God of War: Ragnarok Will Officially Conclude Kratos’s Story

God of War: Ragnarok will be the final leg of the Norse tale, wrapping up both Kratos and Atreus's story in time for 2023, Sony Santa Monica has confirmed.

In an interview with God of War YouTuber Kaptain Kuba, game director Cory Barlog shed light on the reasoning behind the closure of the Norse tale. Although having more than enough source material to span an entire trilogy, the biggest setback revolved around the time it would take to develop such a saga. And not only that, but also how a lot of the plotline would get lost in translation over a rough decade of being spun.

“There are several reasons,” Barlog said during the interview. “I think one of the most important reasons is [time]. The first game took five years. I don’t know how long it’s going to take [to finish the second game], but I’m just going to throw out that it’s going to take close to a similar time, right, to do this. Then if you think ‘Wow, a third one in that same [time frame],’ and we’re talking like a span of close to 15 years of a single story. I feel like that’s just too stretched out. I feel like we’re asking too much to say the actual completion of that story taking that long just feels too long.”

Barlog continued…

“Given where the team was at and where Eric (Ragnarok Director) was at with what he wanted to do, I was like, ‘Look, I think we can actually do this in the second story,” Barlog continued. “Most of what we were trying to do from the beginning was to tell something about Kratos and Atreus. The core of the story’s engine is really the relationship between these two characters and the complexity radiates out like ripples in a pond. We could make it an ocean and have those ripples just go for thousands of miles, but is that necessary and is that beneficial, or are we feeling like, ‘You know what, it’s just spreading it too far apart?’ The ripples get too far apart and you lose the plot a little bit.”

So, that's that. God of War: Ragnarok will see out the final stretch of the Norse tale. Both Kratos and Atreus will reprise their roles for another epic slice of god-tier storytelling, and come 2023, the father-son duo will be sent out to greener pastures. But as for the future of the series and any possible reboots go — that's really anybody's guess. For now, however, Sony Santa Monica is pretty much set on drawing the conclusion in black and white.

God of War: Ragnarok launches on PlayStation 4 & 5 in 2022. You can follow the updates for the game over on the official Twitter handle here.

What do you make of this news? Would you have preferred a trilogy? Have Sony Santa Monica made the right decision? Let us know over on our socials here.

Kratos's Norse tale will end in 2022.