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Minotaurs, harpies, and young Kratos – here's a comprehensive breakdown explaining how they were recreated in Rangarök's DLC.
When God of War Ragnarök's Valhalla DLC was released back in December 2023, it garnered significant praise for bringing back various enemy creatures from the original Greek-themed God of War games, as well as the return of a younger and angrier Kratos. Recently, the game's developer Santa Monica Studio published a comprehensive breakdown detailing the working process behind said creatures (and Kratos) and explaining how they were adapted to the Norse saga's art style.
Discussing the pipeline's sculpting stage, the write-up explains how Santa Monica's Character Artists used the original games as reference to keep the creatures' identities yet reimagine them using current-gen software and techniques, making entirely new models that would honor the legacy of the Greek saga without straight up copying the designs.
"With the creation of this new sculpt, however, came opportunities for our artists to build upon the legacy of these designs, adding their own twists while keeping the core elements that made them recognizable to fans," reads the breakdown.
Besides minotaurs, harpies, and other mythical creatures, the Valhalla DLC also delighted old-school fans by bringing back young Kratos, designed to maintain visual consistency with the character as remembered from the original God of War games. The article delves deep into the production process behind him, with the artists explaining how the character's skin was set up, how they approached his outfit, how they tackled smaller details, and more.
"I relied a lot on texture and colors to make the younger version of Kratos look familiar but still read well in the art style of the Norse era," revealed Senior Character Artist Angela Rico. "For example, his skin is a little bit more stylized than the God of War Ragnarök version of Kratos because it's whiter and it's more uniform in color."
Furthermore, the breakdown thoroughly explains how the iconic character animations and finishing moves were reimagined in the DLC, with SM's Animators discussing the process and providing several insightful WIP demos that offer a behind-the-scenes look at the sequences and compare Valhalla's versions to the originals.
You can read the full write-up for free by visiting Santa Monica's official website. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.