Over nearly 20 years, the God of War franchise has taken us on mythical adventures, from laying waste to the gods of Olympus to facing the task of teaching young Atreus that being a God doesn’t mean killing everything you see – here, Quick Time Events are a thing of the past (we’ll miss you, Aphrodite). Over time, the latest installments of this franchise have been dedicated to providing us with a much more intimate and emotional insight, especially into the development of Kratos.
But if something is certain, it’s that the God of War is not ready for retirement yet, and he returns in this DLC ready to unleash his fury once again. So grab your Blades of Chaos and join me in this analysis of God of War: Ragnarok – Valhalla.
Story
We start this challenge from the main menu in a separate section from the story mode. When we enter, the excuse for a new adventure is that we receive a letter asking us to go to a secret location that we will come to know as the Coast. We will find a door that we forcefully open and enter Valhalla.
In this first time, we will weaken and lose health; upon death, we will return to The Shore, and immediately, the Valkyries will arrive, led by their leader, Freya.
It’s essential to remember that in God of War Ragnarok, we face Odin and gain new allies. Also, Freya becomes an ally and forgives Kratos, which is important because Kratos will need the Valkyries to enter Valhalla freely.
There is also a brief conversation where Freya asks Kratos if he has thought about the offer she made… We won’t find out until later.
After the Valkyries allow us to enter Valhalla, we will see that the gameplay is now a Roguelike (a role-playing game that generates randomly, no two playthroughs are the same) with multiple combat options, so we will have to adapt to different combat styles to reach the end. This adventure will be experienced solo, and we will not have an ally to accompany us for combos. We will be alone with Mimir inside, and this will be a very personal adventure for Kratos.
Basically, Valhalla is a place that brings back memories for whoever enters, and there are memories that the Spartan would not want to relive. We will start with Kratos’s Nordic memories, visit altered versions of the 9 realms, and as we continue the adventure, we will travel to memories of ancient Greece.
In addition to visiting places we’ve already seen in the franchise, we also encounter old acquaintances of Kratos, some classic enemies, and a special mention to Helios, who replaces Mimir as his companion for some moments.
We will also have small fragments of Kratos’s personal history, such as the key he takes from the ferryman in the first God of War when facing the Hydra in the Aegean Sea; the Flute of Calliope (Kratos’s daughter), a necklace that brings back memories of his wife, and even mentions Deimos (Kratos’s brother). Each of these stories is gradually shared with Mimir.
To reach ancient Greece, you have to relive a mythical scene from the first God of War, where we burn the Athenian Soldier as a sacrifice to open the door. By reliving this moment, Kratos decides to sacrifice Helios, and this causes us to fail.
Upon returning to the coast and reaching that point again, we discover that we must change our actions, and only by doing this can we progress beyond this memory, eventually reaching a setting based on ancient Greece.
In this setting, we will complete challenges, and there we will discover who invited us to this place, which is none other than Tyr. Explaining to us that we must find ourselves in this place and stop punishing ourselves for the past, he challenges us to defeat him in a fight, and only then can we see what lies behind a mysterious door in that room.
From this point, the game will repeat this sequence upon entering Valhalla: explore the locations, open chests for random upgrades, then open doors that allow us to progress, defeat a mini-boss, and then go to the Greek side.
Everything changes there because we must open a specific number of portals, defeat the chosen ones of Valhalla, and if we take too long, the difficulty increases. After completing this journey, we return to the room with Tyr and fight him to test if we are ready.
Changes in the Gameplay
Upon entering the altered realms, we can open chests that will give us random runic attacks, relics (after defeating a mini-boss), upgrades to already learned attacks, and health. The important thing here is that after passing these two main rooms, we will have a fourth one made with Kratos’s memories, where we must select a path with the signs carved on the doors.
Each of the signs translates into a type of glyph improvement. We will be free at all times to choose the path we want, until it’s time to go through the boss door, at that point, and after defeating the boss, we will advance to the Greek area of the map. There, we will fulfill the challenges that will be the chosen ones of Valhalla, and then we can go up to fight with Tyr.
As we progress along the coast, we will have new upgrade options, as well as challenges that will reward us with points that we can spend right there. We will also unlock different outfits that will be purely aesthetic, and at the end of the game, a very special one.
Within Valhalla, we will have a currency called ephemeral echoes. With them, we can purchase level upgrades for runic attacks, health, rage, and also materials. We can only buy one health and one rage per game in the 9 realms.
Once on the Greek side, we can buy health and rage again. Additionally, we can purchase a small resurrection stone and a relic recharge.
On the coast, we can unlock resurrection stones, increase our stats, acquire upgrades to boost our life, and also increase our rage, all of which will be permanent.
There’s another shop right next to it where we can get improvements within Valhalla, like choosing up to 3 options in chests, and all of the above using coins called Mastery Seals and Spirit Seals.
Combat
Upon reaching the coast, all our abilities, enhancements, runic attacks, relics are taken away, and we are left only with the basic combos of each weapon.
This will force us to play with what chance provides us, of course, there is also a way to acquire enhancements, especially runic attacks that are the most useful when attacking, but in summary, we will depend on our mastery with the weapons and how we combine our attacks.
On the enemies’ side, what is most astonishing is facing off against some from past installments, and some are just as annoying as we remembered. Additionally, they will have a specific attack that grants them a shield, whether it’s fire, ice, or the element of the spear, and to weaken them, we must attack with a different weapon.
Considering that if they have an ice shield, fire will weaken them faster, and vice versa.
This will make battles more dynamic and force us to always be attentive to who is attacking us, in addition to the fact that the old enemies are more threatening and aggressive than those we have in Nordic memories.
The BEST Christmas Gift
This DLC fulfills everything it sets out to do; perhaps it focuses on the emotional aspect and seeks to connect more with Kratos’s feelings, but it’s a way to get to know the character more and doesn’t have to appeal to everyone.
In conclusion, this DLC, which is also free, fills in some gaps in the story, especially when they delve into Kratos’s past and how he felt about his decisions.
Here, Kratos seems more interested in others, and finally, he is able to openly talk about the actions he regrets. We can see him more comfortable sharing with Freya and Tyr, but it is especially noticeable that he has more confidence with Mimir, and this is evident when he cares about him and his relationship with Sigrún.
If you haven’t played it, the time is now; this DLC offers a gameplay mode that challenges you, and if you play it in ‘Give Me God of War’ difficulty, you will definitely have an adventure that will give you complete satisfaction upon completion.
If you already played this DLC, you can leave it in the comments, we’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Greetings, digital legends! I’m Gabriel Gutiérrez, the backstage accomplice at Joystick Latino. A licensed musician with a photographer’s eye, I’ve been venturing into the gaming world from my Atari 2600 since the age of 6. I’m addicted to anime, a fan of the irreverent humor of ‘South Park’ and ‘Rick and Morty,’ and a fearless explorer of cinematic horror.
