Breaking the fourth wall like that was really out of place especially paralleling a genuinely well executed scene from the previous game with Kratos protecting his kid from who can basically be described as an incel psycho that foreshadowed what his kid could become without a healthy village to raise him
A very bad portend for what's coming imo, esp because I consider GOW2018 to be a landmark achievement for progressive media and literary media
Also it was a genuine game over screen with loading-screen combat tips
I don't think that was breaking the fourth wall, that was just a way of communicating that Kratos genuinely died in the scene to the player. Like I didn't detect any irony or humour in that scene, it wasn't trying to be "meta" or anything. I think it tried to communicate that Kratos died and was resurrected and a game over screen is an effective use of the medium to do that.
I don't think it was exactly a fourth wall break, Thor didn't know that you were at the respawn page. But Kratos was dead/defeated and Thor knew that.
I had died before in the fight so I was genuinely ready to press the button to respawn at checkpoint. To me at least it didn't read as unserious and it did not distract from the scene
Now if Thor said that the combat tips wouldn't be enough to beat him! That would be pretty weird!
What is disappointing is the son shouting out every single combat tips. I'm pretty sure Kratos knows he should use the fire blades on the ice dudes!
I think that hit me as a joke more because Thor and Odin were already speaking and behaving like modern-day mobsters without the fantasy overtones that Freya and Baldur used when talking.
Especially because using Mjolnir as a defibrillator was genuinely funny but also implies that these Norse gods have defibrillators.
Someone suggested to me that Kratos would be forcibly healed just like how he taught Atreus to do in the previous scene and I think that would have worked better
You make a good point that the characters don't break the fourth wall, that helps
Breaking the fourth wall like that was really out of place especially paralleling a genuinely well executed scene from the previous game with Kratos protecting his kid from who can basically be described as an incel psycho that foreshadowed what his kid could become without a healthy village to raise him
A very bad portend for what's coming imo, esp because I consider GOW2018 to be a landmark achievement for progressive media and literary media
Also it was a genuine game over screen with loading-screen combat tips
I don't think that was breaking the fourth wall, that was just a way of communicating that Kratos genuinely died in the scene to the player. Like I didn't detect any irony or humour in that scene, it wasn't trying to be "meta" or anything. I think it tried to communicate that Kratos died and was resurrected and a game over screen is an effective use of the medium to do that.
I don't think it was exactly a fourth wall break, Thor didn't know that you were at the respawn page. But Kratos was dead/defeated and Thor knew that.
I had died before in the fight so I was genuinely ready to press the button to respawn at checkpoint. To me at least it didn't read as unserious and it did not distract from the scene
Now if Thor said that the combat tips wouldn't be enough to beat him! That would be pretty weird!
What is disappointing is the son shouting out every single combat tips. I'm pretty sure Kratos knows he should use the fire blades on the ice dudes!
I think that hit me as a joke more because Thor and Odin were already speaking and behaving like modern-day mobsters without the fantasy overtones that Freya and Baldur used when talking.
Especially because using Mjolnir as a defibrillator was genuinely funny but also implies that these Norse gods have defibrillators.
Someone suggested to me that Kratos would be forcibly healed just like how he taught Atreus to do in the previous scene and I think that would have worked better
You make a good point that the characters don't break the fourth wall, that helps