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00:08Welcome to Mojo Plays, and before Ragnarok and Thimblewinter wipe Midgard off the map,
00:14we'll be searching every corner for the many hidden details and behind-the-scenes secrets
00:18even the most die-hard God of War fan might have overlooked.
00:29Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
00:33about our latest videos.
00:37Hellish Fate
00:50In the earliest story outlined for Ragnarok, Thor actually killed Kratos during their opening fight.
00:57Atreus would later pull his father out of hell after a full 20-year time jump,
01:03meaning players would have spent most of the game with an adult Atreus.
01:06However, the team ultimately scrapped the idea since Kratos had already died and returned
01:12enough times across the series, and the concept undercut one of the game's central themes,
01:17the possibility of changing fate rather than simply surviving it.
01:21The final version keeps the father-son relationship continuous and lets the story explore growth
01:27instead of resurrection, and it's hard to argue with the choice.
01:31Watching Kratos and a teenage Atreus navigate the end of the world together,
01:35it's harder than another trip through the underworld ever could.
01:38In the end, the best story decision is the one that refuses to take the easy mythological exit.
01:44Don't be sorry, father.
01:46Be better.
01:51Contractionless.
01:52So, white the mouth you had on the train, lad.
01:55It's just a word.
01:56I've heard way worse from...
02:00Christopher Judge stayed so deeply locked into Kratos that he routinely caught and rejected
02:06any script lines containing contractions.
02:09The Ghost of Sparta simply does not say,
02:11don't.
02:12He says, do not.
02:14Writers would strike the offending words out on set in real time whenever Judge flagged them.
02:19The commitment to the character's speech patterns became part of the performance capture process itself.
02:24It's a small detail that speaks volumes about how seriously the actor took the role.
02:29Most performers worry about hitting emotional marks,
02:32but Judge was out here protecting Kratos from the horrors of casual English.
02:36The result is a character whose dialogue feels consistent with the stoic warrior players met in 2018,
02:42even as the story softens some of his harder edges.
02:45In moments of crisis, panic does nothing.
02:49Harness it.
02:50Let it serve you.
02:52Double Duty
02:53It might be a bad time, so...
02:56If you need a moment, I totally understand.
02:59No rush, but...
03:01COVID restrictions forced Santa Monica's studio to get creative
03:05to limit the number of people allowed on the motion capture stage at any one time.
03:09Rather than cut planned cinematics or shrink the cast,
03:12the main actors frequently stood in as background characters
03:15in scenes they were not originally meant to appear in.
03:18This solution kept every scheduled sequence intact while working around the practical limits of the pandemic.
03:24It's one of those invisible production details that never makes the marketing trailers,
03:28but is quite remarkable nonetheless.
03:31When you see a crowd of NPCs in a major story moment,
03:34there's a decent chance one of them is actually Christopher Judge or another lead performer in disguise.
03:39But you called him the destroyer of fate.
03:42There must be a way to survive destiny.
03:44There is no destiny, Pac.
03:47Medical Delay
03:54That was for Boulder.
03:56Now show me this god killer I've heard so much about.
04:00In August 2019, Christopher Judge underwent a series of major surgeries.
04:06Back surgery, both hip replacements, and knee surgery that left him unable to walk for a significant period.
04:12Santa Monica's studio chose to delay aspects of production and wait for his rehabilitation
04:16rather than recast the role or rush the remaining performance capture.
04:20This decision prioritized the integrity of Kratos' performance over the original schedule,
04:26while Judge's physical recovery became part of the game's development timeline.
04:29It's a rare example of a big budget production choosing patience over expedience when it comes to its lead actor.
04:36The final performance carries the weight of that commitment,
04:40as Kratos feels lived in partly because the man playing him had to fight his way back to the stage.
04:49There he is.
04:55There's the god of war.
04:58Cinematic Inspirations
05:01Can I come in?
05:08I have me!
05:10Ryan Hurst built his version of Thor using a mix of unexpected influences.
05:15The character's raw power and unpredictability drew partial inspiration from the Hulk,
05:20while the gravely regretful delivery owed something to Tommy Lee Jones in No Country for Old Men.
05:25The team also deliberately designed Thor to be physically larger than Kratos,
05:29reinforcing the sense that this was a threat on a different scale.
05:33The combination created a god who feels both mythic and uncomfortably human.
05:38Hurst Thor is not a cartoon thunder god.
05:40He is a damaged, dangerous man who happens to swing a magic hammer.
05:44The performance walks a fine line between menace and melancholy,
05:48and the multiple reference points help explain why it lands so effectively.
