God Of War

My biggest concern is that Kratos already got a fantastic ending in III. The sequel is guaranteed to do one of two things:

• Kratos will continue to be the biggest shithead in the ancient world, undermining his Heel Realization and Redemption Equals Death scene in III.
• Kratos will no longer be the biggest shithead in the ancient world, maintaining the development at the end of III by removing the Villain Protagonist elements that make the game palatable and reconfiguring it to be the story of how Kratos is always right and just.

Frankly, either option is obnoxious. A new character would be appreciated, but they already shot that option in the foot with their Sequel Hook ending to III so it's a bit late for that.

edited 25th Apr '16 8:08:18 AM by TobiasDrake

Well, it wouldn't be the first time they completely shat on previous character development.

I don't know about the Norse pantheon, but the Greek one wasn't made up of upstanding fellows. That's not to say Kratos is a good person or altruistic, he is kind of a 'shithead', but it's not pulling the victim card. The gods are assholes, Ares and Hades in particular. His entire quest in the first game was trying to redeem himself because he realized just how much of a Blood Knight he was.

...they never shat on it in the first place? Kratos wasn't a good person from the start.

edited 25th Apr '16 1:58:17 PM by FOFD

Kratos no longer had a reason to seek vengeance, because all of his targets are dead, along with most of the Greek Pantheon. So bringing him out of retirement wouldn't make sense, especially since all he loves is either dead or gone, and he's never been the type to try and play hero or suddenly care about the strife of nations or cities. So even if the Norse gods tried to muscle in and take over Greek society, why would he care anymore?

edited 26th Apr '16 4:27:54 PM by SgtRicko

Because he's the champion of Hope now or some other bullshit. Or because he wants    VENGEANCE    for Thor murdering his estranged second-cousin who Kratos sent into Thor's lands to kill him.

Take your pick: some bullshit about Kratos being heroic now or some bullshit about Kratos continuing to blame other people for his own mistakes.

edited 26th Apr '16 8:21:11 AM by TobiasDrake

In all seriousness, it's probably a descendant. Assassins Creed makes similar-looking protagonists, and it wasn't the first game to do so.

The original thing David Jaffe wanted to do after 3 is have Kratos go on to kill all Pantheonic mythologys and usher in Christianity as its Angel Of Death.

Yeah. As I said before, they've been saying, "Norse gods next" since GOW 3. GOW 2, meanwhile, had those future-sight murals that showed Kratos killing all the gods and then Christianity happening.

"And then Christianity happens and everyone lives happily ever after!" seems like an awkward note to leave the franchise on so part of me is wondering if they're just trying to build enough of a reputation for being equal-opportunity heretics that people won't complain as much when Kratos fights Jesus in the final installment.

edited 26th Apr '16 8:44:29 AM by TobiasDrake

He better be careful if he goes after Hinduism, though.

To be honest I think a good way to end the series permanently will be a game about a hero of some story that gets their entire life murdered by Kratos, and becomes the new protagonist, but the final battle instead of a boss fight is you picking responses to Break Them by Talking, driving Kratos into a mad rage before you easily beat him, break him, then murder him forever...then your character retires and lives out the rest of their life peacefully.

(2) Asura don't f'ck around, and he's got Kratos's QTE game beat.

The Ultimate problem is while the Greek Gods are Assholes... Kratos really has no one to blame for his problems but himself which is fittingly Greek Brand Tragedy , since alot of the stuff that happens to Kratos is his own pride, stupidity or near pointless aggression

GOW 3 ends basically with Kratos finally realizing this and offing the one person in the equation that constantly ****s up his life... Himself

Having him come back would just be... lets face it Rule of cool. there is no real justifiable reason to bring Kratos back His story arc is pretty much complete.

