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God of War Ragnarok introduces players to Ratatoskr in the flesh after they met his incarnation of Gorky in God of War 2018. While his role and development in the Norse God of War saga makes sense, it turns out he was meant to be cut.
During a recent interview with Game Informer, God of War Ragnarok director Eric Williams talked about the inclusion of Ratatoskr in the game, why he fought to keep it, and he and actor Sungwon Cho talked about the character development in the game.
It turns out that when Ratatoskr first appeared in God of War Ragnarok, many developers wondered if they had gone too far with the character. Even the music director wondered what to do with the character as he was “so far away from God of War”. However, when everyone said, “We have to cut it out. We have too many characters,” Williams insisted on including it for one important reason: a certain offload to offset the darker, more mature story of God of War Ragnarok.
Williams also wanted Cho to play him from the beginning, and Cho revealed that he was brought on to the project long before it was properly announced. Cho was able to write and plan out Ratatoskr’s personality, including how to deal with the fact that he has all those ghost projections, and showed that the writing team stayed true to his plan for the character (although some lines of dialogue were changed or added) . Cho is quoted as saying that his proposal for Ratatoskr in God of War Ragnarok was “almost like a car salesman who wants you to like him so he can sell you more cars.”
Of course, in any game as big as God of War Ragnarok, a lot is left on the cutting room floor. Ratatoskr wasn’t there, but one very hilarious scene between him and Brock apparently was. Cho revealed that he was asked to write a flute-style battle rap (like in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla).
“It was between Ratatoskr and Brock and I was really happy with how it turned out, but a lot had to be cut due to time (or maybe stupidity).”
This rap battle may be lost in time, but perhaps if fans are lucky and demand is ever high enough, this scene could be revealed to fans.
God of War Ragnarok is available for PS4 and PS5.
