God of War Ragnarok Trailer Features Ben Stiller as Kratos; Transmog Feature Confirmed as Devs Share Deep-Dives on Character Design and More

Sony has released a new trailer for God of War Ragnarök, which features Ben Stiller as Kratos. He is joined by John Travolta and LeBron James as Stiller is a parent support group leader for them and their kids.

Stiller explains to James, Travolta, and their children “how the father/son dynamic in God of War Ragnarök can inspire us all to become better parents – especially when wearing the Kratos costume.”

Take a look at the trailer below:

God of War Ragnarök to have transmog feature

Santa Monica Studio’s design lead Mihir Sheth reportedly revealed in a Discord developer Q&A that God of War Ragnarök will have a transmog feature.

On the voiced Q&A session, someone asked if the game would feature an armour transmog system. MP1st reports that Sheth said the game will indeed feature such a system: “The short answer is yes. There is a way to do it… it’s there in the game.”

Transmog or transmogrification is a term that comes from MMO games such as World of Warcraft. It means to change your armour’s appearance to that of another. You can keep the stats of a stronger armour while changing it to look like another set which you think is visually appealing to you. This system would be a welcome addition to the game, as players will no longer have to use an armour they don’t like wearing just because it has better stats. However, we don’t know whether it will be a full-fledged transmog system or not, judging by Sheth’s answer.

God of War Ragnarök devs dive deep into the character design process

Sony has also released a new video that has devs discuss the character and creature design process. Art director Raf Grassetti, character technical artist Marisa Kaupert, senior character artist Angela Rico, and lead character concept artist Dela Longfish talk about how the team at Santa Monica Studio created the characters in the third episode of God of War Ragnarök Behind the Scenes series.

The devs talk about Svartalfheim and how they want to represent more of it in the game. The region also has different biomes, ranging from wetlands to mountain springs – which took a lot of inspiration from hot springs. They have many colourful minerals and resources. The devs wanted to play on the Dwarves, as well as their influence, which can be seen in Svartalfheim’s every corner.

The realm will have a lot of water environments, like quarries. The industrial city is very organised, with all the work put into it by the Dwarves. As for the character design process, the blacksmith Dwarves have their occupation reflected through their attires. The developers paid extra attention to adding cohesiveness to the characters and the corresponding environments that they are found in.

You can check out the full video below:

The game was originally developed for PS4

In an interview with Eurogamer, the animation director for God of War Ragnarök, Bruno Velasquez, said that the game was made keeping the PS4 in mind.

“When it comes to God of War: Ragnarök, from the very get-go, we knew that this was going to be a PS4 game, because we wanted to support the fanbase – we had so many people that had enjoyed the game on PS4,” he said. “So from the very beginning, we knew, okay, this is going to be a PS4 game; we’re going to make this the best PS4 game we can make. Our goal was to surpass God of War 2018 in every way possible. Having the PS5 version, that’s just icing on the cake.”

He continued, saying that their goal was to make the best PS4 game: “So our goal is let’s make the best PS4 game; push on fidelity, content, bring the story to a close that we started – that was our primary goal. PS5, it’s just like haptic feedback, 3D audio, higher frame-rate and better graphics and textures. That’s just like the icing on the cake. So of course the PS5 version is going to be the best way to experience it, but the PS4 [version] is going to be one of the games that pushes the PS4 to the max. Taking that philosophy and approach into it helped us to set the goalposts for ourselves, that we want to make a great PS4 experience and an even better PS5 experience.”