Cory Barlog Explains Why God of War: Ragnarok Will Conclude the Norse Saga
God of War: Ragnarok will present the conclusion to the Norse chapter of Kratos' story. Cory Barlog admitted that this decision was his idea. He also gave the reasons behind it.
If you immediately stopped watching PlayStation Showcase last Thursday after seeing the impressive God of War: Ragnarok trailer, you might not know that the upcoming game from the studio based in Santa Monica will wrap up Kratos' Norse adventure. Why, you ask? After all, it seemed like the story was just getting started, wasn't it? The game's now former director Cory Barlog has shed some light on the situation. The developer - along with Erik Williams, who has taken over his role - gave an extensive interview to youtuber Kaptain Kuba. You can watch it below - the interesting part starts at 15:14.
Cory Barlog admitted that limiting the Norse storyline to two installments was his idea. He gave a few reasons behind the decision. The first and most important is the long process of developing these titles - we're talking about God of War from 2018 and Ragnarok, which is scheduled to launch in 2022.
"It took us five years to make the first game. I don't know exactly how long it will take to work on the second, but that time will be not much shorter. If part three was made, the whole story would be stretched out across almost fifteen years. I think that's too much. (...) Taking into account what we wanted to do, I thought we could do it all in part two. From the beginning we wanted to tell the story of Kratos and Atreus - the relationship between these two characters is the core of the story and its complexity is reflected in the events we tell (...). We could have let them expand, but we would have lost the main plot. That's why we decided to condense it (...) so that when you get through God of War of 2018 and Ragnarok you will get a complete story."
In other words, the devs do not want to water the content down; they want to give us the "meat" itself. Barlog also noted that every character in the upcoming game will be given a fair amount of time; none will be left out. So it's hard to say whether Kratos and Atreus will encounter the entire pantheon of Norse deities, or just a few of the most important, like the recently revealed Thor. We can also probably assume that Ragnarok will be slightly longer than God of War from 2018.
And what's next? Well, once upon a time Cory Barlog spoke about plans for five more installments in the series. It seems doubtful that they will concern only Norse adventures of the Greek god of war. His further fate is known only to the Three Fates for now.
