Game news God of War: The best fight of the game dissected by the developers!
Published on 04/25/2023 at 17:00
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To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the 2018 God of War video game, the Santa Monica studio has shared images of one of the title’s most epic fights.
Happy Birthday God of War (2018). To celebrate this event, the Santa Monica studio has just shared images of the development of the final battle: Kratos and Atreus against Baldur, an impossible god. His mother Freya then reanimate the giant Thamur to protect him. When designing this clash, the studio had huge ambitions“We knew the players were expecting an epic grand finale, so our goal was to try to push what we did in the first fight against de Baldur and raise the stakes in every way.”said Bruno Velazquez, director of animation at the Santa Monica studio.
Jömungandr, the serpent world
The bet turned out to be successful, but the designers had to face several challenges. For example, Thamur and Jörmungandr had to be perfectly integrated into the production, by choosing the right camera angle. The designers have widened the lens, taken a step back enough to create a contrast with the usual angle of view and better feel the gigantism of the creatures. Once the desired effect was achieved, the musics and tremors successfully communicated that something big was about to happen.
The final boss fight with Baldur includes emotional cinematics, a massive Giant, and a multi-phase fight across several locations.
To celebrate the 5th Anniversary, our team looks back on how they crafted one of #GodOfWar (2018)’s most iconic fights!
👉 https://t.co/bcJXNM5bPU pic.twitter.com/2DN17rnYRj
— Santa Monica Studio – God of War Ragnarök (@SonySantaMonica) April 21, 2023
The final boss fight with Baldur features emotional cutscenes, a massive giant, and a multi-phase fight across multiple locations. To celebrate the 5th anniversary, our team takes a look back at how they crafted one of the most iconic fights in #GodOfWar (2018)!
The role of emotions
Freya
The final battle also helps to bring Kratos and his son closer together and give credibility to their duo. On one side, the father fights with his bare hands, on the other Atreus shoots his arrows. “However, nothing compares to when the player has to press guests at the right time as Kratos and Atreus take turns hitting Baldur,” says Velazquez. It’s a sign that Atreus is finally fighting on equal terms with his father. Among the images shared by Santa Monica Studio, there are also several motion capture videos, a technology that aims to record the movement of a person to digitize them. The developers explained that the actors’ emotions helped make this fight more memorable. “Davies (Baldur) brought such pain to a character who, though unable to feel the physical wounds, is absolutely lost in his anguish and torment.” As for Danielle Bisutti (Freya), the studio was also amazed: “I knew she was going to invest in her performance, that she was going to go hard, but DAMN…”