PLEASE NOTE: This article contains MINOR Spoilers for God of War Ragnarok. Proceed at your own risk.There are many positive and welcoming parts of the gaming community. Many games inspire communities to get to know one another and revel in shared experiences with a game, whether it is a single-player, narrative-driven experience or an online multiplayer one. However, there are also some negative comments and opinions that demonstrate a lot of inconsiderate discrimination toward games. Unfortunately, for no logistical bearing at all, God of War Ragnarok was on the receiving end of similar controversies before it was released.
Many recall a similar reaction to The Last of Us 2 before it was released. Naughty Dog certainly did make controversial choices with its characters that not everyone would be pleased about, but nothing that could ever justify death threats sent to The Last of Us 2’s developers and actors. God of War Ragnarok developers also received harassment in many ways, seemingly due to many design choices the game makes that some people had absolutely irrational problems with. It was clear beforehand, but now that God of War Ragnarok has launched, it's worth reiterating that these never had any true merit whatsoever.
God of War Ragnarok Was the Latest in Controversial Design Choices
God of War Ragnarok’s earliest controversy was that it reused animations and assets. This was pointed out during what looks now to be gameplay footage from the opening region in Svartalfheim, where Kratos and Atreus both hop into a boat and take it out onto the water. The individual who pointed this out compared it to footage from the 2018 God of War, calling God of War Ragnarok a clone of it. The idea here is that this individual must have anticipated entirely new animations and entirely new assets in a sequel, which is practically unheard of from a development standpoint.
Santa Monica Studio released God of War Ragnarok four years after its predecessor, which may not have been a possibility if the game was built from scratch. In any case, reusing animations is natural because they establish the foundation from which other designs can be implemented, and so it has. Not to mention, not many players are going to care specifically how Kratos gets into a boat.
Besides animations, though, there were also individuals unhappy with the design choices for a couple of characters. Thor being portrayed as a portly man in God of War Ragnarok, for example, apparently disrupted the chiseled Chris Hemsworth depiction that fans have been indoctrinated to believe is the primary iteration.
Angrboda’s character being a Black girl in God of War Ragnarok was also enough to cause a stir. Once she was revealed, some peoples’ racism and racial insensitivity came out in an effort to discredit a Black girl having a role in Scandinavian lore. None of this has any basis in reality.
God of War Ragnarok’s Success Closes the Book on These Petty Gripes
It has been mentioned countless times since how futile and vile these remarks are, especially with regard to Angrboda’s character from a singular glance in a teaser trailer. God of War Ragnarok adheres to some Norse myth, but it is a definite departure as well, with one of the game’s prominent themes being that individuals can rewrite their own endings and carve their own paths in life.
These controversies were thankfully not loudly present around the time of launch, and God of War Ragnarok’s release has sufficiently silenced them since. God of War Ragnarok has managed to outsell in one day what the 2018 game had sold in a week, demonstrating the incredible amount of popularity and quality it has. If controversies were still an issue and had that much of an effect on the people who were claiming that they were, this success may not have been as impressive.
Having sold so many units, God of War Ragnarok instead proves that it had more fans on its side who were excited about the game and were warmly and understandably accepting of all its design choices. And those fans are who God of War Ragnarok developer Santa Monica Studio should listen to most, as the well-deserved universal praise of the game continues on.
God of War Ragnarok is available now for PS4 and PS5.
