God of War Ragnarök (Zero Punctuation)

[@theescapist]

Watch this week's episode of Zero Punctuation on Marvel's Midnight Suns - www.escapistmagazine.com/marvels-midnight-suns-zero-punctuation/ - Watch it early on KZbin via KZbin Memberships or Patreon for $2/month. www.patreon.com/the_escapist

[@Ragetiger1]

You're not suppose to be trying to peg Dr. Strange You are to slap him with a rainbow trout, while telling him that Blade ate the last of the chicken nuggets. There, the Marvel universe shall finally collapse from that.

[@ONYX-365]

🌮🌮

[@shimmyking4]

honestly the best part of this review is that you represented Odin as George Carlin with a drawn on eye patch

[@top-notanalysis4942]

On that note, deadass thought it was Jeff Goldblum playing him in the actual game

[@michaelpalacios8951]

I'm never going to be able to get that image out of my head anymore.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

kind of makes sense tbh.

[@sweatyslapfight7900]

I am not sure that i understand the joke past the funny visual

[@joeavreg2254]

I love "asshole used car salesman by day, loan shark bastard by night" Mafi-Odin.

[@petergaley314]

The no-cutting-away thing always just makes me super aware that nobody's had a wee in twenty plus hours

[@dantetouchdown9030]

Cuts are actually good for these kinds of things

[@Highlander77]

Well yeah, that's why it switches POV to Atreus every now and then, so Kratos can go use the privy.

[@Montesama314]

What do you think his frost attacks are? Just frozen liquid released in battle.

[@AntonAdelson]

Do magical creatures and gods pee?

[@sentientmustache8360]

“Gods do not wee”

[@leightonpetty4817]

The best part of the constantly-shifting companions is getting to hear different actors spell out in explicit detail the solution to every puzzle before you’re forced to actually form a coherent thought

[@ClearAlera]

Agreed! A major issue in the Horizon games too. More games should have a feature to extend the timer before the solution is handed to you (or allow you to turn those hints off entirely

[@AverageSneedEnjoyer]

There's a puzzle assist setting in the options and I had to double check it was switched off a few times. What's the point of having puzzle assist if you get assistance with the puzzles no matter what

[@leightonpetty4817]

@@AverageSneedEnjoyer The “Puzzle Assist” settings are more for people who have troubles with the precision involved for puzzles. When switched on they can enable things like the axe hit detection being bigger for puzzle elements, or time-sensitive mechanics being more generous. But no matter what you pick, the game will tell you the answers to the puzzles before too long.

[@AverageSneedEnjoyer]

@@leightonpetty4817 ah I see what you mean, that makes sense. still, there should be an option for shutting up Atreus. feel like he annoyed me during puzzles way more than Freya did

[@archeryguy1701]

Hey, it's not the game's fault that you were more focused on surviving a fight than surveying your surroundings for potential puzzles! You clearly need to figure out your priorities! haha

[@bombthezoms]

George Carlin as odin is such a stroke of genius i cant seem him as anything else

[@FatherTime89]

@@Torque_Mk1 what's that last one referring to?

[@guysagi6226]

"You know what's bullshit? greek gods that come into your house, turn your family against you, and bring the end of times. Fuck you, fuck off!"

[@johndodo2062]

I thought it would've been cool if that was a disguise and he ended up being at least a bit younger, bigger, and more imposing

[@TheOneGreat]

Wait, that wasn't Carlin??

[@SerunaXI]

I got Dennis Hopper vibes, but this also works.

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

I've always found it entertaining that this game shows gods exhibiting enough strength to break through solid rock and throw trees like they're pencils... except when it's time for them to climb up a relatively short cliff face.

[@alec4025]

Lmao yes. Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. The powers that he shows in cutscenes should make the game itself irrelevant.

[@leightonpetty4817]

Because he can literally flip the entire temple in the last game but OH NO NOT A SMALL RUSTY METAL GRATE HOW UNBREAKABLE

[@SorowFame]

@@leightonpetty4817 the temple is designed to be flipped, the rusty metal grate isn’t designed to be broken.

[@musicninja98]

@@SorowFame Is this meant to be sarcastic?

[@ILikeBleachItsTrue]

I'll help you with that. It is a videogame and that is how it does it's loading screens. It's a necessity because of the medium the story is told in.

[@jopurcill8778]

gotta say, love the "enigma of amigara fault" reference on the end credits

[@Mister100Percent]

Went from laughing to a sense of dread the second I saw that hole in the wall.

[@plackt]

I knew it was coming after “I don’t like where this is going” earlier in the video (0:32).

[@wesleythomas7125]

Grrrr this hole was made for me rrrrrgh...

[@bennettcarlson3974]

@bannerman when?, what video?

[@thisiswhatilike54]

I recognized the reference but couldn’t think of the name. Thank you.

[@d3fmetal]

I definitely hated how all the easy-to-medium difficulty puzzles would get spoiled like 10 seconds into them. As soon as you begin looking around the room the head or the boy would be all "maybe if you shoot it with an arrow...". But any actually challenging puzzle they don't say a word on. (challenging in a relative sense, obviously all of them got solved)

[@kr1spness]

True, but what I hated most is the nornir chests puzzles where they say absolutely nothing and I have to play where's waldo before I can do the puzzle. I wouldn't mind a hey look over there, and then figure it out myself.

[@Montesama314]

Playing the first game over the last few months, and what I hate is that the game doesn't give you hints when it would actually help. Yes, Atreus, I know to hit the big thing over the door with the axe. But why aren't you telling me where the seals are for this Nornir chest?

[@FineYungCannibal.]

You can change that in the options.

[@Sunnyellow]

@@FineYungCannibal. if you’re referring to the “puzzle timings” setting; that actually relates to the length of time the chest seals stay active for (not the amount of time before an NPC tells you the answer to a puzzle). I thought / was hoping “puzzle timings” would relate to the latter, too

[@FineYungCannibal.]

@Jud Vandy Ah no way, I honestly thought that changed it but I didn't realise until right near the end of the game so never bothered to change it myself.

[@HyperChara]

I see Yahtzee has once again shown he's a reader of Junji Ito's works

[@a_level_70_elite_raccoon]

Howso?

[@Darkerxz]

Credits.

