God of War Ragnarok was one of the best games released in 2022, its sales and talk among gaming fans were immense and when 2022 approached its closing, The Game Awards continued to cement how great the games were by giving Ragnarok 6 of the 31 awards. After a year had passed, fans expected some sort of news about the game or franchise as a whole however there was nothing until early December of 2023. The Game Awards had come around once more and showed off a lot of trailers, gameplay, and news about upcoming projects, while there were a lot of reveals, the biggest news came with the reveal of a new DLC, God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla.
Valhalla is the epilogue for Ragnarok, it follows Kratos and Mimir shortly after the events of the main game. They have traveled far to a gate inside Valhalla, one of the places where the dead go to reside. Kratos and Mimir are invited into Valhalla by a mysterious host who hopes Kratos can reach the furthest point of Valhalla where hopefully Kratos will have “Mastered Thyself”.
The gameplay has been heavily altered from the main game, although the combat styles have remained the same, Valhalla has stripped the player of all their armor, health, rage, and weapon glyphs, which all help increase the damage Kratos can give and take. The main focus of Valhalla is to master thyself, which is why the player has all their loot taken away at the beginning of the DLC, to make the player work their way back up, becoming more powerful with each venture into Valhalla. The way the progression works is through Mastery Seals. These seals can be gained by progressing further into Valhalla and killing enemies, seals are then used to increase stats such as Strength, Defense, Luck, Vitality, etc. While there are many opportunities to gain seals, they come in smaller quantities, forcing the player to continue slashing through enemies and accomplishing challenges.
Weapons play another major role in the DLC. As previously mentioned, stats such as Rage and Strength are taken away, the same goes for weapons that have been stripped of their glyphs, which give weapons additional power. The way weapons have been changed is with the introduction of paths. Despite the combat being the same as the main game, the different paths’ purpose is to have the player form more creative routes with their fighting styles while also improving their skills. Paths in Valhalla are the weapon the player chooses to prioritize, at the start, only 2 of the three weapons will be randomly cycled for the player to choose from. The Weapons include the Leviathan Axe, The Blades of Chaos, and The Draupnir Spear, each of these weapons has its own special ability frost, fire, and wind.
Only one path can be chosen and the path selected will dictate what realms, enemies, and abilities you encounter throughout the run. The way you progress through Valhalla is by going from one battle arena to another until eventually, the player can reach the Host who happens to be Týr, the former God of War in the Norse Pantheon. Týr challenges Kratos to multiple battles, and uses them to learn more about his past in his own words, “For us, fighting keeps our bodies occupied while our mind figures out the rest”.
Valhalla continues what every God Of War game has, an amazing story. Shortly after entering the world of Valhalla, Kratos is greeted with reminders of his past, mainly events that occurred in the first 3 God Of War games where he was a revenge-seeking God killer. Valhalla returns to his bloody roots by bringing old faces and enemies to interact with Kratos and how he reflects on his past. Kratos shares more of his past life and what it was like, not only the slaughter of Gods but his old family and the relationship with the army he once led. The Host who invited Kratos digs deeper into his past, explaining to Kratos that despite his great acts of hatred, he still did heroic things. Many times Týr and Mimir share their viewpoints on Kratos’s actions, one of the main discussions being the killing of the Greek Pantheon, while Kratos had his motivations to kill them, it was overall a good thing for the people of Greece, as the Gods were corrupt, to the point they had taken the Hope within people and sealing it away in Pandora’s Box. Kratos had absorbed the hope in his pursuit of revenge, and after all the Gods were slain, he stabbed himself to return hope to the people.
Valhalla is an amazing continuation to the already amazing Ragnarok, it continues being visually spectacular while mixing astounding voice acting, stellar gameplay, and an incredibly well-written story, not only for Kratos but for the other characters who also get more characterization such as Mimir, Freya and Sigrun, a character who only existed to be an enemy at the very end of the 2018 game. Valhalla is a clear example of a project being solely made for the love of the series, especially the games that started the entire franchise.
God Of War: Valhalla is an exploration of characters with the focus being on forgiveness and acceptance of self. The DLC brings aspects from the newer and older games, creating an amazing experience for fans, which cannot be more evident by the ending which perfectly captures the 2 major sides of Kratos’ life in one scene which creates an extravagant ending for one of the best extensions for one of the best games made.
