Kratos Almost Axed from God of War PS4 in Favour of a Brand New Protagonist

Thank you, Barlog. Best game I've played in a long time. Wouldn't have been the same without ole' Kratos.

Well, I cannot blame them to be honest.
My knowledge of the series is very limited, but for what I know the latest game has done Kratos more good than all the other games combined.
I never found him or his games interesting before this one, tbh.

Huge, and I mean huge, props to Cory Barlog for keeping Kratos in. Kratos is the God of War in my eyes and if he had been replaced I doubt I would have played the game. God of War would have just been another action-adventure game without Kratos.

kratos is the g.o.a.t. on ps2 and also ps3. and ps4. I l💖ve his personality.word up son

I adore God of War but I must say, I am getting pretty fed up of the under appreciation of the original titles. The original series of games sold by the million and garnered fantastic reviews yet there is a curious revisionist history going on where suddenly everyone hated Kratos and to a degree, the games themselves.

Well I have to say, when those original games came out I utterly loved them and whilst Kratos wasn't the most relatable character, he was still a very cool and interesting protagonist with flaws which, to me, made him quite interesting whilst being quite faithful to the tropes in Greek mythology.

I am glad they went in a different direction for sure, but part of the reason for the new games success for me was seeing Kratos' rejection of what he had become following the earlier games and how he was looking to protect his son from the same fate.

Would have been a mistake imo. Its not easy creating an identifiable lead character. Gaming history is littered with forgettable leads who are lost to the passage of time. But Kratos is instantly recognisable as a playstation icon. If they were to make GoW without Kratos, they may as well have started a new franchise, because all they would do by retaining the GoW name is invite comparisons to what went before.

If you look up infamous second son, you will find endless debate on whether delsin is a better character than cole. And most conclude cole IS infamous. So i think humanising kratos was the much better approach. I dont think GoW would have been nearly as successful without him. Particularly as part of what made the new game so great was seeing kratos turn his back on the past (although THAT scene where he goes to pick up some old friends gave me all the feels!)

Why?! Oh god why then?! The game (in my opinion, of course) would have been so much better without Kratos! Every time the game tried to make me remember I was playing a sequel to GOW3, it just took me out of it...
The Kratos I'm seeing in GOW2018 ıs not the one from the old games, in any kind of way, and saying he got older and more mature is just an excuse to not use the same old character, but still using the same recognized name to make the game more sellable.
The game is fantastic, and would have been even more enjoyable for me if Kratos wasn't in it...

I feel that having Kratos be the lead and showing him struggle with his past, loss of a loved one, and having to care for his son, who is also grieving, in a way he isn't used to really makes the story that much more impactful. Especially in contrast to how he was in all of the previous games.

I have to give Balrog a lot of credit for sticking to his guns in keeping both Kratos and Atreus in.

Pretty sure kratos died at the end of gow3 so was weird seeing him. A sort of soft reboot.

Even though I didn't know this before I would have personally sued Santa Monica if they hadn't included atreus. The guy was practically my favorite, so cute and I remember once his arrow was a saving grace between me and the valkyrie Rota. Now that I know this, if they take him out in the sequel, am gonna sue them. Don't know if I can, but I will try. Long live Atreus. Cutest of them all. DieKaiser92.. Ouut!!!

Just says to me Cory Barlog was the only one in the room with functioning brain cells. Kratos was never an unlikeable character and the fact some people thought he no longer had a place in the series is beyond idiotic. I'd like to use other words but don't want a ban.

@Lovespuds
Yeah, the way this website especially craps on the old games is idiotic. They were critically acclaimed, had a lot of commercial success and everybody who I knew loved them. There's a reason people went crazy when they saw Kratos on the screen at E3 2016. And it's not because the previous games sucked and the character was unlikeable. Quite the opposite. The series would've died long ago and never would've even been considered for more than a second game (if that) if the garbage that haters go on about was true.

I don’t think the game will work if the protagonist is not kratos, at e3 the crowd goes wild when kratos show up. And atreus is the best ai companion in any game ever in term of story and gameplay.

@Gamer83 Yup, I never see kratos as unlikable protagonist, he is not some goody two shoes like other games protag, rather a sparta anti hero that raised for war.