[@tompotter8703]

@@a_level_70_elite_raccoon It’s a reference to “the Enigma of Amigara fault”, a short story by Junji Ito, who’s a well known Japanese horror manga author.

[@DarkAngelEU]

My exact same thoughts. Too bad Santa Monica don't read Junji Ito, cos that would have made the game remotely interesting.

[@ethannolastname]

This is my hole. It was made for me.

[@RacingSnails64]

*"It's objectively good, but why does it fill me with abject misery?"*

[@F0rev3r.B0red]

Because it's longer? More for me

[@HeartCalcos]

If something has a tendency to be such a slog maybe, maybe it's actually not objectively good at all

[@KyngD469]

@@F0rev3r.B0red I bet you anything you are not going to be able to play through this game twice.

[@instantstupor]

That's Yahtzee in a nutshell. There are plenty of spunk-gargle-wee-wee games out there that deserve to be shat upon, of course, but it seems clear to me that he's either giving the people what they want in the form of endless negativity, or he just...doesn't really like games anymore. His hobby became his job, and now he's stuck doing this to pay the bills so he can't just stop. I mean, I could also be full of shit, but you pretty much know exactly what you're going to get every time you click on a video, and if he really dislikes all games as much as it seems he does based on these ZP videos, and isn't hamming up the negatives for laughs, then I feel kinda bad for him.

[@Geoffery_of_Monmouth]

@@instantstupor He loves games my guy. Basically every stream has him gushing about some game that he's been playing recently. He doesn't like AAA / AAAA games, that's what he doesn't like.

[@DarknessIsTheTruth]

Using George Carlin to represent Odin made my day.

[@eirl]

That shit was funny

[@smileybones9172]

I feel so out the loop with all the comments mentioning it

[@SapunMan]

@SmileyBones Watch a special or two of Carlin's. You'll understand then.

[@thedogmaticdirector]

Actually, Kratos is Greek. So he'd probably want Gyros for dinner... not that it makes much of a difference, really.

[@longdongsilver3267]

Gyros are better than tacos as well

[@paulrus-keaton439]

According to Arby's they're "Mediterranean Tacos".

[@gogauze]

@@paulrus-keaton439 The only thing related to Arby's that I actually believe is whatever Nihilist Arby's is on about.

[@Bluesit32]

With olives.

[@paulrus-keaton439]

@@gogauze because Arby's is "fuck it" food.

[@adrianpadin1840]

The idea of Kratos squeezing himself into a tunnel so small that he gets pushed out the other side as a bunch of twizzlers like pushing playdough through a spaghetti maker has my dying

[@vingadivo8707]

Its a reference to a horror manga called Amgira Faults, its really creepy although you've technically been spoiled by the video

[@Gonnluv]

_drr_

[@HoraceInkling]

@@vingadivo8707omg it’s been said 100 times already

[@dustypaladin9216]

@@HoraceInkling and this person commented it on a comment that clearly hadnt seen the other comments, therefore helping out with context. how about you shut up and get a life

[@HaruIRAI]

I am surprised no reviewers ever said anything about the hilarious tutorial pop-ups. Every time after some badass boss battle and inevitable moment full of emotions and character development game ALWAYS puts some kind of the tutorial about new game mechanic you unlocked. I find it hilarious personally, but it really breaks the mood of the scene

[@insydian]

You can turn that offf in the settings. It really helps with the gameplay

[@15thCrypt]

I shut most things that said assistance or tutorial off

[@tofuteh2348]

I dont think i really noticed them, the only ones i have a problem with are the puzzle hints

[@VeritabIlIti]

You know what game was really terrible about that? Doom Eternal. They built all this depth into the combat and enemy systems but every time you met a new enemy you had a forced tutorial immediately stop gameplay to tell you exactly how to beat it

[@NaskaRudd]

@@VeritabIlIti Not to mention they were video files that were just projected over your screen in barely 30fps so they looked dramatically worse than the rest of the game

[@evilsmurf1234]

"Urgh nyem...tacos" is the best closing line in literary history

[@sessy01]

Indeed.

[@Kiljaedenas]

Utterly lost it at that line 🤣🤣🤣

[@KevinSheppard]

I LOVE the GoW series, and other reviewers aren't doing it any justice by fawning over it and almost begrudgingly acknowledge its shortcomings (if at all). This game needed a lot of tightening up, and the part about the inconsistent tone is one of the things that irked me the most during my playthrough.

[@mackielunkey2205]

God of War 3 was amazing and still stands as my favorite GoW game I've played, the bosses are grand and dynamic, the gameplay loop is satisfying and tight, and it felt like you were playing a movie. It's really sad that the closest spiritual successor of the Greco-Roman trilogy gaming-wise is Hi-Fi Rush (which I'm really excited to play), an _XBOX_ game. The Norse games feel like you're just _watching a movie_ most of the time, with all the annoying open-world tropes. They stripped so much of what made the original games so fun to play. Sure, it has a good story, but I wish the gameplay was up to snuff.

[@MoonSpiritChannel]

You don't like Kratos squeezing thru tight corridors? Yahtzee, Callisto Protocol will not help that

[@infernez]

Kratos is in Callisto Protocol?

[@RexZShadow]

@@infernez I think the tight corridors definitely are.

[@Daretobestupider]

Given how Callisto Protocol turned out, I'm looking forward to how he reacts to it.

[@jorgehenriq]

@@Daretobestupider he is going to tear that game a new one just watch

[@demonintellect9834]

@@Daretobestupider I mean he shit on Dead Space 1 pretty hard. CP was definitely a shitty version of Dead Space.

[@MorganWick]

3:45: I feel like the gag here should have been "Thank you, Kratos! But your quarter-inch of plot development is in another cave!"

[@ethai1]

"It forgot to cut out the train rides." What did you expect, Yahtzee? It is a ghost train ride after all

[@VeritabIlIti]

Literally what I thought. Did he forget his own term?

[@OlYables]

Hey everybody, the GHOST TRAIN guy is gonna summon a GHOST TRAIN. Real original.

[@wombatkins]

Ehh, it's got explory bits. You can in fact get off the train and go do side quests. I mean like a fifth of the game is an optional area.

[@ethai1]

@@wombatkins So it's more of a Jiminy Cockthroat?

