PaRappa the Rapper gets an unlikely shout-out in ‘God of War: Ragnarok’

15 November, 2022

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Classic PlayStation musical hero PaRappa the Rapper has had an unexpected shout-out, courtesy of an Easter egg spotted in God of War: Ragnarok.

PaRappa is alluded to during a conversation between Kratos and Mimir, in an exchange shared on Twitter by user TheCardinalArts (via VGC), seen below.

Not only does the conversation mark a surprise return of PaRappa the Rapper, but also references a largely forgotten PlayStation title, 2012’s PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The conversation, which can be seen in the video below, begins with Mimir asking Kratos about a specific tournament he once took part in.

“I heard you did battle with beasts, scoundrels, princesses, the undead, automatons and history’s greatest musician,” says Mimir. “That’s not… that’s not true, is it?”

“I would not speak of this,” replies Kratos.

The reference, as PlayStation-savvy fans have pointed out, is likely to PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which was developed by SuperBot Entertainment in collaboration with Bluepoint Games. More specifically, Mimir seems to be talking about Uncharted’s Nathan Drake (the scoundrel), Fat Princess (the Princess,) MediEvil’s Sir Daniel Fortesque (the undead) and both BioShock’s Big Daddy or Clank from Ratchet & Clank filling the role of the automatons.

That leaves history’s greatest musician as none other than PaRappa the Rapper, the star of the rhythm games of the same name that released back on the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2.

TheCardinalArts’ Tweet was also spotted by Orion Walker, senior writer and narrative designer at God of War developer Sony Santa Monica, who added: “Hahahaha… and [God of War writer] Anthony Burch was soooo sure we’d cut this before launch.”

PaRappa aside, God of War: Ragnarok has released to universal critical acclaim, earning four stars in Jake Tucker’s review for NME. Tucker heaped praise on much of the game, including its art direction and combat mechanics. Still, the game hardly re-invents the wheel, with Tucker pointing out that Ragnarok “doesn’t do a whole lot to innovate.”

In other gaming news, The Witcher 3 is getting a next-gen update in December.

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