God of War Ragnarök: Behind The Epic Game Audio

It’s hard to believe the first God of War game was released in 2005. Back then, Kratos was hanging out with the Greek gods. He, and the game series, have come a long way — and not just story-wise. The audio teams have embraced each new technological advancement through the years, utilizing it to make the games sound the best they can. On this latest release, God of War Ragnarök, the sound team worked with the PS5’s DualSense haptics and Tempest 3D audio to create a sonic experience that’s never felt more immersive. Nick Tomassetti (Sound Design Lead for UI and Haptics on God of War Ragnarök) says, “The vision for haptics for this game was: if Kratos could feel it, you could too.”

And while the game has grown over the years, the sound team has honored what’s come before. Fans of the series spend some much time with Kratos, and now his son Atreus, that to completely redesign their iconic sounds (or the sounds of recurring enemies or creatures) would be a letdown, so each new release pays homage to the previous one. But even when sounds are carried across titles, there’s always a fresh element added. For instance, the giant tortoise Chaurli (that lives over Freya’s home) was introduced in 2018. His breathing and vocals didn’t change from the last game, but in God of War Ragnarök, he now has dialogue lines that needed to be designed.

In this interview, Michael Kent (Supervising Sound Designer/Mix Supervisor), Beau Jimenez (Sound Design Lead for AI Cast), Bryan Higa (Sound Design Lead for Player Characters: Kratos & Atreus), Alex Previty (Sound Design Lead for World: Ambience, Reverb, Technical Mixer), Stephen Schappler (Sound Design Lead for Interacts and Puzzles), Justin E. Bell (Sound Design Lead for Gameplay Moments and Set Pieces), and Nick Tomassetti (mentioned above) talk about their approach to honoring and improving upon the previous release (creatively and technically), capturing new sounds for this new game, building new soundscapes for the Nine Realms and beyond, improving combat on the sound-side, designing Kratos’s new spear, creating new sounds for Atreus, embracing the challenges and sonic opportunities for specific Boss fights, designing specific creatures sounds, improving immersion by incorporating 3D audio and DualSense haptics, mixing the epic Ragnarök battle, finding solutions to technical challenges, and so much more!

 

God of War Ragnarök – The Game Awards Accolades Trailer | PS5 & PS4 Games

 

Building on a strong sonic foundation

 

In a sequel, you have the opportunity to build on what’s come before, and also improve on things done in the first release. What were some sounds that you wanted to reuse from the first game, and what were some things you wanted to take a new approach to for this new release?

Michael Kent (MK): One of the biggest things we had to achieve was reusing and honoring as much from the first game as we could. So, there is a lot from the first game in God of War Ragnarök. We did, however, update, re-mix, and polish a lot of it to fit the aesthetic of the new game.

I think the biggest thing we set out to do on God of War Ragnarök was to get a dynamic, transparent, and clear mix that consistently supports the gameplay and the story. There is a lot happening on screen, and we needed to make sure that what was attacking you was clear, what wasn’t a threat was placed in the background, and whatever the player was doing felt satisfying, punchy, and powerful.

This included making sure our assets and sounds were as clean as possible and making sure things were sitting right frequency-wise in the mix. We had a lot of levers set up to achieve this, which I will answer in a different question.

Beau Jimenez (BJ): Speaking for the enemy sound design, GOWR included every enemy from 2018 and featured a gamut of new creature families and bosses. Our job was to ensure that the enemies from the previous game were mostly unchanged to honor 2018’s unique aesthetic, while scoping the massive workload ahead with the new enemies. The only touches we did were to the Draugr vocals in which we did some light remastering, added more tonal qualities, and tightened the ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, and release) for a more staccato audio experience while fighting them.

Stephen Schappler (SS): For the puzzles and various interacts in the game, we had many returning elements from God of War (2018). For most of them, we decided to redesign them from the ground up, specifically because in God of War Ragnarök there are a plethora of new realm-specific puzzle modules and we wanted to make sure we imbued each of the realm’s interacts with their own identities.

