God of War: Ragnarok Devs Think a Third Game Won’t Be Necessary to Conclude Saga
God of War: Ragnarok is the second installment in the popular franchise, and Santa Monica Studios has just confirmed that it will mark the end of the Norse saga. According to Game Director Cory Barlog, games of this size and scale are simply going to require too long of a time to complete.
“I think one of the most important reasons is the first game took five years,” Barlog said in an interview. “The second game, I do not know how long it is going to take, but I am just going to throw out that it is going to take close to a similar time to do this.” It took the team five years to finish the 2018 title, and Barlog assumes that it will take them pretty much the same time for God of War: Ragnarok, as well as a possible third installment. Kratos’ storyline will end up suffering after having been stretched out across some 15 years.
“I feel like that is just too stretched out,” he added. “I feel like we are asking too much to say the actual completion of that story, taking that long, just feels too long.” The franchise is all about the story of Atreus and Kratos, considering that these characters are the “core of the story’s engine.” However, the complexities that could stem from their relationship as father and son will expectedly require plenty of room and time to grow—something that Barlog did not quite agree with.
“The complexity radiates out—like ripples in a pond,” he said. “We could make it an ocean and have those ripples just go for thousands of miles, but is that necessary and is that beneficial? Or, are we feeling like, you know what, it is just spreading it too far apart?”
Barlog is confident that fellow Game Director Eric Williams is fully capable of telling the story in God of War: Ragnarok and have the game serve as the reboot’s definitive conclusion. “I think we can actually do this in the second story,” Barlog continued. “The ripples get too far apart and you sort of lose the plot a little bit.”
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