05:52Turn my father against me, my daughter.
05:56I have no idea what's happening.
05:58You know, I finally thought of something I can teach you.
06:03Hey!
06:03You're here.
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06:09for all the best content that gaming has to offer.
06:14Dueling Themes
06:15You are certain you remember nothing of this place?
06:19Oh, nothing that would help us.
06:21The Valhalla DLC score deliberately and subtly weaves the modern Norse emotional motifs together
06:27with the original dark Greek saga God of War theme.
06:31Composer Bear McCreary uses the older theme to underscore Kratos' unresolved internal conflict
06:36whenever Helios or other Greek memories surface,
06:39and the musical callback is more than simple nostalgia.
06:42It sonically represents the past that Kratos cannot fully escape
06:46even as he tries to build a different future.
06:48Hearing those classic notes rise during key Valhalla moments
06:51gives the DLC an extra layer of emotional continuity.
06:55The past is never really gone in these games.
06:58Sometimes it just waits for the right musical cue to remind you it's still there,
07:03humming under the new material.
07:05Yes.
07:06I have much to think about.
07:09I will return.
07:11And I will be waiting.
07:12Classic Creation
07:14Game director Eric Williams has pointed to a handful of classic NES titles as foundational
07:19to how he approaches exploration, combat fields, secrets, and progression systems in Ragnarok.
07:25The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania II, Simon's Quest, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, Baseball Stars,
07:30and River City Ransom all left their marks in different ways.
07:34The influence shows up in the way the game rewards curiosity, the weight of its combat,
07:38and the satisfaction of uncovering hidden paths and upgrades.
07:42It's a reminder that even a massive modern production can still draw inspiration from 8-bit roots.
07:48Williams essentially treated those old games as a designed vocabulary,
07:52and the result is a world that feels generous to explorers in a way that pure cinematic action games sometimes
07:58aren't.
07:59The Inspiration Book
08:00These shrines tell their stories to the world, but it turns out the real stories, the secret stories,
08:08those they kept here, inside.
08:10In Fall 2018, Santa Monica Studio created and distributed a rough 60-100 page inspiration book
08:17that outlined the entire vision for Ragnarok.
08:21The document included process shields focused on character growth
08:24and laid out the emotional and thematic goals for the sequel.
08:27Amazingly, the finished game matches roughly 80-90% of that early document.
08:33It's a striking example of how a large team managed to stay true to a clear creative North Star
08:38across years of development, a pandemic, and the usual pressures of a major release.
08:44Whereas most games drift, Ragnarok largely did not,
08:48and that early book apparently did its job.
08:51Someone should check if they still have copies lying around for the next one.
08:54What did you see in there, brother?
09:01What the hell?
09:02Vocal Drop
09:03What if there was someone who could help us?
09:05Someone that could give us answers about the Giants and who Loki's supposed to be?
09:09Atreus!
09:09Wouldn't it help to understand what I'm becoming?
09:11Atreus!
09:12Sonny Soljic was still a child when recording began for Atreus.
09:16But by the time the multi-year schedule, which was also extended by the pandemic,
09:20finally wrapped, puberty had dramatically changed his voice.
09:24The team had to extensively re-record and digitally even out thousands of lines,
09:29including the use of tools like re-speecher, so the performance remained consistent across
09:33the game's relatively short in-world timeline.
09:36The technical challenge was enormous.
09:39The emotional performance still had to feel like the same character players met in 2018,
09:44just older and under far more pressure.
09:47The fact that the final voice work holds together as well as it does is amazing.
09:51Growing up on camera is hard enough,
09:54but growing up across a several-year voice recording schedule is its own special obstacle.
09:59A chest.
10:02Not so easy, huh?
10:04Shut up!
10:08Musical Bear.
10:10Hello?
10:10Watch yourselves.
10:12Apparently, there are intruders about.
10:14Oh, that's us, I think.
10:18Eh, well, if you're planning on killing me,
10:21at least let me finish this song?
10:22That alarm was in just the perfect key.
10:26The Dwarven Tavern musician Rabe in Need of a Lear is voiced and motion-captured by composer
10:32Bear McCreary himself.
10:33His name is simply Bear, spelled backwards.
10:36His face is modeled on McCreary, and he even performs the in-game music during Brock's funeral.
10:42It's one of the more charming self-inserts in recent big-budget games,
10:46as McCreary did not just write the score,
10:48he showed up in the world, instrument in hand,
10:51and played through one of the story's heaviest moments.
10:54The detail rewards players who look closely,
10:56and gives the soundtrack an extra layer of personal connection.