However, there are some iconic global interact sounds used throughout the game that we wanted to remain the same, like Kratos opening the various types of chests, the timed bell puzzles, and picking up health and rage stones. These sounds were really great in God of War (2018) and keeping them helps to build a strong sense of continuity between the two titles.

Bryan Higa (BH): Kratos’s weapons are some of gaming’s most iconic weapons, so we absolutely wanted to honor their legacy and player’s expectations of them, but we knew there would be many new weapons and instruments to use for combat in God of War Ragnarök. The challenge was identifying the core of what makes each weapon’s iconic sound and pushing them further stylistically so that no matter what Kratos used to fight, each weapon sang its signature style uniquely.

For the Leviathan Axe, we gave it a more serrated sharp edge to heighten the fantasy of an axe wielder, along with adding more crystal ice magic while also highlighting the original’s beautiful tonal elements. We kept the signature sound of catching the axe from the last game, just giving it a little more low end to help it pop more in our mix and also adding details of ice particle debris falling off of it.

For the Blades of Chaos, we built upon their fiery, whippy lightness and injected more sounds of the chains and different fire elements across combat and traversal. Since players would be catching the blades much more this time around, we set out to make sure catching them would feel just as satisfying as catching the Leviathan Axe.

For the Runic attacks that were returning in God of War Ragnarök, we kept the same principles in preserving the signature sounds for each one while adding more of the unique stylistic elements we were adding in this game to make sure each weapon sounded cohesive across combat.

Alex Previty (AP): The ambient soundscapes of God of War (2018) were very rich and grounded! However, it relied on the ambient beds having quite a bit of information, and as a result, there were fewer ambient emitters placed in the world.

With traditional channel-based output, this sounds just fine! However, since the PS5 version takes advantage of the Tempest 3D audio, there would be a lack of spatial detail with this approach. As a result, we strived to simplify the ambient beds, and instead place many more 3D ambient emitters in the world.

We definitely reused what we could in terms of sound assets, as the original sounds were extremely good and there was no point fixing what wasn’t broken! It also helped keep things consistent with the previous title.

As for reverb and delay, we completely overhauled and revisited everything! A brand new proprietary propagation and early reflection system was developed, which helped create a more immersive and dynamic experience.

Justin E. Bell (JB): In God of War Ragnarök, we had 370 of these things we called “Gameplay Moments,” or GPM for short. The best way to describe a GPM is to think of them as a mini in-game narrative moment involving one or more characters performing actions that are not systemic. An example of a systemic action would be Kratos running when you move the analog sticks. An example of a GPM could be something as small as Kratos handing a chew toy to Lúnda for her dog Helka, to something as big as Freya attacking Kratos and Atreus on the sled at the beginning of the game.

God of War Ragnarök’s predecessor had a comparatively small amount of GPMs, so it was bigger and more ambitious for the game itself and for the sound team in terms of scope.

Nick Tomassetti (NT): For UI, we wanted to preserve the feel of the original game but also expand upon those ideas. The “area discovered” sound is an iconic sound from the original that was largely left untouched besides a slight pitch adjustment to be in tune with the area music. Other improvements were to combat callouts, specifically with R3 stuns. Where there was nothing before, there’s now something to help reinforce the UI element. Adding stringers to the R3 Stuns and Kills heightened the cinematic presentation immensely and made performing these actions more addictive and satisfying for the player.
 

 
 
 
 
 

 

Recording sounds for the game

 

Can you talk about some of your recording sessions, and/or field recording trips you had for this game? What did you capture, how did you capture it, and how did you use it in the game? For instance, can you talk about the Gjallarhorn recordings?

MK: The recording for the Gjallarhorn was no small feat! The recording session was done during the height of the pandemic and overseas. We couldn’t travel so we had to get creative on how we recorded the sound.

