I finished the game, I did everything I found (meaning I missed some items and birds), I even stumbled on the secret ending/teaser for the sequel (if you missed this, go home and click on the bed, it's pretty cool). But as far as I can tell four of the towers/realms are not in this game. This would be ok, the game is pretty long and feels complete, but the director in the interview podcast said there are nine realms in the game, when he was talking about how expansive this game is. What am I missing here? Did he just mean this northern part of the world, including potential sequels? It's just weird for him to say that, it bugs me for some reason, even though again, I can't complain about what I played. I am currently replaying on hard and having a blast, the combat system is fantastic, I'll probably go for the hardest difficulty later as well.

I'm pretty sure there are a couple of realms that you can't access.

@quipido: Minor spoilers here for areas in the game: You do not go to Svartalfheim, Asgard or Vanaheim at any point in the game. They are forever locked.

@quipido: I think I watched the same thing. He was just referring to Norse mythology in general and where they can go in the series

Darn. I was going to go back to Kratos' home when I finished the game but ended up just quitting. I just watched the Thor ending on YouTube. As for the other realms, yeah I guess you don't go to the other realms. To be honest, that's one of the biggest issues I have with the game. Not that you don't go to the other realms (although Corey touting how many places you can go to seems a bit misrepresentative), but what the other realms are about. I really hoped they'd have been, if not another Midgard sized place to explore, at least something other than a place to do a battle arena or a procedurally generated level that gives you loot. I left both of those places kind of annoyed. They are well made for what they are, but they are still just a battle arena a procedurally generated area which I have little interest in.

Yeah so I watched a spilercast on Kinda Funny Games and Mr. Barlog spoke about the world there again, the realms are meant for the sequels, I guess he meant the overall scope of the world. It just came out wrong in the interview here on GB, sounded like he was speaking about this game specifically.

I still think it's a bit weird to present the "map" in the teleport room with all those destinations and then leave half of them blank, but then again that's just years of games playing experience where everything is constructed to be used, as opposed to making a world and a story set in it, which is how actual reality works.

If you look at the realm access console, it clearly says "Odin has locked this realm, it will never be accessible" on Svartalfheim, Asgard, and Vanaheim. I think that pretty clearly indicates you won't ever be going to those locations as soon as you first look at them.

Those are the nine realms of Norse Mythology. It would be pretty weird for the realm transport room to not have some of the realms present, even though you don't go to all of them in the game. Tons of games have maps that show and label areas much larger than the play space. It contextualizes the world with the game area and becomes even more helpful in games taking place in an already established setting. People know the nine realms of Norse Mythology and would expect them all to be acknowledged, just as those that have read the Witcher books expect a world map to show all the nations of that world, even if you don't go to all of them in the games.

Right, that makes sense. As I said before, the game itself didn't confuse me, it was the creator's talk on the topic.

I wonder if one or more of the permanently locked realms will eventually turn out to be the location of the game’s DLC? I know Cory Barlog has publicly stated that they have no plans for DLC in the works because he didn’t want to hold back anything from the main game, but I bet if the sales are big enough then they might throw together something, especially if Sony asks them to.

@darklingscribe: They would have no problem selling DLC for this but my guess is they are full steam ahead on the next game.

I don't think it's likely. I can say with confidence Asgard and Vanaheim would not be used in that capacity. Those are the homes of the Aesir and the Vanir, the two factions of Norse gods. There's no way they would use those locations in anything other than a major story context. Svartalfheim is the home of the dwarves, not as important as the other two, but still likely to be pretty significant in the greater story. There's no way they would use those three realms in a throwaway capacity like DLC.