[@StHappyfaces]

@@wombatkins that's a train ride with extra stops

[@qurazy]

Sometimes I feel like Yahtzee’s been raising the intro music volume slightly with each video over all these years.

[@RabidDingo]

nah man, we just getting older.

[@BevvRatBites]

At least that means your ears aren't getting worse.

[@wilsonkierankitsune]

Love the Junji Ito Reference in the credits gag And yeah this game sounds padded like a WRPG but without the fun side quests

[@dariuseng]

Yeah, when I saw the bit with him looking at a hole his exact shape I thought “is that a Junji Ito reference?” and the credit’s confirmed that

[@ernesto4091]

I think the internet is getting a bit lazy. This is only the second reference to Ito I've had this week. It used to be more common...

[@MungkaeX]

The loading caves took a great idea the wrong direction. The best load times have always been those that have something for the player to do! A simple Atari style mini game were great. Then came Tony Hawk American Wasteland which had a long mostly empty hallway between areas, but at least you could still control your character and do stuff in said hallway. These caves are the devolution of that.

[@BrickBreakerXX]

Well blame Namco for putting a patent on “auxiliary games in loading screens” in 1995. This pretty much meant for 20 years the idea that could have helped bandaged numerous games with long load times was held out of reach by some smarmy businessmen who didn’t even come up with the idea. It expired in 2015 and by then loading screens with games in them aren’t commonplace enough for everyone to be doing them. So blame Namco for all the hours of your life you spent looking at a bar filling up. Could have been nice to have a game where it loads a lot of things in big chunks but has a fun mini game between each section.

[@chillhour6155]

The DBZ games had my favourite loading screens

[@johnleonard9102]

Batman Arkham Knight has arguably more detail in its character models and environment than these newer God of War games, and yet the hidden loading screens are significantly shorter. You can travel from one corner of the detail-heavy Gotham to the other in less than 2 minutes by flying or driving and I have yet to see the environment have pop-up whereas in Ragnarok on my PS5 I had pop-up occur multiple times. Keep in mind that Santa Monica has only one brand of hardware to develop on, while the team that made Arkham Knight had several to work with; I will acknowledge that the PC launch was broken, but the two consoles worked perfectly from the beginning and the PC versions work great now. At some point while developing Ragnarok, Santa Monica should have realized that they were doing something wrong by packing in all of these details that required so many loading gates. It drove me nuts and made me wish this game had been developed solely for the PS5.

[@nirast2561]

"Great game, too bloody long" is a perfect encapsulation of Ragnarok.

[@GhostOfSparta305]

2:31 is so spot on. This is the definition of a “paint by numbers” sequel, because it’s easy for people to just make bulleted lists about the features Rag has over 2018 to prove it’s “better.” Problem is, more just isn’t always better. Maybe I don’t want 5-6 different shields and 20 different armors to upgrade, each having abilities/stats I don’t feel I should need to choose between? Maybe I don’t want a story twice as long when half the new content consists of slow walky-talky sections and Atreus sections that overstay their welcome? The pacing of this game is just so insulting at times; it’s frustrating how much the game’s combat system spoon-feeds you (15 hours in and still not a single heavy runic?) when all you want to do is just play the full combat game you paid for. Anyway, this game makes me sad. I never thought I’d see the day where I thought there was “too much” God of War, but here we are.

[@jmurray1110]

Also remove the bloody RPG system all it does is draw out the game with needless upgrades and crafting You want crafting have the starting stuff be perfectly balanced for the game and offer side grades that work in some situations but are a detriment in others Don’t, and this is the key part, be a melee lootershooter

[@leightonpetty4817]

The unnecessary shield mechanics was the funniest addition. I honestly think GoW18 may have one of my favorite shield/parry mechanics ever in a game-it just flows beautifully once you captured the feel, the rhythm going in and out of combat with a rather generous window. But it also has great defense alone, if you’d rather play it safe. In Ragnarok, they give you the option of a slightly more powerful parry with a significantly less forgiving window, and a more defensive option that removes parrying altogether. Both of these feel significantly worse than the base game shield… so the game shatters your perfectly-well-functioning shield in the first act and you don’t get it back until 3/4 in. You know, to make sure you don’t miss out on these far-worse shield options they made. But god, getting that shield back was the most satisfying thing in the world.

[@aaronamour6101]

I was hoping for a reference of enigma of amigara fault when Yahtzee mentioned the fact that you have to squeeze yourself through so many tight corridors and seeing it be a thing in the end credits filled my hearth with unimaginable amounts of joy.

[@JimBob4233]

Literally cheered when I saw it

[@danilooliveira6580]

you know, while I prefer games on the longer side, there is something to be said about diminished returns. if you are going to extend your story as long as you can, you better have some nice twists and turns for the player to feel that there was some pay off for sticking with it. and if you are going to have as much gameplay as possible, you better have nice evolving and emergent gameplay to the point that 20h in it feels like a different game, so the player don't start feeling like the gameplay is just some boring grind they are forced through to get to the next bit of story.

[@Wizard_Level_1]

Recently a developer talked about the narrow cave thing and that it isn't about loading anymore but about having the pieces in place for the next event more or less. It's why there is climbing between a lot of sections, or a certain series of jumps, or elevators etc. It's trying to keep all the pieces in place. It's so that NPC's can't run off wherever they want to once activated but without the developers tethering them to areas so they spring back when they go too far. It's not a hardware problem in other words, but a solution to level design problems. We are unlikely to see significant changes even with instant loading until developers can figure out a new way to design levels and encounters.

[@Ak-sm2qu]

This was naughty dog right? Makes sense because a good example is last of us 2, where you'll find certain areas with a large amount of enemies and the "end" of that area has the mc climb to a new one or open a door slowly and it isn't because they couldn't load the new area but because they don't want the enemies following you to a puzzle area

[@Wizard_Level_1]

@@Ak-sm2qu Yeah, now that you mention it, I believe it was a Naughty Dog dev in an interview right around the release of Last of Us 2.

[@jessh4016]

I think I remember a GDC talk or two about that. It's a symptom of having so many action set pieces then

[@thomastakesatollforthedark2231]

Couldn't they just set up an environmental trigger to go "If you reach this area, stay within radiusuntil the player leaves"

[@luischurchill-marques153]

"the amazing human plot device" to describe angroboda is my favourite thing ever.

