The trips to Asgard, boss/berserker battles in Ragnarok were my favorite moments from either game, but the writing and pacing in 2018 is definitely stronger. Ragnarok was really dragging at the end, as cool as the final chapter was.
This game had the FF16 "wrap it up box" problem where the devs decide to fit the last 25 percent of the story into 2 missions, but I look back on it fondly. Mainly because Lauren was so excited for it, but she was so sick with the pregnancy I got to scoot in and steal all the playtime
Making Kratos not wanting to kill Gods is good for character development I guess, but seems like it will really really neuter the character going forward.