God of War Ragnarök lead combat designers Mihir Sheth and Denny Yeh have revealed new details of how combat will work in the game in an interview with Game Informer.

The two designers said Ragnarök's combat has been designed around the idea of Kratos "playing with his food."

"That's an internal philosophy that we've had since back in the day," Sheth said. "Kratos plays with his food. We tried to create systems you want to engage with that are fun, very playful, lots of different routes. And when we looked at the combat in the last game, we were like, 'We can push this further; we can find new toys and ways of playing with enemies and strategies.' That's been the guiding principle more than anything."

Where God of War reserved the triangle button strictly for recalling Kratos' axe, Ragnarök has mapped new Weapon Signature Moves to the button. For example, the Leviathan Axe freezes enemies with an attack called Frost Awaken, and the Blades of Chaos deal fire damage with an attack called Whiplash.

Shields will play a more prominent role in combat in Ragnarök, and will appear in more varied forms. The Dauntless Shield lets Kratos unleash a smash attack via parries. Alternatively, the Stonewall Shield lets Kratos absorb attacks, building up a massive ground pound attack. Yeh says these examples are just the beginning of the shield offerings.

The interview also goes over a few other smaller details of the game. Enemies will be more aggressive and lethal on harder difficulties, cleared areas will have their mobs respawn in more powerful forms, and that there will be challenging side content in the same vein as the realm tears from God of War.

This article was originally published on dbltap as God of War Ragnarök Combat Details Revealed.