Santa Monica Studio highlights a selection of the game’s 60-plus accessibility options designed to suit players’ needs.
The prophecy of Ragnarök brings changes to all the Realms, and with that, we’re excited to announce some new accessibility features that will be available in God of War Ragnarök.
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. 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.
Here’s a selection of some new and notable features.
For God of War (2018) on PC, we made sure to improve and continue to iterate on popular features from the initial PlayStation release. We’re pleased to be continuing to support these features in God of War Ragnarök on PS4 and PS5:
Sprint Auto Sprint: You will sprint while the stick is held and stop when released. When Auto Sprint is active, you can begin sprinting by pressing the move stick forward for a short period of time in one direction. The duration required to engage the Auto Sprint is configurable by you.
Persistent Dot (Always on Reticle): If you need additional focal points to reduce motion sickness, or just want a persistent reminder of the center of the screen, we offer the ability to turn on a center dot in three different sizes and seven different colors.
Aim Style: You can choose to use either hold or toggle on/off the aim stance.
Block Style: You can choose to use either hold or toggle on/off the shield stance.
We have invested heavily in improving our subtitle and caption 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, subtitle body, and captions individually. You will be able choose between 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 independent from the UI text size.
Captions: With expanded sound effects captions, we’ve added several new ways to understand in-game sound. We’ve added captions to both cinematics and gameplay to provide a rich understanding of the soundscape of the world. You can also enable captions for critical gameplay information to assist with puzzles and narrative understanding.
Subtitle and Caption Background Blur: We’ve included options to allow for blurring the background behind subtitles and captions to make them more readable over complex scenes.
Subtitle Background (Retained options from 2018): In addition to blur, we’ve included options to darken the background behind subtitles for better readability on snow. High contrast backing includes multiple opacity settings for you to select from.
Direction Indicator: Critical gameplay sounds now have an optional direction indicator which shows the direction a sound is coming from. To assist with puzzles that have sound cues, this indicator will help you orient towards the source of an important sound.
The highly requested 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 fully re-engineered and responsive UI, and a larger minimum text size that can scale significantly, reading on-screen text is easier than ever.
Here’s a look at our Default and XX-Large game wide UI Text scaling for reference.
Top: Default UI Text Size, Bottom: XX-Large UI Text Size
We also have two examples to share of the in-game icon scaling with smallest and largest options available to choose from. 
Left: Small UI Icon Size, Right: X-Large UI Icon Size
We have rebuilt our controller remapping system to allow you to 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 swapped and, for select complex actions, you can choose alternate configurations from a preset list.
We offer multiple ways for you to customize your experience for certain actions that require more than one button, including Touch Pad Shortcuts for things like Spartan Rage, Navigation Assist, and Quick Turn.
Our new high contrast color-mode allows you to apply a color to objects in-game like targets, enemies, and other characters, in addition to a variety of item types. When active, this will apply a color layer to characters that will make them more visible against the background. You can optionally desaturate the background to further increase the contrast. Traversal paint, loot items, and special effects can also be made more visible in this mode.
High Contrast Activation Customization: Select off, on, or always on for gameplay only (this will exclude cinematics). High contrast mode can be set to toggle on and off from a swipe for easy access. This mode will automatically disable when in a settings menu or character menu.
High Contrast Color Customization: Select a color palette that fits your playstyle and adjust individual colors for characters, enemies, and items.
High Contrast Background Customization: Separately select mid-tone or darkened background contrast levels.
Navigation Assist: New to God of War, this camera navigation system allows you to orient your view towards your compass objective. When not in combat, pressing the Navigation Assist button will orient your view in the direction of the next story goal.
Traversal Assistance: Gap jumping, vaulting, mantling, and other traversal features can now be automated based on the direction you press.
Assistance +: Adds interaction-based moves like climbs, crawls, and squeeze-through.
Audio Cues: We have linked a sound cue to each of the on-screen interact prompts, so that when using this feature, you can hear when an interact icon is nearby, as well as when the button prompt becomes active.
Audio cues extend to additional combat cues like unblockable attack rings, targeting aim cues, and weapon swap cues. The volume of audio cues can be adjusted separately from other volume sliders, so you can adjust for your own comfort.
To celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we also wanted to provide an audio described version of the God of War Ragnarök reveal trailer that came out last year!*
We hope you’ve enjoyed a look into this selection of the 60+ accessibility features that will be included in God of War Ragnarök.
We are committed to improving accessibility and customization for everyone. 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.
