In case you didn’t know, God of War Ragnarok isn’t being directed by God of War 2018’s Cory Barlog, but by veteran Santa Monic dev Eric Williams. While fans might draw comparisons to Ragnarok to its predecessor, Williams doesn’t want any of it.

In a video interview, Williams was asked whether there was added pressure on his end that he needed to follow up Barlog’s brilliant work on God of War 2018.

Q: We all know that you’ve taken over after Cory Barlog did such a great
job on the first game and it must just add to that pressure leading a team that’s making a game which everyone is sort of expecting to be, you know, that the Game of the Year for 2022.

Williams: Yeah, I kind of don’t look at it like that. I’ve worked with Corey for 20 years and we’ve been partners. I always have been kind of the guy behind the scenes helping him get where he needs to be, and I love that relationship. And this time he was like, “you should be the one out front” and he’s like, “I’m tired, I need a break. I trust you, you know, go do it.”  And when you have that kind of person that you have that much respect with, we’re we’re really honest with each other when we don’t like something. We just tell each other, you know, and you know not getting shouting matches, but you know there’s a little, like posturing of, like okay, like maybe you’re right today; I’ll be right tomorrow. But when you have that kind of level of trust, somebody wouldn’t tell you that if they didn’t believe it, and so then once you get that behind you, and (you kind of) I was looking for a new challenge .and you know, just the stars kind of lined up that this would be the one.

Now, obviously yes, there is pressure, but the pressure is more of a responsibility to the team, you know? Like they worked so hard to get the franchise back on track, so you don’t want to let them down you know? And the other part is, I don’t want to let the fans down, so I didn’t want this to be like Cory’s God of War and Eric’s God of War. I wanted this to be God of War The North Saga, and if I’m almost invisible in this, and you feel like it’s like Cory secretly behind the wheel, then so be it. That, to me, that’s the best job because I don’t want it to be like, “well, I like that and I don’t like this,” I mean you want it to be continuous almost like the way a book would be written in chapter; so there was the goal to try and do that.

Can’t say I disagree with Williams take. I mean, fans might compare Ragnarok to the first one, but it’s part of one story, and if our hands-on preview of the first few hours is anything to go by, the game is certainly living up to its predecessor and then some.

God of War Ragnarok will slice heads off this November 9 on the PS4 and PS5. Stay tuned to our review hitting the site on November 3.