…I reached out to a friend in Sweden and asked if he knew anyone who was well-versed in Viking horns. He introduced me to Göran Hallmarken.

Early on in development, I reached out to a friend in Sweden and asked if he knew anyone who was well-versed in Viking horns. He introduced me to Göran Hallmarken. Göran discussed horns and ideas for recording them. He introduced me to the Bronze Lur (Horn). This horn is from the Nordic bronze age 1750 – 500 BC, this is before the Viking age but the horn itself was one of the most interesting things I’ve seen and heard.

We couldn’t travel, so Göran worked with Nick Raynor, the team at Boom Libraries, and Eilif Gundersen, to set up a multi-location horn shoot with 6 different war horns. What we got back was 58 gigabytes of horn recordings in multiple locations; this was more than enough for the Gjallarhorn.

I ended up combining a lot of these horns and creating interesting overtones and levels to the horn with the base horn being the Bronze Lur. I then processed it further with a bit of distortion and wave folding to bring out and enhance the growl of the horn.

…it was tuned to the music of the scene and played out 12 decibels louder than everything…

After we had the sound, it was tuned to the music of the scene and played out 12 decibels louder than everything to achieve the grand size and scale that the horn of all horns needed. The fact that we got this recorded and done was a miracle given the state of the world and I am truly thankful to all involved in this recording!

AP: One thing I knew going into this project was that we could never have too many outdoor impulse responses! Most of God of War Ragnarök’s gameplay takes place in organic exterior spaces, so we needed a good variety of impulse responses (a sonic measurement of the sound in a space) to cover the large variety of environments in the game.

We needed to find a good location that was extremely quiet, and also not too far away from Los Angeles. After some research, we ended up settling on the Painted Canyon area of the Mecca Hills Wilderness, out here in California. We recorded in January so it didn’t get too hot, but it was still pretty toasty out, especially being in the sun all day!

…the most useful was the whip, as it had the necessary force to excite the distant surroundings.

We ended up using a few different sounds as impulses, but the most useful was the whip, as it had the necessary force to excite the distant surroundings. Luckily, Jeremy Rogers is not only an expert sound designer but also an expert whip-cracker, so that really came in handy during the trip!

This recording trip was also beneficial not just for the source we recorded, but it also taught me a lot about how different sounds behave in various spaces, which really assisted me in how I approached the reverb and delay in the game.

BH: Atreus and Freya’s Sonic Arrows were a combo of several different recording sessions, spanning across development. Covid precautions really forced us to be careful, creative, and economical about what and how we recorded. We used elements of whip cracking and sling-shotting bullet casings and paperclips out in the Painted Canyon in California.

The whip cracks were initially for capturing impulse responses of different areas in the canyon, but they provided a ton of inspiration for the sound of the Sonic Arrow’s implosive snap. It provided a huge source of expressive sounds for whippy and whistley arrow pass-bys that would help give them more character than normal arrow shots.

Another recording session that gave us an invaluable sound source was recording a bass transducer on different metal surfaces. Not only did we use it for Sonic Arrows, but they were also signature for all Bifrost magic and added a ton of low aggressive movement to different sounds across the game! We found a particular older metal cart at the studio that rang extra aggressively with the transducer that we nicknamed the “Horror Cart” since it gave such a creepy sound.

The team made another trip to the Bakersfield Desert to capture source of metal hits, whooshes, and rings. One metal bar gave a really wispy unique whoosh that we used to give Sonic Arrows a more ethereal element.

Finally, since so many of us were working from home alone or secluded in rooms, a lot of us recorded sounds by ourselves. I needed hollow, airy tones for the Sonic arrows, so I learned how to play the ocarina and recorded myself playing. This helped give Sonic Abilities a tonal element that players could pick out during combat, which was incredibly helpful to have in chaotic battles.