11:00So, the next time you pass through that tavern,
11:02give the musician a second glance,
11:04because that is the man responsible for most of the music stuck in your head.
11:16Accent Free
11:17Tear!
11:23What trickery is this, Odin?
11:27What game do you play with me now?
11:29The game plants a nearly invisible tell about the fake Tear from the moment you free him,
11:35and almost no one noticed.
11:37In the subtitles, the imposter is consistently spelled Tear without the accented Y,
11:43while the real Tear, who can be found post-game,
11:45receives the correct spelling Tear.
11:47The fake version also repeatedly uses Frey's Aesir name Frigg,
11:52Odin's preferred name for her,
11:54which in itself is a subtle dig the real Tear would never make,
11:57and that Freya herself objects to.
12:00If you return to the prison after the twist,
12:02you can also find raven feathers are visible in the broom closet,
12:06another deliberate early hint.
12:08The attention to detail is almost excessive,
12:11for something most players will never think to investigate,
12:14but the ones who do will feel briefly brilliant,
12:17and slightly paranoid about every other subtitle in the game.
12:21Hey! I'm talking to you!
12:24You never!
12:25Shut up!
12:30All the things, Odin.
12:33Bitter Dwarf.
12:35An alarm.
12:36I'd only sound an alarm like that if I still had my body.
12:39I was fearing the notion of being detached from it.
12:42Very early in Svartalheim,
12:44when you arrive by boat in Nidavellir,
12:46players can briefly see a random dwarf on a bridge spit at Kratos and Atreus.
12:51Director Eric Williams has confirmed that this fleeting NPC is actually Odin in disguise,
12:57complete with matching facial features and an eye patch if you look closely enough.
13:02The Allfather was already watching,
13:05already inserting himself into the margins of the story long before the bigger deceptions unfolded.
13:10It's a blink-and-you-miss-it moment that becomes deeply unsettling on a second playthrough.
13:15Odin was never content to wait for the major plot points.
13:18He was in the background, spitting on the protagonists from the jump.
13:22Credit where it's due, the man committed to the bit.
13:31Across the Realms
13:37The Across the Realms favor and the Ballad of Jari and Somer,
13:42including the Eternal Rainbow Campfire and the Heart marked with Norse rune initials,
13:47serve as a deeply personal memorial to Santa Monica developers Sam Hadrick and Jake Snipes,
13:52who passed away in 2020 from epilepsy complications.
13:56Hendrick had pitched the core story and the team expanded it into a full side quest after his death.
14:02The quest is poignant and easy to complete without realizing the real-world weight behind it.
14:07However, once you know, the Rainbow Campfire hits differently.
14:11It's one of the more moving examples of a big studio
14:14finding a way to honor lost colleagues inside the world they all helped build.
14:18But they found as they did.
14:20The destination became less important than simply traveling together.
14:25Poetic Homage
14:27That's one of Kvasir's poems.
14:29Very highbrow.
14:31You should collect any others you find.
14:33The 14 collectible Kvasir poems are actually elaborate poetic references to other PlayStation titles.
14:40The covers, titles, and content all encode the tributes.
14:43Tool and Bang points to Ratchet and Clank,
14:45We Who Remain, Part II, nods to The Last of Us Part II,
14:50Eastern Spectre, references Ghost of Tsushima,
14:53Sanguinity stands in for Bloodborne,
14:55and the Sunrise of Nothingness evokes Horizon,
14:58while the rest of the list continues in the same vein.
15:00It's a deep-cut love letter to the broader PlayStation catalog,
15:04hidden inside collectible lore,
15:05that had most players grabbing the poems for the favor progress and moving on.
15:09However, the ones who pause to decode them get a nice reminder that Ragnarok exists inside a much larger family
15:16of games.
15:17You're building quite the collection of poetry, brother.
15:20Why so surprised?
15:22Why people are known for their culture?
15:24Crossover Tournament
15:25In an optional bit of dialogue,
15:28Mimir asks Kratos about a past tournament in which he fought
15:31beasts, scoundrels, princesses, the undead, automatons, and history's greatest musician.
15:37That's not... that's not true, is it?
15:40I would not speak of this.
15:43Fair enough, brother.
15:44The list is a clear nod to characters from Sly Cooper, Uncharted, Fat Princess, Medieval, Bioshock, and Parappa the Rapper.
15:52Kratos naturally refuses to discuss it.
15:54Narrative director Matt Sophos has confirmed the exchange as a deliberate PlayStation All-Stars reference.
16:01It's a blink-and-you-miss-it joke that rewards longtime fans of the broader platform.
