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God of War's Creator Thinks That the Character of Kratos Took a Wrong Turn

WitchHunter

Banned
The way this guy just fell...how do you go from creating IPs such as God of War to being a second rate youtuber i'll never know.
He forgot that making AAA games is a team effort. He also told to an interviewer, that he wanted to earn more... after seeing the success of GOW. Perhaps that is what led to his downfall.
 
I agree (well with the header at least, haven't watched the video) I vastly prefer the old Kratos, this one is boring as f**k... I prefer the massive, grotesque, over the top, loud god of war vs the calm, politically correct, good nature, safe space new god of wars.

So you want to play the same game again and again? Kratos' character was tired even in the second game and it was one dimensional. It was clear big changes were needed after Ascension cratered in all metrics.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Next game, you gonna travel with Atreus and he finds Kratos as a teacher, teaching kids not to use violence, but words to resolve conflicts. : DD

I'd 100% buy that.

Have Kratos perform slam poetry to defeat enemies rather than using physical force. Gameplay could be like PaRappa the Rapper

Holy shit! This is gold! I hope somebody from Sony SM is reading this!
 

ByWatterson

Member
"I don't want these characters to grow!" is why he's on YouTube and not helming games anymore.

Kratos not growing led to a "Make Aphrodite Climax" minigame. It was the height of sophomoric cringe.

Making him Sad Dad, at the very least, opens up all kinds of story beats we hadn't seen before, which heightens gameplay stakes. AND Kratos is still a brutal machine.

What a joke of a take.
 

bender

What time is it?
"I don't want these characters to grow!" is why he's on YouTube and not helming games anymore.

Kratos not growing led to a "Make Aphrodite Climax" minigame. It was the height of sophomoric cringe.

Making him Sad Dad, at the very least, opens up all kinds of story beats we hadn't seen before, which heightens gameplay stakes. AND Kratos is still a brutal machine.

What a joke of a take.

I'd say Drawn to Death is why he isn't helming games anymore. Sophomoric cringe tends to do really well, even by today's standards. GTA V still shows up in every monthly sales chart.
 

ByWatterson

Member
I'd say Drawn to Death is why he isn't helming games anymore. Sophomoric cringe tends to do really well, even by today's standards. GTA V still shows up in every monthly sales chart.

Well a little of that is fun.

GOW3 crossed the line from fun to embarrassing (rest of the game was dope, if well-worn).
 

bender

What time is it?
Well a little of that is fun.

GOW3 crossed the line from fun to embarrassing (rest of the game was dope, if well-worn).

GTA has more than a little and where everyone draws that line is different. GTA IV is where I checked out when you had R* trying to present a self serious story with the backdrop of the same sophomoric dick-and-balls jokes that the series is known for. That was still a wildly successful games, as was GTAV and the same can be said for Jaffe's GOW titles. I'd say Jaffe is partially responsible for Sony's shift into blockbuster cinematic games that the Uncharted games latter codified. At the very least, he was on the ground floor of that movement.
 

WitchHunter

Banned
I'd 100% buy that.

Have Kratos perform slam poetry to defeat enemies rather than using physical force. Gameplay could be like PaRappa the Rapper

Holy shit! This is gold! I hope somebody from Sony SM is reading this!
Don't get your hopes up. First they make Kratos drop his dick, because it talks to him and encourages doing violent things. Kratos in a fit of rage castrates himself, then he gets a pussy somehow, we'll find out how. Then he starts doing ballet, but realizes being a pussy is not fit for him, so he somehow gets his cojones + dick back, and becomes a hero of the transgender people. Of course you can choose between all the letters of the LMTQIABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQSR variations at the title screen.

After he goes through all this, and later on testosterone replacement theraphy, he will be the rap hero, and of course Eminem, Dr Dre, Lil Wayne (they will AI him back), Notorious BIG, 50 cent and Mobb Deep will support him and turn up in the game. You will also have the ability to smash the Island Boy flysoulyya duo so hard, they become one entity, with two heads. If you happen to lose a slam poetry thing, you can always smash the opponent's face in a mirror, when nobody is around.
 