The new game was great but it was so different from the previous games that it shouldve been a new IP altogether. Or at least a spinoff. It already had a new cast, gameplay, world, etc.Heck kratos even had a new VA. Might as well have just reskinned him and call him sotark or something. Maybe during the end they couldve revealed it to take place in the gow verse by showing a hieroglyph of "a warrior said to have killed the gods themselves" or whatever. The fact that it was a direct sequel to the previous hectic games did put me off at times but I still did enjoy it

To the average Joe, I think Kratos isn't too likeable. I trust Barlog can invent someone new with more appeal in a new IP. Drake is likable but his cool laid back then all of a sudden mass shooting spree ludorative disonnance means he could be dropped. Joel is believable. Ellie to me was quite annoying. Aloy is believable, shooting robots and bandits occasionally but I think she should be older.

This is why I like Rockstar, they don't go for the pretty boy looks like Japanese games and others, all their protagonists are hypocritical criminals who are usually not so good looking 😁

It would have been an interesting direction to take. How many other gods of war are there globally? That would be a killer foundation to build on and would allow them to really expand and reinvent the series over time.

But hey, instead they managed to take a one-dimensional iconic character left out to pasture and totally flip the script. It's a bit like someone making a serious drama starring Duke Nukem. Major kudos to them for pulling Kratos out of the basement and breathing some real life into the character.

After the fact, I can say I am very glad the kept Kratos in the game!

@Gamer83 I don't really understand how people could like the Kratos of the early games. He's so angry and cruel and callous regarding the lives of other people. And not in a particularly nuanced way, either. Not a pleasant character to follow, imo.

@Gamer83 I think it has to do with politics —-> white angry male (i know it ash of his family).

To be honest you could build exactly the same game without Kratos and his back story. But having the same character returning add something for people who played the previous games. He isn’t really the same person as he was in the previous games but I doubt I’ll be the same person in 20 years time and I definitely wasn’t the same 20 years ago.

He became the man he was in God of War three because of his daughter is murder and I suspect he could revert to a similar personality if Atreus gets killed at some point in a future game.

@Gamer83 He was a ******* he never was very likeable. After GOW3 he deserved to die and all people saying it was because of his family GTFO he was a horrible human with no character building. Yes if he would be the same character in GoW 5 the series would have died. Ill take Nariko, Cole, Kat, Joel, Ellie, Aloy any day over the old Kratos.

@wiiware He was not a antihero he was a horrible selfcentered monster. What heroic did he ever do? 😆

@LaJettatura you played god of war 3? " my vengeance ends now"

So at least Kratos is still Kratos.

Not a fan of when they keep the name of a character but otherwise redesign everything else.

@Ralizah Some people just enjoy the action and don't care much about how nuanced the main character is.

Ha!

he said Axed...

@Flaming_Kaiser Just killing all the gods so mankind can be free 😌

I never played the original games (too button-mashy for me, gave me severe hand cramps), so had no particular love of the character.

Didn't even actually buy GoW2018 myself, but received it as a gift.

Although I largely enjoyed the game, for me it's not the masterpiece it seems to be for others. I found the combat a little repetitive (lots of attacks available, but find a couple which work and stick with them), the voice acting for Kratos came across as wooden (probably intentional with his 'emotional baggage/disconnect'... plus whenever he spoke, I just saw Teal'c from SG-1), I found Atreus a little irritating (if useful), and the constant "Boy!" became almost farcical. Worst of all, just when I thought I was getting into the meat of the story, it ended.

I finished the story just a day or so before Days Gone game out, and I've started a second "survival" play-through of Days Gone rather than go back to GoW because - for me at least - it's a much more enjoyable game.

I'll go back to GoW at some point, but unlike games like Horizon and Days Gone where I've gone up to the hardest difficulty on my second play-through, I'll probably just knock it down to the easiest level to mop up the trophies and get it out of the way.

They could probably kill him off at the end of God of War 3(year2025) by his Son and his Son could be the main star of God of War 4(2028) (GOD I hate that thay named the last God of War erm God of War(2018) Wish they killed the way they named it But saying all that Kratos is a BAD ASS and I never want him to die.

@wiiware Drowning and dying with disease isnt really a good deal. 😆