The upcoming God of War: Ragnarok is said to have “60-plus” features related to accessibility. For Game Informer’s new cover story, developer Sony Santa Monica touched on the options that’ll be available to players when the PlayStation 5 game releases in November.
Accessibility has become a big focus point for PlayStation games. At the forefront of that is Naughty Dog: the developer’s remake of The Last of Us Part I had its accessibility options highlighted, which includes allowing deaf players to feel dialogue via the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback.
Mila Pavlin, lead UX designer for God of War: Ragnarok, told Game Informer that her team went to a “wide spectrum” of consultants and testers to focus on vision, hearing, motor skills, and cognitive understanding. New features include using the DualSense touchpad to trigger quick turns and shield strikes, along with Kratos automatically picking health and loot rather than pressing a button.
“Accessibility features aren’t just accessibility features,” said Pavlin. “They also help to improve the experience for everyone.”
Similar to The Last of Us Part I, a feature in Ragnarok allows for automated platforming. And those who stream Ragnarok will have the ability to share moment-to-moment button inputs with their audience. Returning features from God of War’s 2018 reboot, such as text and icon sizes, have been retweaked so that all in-game writing is easily read.
Even with all the accessibility options present in Ragnarok at launch, Pavlin admitted that she believes that Sony Santa Monica could go further.
“If I can push a feature to the point where one more player could play, then that would be the greatest thing in the world. To be able to see that one player and understand how that lets them connect with the community and connect with everyone.”