What if I informed you that God of Conflict: Ragnarök‘s Tyr is Australian?
Properly, he’s not.
However he might’ve been! And his voice actor Ben Prendergast positive is!
The success of God of Conflict: Ragnarök is apparent to see, and is a superb sequel to a groundbreaking revival of a much-loved collection. There are a lot of components which have gone into what made God of Conflict: Ragnarök successful, from its leaps and bounds in accessibility options, all the best way to its ease of entry for gamers which are utterly new to the collection.
One other nice side of God of Conflict: Ragnarök is its award-winning voice performing. The vocal forged of this recreation is simply so proper, which is vital for a recreation that depends so closely on the tales of its characters. One character that I actually resonated with and was all the time excited to listen to extra from and study extra about was the previous Aesir God of Conflict, Legislation, Justice, and Honor himself, Tyr.
Tyr is voiced in God of Conflict: Ragnarok by Australian actor Ben Prendergast, whose beginnings in theatre and movie took him on a journey by way of tv, business voice-over work, and animated voice-over work earlier than arriving on this planet of online game voice performing. Over the past 15 years, Prendergast tells me by way of e mail interview that he has labored with “some superb Australian creatives” within the theatre and movie business.
“I carried out quite a lot of lead roles on stage and quite a lot of visitor roles on Australian TV and movie, however simply didn’t match no matter mould they had been searching for I assume,” Prendergast explains. “I additionally had a profitable business voice-over profession in Australia and I moved to the US in 2017 to see if there have been alternatives there. It was a wild couple of years for positive, I had quite a lot of completely different brokers, and was one thing like 700 auditions in earlier than I hit on my first profile function as Normal Hux for Star Wars Resistance on Disney+. Quickly after that, it was Hades, God of Conflict, and Apex Legends who all took me on at about the identical time!”
Prendergast elaborates on how all of this expertise went into his efficiency as Týr, in addition to his emotions for his fellow voice actors. “The fantastic thing about a task like Tyr is that it’s all efficiency seize, so the worlds of theatre, voiceover, and movie all collided completely into the one job. Add to this, I started working with superb skills like Eric Williams, Matt Sophos, Christopher Decide, Danielle Bisutti, Adam Harrington and my now expensive buddy Alastair Duncan and it actually was and is a dream inventive household.”
I typically marvel simply how strongly voice actors really feel for the characters they play, and the way a lot they relate to them. With Tyr being such a… difficult character in God of Conflict: Ragnarök, I made a decision to ask Prendergast about his private connections to Tyr. If you’re but to play God of Conflict: Ragnarök but and have discovered this dialog considerably attention-grabbing, I’ve acquired some horrible information for you. We’re going into spoiler territory that covers the principle story of God of Conflict: Ragnarök, in addition to post-game storylines involving Tyr.
When going into depth about his connection to Tyr, Prendergast tells me that he truly proposed the concept of Tyr being Australian to God of Conflict: Ragnarok‘s narrative director Matt Sophos.
“I did float the concept to Matt Sophos that the actual Tyr could possibly be Australian,” Prendergast says, “However I feel he landed precisely the place we wished, and who is aware of the place and once we’ll discover him subsequent!”
So positive, Tyr shouldn’t be an Aussie, however that doesn’t imply Prendergast couldn’t relate to Tyr. “I relate to Tyr an incredible deal,” Prendergast says. “Within the Norse pantheon, he’s broadly often called the unique all-father, predating Odin, and acknowledged as an even-handed God of Conflict AND Justice. We get the day Tuesday or ‘Tyrsday’ from him, so there’s a weekly reminder as to why I like him a lot.”
Prendergast continues, revealing that his first assembly with the devs changed into a little bit of a fanfest. “Once I met with Eric [Williams] and Matt [Sophos] the primary time, I felt I needed to gush over their work within the earlier recreation, the place we had a protagonist father who was coming to phrases with elevating his son. With two sons of my very own, this was actually vital to me, and after researching Tyr so closely I used to be simply so excited to play the half.”
For these of us who performed God of Conflict: Ragnarok, we all know precisely why Tyr is an advanced character. The large reveal of the Tyr that gamers spent a lot of the sport with, who appeared so traumatised from his experiences as a God and easily wished to stay in peace, was truly the sport’s principal antagonist Odin was a twist that broke hearts all over the world. It was additionally very nicely accomplished and surprising.
I requested Prendergast if he knew from the start, if he discovered himself performing Tyr as he believed Odin would, or if it was a shock to him partway by way of his efficiency a la Marvel giving completely different scripts to completely different actors. He explains that he knew from “the close to starting”, and that the method round all of it was “hilarious”.
“I’ve two raven tattoos on my arms,” Prendergast says, noting that they’re truly a dedication to his sons. “When guys like Wealthy [Gaubert] noticed them, they had been all freaking out pondering I’d tattooed my arms FOR the gig. Early on although, earlier than I knew, I used to be coming to Matt and Eric with these concepts like, ‘Will he have his hand? Can we incorporate my tattoos onto the character mannequin?’, and so they had been like, ‘Umm. we are able to’t try this,’ but additionally, they had been very variety and responsive in serving to me form Tyr early on.”
