Ragnarök’s prophecy brings changes to all kingdoms, and with that we are pleased to announce some new accessibility features that will be available in God of War Ragnarök.
Not only have we redesigned our user interface to allow for more flexibility and readability, but we have also rebuilt controller conversion from scratch and added more customization to our combat and interaction systems. We’ve retained all of our accessibility features from 2018’s God of War and expanded them to include more than 60 ways to adjust gameplay to best suit your style and needs.
Here is a selection of some new and remarkable features.
God of War (2018) PC Features – Added to God of War Ragnarök
For God of War (2018) on PC, we made sure to improve and continue repeating popular features from the first PlayStation release. We are happy to continue to support these features in God of War Ragnarök on PS4 and PS5:
Sprint Auto Sprint: You sprint while holding the cane and stop when it is released. When Auto Sprint is active, you can start sprinting by pushing the sprint bar forward for a short period of time in one direction. The duration required to enable Auto Sprint can be configured by you.
Persistent dot (always on crosshairs): If you need additional focal points to reduce motion sickness, or just want a lasting reminder of the center of the screen, we offer the option to turn on a center dot in three different sizes and seven different colors.
Goal style: You can choose to use either hold or turn the aiming position on / off.
Block style: You can choose to use either hold or turn the shield position on / off.
New at God of War Ragnarök
Subtitles and caption enhancements
We have invested heavily in improving our subtitle and captioning system to allow for even more customization and information.
Subtitle and Caption Size: We have increased our minimum text size and added new scaling. This includes an extra large text size to make subtitles and captions more readable. We have also dedicated a larger text area to match TV and movie subtitle standards.
Subtitle and Caption Colors: You can adjust the colors of speaker names, subtitles and captions individually. You will be able to choose from seven different colors.
Speaker names (Retained options from 2018): As in God of War (2018), you can show or hide speaker names. You can set this size independently of the UI text size.
Captions: With extended sound effect texts, we have added several new ways to understand in-game sound. We have added captions to both movies and gameplay to provide a rich understanding of the world’s soundscape. You can also enable captions for critical game information to help with puzzles and storytelling comprehension.
Subtitle and caption background blur: We have included options to blur the background behind subtitles and captions to make them more readable over complex scenes.
Subtitle background (Retained options from 2018): In addition to blurring, we have included options to darken the background behind subtitles for better readability on snow. High Contrast Back includes several opacity options to choose from.
Direction indicator: Critical gameplay sounds now have an optional direction indicator, which shows the direction a sound is coming from. To help with puzzles that have audio signals, this indicator helps you orient yourself towards the source of an important sound.
Text size / Icon size
The much sought after feature from God of War (2018) is back and better than ever! You asked for a comfortable reading experience when playing from a couch, so we listened. With a completely newly developed and responsive user interface and a larger minimum text size that can be scaled significantly, it is easier than ever to read text on the screen.
Here’s a look at our standard and XX large gamewide UI text scaling for reference.
Top: Standard UI text size, bottom: XX-Large UI text size
We also have two examples of scaling icons in the game with the smallest and largest options to choose from.
Left: Small UI Icon Size, Right: X-Large UI Icon Size
Remapping of controller
We have rebuilt our controller conversion system so you can customize your button configurations in God of War Ragnarök. There will be a wide range of preset layouts, as well as custom controller remapping support. Individual buttons can be replaced, and for selected complex actions you can select alternative configurations from a preset list.
We offer several ways you can customize your experience for specific actions that require more than one button, including Touch Pad shortcuts to things like Spartan Rage, Navigation Assist, and Quick Turn.
High contrast mode
Our new high-contrast color mode allows you to apply a color to objects in the game such as targets, enemies, and other characters, in addition to a variety of object types. When active, this will apply a layer of color to characters that will make them more visible against the background. You can optionally dim the background to further increase the contrast. Traversal paint, theft and special effects can also be made more visible in this mode.
Customizing High Contrast Activation: Select only from, on or always on for gameplay (this will exclude movies). High contrast mode can be set to turn on and off from a swipe for easy access. This mode is automatically deactivated when you are in a settings menu or character menu.
High contrast color matching: Choose a color palette to suit your playing style and adjust individual colors for characters, enemies, and items.
High contrast background customization: Select midrange or darker background contrast levels separately.
Navigation Assistant: New to God of War, this camera navigation system lets you orient your view towards your compass lens. When you are not in battle, pressing the Navigation Assist button will orient your vision towards the next story goal.
Pass-through assistance: Gap jumping, tipping, mantling and other traversal functions can now be automated based on the direction you press.
Assistance +: Adds interaction-based movements such as climbing, crawling and clipping.
Audio signals: We have attached an audio signal to each of the on-screen interaction prompts so that when you use this feature, you can hear when an interaction icon is nearby and when the button bar becomes active.
Audio signals are extended to additional combat signals such as unblockable attack rings, aiming signals, and weapon swap signals. The volume of audio signals can be adjusted separately from other volume sliders, so you can adjust for your own comfort.
God of War Ragnarök Reveal Trailer – Sound description version
To celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we also wanted to provide a soundtrack version of the God of War Ragnarök unveiling trailer released last year! *
More on the way!
We hope you enjoyed the selection of the more than 60 accessibility features that will be included in God of War Ragnarök.
We are committed to improving accessibility and adaptability for all. We can not wait to tell you details about our other categories of accessibility features such as combat / aiming assistants, puzzle / mini-game assistants, HUD adjustments, camera adjustment, automatic pickup and more.
We are so grateful for all the support from our accessibility consultants and the larger accessibility community to share their thoughts on making God of War Ragnarök the most accessible God of War ever. We can not wait to share more with you as we approach the launch.
Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day!
* Audio description is not captured in the game.
Learn more about PlayStation’s commitment to promoting awareness and inclusivity in support of GAAD.