Summary
- God of War Ragnarok's Valhalla DLC introduces a postgame roguelike game mode.
- Even though the gameplay loop is recursive, with gradual meta-progression accompanying temporary rewards, Valhalla has additional story content following Ragnarok.
- God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla's ending has Kratos reconciling with his past actions, ready to start a new chapter.
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Announced at The Game Awards 2023 and released as a free update shortly after, the Valhalla DLC for God of War Ragnarok sees Kratos fighting through the titular Valhalla in a fashion similar to a roguelite - making multiple runs which restart on death, and which offer both temporary and permanent resources and power-ups to make runs feel varied and distinct. Far from simply being a fun new game mode, however, Valhalla also makes significant contributions in terms of story, with the DLC's narrative set after the events of Ragnarok and dealing with the disconnect between the classic God of War games and the modern series.
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Taking place after the final battle of Ragnarok's base game story, the DLC sees Kratos receiving a mysterious message that leads him to Valhalla, where he fights through challenges shaped by his own memories and past, progressing through a continuous story with each successive run. In terms of gameplay, Valhalla essentially takes the form of a roguelite with a structure similar to Hades, with runs consisting of choosing between rooms that offer different rewards, and a mix of temporary buffs that are lost upon death, a lasting currency that can be used for permanent upgrades, and the opportunity to choose between different options such as Shield and Spartan Fury types before starting a run. While Valhalla is a novel game mode for God of War, it also manages to tell a compelling story that progresses Kratos' character.
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God Of War Ragnarök: Valhalla Focuses On Kratos' Past
Unlike the main story of Ragnarok, which split its focus between Kratos and Atreus, Valhalla's narrative is almost entirely focused on Kratos' journey to reckon with his violent past, more overtly referencing the events of the classic God of War games than either the 2018 God of War or base game Ragnarok. Taking place in the aftermath of the events of Ragnarok, the DLC has Kratos attempting to work through reconciling his current self with the actions of his younger self, troubled by a request from Freya to serve as the god of war on a new peacekeeping council that she's attempting to form.
Although encounters and rewards in God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla are effectively random, the first chest opened in each run affects its entirety greatly, focusing subsequent rewards on one of Kratos' three weapons – the Leviathan Axe, the Blades of Chaos, or the Draupnir Spear.
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As the story unfolds and players complete runs, Valhalla begins to show Kratos more of his past, shifting from his memories of the Norse setting to recreations of Ancient Greece, manifesting the head of the sun god Helios from classic God of War as a reminder of his violent actions. Eventually, one the story has progressed far enough, Kratos meets Týr - the real Týr - who anonymously invited Kratos to Valhalla to help him work through his issues with his past and his role as a god of war. From that point on, Tyr serves as the final boss fight for each run, testing Kratos through combat and remarking on important events from the classic games.
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How God Of War Ragnarök: Valhalla Ends
Finishing the story of Valhalla requires beating Týr in four runs - after each victory, the story of the next run will reflect on a specific event from the narratives of the original games, giving plenty of reward for longtime fans of God of War. In order, Kratos works through his acceptance of the pact with Ares, his violent beheading of Helios, which plunged Greece into darkness, and his opening of Pandora's Box. In each case, fighting through Valhalla and sparring with Týr helps Kratos accept that, although his actions led to destruction, he still had the capacity for good, and his motivations were never as self-serving and power-hungry as he feared they were.
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After Kratos defeats Týr for a fourth time, and works through his decision to sacrifice himself to release Hope to the world at the end of God of War 3, the story of Valhalla ends with Kratos confronting a vision of his younger self sitting on his old throne. In the final cutscene, Kratos gives his younger self a monologue, berating him for his violence and monstrous actions, but also acknowledging the hope that he has done and can continue to do better - that, in spite of his cruelty and violence, Kratos has always had the capacity to be more than the monster that others saw him as.
At the end of his monologue, Kratos' younger self disappears, and Kratos sits upon the throne, and when he returns to the outside world, he informs Freya that he's prepared to serve on her council and be the god that the people need. This ending serves to reconcile the new and old God of War, acknowledging that the classic games, and the old Kratos, always had more depth than could be assumed from the outside looking in, and that the growth of Kratos' character and the success of the modern God of War games wouldn't be possible without the classic series that came before it.
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Valhalla's Secret Postgame Ending
Even after the end of Valhalla's main story, however, there's still a slightly "secret" ending involving the characters of Mimir and Sigrun, which occurs after several more runs through Valhalla with additional dialogue about their relationship. This postgame story has Mimir recounting his past and his relationship with Sigrun, and carries significant character development for both of them. Sigrun, having violated the rules of Valhalla to save Kratos and Mimir from an earlier attempt gone wrong, has had her connection with the place weakened, causing her to question her place as a Valkyrie.
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Over the course of the multiple runs that it takes to go through the extra story, Sigrun comes to the realization that, instead of going through trials to reaffirm her bond with Valhalla and her place as a Valkyrie, she instead wants to take the opportunity to leave her post and travel the world for her own purposes - despite the fact that it will interfere with her relationship with Mimir. Mimir, for his part, comes to the realization that, although he loves her, he has to let her go on her journey alone. The postgame story ends with Sigrun's departure, and her promise to return to Mimir in time.
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While the story of Valhalla doesn't contain much in the way of forward plot progression or earth-shattering events like in the main game, the repetition of the roguelite gameplay and the story that unfolds throughout serves as focused character development for Kratos, going to great lengths to reconcile the sometimes over-the-top graphic violence of the classic series with the more thoughtful and restrained modern God of War. With further developments for Mimir and Sigrun after the end of the main story, and a new outlook for Kratos, the Valhalla DLC for God of War Ragnarok leaves plenty of possibilities for future entries to explore.
God of War Ragnarök
Santa Monica Studio’s are back with the 9th installment in the God of War series, God of War Ragnarök. Released on the 9th of November it is the first cross-gen releases in the God of War series and let us tell you, it has not disappointed. Ragnarök is the concluding game in the Norse Series, which started with A Call from The Wilds followed by the self-titled God of War. The game follows main protagonist Kratos, who is accompanied by his son Arteus as they adventure through ancient Scandinavia visiting the nine different realms that is present in Norse mythology.
The story-line takes the player through each of the 9 different realms, unlike the previous game where only 6 realms could be played through. Based upon the event of Ragnarök, which in Norse mythology is a series of different events which eventually leave the world in ruin after being submerged in water. Players of the previous game, God of War, will remember that this prophecy was foretold by Kratos after he killed Baldur. The gameplay follows the previous game rather closely and is still a third-person game style with combo-based combat.