edited 25th May '16 11:18:13 PM by FrozenWolf2

To be fair, the Greek Pantheon has been fucking him over since day one; they kidnapped his brother when they were children and was led to believe he had died for years, goes on a quest to find Ambrosia so that he can cure his daughter's illness so that she isn't killed by Sparta for being weak, which got turned into a dick measuring contest between the gods using their champions, agrees to be Aries champion to kill Alrik, only for Aries to send his family to an Athenian village where he killed them while blinded by rage, for the express purpose of making him a weapon to use when he tried to take over Olympus; the entire story of Ascension definitely counts, since we saw that Kratos nearly broke when the Furies used an illusion that had him with his family again, before actually being forced to kill Orkos, even though he actually didn't want to at all, which led to him giving him a viking funeral in a sense, then he serve the gods for over a decade, since he was led to believe that he could lose his nightmares if he did so, even giving up his chance to be in Elysium with his daughter in order to save the world, and her, from Persephone...

Then he finally manages to kill Aries, after being forced to relive his greatest failure, only to find out the gods could never free him of his nightmares at all, that they were only ever going to forgive him for what happened and nothing else. Then you have the whole Ghost of Sparta thing, where Zeus pretty much makes him kill his mother, the only real family he had life, after he turns her into a monster to kill her, goes on an entire quest to free Deimos after he finds out that he's actually alive, even letting him beat the crap out of him before Thanatos takes him away, and when he finally reconciles with his brother, he gets killed helping him against the God of Death, leaving him completely alone in the world, before we have Athena congratulating him for severing his mortal ties so that he can be worthy to be the God of War.

Really, the guy has gone through a lot of shit, and over 10 years of living with the nightmares of his greatest mistake, probably didn't help his psyche any.

edited 25th May '16 11:59:25 PM by Ssj3Gojira

Say hello to Kratos' Norse reincarnation. Looks like they changed the formula significantly, and took a few pages from the Ryse- / Hellblade book. Most importantly, it looks like we finally get a more composed protagonist. Which is a good thing, if you ask me. Kratos was the most pathetic emo bitch I've ever seen in a video game.

My main problem with Kratos was that he was both unlikable and not that interesting. It made playing through the games an actively unpleasant experience in some ways.

This has earned some goodwill from me by virtue of the game's art direction being good AND Kratos being a much warmer person (albeit still a bit of a cold father to his son), plus the father/son dynamic is nothing new in games but for this series which focused so much on deterioration and violence a humanizing element like that is really welcome.

Anyone can be better than Kratos at this point, but a reasonable protagonist that isn't a huge douchebag is always welcome.

And the "Dadification" of videogames continues

Seriously though, I like that this game is going for a different vibe while keeping some of the iconic elements of the previous games. Definetly going to be on my radar.

edited 13th Jun '16 9:40:20 PM by GutstheBerserker

Actually, Kratos didn't kill all the Greek gods. The goddess of love is very much alive.

Posting official trailer because the video ain't working anymore

On the contrary, I found him very likable (in the sense that he's pure male fantasy and you get to squash Greek monsters). As for interesting, I don't know how a rogue spartan/mortal setting off to kill gods - things mortals can't typically kill outside of Japanese mythology - can be uninteresting. The revenge story in the first game was rather sympathetic, the refusal to accept his circumstances in the second was motivating (if morally wrong), and then the redemptive arc in III - while that certainly didn't appeal to my teenage self, GOW III should have been about wholesale destruction - in hindsight, I appreciate it somewhat for fleshing Kratos out a bit.

Kratos gets a poor rap as a character because of his base elements, and I suspect the Hecuba scene. But there are moments, like in Ghost of Sparta, when he's a very tragic character. (Alright, well for some reason no one on Youtube felt the need to include it, but there's a scene in there where you have to QTE to make Kratos shove away Calliope, that's the gut-wrenching part.)

Now, what's this about Kratos being a dad?

