The reboot of God of War from 2017 gave Kratos some much-needed character development that salvaged him in the eyes of much of the community, but that doesn’t mean that both Kratos and Atreus are done yet. God of War Ragnarok, according to director Eric Williams (as shared in the latest Play Magazine), will have more character development in it.
“There’s the internal struggle with Kratos; he made a lot of ground up with Atreus and released those bonds at the end, and walked up there and released the ashes. But at that moment, he also gets gut-punched when he finds out his wife didn’t tell him everything.”
2017’s God of War ended with Kratos and Atreus discovering that Atreus’s true name was Loki, known in Norse mythology as a person who would help to bring about Ragnarok, the Viking end of the world, where all of the gods would die. Atreus also has some issues to work through in God of War: Ragnarok, and is now on more equal footing, according to Williams.
“Last time, it was one kid with a lot of adults talking. We’re gonna see it from a kid’s perspective of the world, figuring things out that they thought they were black and white are maybe much more grey, and a lot more family dynamics.”
Atreus did go through a good amount of character development himself over the course of the first God of War game, finding out his godly heritage and struggling with the same sort of power-high that Kratos did. However, discovering he’s part frost-giant, something his mother never told him, is entirely different.
With several hints towards Loki’s true origins and ending spread across the end of the previous God of War and this trailer, such as a picture of Atreus mourning a dead Kratos and the presence of Angrboda, Loki’s eventually wife, who knows how exactly God of War: Ragnarok will come to an end? Williams only had one phrase to say on that.
“Something surprising, yet inevitable.”
God of War: Ragnarok will be releasing for the Playstation 5 sometime in 2022.