God of War Laufey’s “Fresh Yet Familiar” Combat Allows Tailoring Rue and Phranque to Your Playstyle

Following up on the dazzling gameplay walkthrough for God of War Laufey, Santa Monica Studio’s lead hero designer Kevin Peterson and combat design director Denny Yeh sat down to discuss the combat. As you could tell from the footage, the spin-off is bringing back some features from the original God of War trilogy, including the ability to jump and combo enemies in mid-air.

“We wanted to build upon the strengths of the modern God of War combat system, and at the same time, we wanted to inject a little bit more of that old school classic God of War DNA into it,” said Yeh. “So, with the addition of jump, there’s a lot of fun, new, more over-the-top things that you can do in this game compared to the grounded nature of the previous two games.

“And I think it leads to a fresh yet familiar feel to the combat system that I think everyone will enjoy.”

Peterson added, “We knew that we wanted to push on Faye’s mobility. And by allowing her to transition seamlessly between the air and the ground states, it led to this hyper responsiveness that quickly became fundamental to what made her so fun to play.”

That agility also comes in handy when dealing with enemy attacks. For instance, Faye leaps over a fiery wave while fighting against Begtse, but if she’s too slow to dodge in mid-air, he can follow up with his own juggles.

Besides the increased speed and movement options, you also have two new companions – Rue and Phranque. The former is the guardian of the sword that Faye wields, manifesting as ribbons attached to the hilt, but she’s far from frail. Using Rue, Faye can pull enemies to her or close the distance, and even whip them with area-of-effect attacks.

Phranque also helps out during combat, and if you push an enemy at him, he’ll launch them into the air for a follow-up. Of course, this is only the bare minimum of what they’re capable of.

“Over the course of the game, you’ll be able to upgrade both Rue and Phranque to tailor them to your own play style,” says Yeh.

And while Faye formed a large part of the focus in the playthrough, he says, “at the other end of the spectrum, there are plenty of evil gods, gigantic creatures, and spectacular sequences to experience in the game.”

Potential Zeus return? Maybe Odin appearing for Faye to deal out some much-needed vengeance? Time will tell, and God of War Laufey lacks a release date on PS5. Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too long, with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier claiming it isn’t “years away” from release.