Elden Ring. With both games taking place in a fantasy setting inspired by ancient myth, some may be wondering how the two games stack up against each other in their gameplay, story, and length.
God of War Ragnarok is the epic follow-up to 2018’s Elden Ring focusing on both melee weapons and magic that the player can utilize.
How Ragnarök's Lore Compares to Elden Ring
One of the biggest similarities between the two games are the recurring motifs in their lore and story. For example, in Ragnarok, much of the plot’s driving force revolves around the ancient giant - or jotun (plural jotnar) - prophecy of Ragnarok, although they are presumed extinct as the game begins. Atreus is even half-giant, thanks to his mother Laufey. Meanwhile, Elden Ring’s world establishes that the giants were once powerful creatures who have been all-but wiped out by the arrival of the Elden Ring itself and the philosophy of the Golden Order that arrived with it.
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as God of War bases itself in the world of Norse mythology, as opposed to Elden Ring's Irish and Celtic mythology influence. Historically, both cultures had similar Indo-European origins and were in with each other for a long time, meaning many elements from Norse mythology likely bled into Celtic culture, and vice versa. Elden Ring also heavily features runes, magical symbols which empower the player in much the same way as Norse runes carry power in Ragnarok. Thus, by playing both games, players might find that there are odd similarities between the worlds that they build, although in Elden Ring, a bit more work might be needed to piece the puzzle together.
Elden Ring & Ragnarök's Stories Are Vastly Different
In of story and storytelling, Ragnarok and Elden Ring couldn’t be more different. Ragnarok’s story is arguably the best reason to play it, as it follows up the sprawling and intimate God of War with an equally epic and heart-wrenching story. The ensemble cast of Ragnarok, which includes the father and son protagonists, the decapitated head of know-it-all Mimir, the goddess Freya, and the dwarven blacksmith brothers Brok and Sindri, are constantly present throughout the game’s story and provide a myriad of perspectives, opinions, and motivations as the game progresses. The game’s cinematic story drives only one way, even if it does drive through open-world exploration sections.
On the other hand, Elden Ring’s story is highly fragmented, an intentional reflection of the shattered and fragmented nature of the world. Although it contains many NPCs and characters with their own stories, much of the nitty-gritty is left to the interpretation of the player based on what they have seen and experienced during the game. The creator of the A Song of Ice and Fire books, George R.R. Martin, contributed to Elden Ring's world by writing its history, which means there is lots of interesting, idiosyncratic details to its complex mythology, but it does not hold the player’s hand as in Ragnarok and instead allows the player to explore and learn about the world at their own pace.
Ragnarök's Focus vs. Elden Ring's Freedom
Although Ragnarok’s story is linear, à la The Last of Us or Uncharted, it goes further than those games in providing the player with a large amount of open world content, and the player is encouraged to fully explore this after the bulk of the story has been completed. Ragnarok’s open world and its imminent end pales in comparison to Elden Ring’s sprawling, interconnected map, but it does maintain a balance between gameplay and story in a much more consistent way than Elden Ring. Both games also encourage the player to experiment with their various respective combat tools, and combat is one of the key pillars of both games.
In Ragnarok, the player is somewhat limited by Kratos’ skill set. As a (retired) god of war, Kratos’ strengths lie in brutally challenging his opponents with melee weapons like the icy Leviathan Axe or the fiery Blades of Chaos. Because of this, he doesn’t rely on magic spells, but does use them in the form of melee weapon skills. His various companions also use magic, including Atreus, whose gameplay in God of War Ragnarok involves firing magical arrows at his father’s enemies to him.
Elden Ring’s combat is much more free form, as the player can transform their Tarnished into any number of fantasy archetypes - a classic wizard, a stealthy rogue, a holy paladin, or many more. The game also provides countless tools to facilitate the player’s freedom of expression in gameplay. It can be argued that Ragnarok’s combat is much more focused, with the intention of making the player feel good and look stylish while they are mowing down enemies, while the gratification from Elden Ring comes from beating difficult bosses and enemies using the skill set the player, rather than the game, has picked. This isn’t to say that Ragnarok’s combat has no combat customization; there are many ways that Kratos can be specialized to deal a particular kind of damage or play a certain way. There’s just much less than there is in Elden Ring.
How Long Elden Ring & God Of War Ragnarok Take To Beat
Finally, one big question for those who are deciding which game to play is how the length of both games compares, and there is a big difference. There is a ton of side content to explore in addition to God of War Ragnarok's main story length, which takes around 20-30 hours to beat. A completionist run will rack up around 15 extra hours, clocking it up to 45. However, mainlining Elden Ring’s story alone could take players around 50 hours to beat, and that’s missing out on some of the most interesting optional objectives. All-in-all, Elden Ring can take hundreds of hours to beat. Although Elden Ring has way more gameplay content, God of War Ragnarok does have a very strong and well-written story and incredible cinematic set pieces. The merits of both games are vastly different, so comparing the two is all down to which elements are more important to the player.