Detailed Analysis - Environmental & Collectibles
Environmental - The Planes of Valhalla
God of War has featured some truly exotic and Beautiful Environments as we' have accompanied Kratos on his travels. Whether it’s from the great mountain of Olympus to the fabled Yggdrasil, Kratos has visited some truly Extraordinary places. What is truly commendable to the Developers is their ability to make each new location feel utterly unique and a joy to marvel at and the same is said for Valhalla. The fabled halls of Valhalla contain all the honourable dead who Have Fallen in battle, where they fight, fornicate and then feast together, waiting for Ragnarök to begin.
After Asgard fell, Valhalla was thought to be lost but as is evident in the directions Kratos receives from Týr, Kratos and Mimir find the Black sand beach that Proceeds the domain of warriors. As Kratos Traipses through Valhalla, to master himself, Valhalla acts as an almost shattered reflection of the Nine Realms with many doors that lead all lead to Kratos’ confrontations with Týr. As Mimir so eloquently puts it, Valhalla has a mind of its own so to speak. Fighting his way through Kratos is put to the test as Valhalla uses his past against him in an effort to make the old God of War face himself.
Valhalla does this in some of the most Unlikeliest of ways, for example Switching out Mimir with a fake version of Helios, or even making Kratos face off against the sons of Thor again, Everything Valhalla does is for the better of Kratos and even Mimir. When it switches out Mimir with Helios, it sends Mimir to his past to face his feelings about Sigrún. Valhalla is perhaps the most diverse realm, made in God of War as it takes environments from every realm and alters them for its purpose as Kratos faces his worst mistakes and victims he feels the most guilt about. Valhalla is masterfully crafted to reflect the most beautiful aspects of the realms and even Greece as it makes Kratos understand who he is and how he can impact the future.
Collectible - Relics of the Past
Each chapter of Valhalla plays an important role for Kratos and at the start of Every Journey he comes across a powerful object from his past that holds great value and painful memories necessary for his growth. Valhalla knows which memories weigh on Kratos the most and it knows what he needs to say so that he can move forward. 3 objects in particular show Kratos’ growth in ways that we hadn’t expected, plucked from the past of the Greek God of War Games that don’t feel forced or unnecessary.
Prioritizing quality over quantity, the developers know exactly what objects to use that will truly impact Kratos, from his Daughter’s flute that he carved himself, to the small statue of Pandora that helped shape him into the man we know now. Each object helps Confront a certain lesson for Kratos and thanks to their friendship, Mimir proves to be an invaluable ear for Kratos as he acts like a therapist in a way, Kratos also does the same for Mimir in funny ways but Kratos is the one who truly earns from Mimir’s wisdom.
When Kratos finds a Key to a locked door on a ship he once travelled on, he recounts his tale of a Hydra that beset his ship. When the hydra ate the boat captain, Kratos went in after the key and when he found it, he let the captain die. It didn’t matter as the lives on the other side of that door were killed. This would not be the last time he would see the captain however as during the first time he died, he thought his way out of the Underworld only to find the boat captain again and still kick him to his doom. Kratos was truly cruel back in the day and even he admits that it was an Unnecessary cruelty and it would have cost him nothing to help the captain and how he showed himself to be the true monster instead of the hydra. It shows his regret and how he is not blind to his past even if he doesn’t mention it.
Perhaps on a more sombre note, Kratos finds a flute that belonged to his daughter, which he carved himself. Kratos recounts to Mimir how much he still misses his daughter and his regret at having been Tricked into killing her and perhaps more regretfully having to abandon her in the afterlife. Elysium was a place where the blessed could live a truly happy life in the Beautiful reed fields and Kratos himself would venture there to find his daughter. To enter he had to strip himself of his weapons and power only to discover that the Goddess Persephone, planned for Kratos to find his daughter and relinquish his abilities and in so doing the might he would need to save it. In the end, he took back his power but had to abandon his daughter to ensure she could live a happy life. Years later, I never thought that I would hear Kratos say he wished he hadn’t. Even if it had only been short, he would have relished the time to be with his daughter but in the end, he chose the greater good.
The collectibles from the Norse Saga have proven to be Meticulously crafted as they help to convey their own individual Narratives or just enhance the core themes and messages Valhalla is trying to enforce. Kratos has many regrets in his past and he may have never handled them the correct way but much of his actions were rooted in the good of others even if he eventually lost sight of that and became more selfish and cruel.
Collectible - Messages for Atreus
The journals are pivotal for God of War lore, as when Kratos and Atreus fought certain enemies and found new locations. In god of War (2018) Atreus would make an entry in his journal and it was useful to use as we could see how Atreus perceived the ever-changing world around him. In God of War: Ragnarök, Kratos would even use the journal to describe how he saw things that he could not say out loud and it was good to see how Kratos felt about certain Things beyond what he would say, which wasn’t always much.
Carrying on in Valhalla, Kratos continues to write things down in his journal but it’s different this time around. With Atreus off on his own adventures, Kratos misses him deeply and while he will always be concerned with his safety, Kratos knows Atreus can brave the world without him. To stay connected to his son and record everything that has happened, each journal entry acts as a personal message for Atreus so that when he comes back home, he’ll know exactly what happened during his time away.
While the storytelling value is virtually the same, There’s a poignant evolution of the journal to show a great emotional weight. With Kratos and Atreus going their separate ways, for now, this is a way for Kratos to cope with his son’s absence. While his company is hardly poor as Mimir can make enough conversation for all 3 of them and then there’s always Freya’s friendship, Kratos had sculpted his time in the Norse Lands by protecting his son and this is how he copes with his son’s absence.
