The Art of God of War Ragnarök

by Amy Ratcliffe

A full-color, oversized hardcover volume that collects concept art and creative commentary chronicling the development of the next entry in the God of War saga.

The god of war himself returns in this brand-new installment to the beloved God of War series. As the threat of Ragnarök grows ever closer, Kratos and Atreus find themselves choosing between the safety of their family and the safety of the realms. This passionately assembled tome details a story of parenthood, destiny, and adventure in the voices of the team that brought it to life.

Dark Horse Books and Santa Monica Studio join forces to present stunning, never-before-seen concept art of the world, characters, creatures, and artifacts with The Art of God of War Ragnarök . See what adventures await in Midgard and beyond.

Genres: Art, Video Games, Fantasy, Games

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 2023

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cool to see and full of stunning artwork, but weirdly out of order? You'd have pages on Svartalheim, then one on Atreus, then the Vanir, then back to Svartalheim
It would have benefitted by grouping those pages together instead of scattering them all around

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like they weren't allowed to show certain art due to spoiler reasons because I don't recall there being anything for Draupnir OR Faye...still a cool book, but whoever did the concept art for those should drop the pics online somewhere. I would like to see them 👀👀

[Andrii Litvynchuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This art book has everything that great art book should have: initial sketches, comments of artists, history of character and locations development, unique views of the locations and much more. I would probably prefer bigger scale location sketches but it is rather a format issue (it requires vertical images)

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book with interesting insights into developing this world and these characters further.

[Mikael · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is unfortunate that the game is not yet available. Reading the previous book, The Art of God of War, after having finished its companion game gave lots of memories of places I had visited and enemies I'd fought. Now reading this next book before actually having played the accompanying game takes away a little bit of that feeling.

This book is still great though, it's gorgeously illustrated although not so much text since focus is on the art. I just had to buy it now, as I didn't want to risk it being out of stock once I had finally played the game, at some point in the future. Even at the risk of some of the art being potential story spoilers.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much what you'd expect from an "Art of..." book. It's supposedly broken into several sections (Introduction, Revisiting the world, Continuing the Journey, Raganarok) but it never really feels like those categories are more than rough ideas.

It didn't detract from the book since it's still filled with some beautiful art, but if you were looking for something specific it could be hard to find. There's also certain aspects of the game that aren't featured at all (characters and weapons) which is disappointing.

I would have liked to see more information about how characters evolved once actors were cast, but aside from that and the somewhat chaotic organisation of the chapters, it's definitely a nice coffee table book for fans of the game.

[cypher · Rating 4 out of 5]

i came across this by accident, while waiting, on a shelf next to me. i am not a fan of gaming, i don’t particularly like spending time on the fighting, but i always found exploring the environments interesting…so, i guess this book helps bring some of that to non-gamers.
the artwork is fascinating, and i liked the small explanations available to give a little bit of insight into the thinking process. it’s not empty artwork, it was inspired by folklore and mythology, and there was intentional decision-making happening to have the design support the gameplay experience.
nice artwork, more explanations would have worked well.

[Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been a huge fan of concept art, from just about every videogame that I've played. GoW Ragnarok is no exception. I like seeing the evolution of designs and seeing the alternative styles for characters that would have been.

I will admit, though, it does sting to see some of the plans that never got used. Since this was supposed to be a trilogy, there was a lot of unused ideas that never got the chance to be implemented. Seeing what could have been was unfortunate.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid video game ‘art of’ from the fine folks at Dark Horse.
This book isn’t quite as informative as the first God of War art book was but the contents is still great. Creature/ character designs and slight input still make for a great read and the logic behind aspects of the game is good stuff.

4/5

[Reese Pumpkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful art, really enjoyed seeing not only what the realms could've looked like, but also some of the characters (I am glad with what Santa Monica have chosen though!), also learned some small things lore-wise to my surprise-

Also was very surprised that Týr didn't have much concepts to his design, but hey, his design is literally perfect 💕

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is with the abrupt ending?! 🤣

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow the artwork in this book was amazing! Having it digital was awesome too as I could zoom in and see all the small details. Although now I’m kinda desperate to also get the big physical copy because it looks so cool! I’d love to build a collection of video game artwork books if they weren’t so darn expensive sometimes.

I loved looking at the different concepts and models of locations, characters and enemies that you encounter throughout the game. It really pulled me back into the world and filled me with lots of great memories from my own time exploring them.

I also enjoyed reading the small bits of text detailing ideas and processes they went through during production. Especially when they discussed the different stages of physical development and the playability of the game, such as any issues they had to focus on or work around.

My only small gripe about the book generally was the almost randomised feel of each page. I figured they probably did this to keep things surprising and to avoid any spoilers that might come from having it chronological. They did structure it into 3 parts but I often felt a bit jumbled as it jumped from one place to the other, and at times it felt like I was revisiting something I had already read in a previous part. I probably would have preferred if it had a chapter for each specific location and a separate chapter for character concepts, so it could be easy to flip back to and find my favourite parts.