-watches trailer-

• Well Kratos-dad is kind of a dick.
• Hah, fridged.
• Kratos with a bow and arrow.
• What the f'ck is that doing in the woods next to Kratos's home?
• Now that is a problem I've always had with this series. Why do random undead creatures just roam the wastes?
• It looks like Kratos has a nord axe.
• And now Kratos sends his boy to kill a troll.
• I'm not sure having a son will be a good thing to have in a game that prioritizes the 'murder' button.
• This camera and fighting system looks awkward.
• Lightning arrows. Oh jeez, they're keeping the crappy, streamlined elements from Ascension.
• Wait, Spartan rage? This actually is Kratos then. Beard Kratos. He's mellowed somewha...
• Kid f'cking shot him in the shoulder.
• I half-expected Kratos to smack him. I don't think that arrow was an accident.
• Ah, Kratos' son was too afraid to fight some kind of frost troll. He's already a disappointment.
• You can do it Kratos Jr. You're already on your way to being a professional killer.
• I have the eerie feeling this is going to be Red Dead Redemption but with Kratos. Next game will feature Kratos Jr. as the main character.
• Clearly this child will be perfectly safe for the entire game.
• Kratos started his new life in Skyrim?

Well, I'm interested.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:55:07 PM by Soble

Well, I was really hoping if they continued the series it wouldn't feature Kratos moving on to another pantheon to butcher—new setting, new character. I think my interest in this game will depend on whether or not they kill his son in some prologue to get him into a god-killing rage again. If his son is just a dog for Odin to kick then I really think they should have done something new rather than just bringing Kratos back— and isn't he dead?—but if he's going to have a central role in this story and we're going to see more character development from Kratos, then I'm cool with his return.

But serious, just call the game God of War 4. Why does it warrant a "reboot" title?

edited 14th Jun '16 6:09:09 AM by Rotpar

My main problem with him is that everything about him is generic, he's generally a difficult character to get behind and nothing about him really interests me. I'll be the first person to say that a protagonist doesn't need to be likable to be worthwhile, but if he isn't interesting or complex to compensate then he's basically worthless as far as i'm concerned.

The first game is about the only time where I think he was a protagonist that was worth following. The backstory with his family was in itself pretty typical (and I have a pet peeve about killing off family members without bothering to develop them as a lazy shorthand for angst but that's another can of worms), but he had understandable motivations for what he was doing and it was a perfectly serviceable greek tragedy.

The second game? It was mostly Kratos throwing a giant temper tantrum because he wasn't allowed to be an asshole. Granted the greek gods are also shown to be assholes, but between that and the horribly cruel things you do, it just creates a situation of profound apathy for me because everyone is a dick but none of them are interesting so it's basically Eight Deadly Words. The gameplay of the series is still polished (albeit repetitive and not nearly as fun or engaging as the japanese spectacle fighters like devil may cry or bayonetta) and the technical aspects of the games such as the models, visual fidelity, etc are impressive but it wasn't really enough to get me invested in the series.

The third game I haven't really had the opportunity to play much yet, but although I appreciate it and the other handheld games' attempts to humanize Kratos I think it's too little too late.

So with all that said, the new gameplay and characterization for Kratos in this game is a welcome breath of fresh air for me. I hope his son doesn't get fridged, that would be infuriating.

edited 14th Jun '16 6:49:27 AM by wehrmacht

You know, I remember a long time a go seeing some concept art that depicted Kratos with a sidekick.

The developpers at the time mentionned that they had explored the idea of Kratos having a companion but ultimately went in another direction.

Maybe Kratos Jr. will be a constant presence in the game? À la The Last Of Us?

I would hope that would be the case, or Kratos dies after the prologue and we actually play as his son.

I would approve of either choice. I've appreciated Kratos as a tragic Villain Protagonist constantly undermining his own goals due to his extensive character flaws as befits a classic Tragedy, but that story ended at III with Kratos's recognition that the person who keeps f*cking him is himself and literally self-destructing. If they're bringing him back, they need a new angle.

Either Kratos needs to grow as a character or they need to just let him die. I don't expect this is going to be the latter, however, because if they were just going to let him die and be replaced by a new protagonist, they wouldn't have brought him back from III's finale in the first place.

Besides, Kratos died in every game in the previous trilogy and he always clawed his way out of the Underworld and got right back to godslaying. I don't see why having him die in this one would be any different. Maybe he stabs his way out of Hel instead of the Underworld but it's still stabbing his way out of the afterlife.

edited 14th Jun '16 7:50:42 AM by TobiasDrake