We are so thankful for all the support from our accessibility consultants and the greater accessibility community for sharing their thoughts to make God of War Ragnarök the most accessible God of War ever. We can’t wait to share more with you as we get closer to launch.
Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day!
*Audio description not captured in-game.
Learn more about PlayStation’s commitments to promoting awareness and inclusivity in support of GAAD.
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57 Comments
Ayee first comment XD
I can’t wait for the game to launch
first to say nothing, well done.
Look at the size of that W.
3rd!
Looks like it’s gonna stick to its release date of 2022 !
1. Awesome!! 2. Accessibility features for Last Of Us Part 2 and Horizon Forbidden West were revealed less than 2 weeks before release 🤔🤔🤯
Yes!! Exactly this. Gives disabled gamers plenty of time to decide whether the game is suitable for them and enables them to participate in the hype as any other gamer
I was thinking the same thing. Both God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West were originally 2021 releases, that then got delayed into 2022. HFW already released in February, so I’m not sure why some people are thinking that GoW Ragnarök is still so far out – a summer release this year is totally a possibility. I could see Sony dropping a big reveal in June, along with an early July release date for it.
Would make a pretty stunning surprise for Ps Plus Elite subscribers or whatever it’s called, launching in about 2 weeks.
I thought the first game was very very overrated personally.
@Harrisown
PS+ Premium
and dream on, it’s not going to happen.
Finally you dog the 2018 game that won game of the year and countless awards with a 94 metacritic (belled down from 95 by one review prior to launch)
as being “very very overrated..”
you are a plastic fan and don’t deserve to play the game if you aren’t going to drop the 60/70.
For me with the Gow 2018 day one buy and platinum trophy, I will be buying this day one and it is one of the only games worth the $90cad at launch games. This is why you have ps5. its not for the stale psplusxnow old ps4 games and ps5 stuff that didn’t sell or reached saturation.
Just skip Ragnarok if you though 2018 was very very overrated, as this is iteration of that.
Not every game is for everyone, people need to wake up and not buy into hype. If you don’t like this genre what exactly are you expecting?
People love to criticize Sony first party, but as soon as you ask them what games they think are top tier it gets amusing fast.
Sony, this is not the news 99.527% of us are waiting for. Try harder.
You don’t speak for the majority.
What a complete A-hole you are. Gaming is for EVERYONE not just for those lucky enough to have fully functional bodies. Thankfully studios are starting to realise this.
I’m sure there’s plenty GOW articles and news for “you”. Go and read those instead.
In the world about 15% of people has a type of disability. In the USA about 26%. So yes, this could be great news for a lot of people.
You’re going to get a trailer soon.
You’re going to get a release date soon.
So why did you have to come in here and ruin the fun for the rest of us who were actually looking forward to an article like this?
Don’t be so butthurt people. Accessibility features ARE important, but we all know, everyone is waiting on release date. Sheesh.
Release date will come in due course. This article was about accessibility
Exactly the type of insensitive comment that exemplifies toxicity. As a user with asynchronus binaural hearing loss, this is EXACTLY the type of news I’m waiting for…and I represent far more than your ill-estimated .00473% of users who thrive off accessibility features.
Think about your comments next time & how they represent the community.
While I was excited once I read this and found it to be awesome news, the way my phone chose to shorten the title so it fit in my notifications was click-baity “God of War Ragnarock…revealed”. Not Sony’s fault, but that was the longest 30 seconds waiting for the page to load lol.
Lol. This is funny but you are going to get so flamed by all the triggered people.
This is very good. The effort to reduce motion sickness is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
2022 dream is alive
OH! Gives US the release date, pretty please!
This puts a huge smile on my face. Can’t wait!
*Laughs in Greek*
okay santa monica bin busy we still need a new trailer & realise date hoping ragnarok will support vrr or performance ft when realise
Thank you all for putting in all that extra hard work to make sure everyone can enjoy gaming. You are the best!
This is fantastic! Thank you for putting in the work to make sure as many people as possible are able to play this, no matter what each of us are physically capable of. Santa Monica Studios rocks!
Just make the game accessible to me!!
Please can someone confirm that this game will have a colourblind mode? It’s absolutely shocking how few titles support colourblind modes. 1 in 12 men are colourblind and there’s thought to be 300 million people diagnosed with it as one of the most common visual impairments known to man.
You have no idea how ridiculously annoying and angry it can make me when a red or green icon on grass or a contrasting colour means that I physically cannot see it.
last of us 2 has full options, ratchet as well. You should expect to get e colour-blind options here. You can also confirm this as we approach launch. All the main studios have exhaustive accessibility settings now.
Really happy about the controller remapping!
