Sony has been putting a bigger emphasis on accessibility in its first-party PlayStation games over the last few years with the inclusion of extensive options in the likes of The Last of Us: Part II, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Horizon Forbidden West. When it eventually arrives, God of War: Ragnarok will be no exception. To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Sony has detailed some of the options.
"Not only have we redesigned our UI to allow for more flexibility and readability, but we have also rebuilt controller remapping from the ground up and added more customization to our combat and interaction systems," Santa Monica Studio lead UX designer Mila Pavlin wrote in a PlayStation Blog post. "We have retained all our accessibility features from 2018's God of War and expanded upon them to include more than 60 ways to adjust gameplay to best suit your style and needs."
Among the settings is a customizable high-contrast mode. Players will be able to add a color layer to characters, targets, enemies and various items to make them stand out from the background. You'll be able to adjust the individual colors for each category and desaturate the background to help make the objects more visible. Pavlin notes that the visibility of traversal paint (perhaps referring to the environmental markers that show players where to go) and special effects can be enhanced in this mode too.
Some of the accessibility options added to the PC version of God of War will be included in the sequel. Those include auto sprint, an always-on reticle (which can reduce motion sickness by providing a persistent focal point) and a way to toggle aiming and blocking.
Subtitles and captions are being upgraded with more size and color display options and a way to blur the background behind the text box. There will be expanded captions for sound effects and directional indicators for critical gameplay information, including for puzzles that have sound cues.
The features also include settings for other UI text elements and icon sizes, in-depth controller remapping (including the ability to set shortcuts for more complex moves on the touchpad) and traversal assistance. A new feature for the God of War series, and one that's been included in games elsewhere, is a way to reorient Kratos toward the next story objective while not in combat with the press of a button.
These are just some of the accessibility settings that will be included in the game. "We can’t wait to tell you details about our other categories of accessibility features like combat/aim assists, puzzle/minigame assists, HUD adjustments, camera tuning, auto pick up and much more," Pavlin wrote.
To underline how important the accessibility features are, Sony has revealed them before even announcing the God of War: Raganrok release date. It's expected to arrive on PS4 and PS5 this year. Showing the accessibility options now suggests those are at least close to being finished. Hopefully, that means Sony won't have to delay the game again.
In the meantime, Sony has released an audio description version of the God of War: Raganrok reveal trailer from last year's PlayStation Showcase. If you're interested, you'll need to go to YouTube to watch it due to the age restriction settings.