Kratos, as god of war fans probably know, went through several redesigns until original creative director, david jaffe, settled upon a look. God of war ragnarok seems to be carrying on the trend of the 2018 game, showing kratos gearing up for the harsh climate resulting from the onset of ragnarok. Ragnarok's kratos design is the natural evolution of the look started in the last game, with scattered allusions to his design from the classic titles.

Kratos by VicenteValentine on DeviantArt

It's a very interesting image, showing an older look. While the god of war team took plenty of creative licence to help make kratos look greek enough, one key element was his iconic tattoo. Kratos design god of war ragnarok design and in game assets by raf grassetti, dela longfish, jose cabrera, and eric valdes.

The reboot gave kratos a beard, but otherwise, it was a pretty faithful design, unlike an early model for kratos for god of war:

On twitter, art director raf grassetti gave followers a new look at an earlier design for kratos from god of war. We’ve established that god of war ragnarök begins during the event of fimbulwinter. James nikko “jn” dizon showed the workflow behind the kratos fan art, demonstrated. Not really, if they wouldn't have brought back the boc in gow 2018 it would've made sense for him to dual wield multitype elemental weapons. Grassetti also talks about reflecting on kratos’ journey up to this point in his design. We can see things like the red spartan skirt material used in his original trilogy. Obviously after playing the game. Kratos' body sculpt and textures were redone.