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I don't mind new Kratos, but I definitely miss the more arcadey, fast paced gameplay of the OG Trilogy.

I just wish they would give us a simple remaster of Ascension. I've only ever played it via PS Now, which is an awful way to play it obviously, but I can tell it's an awesome game. It's GoW3 with better graphics and some cool new moves. Same awesome scale, same awesome gameplay and enemy design!
The only thing I cant say is if the story ia good or not.

This game came at the wrong time but at this point I don't understand why Sony hasn't released a remaster. The desire is there and SO many people missed out on this due to burnout back when it came out (2012?). They already remastered gow3 its time to do Ascension!
 
I think Kratos had its character development very clear across many games, so he went from hating the gods that took his family and made him a slave via deceipt to actually getting his revenge, making peace with himself and his family to starting anew.

yeah, dad of war is soft, but we got there slowly. lets not make like 6 games didnt happen.

I think the problem is solely due to Ragnaroks crappy writing. It's very clear they had some young, woke writers for this game. Sometimes the writing was fine, even good at times, but then there were segments that were cringey. Gow2018 they still showed some of Kratos rage but not Ragnarok. If Corey Balrog had directed Ragnarok I think this would've been prevented.
 

manfestival

Member
Don't get your hopes up. First they make Kratos drop his dick, because it talks to him and encourages doing violent things. Kratos in a fit of rage castrates himself, then he gets a pussy somehow, we'll find out how. Then he starts doing ballet, but realizes being a pussy is not fit for him, so he somehow gets his cojones + dick back, and becomes a hero of the transgender people. Of course you can choose between all the letters of the LMTQIABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQSR variations at the title screen.

After he goes through all this, and later on testosterone replacement theraphy, he will be the rap hero, and of course Eminem, Dr Dre, Lil Wayne (they will AI him back), Notorious BIG, 50 cent and Mobb Deep will support him and turn up in the game. You will also have the ability to smash the Island Boy flysoulyya duo so hard, they become one entity, with two heads. If you happen to lose a slam poetry thing, you can always smash the opponent's face in a mirror, when nobody is around.
This is good. I want this.
 
The old Kratos was too one dimensional and the angry vengeful schtick got old. I like how they gave Kratos some depth in the new games. I'm not a big fan of the writing in ragnarok though.
Playing Valhalla I'm loving the nods to the old games. I wouldn't be mad if they made a full remake of the old trilogy. Greek >>>> Norse.
 
Didn’t the marketing team just realise that Joel in TLOU tracked with the audience and resulted in sales, so Kratos got an overhaul and a little kid to bowl about the gaff with?

Same as the sequel - we get the joy of playing as the little kid *all grown up* for half the game - so we don’t have to tolerate the horror of playing as a middle aged bloke with their tired world view.

There was no artistic vision there - just committees and $$$
 
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As a big fan of 80s action heroes like Conan, Rambo, Dirty Harry (okay, that's 70s) and John McClain, I enjoyed Kratos bein a God of WAR.

Now he's a character that they gave too much "depth" which actually made him very generic. Espessially for newer sensitivities.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Meh, i was not super interested in mono-thematic angry kratos, i take this version every day of the week, he still has his rage burst and it's just hilarious seeing him trying to be a dad figure.

Old angry kratos had his great moments but it was just overall less interesting.

Do people expect for him to be a calm and collected dude if the sequel still has him as a protagonist? cmon, he is still kratos, he always gonna punch first and ask later if something bothers him or if they hurt the people he loves.
 