[@Dan-uh9sg]

I was so frustrated by that. They did a great job with her visual and mechanical design (love the color magic), and the actress puts in a good performance. Then they just completely waste her on an extremely boring portion of the game, and she only pops in a few more times.

[@HastyBacon]

Bro George Carlin with the eyepatch as Odin was genius. One of the best visual gags I've seen in a while.

[@but_in_space_though2919]

Oooh.. Didn't expect an Amigara Fault reference. I wonder how many Junji Ito works Yahtzee has read.

[@AlleyFang]

That part with the fates is exactly how i remebered this conversation going almost verbatum 😆

[@leightonpetty4817]

And more than anything, it just annoyed me how they handled the character goals Kratos explicitly went searching for the Norns _for a way to enter Asgard._ He basically says “I need to know a way in, they know everything, I will go beat them up until they tell me.” After dicking around for 2 hours he finds them, they say “Heimdall is gonna kill Atreus in Asgard, better hurry!”, and then he just leaves What was the point of that? Why does he completely forget the real reason he came in the first place? Is it that much of a twist that an Aesir wants to kill Atreus? Why does the group immediately start planning on how to fight Heimdall and working on that project when they all openly admit that they _have no clue_ how to get there?

[@AlleyFang]

Yeah, and once they get their "mean to kill Heimdall" they just restate that they dont freaking know how to get to asgard! The story only progresses because atreus finds his own way out and Heimdal is kind enough to come to them

[@kingsleycy3450]

God of War Ragnarok and Red Dead Redemption 2 are their own genre of super games that are so infeasible long that it hurts the overall experience. When I first saw Atreus’ skill tree I got an immediate sinking feeling.

[@F0rev3r.B0red]

Meh I'm more for it

[@joshuabrien2970]

I filled his skill tree before it ended but then again i beat the main story In four days after it released so it just felt kinda short cause I plowed through it and a little bit of side content

[@V2ULTRAKill]

@@Bepanthen3HTeamOffi you act as if Vampire Survivors isnt an abject masterpiece of gameplay design

[@ProStreeter100]

Nobody's saying you gotta like these mostly story focused games, there are plenty of games that go 10hours and be done with it

[@MunchMan]

Red Dead Redemption 2 made exploring fun, though. God of War Ragnarok wasn't. If I had to pick a game to 100% I'd go for RDR2, God of War doesn't do as good of a job making the game length actually work for it.

[@Sniperifle93]

Not gonna lie, we need critics like this in order to pull ppl like me back to reality of what games really are, but I still had fun with the game.

[@idraigirtm]

If squeezing through narrow passages bothered Yahtzee so much in this game, boy are we in for a great Callisto Protocol ZP :DDD

[@elizabethagudelo7179]

You know what the obsession with not cutting and not showing loading screens feels like The start of birdemic You know 10 minutes of the protagonist driving to work Nothing important happens The audience learns nothing It's just 10 minutes of a car going the speed limit on some suburban streets

[@shankypanky8879]

GOW Ragnarok has Spiderman's slinging, Horizon's archery and The Last of Us's close-up camera + slow walking + long cutscenes + every Sony Studios' unrelenting ambition to create movies but settling for creating games around their movies. This game is like Ragnarok of Sony games. Everyone's here!

[@hackcubit9663]

I think games like this can really help highlight one of those very hard-to-quantify values of story-based games: if the story takes forever, then can the gameplay compensate? Having recently (and after far too many breaks) finished Spec Ops: the Line, I can safely say that it's not an easy knife's edge to balance, though SOtL compensates by having a story I'm desperate to finish, either to find out what happens next or in a few cases, in a desperate bid to forget what just happened (to those who haven't played it, that's not a comment against the game itself, and take that for what it's vaguely worth)! And the cave chapter Yahtzee mentioned definitely feels like a case of padding. It also hilariously reminds me of the first Serious Sam when I'm told that what I'm looking for has been moved so I have to go somewhere else now to find it.

[@ProxyDoug]

it dawned on me recently that the crafting and micro managing of armor and upgrades are not to make the combat more engaging, but to make it feel like you're actually playing a game instead of brute forcing your way to the next cutscene.

[@a.dennis4835]

This was one of main issues with "Dragon Age: Inquisition". The combat is fine but can't really support a 120+ hour game.

[@enman009]

I love the fact that the endcredits animation is a reference to Amigara Fault. Yahtzee know well his references.

[@HoraceInkling]

Stop

[@danielbenitezperez6264]

George Carlin as Odin really got me, also the urethra joke. Yahtzee is on fire!

[@jaxelt1]

The end credits reference made me cackle out loud. Loved it.

[@darkpawwind]

I appreciate the Junji Ito reference in the end card.

[@andrewmartin3671]

DRR... DRR... DRR...

[@supercyc10]

Yeah I feel ya. Felt the same way when playing Horizon Forbidden West. The game was so bloated, then they hammer all the story for the last hour of the game and they're like "hey, this whole game was meant to set up the third. Hope you weren't counting on there being any good character arcs here." Dig the Junji Ito reference at the end btw.

[@TARINunit9]

Ragnarok sort of has the opposite problem: they were planning on three games, but felt the pacing in the second game would be weird so they just combined both games. Ragnarok is bloated because you're playing everything they had for the third game too

[@iestynne]

I do wish AAA games had age settings instead of difficulty settings: :-: teen (200h+ to finish) :-: 20s (24h) :-: parent (4h) ...then maybe I could actually play some of them.

[@c.wubby.u861]

Meanwhile, Miyazaki (souls games) difficulty settings are LIFESTEAL mode (??? hrs)

[@godminnette2]

According to the devs, the corridor squeezing doesn't really hide load times. They're there to prevent the player from returning to a previous area. Up to you to believe them but it's a weird thing to lie about if not true.

[@artificeengaged]

A drop from a high ledge also does that lol

[@saruboss18]

The reasoning doesn't make those corridor squeezing any more bearable or justifiable.

[@DeltaPiss]

@@steamtasticvagabond474 it would ruin the pace of the movi- i mean game

[@twilightvulpine]

I don't see why they would have the kid rush first and make Kratos wait a couple seconds more if the whole thing wasn't about loading.

