I actually just finished the 2018 game and am of the mind that his character didnt really change THAT much, maybe towards the end arguably.
That's a big part what makes the new God of War so great - that Kratos has changed. He's not a one-dimensional murder machine anymore; he's a dad, and becoming a dad softens you. The game would've flopped if he was still the same Kratos from 18 years ago.
That's something I think many folks forget, in art your have to change or else people will eventually get bored of it.
God of War is one of those games that wants to tell a story, so of course Kratos is going to change since the game isn't meant to be a saturday morning cartoon where characters are meant to be one-dimensional. Like, if they want games like that, there's always Crash Bandicoot or Call of Duty where the plot doesn't really matter that much.
I can appreciate an edgy as hell 2000s character today. Characters like Jack Garland in Stranger of Paradise and Vergil in Devil May Cry 5 are fun to me because they're practically caricatures. They could've done that with Kratos, but taking a character the least suited for parenthood, especially single parenthood and putting him in that situation was narratively interesting. Kratos processing his wife's death, reconciling his relationship with his son, and ultimately learning to let both go is more adult than running around ripping everything in half because angy.
Kratos and Vergil are very different kinds of edgy though. It's like The Punisher and Shadow the Hedgehog
I'm pretty sure Shadow the Hedgehog does kill cops in his solo game, and I think you kill the president in what I assume is the good ending
The reason why Jack works so well is because Square was fully self aware and knew what they were doing. Things like the "bullshit" cutscene, and him interrupting the boss monologue with his "no fucks given" attitude are pure gold.
That's the whole fucking point lol, "wot if... wot if permanently angry man had family? how make work?"
it's always been baffling to me how gamers cried when roger ebert said video games weren't art but violently react when video games are elevated on an emotional and/or aesthetic level
Art is when big robots and zombies. Having feelings is feminine and woke.
What they always wanted was people from "legitimate" forms of media to tell them that video games are legitimate too.
Of course video games have always been art - guys like Roger Ebert who dismiss the medium are reacting to the fact that the biggest games are crass commercial products. Imagine dismissing all of cinema but the only films you've seen are the Marvel movies.
i enjoy how one of the few gaming franchises that got better and more mature with time and after changing hands makes the OG creator seethe because his juvenile ultraviolent misogynist toybox was taken from him
alternatively
"They shrunk his shoulders, made him look soft."Also having never played the og god of wars game i can say that the og games were very boring much like the new ones
Did this dick weed forget that the original god of war games back in the day killed themselves through player exhaustion and that the reboot was wildly successful for being different.
After god of war 1-3, ascension and the psp games people literally didn't want any more of old kratos and old kratos gameplay, it was so bad that anything being like god of war was shit on like dantes inferno.
Personally I much prefer the rebooted series. The originals were fun but pretty shallow and generally boiled down to mash button and sometimes big enemy with qte and angry man go AAARRGGG.
I quite like the rebooted series, but I would like the power level turned up a bit. It's all well and good having the gritty one on one combat for major creatures, but also I want to be able to just tear through minor enemies rather than things getting complicated when there's more than 2 of them.
He hasn't been involved with god of war since god of war 2.
MFW they made Kratos an actually interesting character:
G*mers are stuck in the 90's and still think "attitude" is the most admirable trait imaginable. I think it now makes sense why they're stereotypically reactionary. They see themselves as too cool to respect others, and because of how cool they are, all the losers around them are targets for their all-knowing-but-sassy mouth.
Huh, maybe it's actually a good thing that I'm not nearly as interested in video games as I used to be. The boomers were right, it's much better to geek out over music than video games.
Kratos: Maybe I should be nice to my son and not kill everyone I meet.
Jaffe: The woke mind virus has taken over.
Nooo, he can't care about being a better father to his son while still viciously murdering gods, he's so soft now!!!
I want an interesting story but with no woke "character arcs" or "growth"
So the creator is like Rob Liefeld? Good to know that someone else took the helm of his characters direction.
Rob Liefield seems to have more of a sense of humor about criticism
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Lmfao even Giga Chad's proportions aren't as ridiculous
Kratos isn't a character he's a brand for all the loyal PlayStation consumers to go "wow videogame so mature now it's totally not cringe for me to still play this now that I have kids".
i dont think this is a hot take or anything but it's ok to be a parent and play video games (obviously assuming you aren't neglecting to give your child attention).
Kratos remaining a vengeful murder machine would have cheapened the conclusion of the old series (Ascension notwithstanding). Like, what was he supposed to do from there after killing the whole Greek Pantheon who set him on his path in the first place?
His whole character development was also one of the big draws of the 2018 game, as opposed to the Assassin’s Creed route of “Same God of War but Norse Mythology because why not”.
