God Of War

I speculated that Kratos might be the one who dies and passes the torch to his son, but I don't find that likely.

Everyone keeps saying they don't want the kid to be fridged for Kratos, and while I don't disagree with that sentiment, I'm still expecting Loki to somehow trick Kratos into killing his own son within the first hour of the game, and that starts Kratos on another deicide rampage.

Its honestly darkly amusing how Kratos has killed his entire family except for his brother. If the stuff I read on the wiki was accurate that is.

I just feel it would be really predictable and infuriating. Like, if the kid is going to die, let it at least involve him doing something awesome to try and help his father or something.

I could theoretically see that working from a narrative perspective, I guess, but it seems like it would be a waste of what might otherwise be a very enjoyable father-son relationship. My ideal scenario pretty much is just Fantasy!The Last of Us, where the whole game is spent subtly developing the relationship between Kratos and his son. Too early to tell how likely that is, unfortunately.

You know, we sure are getting a lot of dad protagonists in games these days (Daddification indeed). I'd like it if we could expand a bit and start seeing more explorations of themes of motherhood as well. I'd play the shit out of a game that featured a gender-reversed Badass and Child Duo - because off the top of my head, I can't think of a single game that's featured one prominently.

Who knows - if the speculation about The Last of Us 2 (American Daughters?) is on the money, we just might be getting a mom protagonist at some point down the line.

Do you think Kratos has told his son about his sister?

I suspect the kid's really an orphan who Kratos stumbled upon and took under his wing.

Hint 1: Kratos doesnt know much about the kid's late mother or her relationship with him, and therefore has to ask the kid himself.

Hint 2: The kid never calls him "father" even once.

Hint 3: Kratos avoids getting too attached to him (he anxiously holds back fom putting his hand on his shoulder to console him after he makes his first kill).

edited 14th Jun '16 11:27:32 PM by nervmeister

The kid has stats and seems to have some kind of development system attached to him. Unless they're setting up a massive red herring with all that I doubt he dies too soon into the story.

The Kid calls Kratos father three times.

First, during the mook fight when the second mook shows up.

Second, during the troll/fire giant fight, right before Kratos activates Spartan Rage.

Third, when he finds the deer after the troll/fire giant fight.

I just think Kratos avoids getting close to the son due to the Spartan Way and probably trying to turn said son into a "Well Done Son" Guy.

#229 - The Hidden Object genre has a ton of moms as protagonists.

I don't know anything about God of War, but I like the new beard. Hopefully he keeps it for whole game instead of dramatically shaving it or some shit like that

I have a feeling Kratos is not really the protagonist but his son. If i have to guess how the story goes, it goes something like this: After somehow surviving the events of God of War 3, Kratos left Greece and went to the land of the Vikings where he married a local woman and had a son with her. After his wife's death, Kratos tries to raise his son right, not wishing for his son to become just him as he realized after he got older how much of a jerk he was. And some point of the game, Kratos dies and the Norse Gods, who normally allow warriors like Kratos to Valhalla, refuses to allow him entry as they cannot forgive him for not only killing most of the Greek Gods but also almost ending world. Not wishing for his father to be sent to Hel for his past sins, Kratos son makes a deal with Odin that in exchange for his father to got to Valhalla, he has to do some major quests for Odin and the others.

And Kratos son, like his father, has sex with lots of women including elves, Valkyries and even Goddesses.

I've been calling him Kratos Jr.

That would be like Wolverine telling Jean Gray about the wife he had in the 1800's.

Kratos's son being killed to set Kratos on a new rampage would be the worst way to do this story, in my opinion. Only two options are possible:

• It's Kratos's fault, which means his entire character backslides to where he was before GOWIII, undoing all of that Character Development at the end for the sake of the Franchise Zombie.
• It's not actually Kratos's fault this time, which means he's still basically the same character from the previous games, only his bullshit rationalizations are actually valid now - removing the moral conflict for the audience.

Both of these feel like a huge step backwards for Kratos. He made a big character leap at the end of III. If we must drag him from the sweet embrace of a really good ending for the sake of having him for another game, I want to see something new come of it.

edited 15th Jun '16 7:42:35 AM by TobiasDrake

Cory Barlog, one of the lead of the project, said that Kratos had to change his cycle of violence and learn how to control his rage. He said that Kratos had made many bad decisions, which led to the destruction of Olympus, and wanted to know what would happen if Kratos made a good decision. The birth of Barlog's own son influenced the idea of Kratos' character change.

@Kosjurake

Ah. I missed that. But still, it's strange how the kid has to explain to Kratos that his mom up until now always took care of killing the animals they hunted. That kind of implies that Kratos came into this kid's life after the mother died.

edited 15th Jun '16 9:14:33 AM by nervmeister

(2) That's interesting, anyone got a link to that?

It was in the PlasyStation blog here

edited 15th Jun '16 9:28:09 AM by YoKab

That's a good sign. It means there is a very real chance that this game will be about Kratos moving forward from his development in III rather than backwards.

This article on Kotaku all but confirms that Kratos Jr. will be a permanent presence in the new game

That's actually the direction I was hoping the game would take. I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

Haven't read the articles yet, but I hope that doesn't mean a 'morality' meter. If Kratos Jr is going to follow me around, I want it to be like The Last of Us where he throws some quippy comments around, points things out, and occasionally shanks a motherf'cker or two.

infamous and bioshock make me wary of giving the player 'morality' choices.

edited 15th Jun '16 12:27:21 PM by Soble

I'm not sure what gave you the idea such a thing would be present, but I agree. For the most part, I think if you have a "karma meter" in your game you're thinking about it the wrong way. Morality working on a grid is really stupid.

The confirmation that Kratos Jr will be a permanent fixture in the game. If he's following me around on these murder-ventures - and as we saw in the trailer, he's green, even hindering Kratos at one point - then it's possible, what with a director who happens to be a father, that the game would have some kind of morality meter. "Will you have Kratos be a positive role model, or will you push your son further away from you?"

Sure Last of Us had a child character that followed a set path and wasn't affected by player decisions, but its not a possibility they've't ruled out yet.

The article shows clearly that the director wants to show Kratos' struggle to control his rage. But, as when he used himself as an example, he will keep going and maintain his newfound humanity. The director seems to understand the difficulty of change, but he has no interest in quitting anytime soon, and wants to display them going through the hardships with struggles and heartwarming moments. So I doubt we will have some artificial karma, because if that happen the article is a big lie.

@Soble Jean does know about his wife in the 1800s though.