[@MrGodKratos]

No. They are there to stop you from running away from certain fights since you can squeeze back but now while in combat...which is stupid and poor game design.

[@OP10thNakama]

And this is why I love watching your reviews. It literally highlights all the flaws in such a succinct 6 minute video and you do this to pretty much every game.

[@raggedcritical]

The squeezing through narrow passages isn't about loading anymore - it's about constraining an encounter. Other reviewers have said it'd maybe be nice if Sony could find another way to do that, but that's why they do it.

[@Traktora9]

Proof that the more popular a game is, the more design committee oozes out of it, and especially in its sequels. The curse of AAA gaming - if you want something visually impressive and technically satisfying you need to go for them, but just like watching anything from Marvel Phase4, you come out the other side wondering if it was really worth your time. Going full indie is not an option as producing big and impressive 3D action games is simply beyond their budgets, so you have to stick to AAA at least somewhat. FromSoftware are staying ahead of that particular curve for the time being (no marketing executive will ever convince Myazaki that players don't like feet and swamps, bless his heart) but I genuinely find it harder and harder to find something I feel deserves my attention from that level of the industry. Fingers crossed for more indie companies making it into the AA industry so we can hope for some high quality on that side at least.

[@JHawke1]

"No marketing executive will ever convince Miyazaki that players don't like feet and swamps, bless his heart" Underrated comment

[@AurickLeru]

Didn't expect the Junji Ito reference in the outro. Yahtzee again proving he's a man among men of culture.

[@ryonalionthunder]

The entire loading cave ramble was the reference, but I didn’t expect him to double down in the outro. XD

[@wisesquirrel4986]

@@ryonalionthunder It's so explicit that I second guessed myself. "No, it's not a reference, I'm just desperate to see things that aren't there. How could there possibly be a Junji Ito reference in a GoW review?"

[@HeavyMetalBeliever]

Thor being secretly tortured is pretty accurate.

[@Arcananine77]

Besides the slow pacing, my biggest issue with the plot is how underwhelming Ragnarök - as in the titular event - ends up being. It's basically a handful of skirmishes and then two bosses back-to-back and that's it.

[@SakuraAvalon]

I mean, that kind of is all Ragnarok was. A war, and all the key Gods die. Baldur died in the first game, you killed Heimdall to get Sutr involved, and then all that's left is Freyr, Tyr(who's already dead at this point), Thor and Odin. And if it were more accurate, you wouldn't fight Thor or Odin. Thor would be dead to poison, and Odin would have been eaten whole.

[@johnleonard9102]

@@SakuraAvalon I take it you haven't finished the game if you think Tyr is dead. But tacking on to what you said, they still could have made the battle last longer and even had Kratos team up with the World Serpent while fighting Thor and then with Fenrir while fighting Odin. That would have been much better than fighting in their front yard and in their basement.

[@johnleonard9102]

And don't forget that half of the battle is taken up by cutscenes, most of them lasting 4 minutes at a time. What's really irritating is that Kratos and his team know that they are on a time limit because Surtr is out of control and will eventually destroy the realm; unfortunately, they still go on to have slow and long dialogue sessions when they know they could all die any minute.

[@paullucci]

This is the game equivalent of an Oscar bait movie.

[@AmbiambiSinistrous]

I didn't know how to justify how I felt about this game until you made the "gourmet dinner versus room full of Snickers" bit - I have only seen unabashedly positive reviews up until this one and was starting to doubt myself. Thanks for keeping it real!

[@MazeFrame]

You know what, I spent 5€ on some industrialization puzzle game a few weeks ago. No story there, just belts and machines making shapes. I am good.

[@tarekmoneimsaid]

yep, this checks all the boxes for multiple awards tomorrow. I assume they'll throw some indie games a bone or two, like "Best Pretentious Artsy Style".

[@neylanddavis2898]

Fun fact about the narrow cave and ledge and what not stuff, its actually not used to hide loading. the Devs said it was used to separate areas and add pacing but when you gotta traverse the same ledge 4 times its SUPER annoying.

[@Unknwnwrrior]

I'm glad someone is as annoyed with people claiming something is "objectively good" as I am. It seriously feels like I'm taking crazy pills when people are unironically saying shit like "objectively bad" and "objectively good" and people are actually supporting it!

[@zerotofifty]

Somethings can actually be objectively bad such as NFS 2015's physics because it has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Tho being objectively good is really hard to define as what people like is usually much less commun than what they tend to hate.

[@zedoctor3724]

The meaning of the word "objective" has been dragged through the mud by the internet, right next to the gravestone of "satire". Seriously, people genuinely need to do some research not based off from weirdos on the internet, and learn what makes an objective statement vs. a subjective statement. If you want an "objective review", you're not really looking for a review. You're looking for a synopsis. So yeah, you're far from alone on that one.

[@Broadpaw_Fox]

So I never would have bought this game on my own, but I wanted a PS5 and they only had the God of War edition in stock, so I went with that out of desperation. That said, I used to like games liek this, but I know I don't have the time to indulge in them right now (I wanted some quality time with Gran Turismo in my limited gaming hours). But I had to wait for some unexpected needed purchases to arrive and started playing Ragnarök in the meantime - without having played any of the precursors. I knew about the premise and story a bit, and know I like it, but I have to say I'm honestly quite impressed with it - it's paced perfectly for someone like me, new to the franchise. Combat is challenging, story is full so far, and it's been quite enjoyable. It helps a lot that I enjoy the mythos it's taking place in - Norse mythology is rich and fun, and makes for interesting storytelling. ;) If Yahtzee's worst critique is the length it took to finish, then it's got some potential. While I didn't deliberately buy it, I'm glad I ended up getting it. :)

[@felixfrechette6616]

The main issue i have with the game is how insanely annoying it is. GOW2018 got me into platinums and trying it for raganrok is just such a timewaster. The climbing, the pathfinding, the uselessly sporadic fast travel points, all in service of wasting my time when i realise i missed a crow in the abandonned village. That and the fact that no one will ever shut the fuck up. The worst part is again vanaheim when you reach the crater and mimir has 2 voicelines every time you pick up a rock, or the boat discussions that revolve around: Dad are you hungry?-No-Oh okay. Just annoying.

