God of War Ragnarok may be a fantastic showcase for modern AAA gaming, but its gameplay inspirations run deep.
God of War Ragnarok director Eric Williams discussed the games that helped shape his vision of the PS5 action-adventure in an interview with IGN(Opens in a new tab). All five are NES titles, some of which you can play right now through the Nintendo Switch Online NES library.
Williams selections range from predictable cuts to fairly deep cuts. He begins with The Legend of Zelda, stating that "playing in the forest as a kid made this game so familiar and fantastic at the same time."
However, your other options are actually much more interesting. Williams also cites Punch-Out! by Mike Tyson, SNK slugger Baseball Stars, the cult classic River City Ransom and, perhaps controversially, Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, a game series fans consider the first black sheep in Konami's goofy and creepy franchise.
feel inspired
Williams' selection of inspirations may seem strange at first glance, but he explains his reasons behind each one more than adequately. "This game had a salary system that taught me the basics of statistics and economic systems," he says of Baseball Stars, for example.
The other options are not so surprising. River City Ransom (known generically as Street Gangs in Europe) was way ahead of its time. The game featured a non-linear world, unlockable moves, and upgradable stats. His influence can be seen to this day in such works as Scott Pilgrim vs The World and the successor series River City Girls.
Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest was also thought more outside the box for its time. But probably not for the better. The game feels pretty archaic by today's standards with its confusing world, cryptic progression, and maddeningly coded day/night cycle. Still, the game was not without its promising ideas that would later be fully realized in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and other "metroidvania" style games.
These NES games may be as old as the hills by today's standards, but it's clear they still hold a lot of influence. Even for modern AAA games that couldn't be further apart in scope and budget. We're sure many of the other best PS5 games were also inspired by retro.