God of War Ragnarök edges closer, and as well as having some thoughts on Ragnarök’s first few hours of gameplay, Sony’s Santa Monica Studio also kindly offered up its wonderfully insightful animation director, Bruno Velazquez, for a chat.
We found it genuinely enlightening, especially when animation takes such a prominent role in God of War. This is a game as much about its sumptuous presentation as it is the moment-to-moment playing. From what we’ve seen so far, Kratos and Atreus maintain that same wonderful sense of personality, the detail strong enough for each moment of stillness, when it does come, to feel as deliberate as their movement.
There’s the same elastic snap to the swings and counters of Ragnarök combat’s combat as there was in 2018, and also many, many more kinds of enemy than before – something Velazquez himself knows has been a key request. It’s a rangey chat, and hopefully a fascinating insight into one essential corner of development that plays a huge part in the assembly of this game as a whole.
Eurogamer: I’ve played for a few hours and I’m enjoying what I’ve played so far. The first question is quite a broad one – it’s going to be quite an animation-focused chat – but I wanted to know how working in animation changes the way you view the world? You hear about artists sketching everything that they see in their head as they’re walking around. Do you animate people or a bus that’s going by – are you doing that all the time?