[@FurnaxIkki]

Patiently hoping and praying that Yahtzee will review Signalis.

[@TheArtofRighteousIndignation]

He should do a twofer - Signalis and Callisto Protocol. Different sides of the quality horseshoe.

[@gatelessbarrier89]

Is it really that good? I played the first hour on gamepass but wasnt really about it. I love old RE with the tank controls and all that clunk but this was very slow. Any reason to be motivated for it? Is it more the story or does later on the action get better?

[@FurnaxIkki]

@@gatelessbarrier89 First, I would recommend running with "standard" controls rather than tank. Gameplay generally flows better and even the options screen doesn't specify either as the "intended" way to play, so go with what works. I'm not sure how far you got in that hour, but I would say the intrigue starts to really ramp up after the cutscene following the first boss. Another big thing is just how to make the most of your inventory space. Ammo is rather common (except on Survival difficulty which halves each amount), so if you're careful you can totally get by with just picking up whatever ammo you find along the way for whatever gun you're carrying. Don't sleep on Stun Rods either. They're great to just delete enemies you can't be bothered to waste ammo on. I'd say it's area after the mines where shit really takes off psychologically and the game goes full Silent Hill 1/2. And you just come out of everything with this very clear image of the world and the emotional context of what's going on, even if the physical context is something that's hard (if not impossible) to parse.

[@gatelessbarrier89]

@@FurnaxIkki thanks actually, i didnt reach the first boss itself so ill give it a second shake. And yeah i had it in tank mode so I'll swap that. Ill update if things change. Take care

[@FurnaxIkki]

@@gatelessbarrier89 Other 2 things I'll toss out are that you have very limited health regeneration and your max HP is boosted by continuing after dying. With the regen, your health has four states: Nominal, Caution, Danger, and Critical. When in Critical, it will slowly regenerate back up to Danger, and on Standard combat settings you are functionally immortal so long as you don't eat a hit while in Critical. Also each time you continue after dying, one of the empty triangles on Elster's diagnostics screen is filled in, and from what I understand that increases her overall health level, so when all sixteen are filled in you can take quite a bit more punishment.

[@rocketrabbit4510]

To be fair to Kratos, Tacos do sound good for dinner.

[@FeralGinger]

Honestly the game length thing is a huge issue for me, once a title goes past the 10-12 hours of gameplay mark I generally don't purchase anymore!

[@Nicebitoftucka]

Interesting take. I like a long game if it has a story to tell

[@V2ULTRAKill]

Depends on the game More than 15 hours of a dmc playthrough? Fuck no 80+ hours of a crpg with good worldbuilding? Take my fucking money

[@monkeeee]

I’m playing through GoW 2018 right now and so far it’s felt like a movie with extra steps

[@F0rev3r.B0red]

No shit

[@V2ULTRAKill]

@@F0rev3r.B0red well if you go in with only knowledge of the olg games you dont expect a fuckin movie

[@ningensan8198]

Because it is! Thats how 99% of sony games are lol. Get ready to meet the angry fans though XD

[@modernmobster]

Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut was on sale this Black Friday for $20 on ps4 and i couldn't even bring myself to buy it because I knew it would feel like an overlong chore. I'm absolutely done with these open world games with a million markers of nonsense when I could have a better time replaying a smaller, more focused game. The only one that's really gotten a pass from me was Spiderman because the method of traversal via webswinging is the most fun aspect of it, making the game world itself feel fun to explore.

[@AlluBB]

@@ningensan8198 The only good Sony game from these past two gens was Bloodborne. It's a hill I'm willing to die on.

[@jarragorn725]

This is one of my fav reviews by you dude, even though i really enjoyed the game a lot of your points are spot on!

[@needee5324]

It's impressive. I really like God of War Ragnarok and it's one of my favorite games of the year. I also clicked on this video knowing that it would be more critical of the game than most people are. Despite this, I wound up agreeing with just about every point he makes here. Doesn't change my views on the game, but it's impressive how well Yahtzee can get his point across in these videos. I still like the game, but also think it was too long and did indeed have way too much padding.

[@matthewturpin6429]

That's the thing about Yahtzee, he's critical about games, but he's very rarely UNFAIR about his criticism. And plenty of times he will cede (like in this video) that all the elements of a game should make it good, but it just... doesn't for him. He's well aware of his personal biases, and that makes him FAR more compelling a critic than someone that just goes "GAME IS BAD!" He tries to engage with WHY he thinks a game isn't fun for him.

[@vincentgraymore]

This is good. People not able to see, find or acknowledge problems in their favorite stories, games, movies etc are a problem to get better products.

[@DeadDeadDeadski]

I always hate squeezing through narrow walls in games. RE8 did it a bit too. I don’t feel more engaged just because I’m being forced to hold the left stick forward. Also glad to see Kratos find his hole even if he’s twizzlers now.

[@pinealdreams1064]

These new God of War games are the most bafflingly over-praised games I've ever seen. Couldn't get in 2018 at all, the log carrying and arena brawls annoyed me, and this feels like a glorified DLC that's bring praised to the moon... for some reason I just don't get.

[@Greil9]

I'm just glad Yahtzee has the accurate description of Mimir: Constant delight.

[@stevenalvarez2924]

Oof, if all he got from the fates scene was that he needed to kill Heimdall, then ZP wasn't paying attention to anything. Kratos wanted to know if there was a way to prevent his Fate written in stone. Was told there is no Fate written in stone just people making painfully obvious choices in life and the 3 sisters can see what happens from these choices. It's almost as if people are the choices they make and not the destiny that is foretold they are to be.

[@weirdo911aw]

sounds like a case of "im 14 and this is deep"

[@stevenalvarez2924]

@bob mana Not as deep as you moving that goal post. Talking whether or not there was more to meeting the Fates then just learning heimdall was going to kill atraeus. There was, then there was Kratos willing to let Heimdall live if he didn't plan to kill Atraeus. From which Heimdall was to prideful to feel like he was below Kratos, so Kratos killed him. All this going back to the fates talking about how one's actions tends to dictate their fates. I don't know if your 500iq considered that low brow writing, but it was deep writing regardless of your opinion.

[@Unclelarry766abc]

The last word of the video…”Tacos” made me do an actual “LOL”

[@wallyhackenslacker]

"It's trying to brute force it's way to GOTY by sheer volume alone" Isn't that the whole purpose of the AAA game industry? At least from an "artistic" perspective.