16:05The idea of Kratos sharing a tournament bracket with Parappa remains deeply funny
16:10and never fails to bring a nostalgic smile to our faces.
16:14The ghost of Sparta brings ruin to Olympus!
16:18Time Travel Serpent
16:20Snake looks different.
16:21He is different.
16:22But when I was away, I've lit mine later.
16:26The world serpent you fight alongside during the climactic assault on Asgard,
16:30and that Thor later punches hard enough to send backward through time,
16:34is the very same serpent Atreus' soul infused with a giant spirit in Ironwood.
16:39The timeline is a closed loop created by Atreus himself.
16:43The revelation reframes several earlier moments and underlines how freely the game plays with
16:49Norse concepts of time and fate, while also tying back into subtle clues from the 2018 game,
16:55and is the sort of detail that makes a second playthrough feel richer.
16:58The serpent was never just a helpful ally.
17:01He was a paradox waiting to be understood.
17:03Time Travel in God of War remains appropriately messy and mythic, rather than cleanly scientific.
17:11That may not be our biggest problem right now.
17:15Go to danger!
17:17Dragon Remains
17:18After obtaining the Dropnir Spear,
17:20players can reach a hidden location in Midgard that contains the frozen remains of Baldur's Dragon from the 2018 game.
17:26The carcass has drifted over the years and settled in a new spot,
17:31just waiting for anyone curious enough to go looking.
17:34It's a piece of environmental storytelling that rewards exploration and ties the two games together
17:38in a physical way that most players will never find.
17:41The ones who do get a small eerie reminder that the events of the previous game left scars on the
17:47world that have not fully healed.
17:49Even the dragons stay where they fall.
17:51You can even bring Freya along on the discovery for some specific commentary.
17:56Ratatasker Rage
17:57My goodness, what a strapping physique!
18:00Capable of an astounding variety of acts of violence, I imagine.
18:05What is happening?
18:07Here's a fun one that's good for a laugh.
18:09If you repeatedly ring the Idrisil chime after summoning Ratatasker,
18:13the squirrel grows increasingly impatient until he finally erupts in a full emotional outburst.
18:19The dialogue is purely optional and easy to miss if you treat the chime as a simple fast travel tool.
18:24However, players who keep ringing it for the novelty are treated to a rare moment of pure squirrel frustration.
18:31Ratatasker has a job to do and limited patience for Kratos treating him like a cosmic doorbell.
18:37Fair enough.
18:38This hilarious tiny piece of reactive writing makes the world feel a little more alive
18:42and shows even messenger squirrels have boundaries and a breaking point.
18:46Stop!
18:47Stop with the stupid chime!
18:50Oh, oh dear.
18:51I'm sorry.
18:52I don't know where that came from.
18:54Meditative Tear
19:03After the main story and the fall of Asgard,
19:06the real genuine Tear can be freed from a hidden prison in Niflheim.
19:11Not only that, but a hidden cell within the prison reveals the dead bodies of all the people
19:16whose forms Odin previously stole and used as disguises.
19:19Once released, he appears in multiple realms, peacefully meditating or simply exploring if you choose to seek him out.
19:27The reveal and sequences give the real Tear a post-game presence and underscores the full cost of Odin's deceptions.
19:33It's easy to miss if you're not thorough,
19:36but players who take the time get a more complete sense of the god who was locked away while a
19:41liar wore his face.
19:42Excuse me.
19:44I wish to pay my respects to your brother.
19:47In my own way.
19:48Of course.
19:50Let's go, Kratos.
19:51Captain Closure
19:53Is that...
19:54A key?
19:55One from my past.
19:57Did it unlock something important?
19:59Only a memory.
20:00Seems Valhalla thinks you have a story to tell.
20:03In the Valhalla DLC,
20:05Kratos is forced to confront his past during his time in Greece on his quest for revenge.
20:09Kratos eventually finds a key that triggers a memory of the boat captain he killed in the original God of
20:15War that he let get swallowed by the Hydra.
20:17The sequence explicitly forces him to confront that long-lingering act of casual brutality.
20:23It's a small but pointed piece of continuity that reaches all the way back to 2005
20:27that highlights the Greek saga's body count was enormous and often played for dark humor,
20:33while Valhalla treats at least one of those deaths with something closer to reckoning.
20:37The captain was not a major character,
20:40but he does represent one of the many ghosts of Kratos' past.
20:44What is it about this boat captain?
20:46It would have cost me nothing to show him mercy.
20:49His life was in my hands.
20:52To be so casually cruel.
20:55Spartan Rage
20:56Oh good!