Prendergast then remembers his agent calling him in January 2020 after he had accomplished just a few studio periods as Tyr. “He was like, ‘They wish to meet with you,’ and I used to be like, ‘Uh oh, I’m getting fired!’,” Prendergast laughs.
“I had simply gotten again to the US after being caught within the Australian bushfires, and I sat down with Eric and Matt, and so they had been identical to, ‘Hey man, we love what you’re doing with the character, and we wish you to know that you just ARE Tyr and also you all the time can be, buuuuuuuut there’s one thing it’s worthwhile to know.’,” Prendergast says. “I used to be wracking my brains as a result of I might clearly see that they had been sitting on one thing huge, after which they had been like “Tyr is Odin”. Mic drop. They then took me by way of the entire spoilers, and we had an enormous dialogue about what this meant for the participant base, and what we would have liked from Tyr with a view to take followers on a satisfying journey.”
I don’t find out about you, expensive reader, however I had this humorous feeling after discovering the actual Tyr within the post-game. After saving this huge boy and getting him to heat as much as me, it felt bittersweet to seek out the actual Tyr and realise I’d need to construct a bestie-dom yet again with a man that didn’t appear all too concerned about being my bestie. It’s comprehensible, however nonetheless a bit unhappy.
I requested Prendergast which Tyr he most popular, the Tyr he spent probably the most time with that finally turned out to be Odin, or the actual Tyr. He stated that “performing Tyr was difficult from the very starting, however finally probably the most rewarding of the 2,” after which elaborated on how he and the narrative group at Santa Monica Studio diverted followers’ expectations of each Tyr 1 and Tyr 2.
“Tyr is a identified amount in a method from the 2018 recreation, so followers had been anticipating this larger-than-life Kratos-equivalent,” Prendergast says. “however after all, we couldn’t give them that. I bear in mind early on, I had his vocal register loads deeper and extra strident and we determined to pitch him up just a little and have him much more damaged, which is sensible given the circumstances. It additionally extra intently matches the voice register to Richard Schiff’s Odin, an actor I’ve adored for years, by the best way, what a novel present to work with him.” He goes on to say that Odin’s Tyr is “truly much more difficult and rewarding to play”.
“For each line, there are TWO functions. One is because the peace-loving Týr and the opposite is the war-avoiding Odin, in order an actor, I used to be all the time needing to dial within the intention, temper, and goal that matched BOTH necessities.”
Prendergast additionally notes that the post-game Tyr “is nearer to what the REAL Tyr is like”, and that “Whereas lots of people are disillusioned he informed them to go away him alone, I feel you’ll discover he’ll come round as soon as he’s had an opportunity to course of the occasions of Ragnarök.” That is sensible, it’s one traumatic occasion after one other for this man. Bestie-dom is a sluggish course of.
So once I requested Prendergast what the response has been prefer to his rendition of Tyr since God of Conflict: Ragnarök launched, he asks all of us (that’s me and also you, child!) to think about this: “For round 4 years, I knew one thing that none of you probably did, and to hold that secret for all that point meant that I used to be tremendous anxious concerning the response from the fanbase after the sport launched in November,” he says.
He goes on to say that he was “very a lot anticipating on-line hate”, however after all, “none of that actually eventuated”.
“There HAS been some hate, which I like, because it means some followers have been so affected by that story that they really feel compelled to go on the offensive, so to talk,” Prendergast explains. “However there has additionally been a tonne of nice suggestions, and numerous love from the followers who recognize what a efficiency like Tyr/Týr truly took, which was loads, it’s one of many trickiest roles I’ve needed to play thus far.”
It’s all the time a pleasure to see a homegrown Aussie actor within the online game voice-acting world, and I feel Ben Prendergast did a killer job as each Tyr, and in addition Tyr. I made a decision to finish our dialog with some bonus questions. We love a little bit of enjoyable, don’t we?
As Prendergast is the voice of Patroclus in Hades, I merely needed to ask him if he’s pumped for the upcoming sequel. In fact, no shit he’s. “Sure. I like Supergiant Video games and I ship PatroChilles arduous!” That is enormous information for the PatroChilles shippers of the web world.
And eventually, I requested Prendergast not solely what his favorite recreation is, but additionally what he thinks Tyr’s favorite recreation could be. “Exhausting to cross up on Ragnarök, but when I’m being trustworthy I’ve lots of of hours spent on Apex Legends!”, he says. “I’m, after all, a Fuse principal. And you recognize, I feel Tyr could be a Fuse principal too. He likes to maintain his household, likes to be an arbiter of fact and honest play, and possibly wouldn’t thoughts exploring the Indigenous Australian Dreamtime. There’s a pantheon Santa Monica Studio might check out!”
God of Conflict: Ragnarök is on the market now on PlayStation 4 and 5.