[@spaghettiman512]

Absolutely loved the reference at the end credits.

[@Gongasoso]

5:02 is pretty spot on

[@fyrflyr2378]

Half of this game's dialogue: See that thumbs up button Kratos? You should try clicking it.

[@EmeralBookwise]

Bloated playtime has been a long running issue with video games for the past decade or two. I do quite miss the days back when I could pop in my favorite SNES games and play from start to finish in a single afternoon. Because of their brevity, I've played those classics dozens of times over the years. By contrast, starting more modern games with their minimum 30-hour playtime always feels like such a commitment that I can barely ever be bothered to play them more than once.

[@akiraigarashi2874]

Indie games are better at that respect usually

[@DarkAngelEU]

I still do the same with Game Boy games. I wouldn't say I dislike modern narration tho, games like Last of Us know how to use this kind of video game presentation effectively. The Callisto Protocol just came out and it's amazing, too. I agree there are games that just take it too far and overload you with unnecessary/incomplete tutorials (Pokémon, GoW Ragnarok), they're trying to make the game SEEM like it has depth, but in reality the game would be better without all that bullshit. And then we haven't even considered the bloated storytelling like you mentioned. Maybe developers can consider implementing an option for these kinda things? For example, the new Pokémon games ask you if you want the tutorial or not. So maybe games like GoW could benefit from a "story length" option?

[@stevecole90099]

@@akiraigarashi2874 Indie games do this well because they don't charge $70+ for a game, if they did all you would hear about is how much people feel ripped off for only 4 hours of playtime. Video games should take time to complete even if a lot of it is grinding. If you want something with story that only takes an hour to finish just go watch a movie.

[@EmeralBookwise]

@@stevecole90099: Maybe not every game needs to be $70, then maybe there'd be no reason to stretch every game out just to give the illusion of it being worth that price.

[@akiraigarashi2874]

@@stevecole90099 Would rather have a quality game over pointless grinding tbh. I typically pass over games full of grinding (because they get stale fast) for quality decently sized games. Most games nowadays have way more hours of content per dollar (will be even more skewed if you can get them on a sale or replay them) compared to movies anyways so not much of a point comparing movies with games in terms of price ig.

[@233Jason]

Most important thing I took away from this review is Yahtzee really wanted some tacos

[@MB-sq7yn]

Apparently the narrow hole squeezing stuff is less loading screens and more points of no return, not that it makes it less blatant or obnoxious, but still.

[@lordhazimuka5232]

I guess Yahtzee isn't changing his mind regarding the new God of war games. Even though this game fixed many of the issues that he had with the previous games, it still wasn't enough since it doesn't capture the charm of the original games for him. While I don't agree with his take, it is nice to see someone diverging from the copy cutter opinion of "God of war is a masterpiece" that every single reviewer harps on about. Very refreshing change of pace.

[@F0rev3r.B0red]

Yahtzee always been that way always in the more harsher critique even if it's received brilliantly. He was harsh on my favorite games but he loved them especially Subnautica

[@OneOfTheLoveless]

It's amazing that you didn't get the points he was making in the video and then proceeded to make a statement that's so much of a reach, halo sued.

[@OneOfTheLoveless]

@@F0rev3r.B0red I like how having standards and not kissing publisher's asses somehow equates to being harsh.

[@stevenneiman1554]

On the subject of game length, I think it really depends where the length comes from. I've been playing a game called Potionomics lately, and I think the quality of life patches since it first released might have literally cut its play length in half without losing a single thing of value. I think some vaguely disciplined editing-down could do the exact same thing to many AAA games.

[@GabrielDunacea3089]

Finally, a review that perfectly describes the game… long boring minutes with some action in between that felt completely out of place. Like they couldn’t decide whether it’s a game or move. Deleted it after the second Atreus play though

[@frightranker]

Wait...was the end credits gag a reference to The Enigma of Amigara fault?

[@arthurdurham]

Don't always agree with Yahtzee but I definitely do here. I don't get why everyone thinks these games are amazing, so much of it just feels like meandering busy work.

[@austinbond2527]

Spot on regarding the glacial pace of the story, with massive areas only moving the plot forward a teensy teensy bit

[@Punisher9419]

I never had a problem with loading screens. I like the break sometimes.

[@limabarreto911]

And with improving hardware, they get shorter. These fake sections will never go away.

[@Dalpima]

Throwing the Twizzlers through the cave exit was sheer genius. Hahaha

[@KnordicKnight]

I'm a little concerned that the day I discovered and read Amigara Fault is the same day it gets used in a ZP.

[@mithiwithi]

It's amazing how I absolutely _love_ watching Let's Plays of this game, and yet there is not a single criticism of Yahtzee's that I can deny.

[@zetablade7018]

I mean, it IS a movie game, so I can't say I'm surprised that people enjoy watching it.

[@SerunaXI]

After the Portal Review, Yatzee will never do a review where he doesn't find something to nitpick. You can still get the feel of how good a game is by what he ends up nitpicking.

[@animatorofanimation128]

When he criticizes a game he uses really extreme analogies to exagerate the problem (all in good fun) so it sounds like a huge deal. But if you peal all that back than what he is saying isnt actually that bad. He doesn't like the customization, he thinks the game is padded, and he doesnt particularly like the whole cinematic camera mode thing.

