Back when God of War Ragnarok released on the various PlaysStation, Kratos and company ignited a wildfire of takes from frustrated players. The problem was puzzles—or rather, the fact that Ragnarok's only provided a scant few seconds of attempting potential solutions before Atreus or Mimir would shout out exactly what you needed to do to progress.
Ragnarok did have a "Puzzle Timing" setting in the accessibility options, but as a Polygon piece about the puzzle hints noted just two days after Ragnarok's release, that setting extends the available time for successfully completing a [[link]] puzzle with a time limit. As Sony Santa Monica lead UX designer Mila Pavlin told Polygon, "Those settings do not impact the banter."
No matter what setting you toggled, the disembodied head on your belt would bark out precisely which object you needed to throw your axe at and where. Frustrating, sure, but who among us hasn't been conditioned to feel an intense, existential terror whenever we aren't experiencing forward momentum? Maybe the hints weren't all bad. As an aside, has anyone else noticed that drivers have gotten a lot worse lately?
Miraculously, online videogame discourse can achieve good things. Earlier today on the official PlayStation blog, Sony Santa Monica listed new features arriving to God of War Ragnarok with the PC release, including an option to reduce puzzle hints. "A new option in the Gameplay Settings tab, enabling this will reduce the frequency with which you hear puzzle hints from your companions," Santa Monica Studio said. Sounds like a great setting to try out whether it's your first or second playthrough—none of Ragnarok's puzzles are all that complicated, but they often call for a few minutes of chill exploration to find the correct bib to bob, and this toggle is a lot easier than stuffing a rag in Mimir's mouth.
Ragnarok is also getting a new accessibility option to add cinematic audio descriptions. "Enabling the Audio Description setting under the Audio Accessibility menu will play audio descriptions of visual events during cinematics," Santa Monica Studio said. "These descriptions will provide additional contextual information alongside the spoken [[link]] dialogue to create [[link]] a more detailed experience for players with low vision."
It's not just PC players who'll enjoy the new Ragnarok settings. While God of War Ragnarok will release with the additional options, Santa Monica Studio says they're headed to console soon.
God of War Ragnarok launches on Steam and the Epic Games Store on September 19.