God of War Ragnarok is another triumph for PlayStation and developer Sony Santa Monica Studio. The game broke the franchise’s launch record in the UK and has become the fastest-selling entry in the series to date. Its day-one physical sales were greater than the full-week launch sales of every previous series entry. God of War Ragnarok leads all games with the most nominations for The Game Awards 2022. In an interview with LA Times, several of the key developers at Sony Santa Monica: Game Director Eric Williams, Narrative Director Matt Sophos, Director of Product Development Meghan Morgan Juinio, and Creative Director Cory Barlog, spoke about the change in direction that the franchise took, the decisions made for God of War Ragnarok, and what’s next for the studio.
The change and evolution of Kratos and God of War as a franchise was actually planted back in the first game way back in 2005 according to Ragnarok Eric Williams. He was adamant about the hugging mechanic that was placed near the end of the game amidst the climactic battle with Aries. Kratos would hug his family and provide health during the fight. It was meant to play out as a manifestation of Kratos’ dreams and nightmares, as players already knew the tragic fate of his family. It also planted a seed that Kratos could eventually change and evolve.
“It was so metaphorical,” Williams said recently in the offices of Santa Monica Studio. “He was fighting the demons within himself, but he was giving his life to his family. That always stuck with me. That could be a thesis for a change in the character, which we took and ran with.”
Cory Barlog attributes the shift and change to the series to the evolution of narrative in video games over the last decade, specifically with the impact The Last of Us had when it was released back in 2013. “We’ve grown slowly, over a decade or two, to that point, but I think 2018 was possible to me because of so many other games,” Barlog said. Barlog cites The Last of Us as proof that big-budget video games can equally balance violence and emotion.
“‘The Last of Us’ is defining. You can challenge people on more than killing things, and they’ll want it. It proved to the executives that this is viable. Prior, it was maybe too niche. For the longest time, it was always about the back of the box. You had to have a gimmicky thing to sell it, as opposed to saying that doing something good and engaging people on all emotional levels — not just anger, frustration and fear — is viable.”
One of the main differences between the original God of War games and the last two is finding small, personal moments in a game with gods, goddesses, beasts and dragons. “So much of Norse mythology is built around the prophecy of Ragnarök. It’s the only mythology where the gods not only know when they’re going to die, they know who is going to kill them,” says narrative director Matt Sophos. “But the more we started to focus on that, the more we kept going, ‘We’re off the path.’ … As you’re developing a story, especially one as big as this one, and you know you’re going to have deal with Ragnarök, we could see every time that we were starting to veer off into too much of the prophecy and mythology lane and needed to bring it back to the personal.”
“We take liberties with Norse mythology,” says Meghan Morgan Juinio, the studio’s director of product development. “We are not a reality-based game, but our settings are based on things that happen to real people. I think that’s where the emotional connection with our fans comes from. Sure, there’s fantasy elements and enemies you wouldn’t see in the real world, but the experiences and the relationships between the characters are very much like things you would see in real life.”
Williams wanted to have Ragnarök pick up where God of War (2018) left off. His goal wasn’t to reinvent the franchise but to have it feel as if it were a new chapter in a continuing saga.
“The best compliment I can possibly get, in my opinion, would be that I feel invisible as a director and [that] it feels like a true continuation,” says Williams. “To me, they’re siblings, and they need to co-exist. I don’t want it to be [Barlog’s] game and my game. To me, that would be sad. I want you to jump in and say, ‘This feels like we just dropped off.’ There are differences, but I don’t think they’re so drastic that it would feel strange or awkward now.”
Talking about what’s next for Sony Santa Monica Studio, Cory Barlog says that they are currently “spread out on a lot of different things.” He didn’t offer any specifics but the studio has done more than just God of War. In the past, the studio published a diverse slate of independent games such as Thatgamecompany’s Journey. One possibly could be the return of the sci-fi game that Sony Santa Monica was working on before God of War (2018) but was eventually canceled.
Williams added that he would feel no shame if Sony Santa Monica Studio was fully dedicated to the God of War franchise. “I remember talking to someone from another game company, where they were trying to get me to leave. He said, ‘Do you just want to be known as the “God of War” guy for the rest of your life?’ That was your big pitch to dissuade me? Because yes, I kind of do.”