SS: For the interacts and puzzles, we captured a lot of unique material. Earlier on in the project, I was working and living in Chicago, and I did many sessions recording banging, scraping, slamming, and jostling objects large and small in my backyard and garage. For instance, the main sound of Kratos pushing the wheel cranks is me dragging my daughter’s water table across a concrete floor. The house I was living in was built in 1901 and provided some great old creaky door opens and slams.

…the main sound of Kratos pushing the wheel cranks is me dragging my daughter’s water table across a concrete floor.

In San Diego, we did an extensive junkyard recording session which gave us some excellent metal impacts and detailed debris that we sprinkled throughout the Nine Realms.

At the junkyard, we put many random objects on the “junk cart” and pushed them around to get some detailed movement and jostling sounds that we used for things like elevator movement.

 

Foley sounds and sessions

 

We were also able to leverage the Foley stage we have at our San Diego facility where Joanna Fang (Senior Foley Artist) and Blake Collins (Senior Foley Mixer) recorded even more props and objects for us to use for elevators, gear-driven objects, large gates, doors, etc.

I paired up with Joanna and Blake to record a custom gore library for use in the project.

I paired up with Joanna and Blake to record a custom gore library for use in the project. We pillaged our local supermarkets and recorded almost everything we could, including pomelos, spaghetti squash, lasagna, walnuts, and all the rest. It was a really fun session.

BJ: One of my personal favorite recording ventures was acquiring source sounds for the game’s new vehicle, the Wolf Sled, from our Formosa Interactive Foley partners Dawn Fintor, Alicia Stevenson and Jeff Gross. It was a collaborative effort in that we came to them with a general idea of what we needed: sled runners grinding and sliding on snow, sand, rock, and ice. But the session was also a playground for ideas and happy accidents. For instance, we started thinking, “What would it sound like if you performed with the microphone placed inside a large resonant, wooden box?”

The idea being maybe the low, muffled content could work for exemplifying the weight of the bed. We wanted to capture unique perspectives to use in choice layers to the overall sound. That resonant low-end paired beautifully with wood groans and creaks, which gave the sled’s body a lovely personality and expressiveness.

JB: While many GPMs are relatively brief and small in nature, we felt that adding bespoke sounds to them would further enhance worldbuilding and narrative beats. Since many GPMs involved characters interacting with the world and each other in unique ways, we knew Foley would play a big role.

Efficiency was key as we had a compressed timeframe to get this content into the game.

Efficiency was key as we had a compressed timeframe to get this content into the game. Initially we thought we could kit-bash Foley we had recorded for other things, but soon realized that doing so would take more time than just recording them. Besides, it wouldn’t have provided the nuanced performances we were looking for, so we made the decision to record custom Foley for the majority of GPMs! Additionally, we also recorded a loop group for GPMs that needed walla.

The process involved spotting and, with help from our amazing QA team, capturing each GPM in game, and then organizing those notes and captures into a giant Pro Tools session to hand off to the Foley stage. Organization and context was key for them to work efficiently, so extra care was given to keeping game captures organized by character, realm, and context.

I also documented relevant information in a huge Excel tracking spreadsheet that the entire team used to keep ourselves organized.

I also documented relevant information in a huge Excel tracking spreadsheet that the entire team used to keep ourselves organized. It included details like assignee, GPM status, if it needed haptics, Foley, sound design, and if the camera and analog stick was locked so that we could know at a glance if the stem should be mono or 5.1. I called it Pathmaker, and, to call it just a tracking spreadsheet doesn’t really do it justice because it did way more than track GPM status.

We used extensive VBA scripting; it also had advanced functionality such as launching the selected GPM on the devkit, creating a Reaper or Pro Tools session for the GPM using the user’s template and storing/organizing it on our team’s file server, the ability to open previously made sessions, spotting the capture video to the session automatically, opening the latest video capture on our intranet, and opening the Jira ticket among many other things. This was all accessible via convenient shortcut commands directly from within the spreadsheet. This enabled our team to move quickly and efficiently so that they could focus on what mattered most, making GPMs sound great.