[@lovedeepsandhu8502]

@@animatorofanimation128 the padding is a pretty big issue and probably the one that cost it goty. Turning a 15 minute ironwood mission into 2 hours just so the only diverse character has more screen time? Nah thats just too much.. And theres padding in almost every mission, just that ironwood mission it made it so criminally boring. And they rush ragnarok day when every mission prior was padded. Nah this padding actually ruined the game from a game of the decade type of game to just being a good game. And you can tell, just look at most god of war videos and compare them to elden ring videos when it released. Its just not a great game as it was meant to be, its just a good game

[@roberthesser6402]

@@lovedeepsandhu8502 I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought the actual Ragnarok portion of the game was rushed. Every game seems to want to do an Avengers Endgame moment but none of them can pull it off because none of them have the proper build up to make the final battle satisfying. Ragnarok happens and every army in the Realms allies against Asgard in a literally world-shattering battle with giant Kaiju sized monsters and I almost didn't care. The fixed camera perspective sapped the life out of the battle; when armies started getting routed by Asgard, we get told about this rather than shown. Indeed, when the armies get gathered together, we're barely shown this happening. I had no emotional connection to the majority of the people in the fight. The two Elven races join the battle and I'm just like "I just spent the last two games killing them and now they're here to throw down with me at the head?" Kratos gives no orders despite being the general, there's no sense of stakes beyond the very narrow (albeit meaningful) stakes of Kratos and Atreus' personal journeys. The scope of the story is too limited for a grand epic final battle to feel like the grand epic final battle it wanted to be. For such a slow game, everything happens super fast. Atreus speedruns a lot of his mythical role as Loki with Angrboda in that one Iron Wood scene, creating the World Serpent, which I'm assuming is the version of the Serpent that we see just show up out of nowhere at Ragnarok before being punched so hard he flies through time. The first game did such a good job of slowly introducing the mythology of the Norse Gods in a very measured way; rather than going ham and throwing the big name characters like Thor and Odin at you all at once, we get a lot of the smaller, less known gods at the forefront to ease the player into the wider world. The first game worked because it kept the focus of the story tight and small, befitting the theme of fatherhood that story was built around. Then Ragnarok just blitzes you with the entire Ragnarok arc all at once, backloading it heavily in the final act without much build up in the story's scope to get a sense of how Odin has ruined the world, and why the Realms would unite against him. We get TOLD a lot of stuff, but rarely shown much of anything. What once felt like a grand epic that should probably take 3 games to tell, gets resolved relatively easily in two games. All the prophecies about Kratos' death, the end of the world and so on get undone, and I'm honestly not clear why. It seemed pretty obvious that the prophecies were coming true throughout the game, and the characters seem to resign themselves to the inevitability of Ragnarok just as long as they have each other, then they just sorta...stopped coming true? I wasn't sure if the almost perfectly happy ending (sans Brok) we got was deserved after all of the fatalism the story had been throwing at us up to that point. Somehow it was the battle at the end of the world, and nobody died. If Ragnarok wanted to be GoW's Endgame, we needed a Tony Stark moment to cap off the emotional climax. I went in prepared to watch Kratos sacrifice himself; instead I got a happy ending that seemed totally at odds with the stakes we'd been presented.

[@madmanjoules]

Your god of 4 review said it best. God of war 1 started with a 30sec cutscenes then Kratos yells “I’m gonna kill all the guys” then your fighting the hydra

[@DarkAngelEU]

And they should have never strayed from that. Kratos preaching peace is such a veneer for the eventual destruction he causes. Why not just let him be the bloodthirsty monster he's always been and always will be?

[@modernmobster]

@@DarkAngelEU because the creators behind the new games believe in that "toxic masculinity" crap and think Kratos needed to be neutered.

[@thomasmiller5715]

@@DarkAngelEU Because the God of War developer's want to tell a story with these new games. They wouldn't really work as well if Kratos as a character had literally not changed and developed across like 17 years of games.

[@thomasmiller5715]

@@modernmobster Have you played this game?

[@thats4thebirds]

@@modernmobsterwhat an embarrassing take

[@YellaChickenOG]

The bit about looking through wrong cave after wrong cave had me thinking: The Princess (Heimdall) is in another castle (cave)

[@jordanj809]

1:19 that sounds a lot like the relationship between God of War 2 and God of War 3. This series really loves its pissing about

[@rainman1637]

The sequence in the Ironwood could have been 1/4th the length and it would have been perfectly fine. The only section of the game where I had to slog through it.

[@grantmorgan5180]

The “squeeze through gaps” thing isn’t to hide loading, it’s actually there to funnel the player into a combat scenario without a an easy way back out. Kind of like the doors all locking in Doom or the hell gate things in DMC.

[@MatthewGerrish]

I'm surprised at the number of critics not critiquing the story. Other than the at times infuriating dialogue, the story might have been my least favorite thing about the game. It was a let down after the last game.

[@0LoneTech]

It's probably because the rest of the game is such a distracting slog you've lost the plot each time it resurfaces. Hard to judge a tale that way.

[@JoeyDCharts]

love how refreshingly honest yahtzee is consistently. can always count on his review to be the realest in the biz

[@DizzyScorpia]

1. Very surprised you didn’t mention the near-constant badgering from the npcs to do the side quests. 2. I don’t know what to hate more; the reference in the outro or the fact that I know it.

[@DunantheDefender]

Holy shit that Amigara Fault reference is the single best credits joke he's ever made.

[@wildguardian]

Yahtzee I can't believe you didn't mentioned Atreus girlfriend Angrboða singing 5x in a row calling her pet mount like a annoying bad Switzerland Yodeling

[@HonkeyKongLive]

I'm genuinely sick of games that emphasize being epic stories in pretty landscapes over being fun to play. I don't care if the environments are beautiful and the characters are deep unless it's there to serve a mechanically enjoyable game.

[@gmotz9689]

+1 Obra Dinn reference, christ i loved that elaborate game of mastermind more than anyone should

[@vincentbuscarello1357]

As someone that likes Tolkien, mythology, and generally maximalist plots, I have to say this review actually made me want the game more 😆

[@Pineappolis]

It's something I've never been quite able to work out how Yahztee pulls off so frequently - he might dislike a game and spend a huge proportion of a very short video explaining (and making jokes about) why he disliked it but he'll still almost always convey enough useful information about it while doing so that someone with sufficiently different tastes to him will be able to tell that they _will_ like it. It's the reason, I think, that you can go through his back catalogue and find comments on virtually all of his more scathing reviews that are variations on a theme of, "I love this game but you're not wrong/but this was hilarious." That just _doesn't_ happen in most KZbin comments sections.

[@Korinengamecorp]

his complaint was not that their was too much story stuff, but that it was spread too thin with a bunch of filler

[@BP-dn9nv]

I mean he never said he thought it was bad or worse, bland. It just wasn't for him and that's fine. I doubt he'll judge anyone who likes it.

[@OneOfTheLoveless]

Playing through 2 wrong caves adds nothing to the plot, story or mythos.

[@dylanp629]

The chef crying at the snickers decision is too real