Let’s go!!!
💯👌👌 Please tell me there is gonna be an option to remove the blood/gore like Ghost of Tsushima and Last of Us Remastered….
(Boy=PS community) stop thinking like a father & start thinking like a general. drop a free demo
(Kratos=Sony) Nooo!!!
😂🙃🤣
There will be 2 hour game trial with playstation premium.
Sony doesn’t do demos for many years now.
Some of these will be useful for me. But the most basic feature I need is just DualShock4 support on my PS5 so I don’t have to play every game through remote play. The DualSense is really inhospitable for me.
They will never do this.
I would like the option as well, and i have 2 dualsenses as well as the ds4 i kept and i always use for ps4 titles.
They will not allow ds4 on ps5 software period. Basically you have to watch for third party ps5 controllers if you dislike the sense.
It is what it is. their excuse is the gimmicks triggers and rumble, which are really only well used in first party anyways.
the fact that they allow us to even us the ds4 at all is a big deal, as the dpad especially and face buttons on thr sense are a big downgrade over ds4 as is the feel imo. for 2d games and fighters dsense is as s imo, i don’t get it sony and nintendo both bottled the dpad on the sense and pro.
xbox got their controller right and stuck with it.
So another useless game that play by itself like TLoU2.
No thanks, to see the game play it, i will do it on youtube.
You are going to watch the last of us 2 for 30+ hours on yo tube 😆😆😆
who are you kidding you don’t play these and aren’t buying them anyways.
Your “So another useless game that plays itself…” is nonsensical. These are setting for people that need or want them. In tlou2 for example you can turn on the auto pickup so your character grabs anything in reach and saves you hammering triangle for 30+ hours.
how exactly is that playing itself? You can take the standard third person sony walking simulator tack, however, claiming the games play themselves, have no gameplay merit but you will watch dozens of hours on yotube show you as the fraud gamer and rube you obviously are.
I have issues with Tlou2, but the gameplay stuff for what it goes for the world and tone are all peerless.
Gow2018 i have the platinum, bought day one.
Do you even have a playstation, play games, why are you here?
Must be sad to be you and not even play the tentpole sony games.
Any chance for fov change? Found god war fov a bit close.. and one the most used mods on the pc was fov mod.
Pretty Far along, GGs Team
Awesome, I have issues reading subtitles this will definitely help, graphics look a lot sharper , sooo when are we getting a release date 🙏
Will this game also have classic controls like the last one did passed down from the Greek GΩW games?
This is great news! Give more to the players! Amazing to see more accessibility in recent games. Ratchet and clank did an amazing job at it
As a game designer, seeing the moves that the industry has been making to improve accessibility for more gamers warms my heart.
I know that I’ve taken my able-bodiedness for granted, and it really wasn’t until the past two or three years that my eyes have been opened to the importance of accessibility. I love to see studios like ND, Insomniac, and SSM lead the charge for accessibility features in game, and I hope that all of us working in the industry are taking note and thinking about how we can add accessibility features to our games, so more players can enjoy the work we do!
I’m also wondering if there’s any way that we can begin to standardize accessibility features, and create tools to help teams that perhaps don’t have as much resources to develop to implementing accessibility features into their games?
What about gyro?
As a blind gamer, I hope so much that the game will become accessible to blind gamers. that’s what I’ve been dreaming about since the good days of Playstation 2, where I watched a sighted friend of mine completed the half of the game. I hope there’ll be menu narration and all the narration which is found in Last of us part 2, which is fully accessible to blind gamers. Keep up the fantastic job guys.
this is great
thank you
This is all great stuff glad Sony internal studios are still taking accessibility very seriously. It will only help sell/finish the game more often.
When is the SoP with a 2022 release date?
Ñ👍
For the love of god Santa Monica, please add “stick drift and dead zone scale” for controllers that have stick drift problem! Thank you.
With this incredible amount of detail imagine what the rest of the game is going to be like. These features could be especially useful for gamers that are unable to play games in typical fashion. The action icon (Ping) is really cool.
Sony Santamonica, thank you for all of your hard work, this is gonna be EPIC!!!
can we please get LFC and freesync support on ps5 via hdmi 2.0? I know this game is going to have a graphics/fidelity mode and it’s going to be unplayable for 99% of us because we can’t access or afford hdmi 2.1 displays
It seems to be one of the best accessibility features set ever. Congrats to the accessibility team! Can’t wait to play the game on my PS4 (and to upgrade it and replay the game as soon as I finally get my PS5). All we need to know now is the release date. Day 1 buy for me!
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