Overall it was a huge and detailed task that involved a large number of extremely talented people from PlayStation Studios Sound/Foley/Dialog/Music/Production, the team at Santa Monica Studio, the Foley team at Molinaire who provided editorial and additional Foley work, and the ADR group at Sony Pictures Studio.

 

Sounds of the realms:

 

What are some key sounds that help the ambiences for these Realms to sound distinct: Midgard, Alfheim, Helheim, Jotunheim, Muspelheim, Niflheim, Vanaheim, Svartalfheim, and Asgard, and also The Spark of the World, inside the Giant’s Shrine, The Crater, Pilgrim’s Landing, and The Forbidden Sands?

AP: Unlike the previous game, you can visit all of the Nine Realms in God of War Ragnarök! So in order to make each realm feel truly unique, we had to go above and beyond with the ambient soundscapes in order to match the wildly unique environments you can encounter. Most of the awesome ambience work you hear in the game was done by the sound team in Japan (Noburo Masuda, Tsubasa Ito, Satsuki Sato, Derrick Espino and Kouji Niikura), as well as Dan Ramos, who is located in San Diego. Charles Dworetz also assisted a lot with some amazing technical and implementation work for us. That being said, I will do my best to speak to the high level direction for each realm even if I didn’t personally create or implement the assets!

 

Combat sound systems and weapons:

 

Players are showing lots of love for God of War Ragnarök‘s improved combat. What were some things you did on the sound side (creative and technically) that contributed to enhancing the experience?

MK: We wanted to have a clear, dynamic, and transparent mix for this game. It was important for us to make sure the player could hear what they needed to hear at any given time. We had a few systems at play to help with this. We used Wwise HDR mainly for clearing out Transient information. It was important for us to make sure the player couldn’t hear the ducking going on so we used HDR to create ‘ducking spikes’ in combat to make things feel big and impactful without noticing the ducking, so the fade in and out times had to be quick. We used pink noise as an ambience to tune the HDR so it was as transparent as possible.

We used Wwise HDR mainly for clearing out Transient information.

The only things we had in the HDR system were combat sounds and big level events. Music and dialogue were excluded as we wanted them to serve as the backbone of the mix and we needed those two elements as close to spec as possible. We developed and used a threat system where the things that were directly attacking you were in focus and the things that were not were deprioritized and turned down.

We also assigned creatures with an attack priority where we could adjust the mix depending on who was being targeted – the player being the highest attack priority and the companions being a lower priority. This, in combination of dynamic EQ and compression and state-based mixing, cleaned up the mix considerably and allowed us to push and pull dynamics to create a transparent and punchy mix that allowed the player to get the information they needed in the cleanest way possible.

BH: The combat design team built upon and improved the systems from the last game in every way and provided guidance and inspiration for sound at every step! One of the greatest additions was the four new shields Kratos can wield. Because each shield has unique characteristics designed for different styles of fighting, we wanted to make sure that the sounds reinforced the different fantasies for players using them. Eric Williams, the game’s director, gave perfect advice as a starting point: Make them so identifiable that they could be used as onomatopoeias if translated into comics, using examples like ‘THWIP’ and ‘SNIKT.’ This simple and clean idea became the pillar going forward for the shields.

We assigned descriptive titles for each shield that helped describe the feeling and size each should sound like…

We assigned descriptive titles for each shield that helped describe the feeling and size each should sound like; Dauntless Shield: Switchblade, Stone Wall Shield: Thick Door, Onslaught Shield: Solid Hammer, Shatter Star Shield: Rusted Cannon. To make sure we could achieve this, we worked with the excellent Foley team at Formosa, Dawn Fintor, Alicia Stevenson, and Jeff Gross, in recording unique metal source for each shield. From there it took a lot of creation building blocks, design time and iteration based on feedback from different teams and leadership to make them sound HUGE.

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