20:58You are making eye contact as you push me towards my demise.
21:01The Valhalla DLC reintroduces the Blade of Olympus as a special Rage option,
21:07complete with authentic animations and visual references pulled straight from the Greek saga games.
21:13And activating it feels like a brief controlled eruption of the old Kratos inside the newer,
21:18more measured version players have spent two games watching evolve.
21:21The weapon carries decades of series history in its moveset and presentation,
21:26from the way it channels raw power to the distinct visual flair that long-time fans immediately recognize.
21:32For those who lived through the original trilogy,
21:34it feels like a reunion with a very dangerous old friend.
21:38The Blade of Olympus was more than a weapon in Kratos' inventory.
21:41It was a statement about who he used to be and what he was willing to do.
21:45The fact that it is tied specifically to Spartan Rage only sharpens the contrast between the man Kratos was
21:51and the one he is trying to become.
21:54You know, I could give you a hint, but I just feel like you wouldn't appreciate it.
22:00Rematch
22:00Using the late-game Mystical Heirloom Relic allows players to awaken and refight
22:06several of the major troll bosses from the 2018 God of War.
22:10These trolls appear as dormant statues scattered across the realms
22:13until the Relic brings them back for a proper round two.
22:17The rematches are completely optional, but very satisfying,
22:21especially for players who still remember the specific frustrations and triumphs of those earlier fights.
22:26It's a simple, elegant way to add meaningful extra challenge content
22:30without inventing entirely new enemies or disrupting the main flow of the game.
22:35Some bosses simply deserve a second chance to ruin your day,
22:38and the Mystical Heirloom is more than happy to arrange the meeting.
22:42The trolls do not hold back just because you've seen them before.
22:45They're still big, still angry, and still ready to remind you why they were memorable the first time around.
22:52Headless Helios
23:01In the Valhalla DLC, Helios' severed head will occasionally replace Mimir on Kratos' belt,
23:08and the glowing head forces Kratos to confront uncomfortable pieces of his Greek past,
23:13including the debt Helios once owed him from Chains of Olympus.
23:17The swap is both genuinely funny and more than a little unsettling.
23:21Mimir's dry, worldly commentary is suddenly replaced by the bitter, still-talking head of a sun god
23:27that Kratos previously decapitated and used as a lantern.
23:30The sequences lean hard into the uncomfortable continuity between the two eras of the character,
23:35refusing to let the Norse saga fully sanitize what came before.
23:39Helios has jokes, but they are rarely kind,
23:43and they often dig at the exact version of Kratos that the newer games have been trying to move past.
24:01Star-Crossed Lovers
24:15During post-game exploration in Niflheim,
24:18players can hear Sin Mara crying out for Surtur if they take the time to listen.
24:22The atmospheric detail is easy to miss when you are focused on combat, collectibles, or simply moving through the area,
24:28but it underscores the tragic separation of the two giants after the events of the main story.
24:34Their relationship was one of the more subtle threads in Ragnarok,
24:38built on mutual respect, shared purpose, and a genuine connection that stood apart from the louder conflicts of gods and
24:44monsters.
24:45Hearing Sin Mara still calling for her partner in the aftermath of Ragnarok gives the ending a little extra weight
24:51and sadness.
24:52Not every story in the game resolves cleanly or triumphantly.
24:56The moment does not come with a cutscene or a journal entry.
24:59It's just a voice in the cold, still searching, and that restraint makes it more effective.
25:07Do you hear that?
25:09Someone's crying.
25:11Sin Mara.
25:12Ah, Surtur's love.
25:14Should we try to tell her what happened?
25:16She knows.
25:17A New Wielder
25:19Wait a bloody moment.
25:21Is that?
25:21Thor's hammer and his daughter.
25:24After the main story, visiting Lunda's shop in the Alfheim Desert lets players encounter Thrud wielding Mjolnir.
25:31The appearance is almost post-credits in tone, and very easy to miss if you don't return to that specific
25:37vendor after the credits have rolled.
25:39Seeing Thor's daughter carrying the hammer lands as both a natural progression of her character and a small emotional grace
25:45note for the larger story.
25:47Thrud's presence with Mjolnir suggests the possibility of a different kind of legacy that's not defined by the damage her
25:53father left behind.
25:54It's one of the more understated final images the game offers, and it rewards players who keep exploring and checking
26:00in on characters after the main narrative has ended.
26:03I'll make you proud, Dad.
26:11Help!
26:17What was your favorite detail about the Norse Saga games?
26:21Share your knowledge in the comments.
26:23Did you enjoy this video?
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