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Shut0wen

Banned
I was done with the old God of War after ascention, just way too many games that played nearly identical and I imagine I wasn't alone. I think the change was needed and the old versions wouldn't continue to sell games. Maybe a spin-off would be cool after so many years.
Ascention was awful but the gameplay was never the problem, lack of enemy variants and was just no way near as epic as the third gane
 
Kinda agree he’s too much of a grumpy old man who wants to just sit in a house in Ragnarok. He does not, as the title says, act like a God of War. I found that game quite annoying compared to the 2018 one. It was a bit too Disney adventure. I want angry, Brutal, insane Kratos.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I finished GoW:R and now I’m listening to my spouse play it. It doesn’t even sound like a GoW game. I catch her playing as Atreus and it still doesn’t feel like a GoW game. Some aspects are/were interesting. GoW 2018 had its moments and a lot of hype. I am just not super invested into it like I was back with Olympus. Progressing in GoW:R was just trying to see the final fight.

I don’t know if it’s Kratos or what. I don’t want to play as another character. I can see how other people would love it, but it kinda fell off my favorite games list. I prefer the way DMC’s Dante acts over Kratos. It’s almost like God of War became Life is Strange with the way SSM has added drama/narrative to the series.
 
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God of War 2018 felt consistent. Writing was good. I did dig the character development in 2018 but Ragnarok felt a bit off. Sure the realms were designed well, gameplay was fun. So were the new weapons. Story was okay I guess, I kinda wanted something more epic.

I think changing the director and also writing and weird story flow was kind of the weak point of Ragnarok- it wasn't bad per se but it felt it could be more epic, a bit more aggressive and consistent story would have made a better game.

They did have this weird company review the writing maybe this did throw the pacing a bit? Story felt a bit chaotic at times, Kratos character still could have the character development from 2018 game but still could be a bit more... I don't know manly?

I felt really manly playing the 2018 version. As a bearded man, I was quite into the story and character.

Haven't really felt that kind of connection in Ragnarok and now I'm bald and bearded. No immersion in Kratos character at times didn't help, the characters switch didn't really help. And I was so into the mindset that I'm gonna immerse myself into Kratos. And have a bit of a power trip- like you have with a really nice yeard beard 💪. That did not happen. Yet stil I had fun playing as Loki but it didn't hit me as a God of War game at times.

Ragnarok is definitely not 10/10 for me, but let's say 8/10 game. We had a lot of shitty game launches lately, Ragnarok was not one of them so it did definitely help.

Still it lacked, I don't know something for me. Something which made 2018 big, felt something was a bit off but it's not a bad game at all. Don't get me wrong.

I just feel it could have been done a bit better is all.

It was made during COVID and from the ending credits lots of stuff were outsourced and a lot of different folks helped with the game development to made it on time.

So maybe something did happen then with management and stuff? Felt a bit rushed maybe? I don't know. It's hard to describe.

It was still fun to play it though and I won't spread any hate and whatnot. It's just how I feel about Ragnarok.

As off Jaffe, I don't follow the guy at all and what he says. From what I've seen randomly or read he did fell quite bit and says a lot of weird stuff. He may have a bit of point here and there but if I were a youtuber I wouldn't even record the vid about GoW at all.

I did only share my opinion about Ragnarok now, but so far since launch I had the same opinion about it but just kept it to myself and really didn't feel the need to create any threads at all.

I played it, had a bit of fun even if felt that something was a bit off. Reminded myself it was done during COVID and I was quite understanding given the circumstances, graded it a bit lower than 2018 and moved on.

And now I wonder about the next game or new IPs.
 
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He’s entitled to his opinion of course, and I’m sure some people will agree. I disagree completely, and I wouldn’t expect Jaffe to understand good writing.

These AAA sony cookie cutter third person narratives. The writing is for this stuff is not good. It's just formulaic and safe. There really isn't very many examples in video games of good writing.
 

Pelta88

Member
The IP needed to evolve to stay relevant. GOW 3 was a moment in gaming. But by Today's standard it doesn't hold the same resonance. I applaud the evolution.

There are too many games that were once marquee that barely get noticed Today in the current iterations because they refuse to evolve.
 
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