to press X each time is winding me up. Sigh.

[Floshenbarnical]

On 15/01/2023 at 15:54, Pob said:

Honestly, if Ragnarok had been The Crater bookended by a few hours of cinematic linear encounters, I would’ve been happy. The main story is far, far too long. You basically go everywhere twice. The first game was just right. 

 

Agreed. I'm bored of this now, tbh, and I only just

 

Spoiler

put Fenrir's soul into Garm.

 

It honestly feels like an MCEU ensemble-cast movie - there are too many characters, and every single character has their own plotline. It's like Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - YOU get a plotline, YOU get a plotline! 

 

 

1 hour ago, Number 28 said:

I thought I'd go back to this for the platinum and consulted a guide to see which berserker fight is easiest, and... they can't be serious with #10 there? She constantly warps and whizzes around and fires shit at me, I can't tell up from down and Kratos is felled in 30 seconds. I was doing much better against the one they rank as the 5th most difficult. I think I just absolutely suck at parrying and shielding in general, the timing is all over. Also, the reload times on PS4 are painful and having to press X each time is winding me up. Sigh.

 

I did kill 3 Berserkers yesterday - one in Svarteltheim (someone The Callous) and the 2 in Alfheim, one of which is actually 3 Berserkers. Evidently I have a shit build or am underleveled for the fights because they all one-hit-killed me with even their most basic attacks. But I laughed it off every time I died horribly and just kept learning the attacks.

 

I advise starting off with the Callous guy tbh as it's the first Berserker opportunity that the game presents you with. You have to stay close and maintain pressure, and your parries have to be perfect or he'll stagger you and you'll get decapitated, but if you don't make a single mistake for the entire fucking fight then you too will be rewarded with ... some inconsequential shit I didn't even pay attention to as I picked it up.

[teddymeow]

I did all the Berserkers after the endgame. Made it a heck of a lot easier.

[Number 28]

Ha, yeah, I'm post-game so...😖 I'm probably just rusty as hell. I'll try the Callous one though, thanks. I might try knocking the difficulty down as well tbh, which is how I finally beat Sigrun in the previous game.

[footle]

3 hours ago, Floshenbarnical said:

 

Agreed. I'm bored of this now, tbh, and I only just

 

  Hide contents

put Fenrir's soul into Garm.

 

It honestly feels like an MCEU ensemble-cast movie - there are too many characters, and every single character has their own plotline. It's like Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - YOU get a plotline, YOU get a plotline! 

 

 

 

I did kill 3 Berserkers yesterday - one in Svarteltheim (someone The Callous) and the 2 in Alfheim, one of which is actually 3 Berserkers. Evidently I have a shit build or am underleveled for the fights because they all one-hit-killed me with even their most basic attacks. But I laughed it off every time I died horribly and just kept learning the attacks.

 

I advise starting off with the Callous guy tbh as it's the first Berserker opportunity that the game presents you with. You have to stay close and maintain pressure, and your parries have to be perfect or he'll stagger you and you'll get decapitated, but if you don't make a single mistake for the entire fucking fight then you too will be rewarded with ... some inconsequential shit I didn't even pay attention to as I picked it up.

oh, you’ve got far enough that I can ask the question:

 

Spoiler

Did you enjoy what they did with your comic relief?

 

[Floshenbarnical]

14 minutes ago, footle said:

oh, you’ve got far enough that I can ask the question:

 

  Hide contents

Did you enjoy what they did with your comic relief?

 

 

Spoiler

Are you talking about them falling out again because Brok died and Sindri lied etc

 

[Indy @ S.E.]

Finally got round to getting this, done approx 45 mins or so and so far not a single ‘BOY!!’ has been uttered. Most disappointing!

 

Proper depressing start to it too, wasn’t expecting that.

[Number 28]

Ok, back into this now. I finally beat that first Beserker, Unerring. I suddenly remembered that to avoid that bullshit AOE bifrost attack you have turn around? Look away? But then I just kept using the running shield bash move which would stun her out of it. I won with about 1hp left... I realised my axe and blades still aren't fully upgraded, so I'm going to hunt for the items needed for that. Once I've done that I should be able to clinch it with at least some of the remaining beserkers.

 

Btw, anyone have any idea how to get up here? It's driving me nuts (late game area)

Spoiler

[Gigawatt]

Don’t want to spoil too much, but all I will say is, have you been to:

Spoiler

The Jungle?

If not, I’d suggest exploring all the crater, specifically the 

Spoiler

South-West portion

and if that still has you stumped, then there are plenty of YouTube vids on how to find that place. I had to resort to that to find it. 

[Number 28]

Yeah, I got there in the end. The trick was to

Spoiler

use the boat and head southwest.

I thought the quest with the saliva trail had bugged out honestly, I'd been running in circles for ages. Mopping up absolutely everything is going to be a nightmare with all these maze-like environments, but I'm a masochist I guess. I just platinum'd Bloodstained the other day, which involved crafting every single weapon and meal in the game...