Highlights

  • God of War Ragnarok's free Valhalla DLC offers a worthy epilogue with deep references to the original trilogy, showcasing the Greek influence and modern era of the franchise.
  • Remaking the original God of War trilogy could be phenomenal, but it may be challenging due to graphic and suggestive content that would need to navigate modern sensibilities.
  • While remaking the original games could be tempting, it may be redundant from a storytelling standpoint and divert attention from the current games' attempt to say goodbye to those stories and have Kratos redeem himself.

God of War Ragnarok’s free Valhalla DLC was announced right before its impending release and the only way it was really marketed was being a roguelike mode behaving as an epilogue. Because The Last of Us Part 2’s remaster had previously revealed its own roguelike mode, though, it wouldn’t be surprising if many fans took that to mean they’d be comparable in what they offered from a narrative standpoint, but that couldn’t be more incorrect. No Return doesn’t appear to have any story-related content, while God of War Ragnarok received a worthy epilogue with tantalizing deep cuts from the original God of War trilogy.

It wasn’t quite adequately expressed how much Greek influence would be involved in the DLC as Kratos is once again put face-to-face with his past, and the lengths that Santa Monica has gone to realize those moments brings them straight into the modern era of the franchise. Pushing Helios’ head in a cage to sacrifice him to a fiery mechanism was a great reference, for example, and seeing how these moments look with the unbelievably gorgeous fidelity of the new God of War games makes as great an argument for the original games to be remade as ever.

p (2)-5
Related
God of War’s Next Kratos Outing Following Valhalla Can’t Pull Its Punches

God of War can't afford to tone down its thrillingly brutal combat even if Kratos' journey is no longer one of deep-seated anger and grief.

God of War Ragnarok’s Valhalla DLC Shows What an OG Remake Would Look Like

God of War’s Original Trilogy Could Be Reimagined in Ragnarok’s Image

It’s actually surprising that no such remakes have been announced yet, but the fact that there is graphic nudity and suggestive QTE mini-games might be one reason that such an undertaking would be difficult to navigate with modern sensibilities. There’d surely be fans who would be disappointed if the unabashed identities of those games were perceivably tarnished or censored at all, and yet seeing how God of War’s first three games could look and play with the graphical capabilities of current-gen hardware and updated gameplay would be phenomenal.

Santa Monica has at least shown that it would be possible to reimagine those games modernly as it has done with brief moments of the original trilogy in Ragnarok’s roguelike DLC, and perhaps that’s its way of testing the waters to gauge player excitement and see if its something it would be able to accomplish. Of course, Santa Monica will also be moving ahead with new entries in the franchise, and maybe full-blown, ground-up remakes of the original games would overstuff its plate.

While Valhalla Looks to the Past, God of War Might Need to Look to the Future

Moreover, besides how terrific such remakes could be, perhaps these nostalgia treks down memory lane should be left to Ragnarok’s Valhalla DLC alone. Remaking those games would have them look stunning and play far better, maybe even with a reassessment of hack-’n-slash combat to adhere more to how the Blades of Chaos are wielded in the latest God of War entries.

However, doing so would be redundant from a storytelling standpoint since the current games are presumably attempting to say goodbye to those stories and have Kratos redeem himself. Looking back with that much investment would seem ironic, then, and Santa Monica would probably need to divert a lot of its attention to those efforts if that were the case anyhow. It’s unknown precisely where the God of War franchise is headed next, though it seems like Kratos is settling down in Norse mythology for the time being.

Either way, remakes of the original Greek trilogy could be both a blessing and a curse that Santa Monica shouldn’t idly agree to or decline. Further, with an official classic Kratos skin now in Ragnarok’s Valhalla DLC and Ragnarok’s New Game Plus mode, Santa Monica already has some of the assets and character models it would need.