I have never liked the God Of War series. They're actually one of my least favorite series in modern gaming. I won't deny that much of it is hype backlash. I will admit they're well made, but I still find them lack luster. If I want a fun spectacle fighter, I'll just play play Devil May Cry. If I want a mature game with that actually approaches its subject matter skillfully and maturely, I'll play Drakengard. Both of these games each take the individual elements and does them SO much better than even God Of War I.
I will (begrudgingly) agree that the games are great examples of characterization through gameplay, I don't think you realize why the developers went the way they did. There is a specific reason why Kratos is a ball of rage instead of, say, a sadistic, cold and calculating mass murder, and it has nothing to do with "artistic vision". Kratos's anger and hyper masculinity is a shallow attempt at appealing to certain Playstation consumers. Aside from Marcus from Gears of War(What is it with these games that have War at the end of the title?) Kratos is the ultimate embodiment of what insecure twelve-year-old boys wish they were. Normally it's not terribly hard to get past an unsettling presentation of a video game, but it's so prevalent and constant I literally couldn't get past it when playing the games. It's like walking into a creepy kid dreaming about what he wants to be when he grows up; Its completely masturbatory and immature.
Caim from Drakengard has a similar personality to Kratos, albeit for different reasons, but much better than Kratos from a characterization and narrative standpoint. He's also a senseless, brutal, mass murderer. He doesn't really care about saving the world, its simply the option that allows him the opportunity to kill as many people as he can without being judged for it. Caim is not just some junk wish fulfillment character like Kratos. Caim is specifically a unique take on the standard RPG style protagonist. Ask yourself, what kind of person would go around senselessly murdering as many soldiers and monsters as he can, simply for practice and experience while trying to save the world? That person would have be blood thirsty sociopath. Of course Drakengard wasn't a Greek tragedy, with it being a low fantasy that spirals downward into Lovecraftian horror and nihilistic themes.
The God of War series serves as nothing other than a metaphorical hand job for people who have extremely stunted idea of masculinity using Kratos as the main character. A fact that is so disturbing that I literally cannot bring myself to fully play any these games.
Have you ever read a creepy author insert fan fiction where the author avatar has sex with one of them main characters? Its like that only a game and replace sex with a extreme violence and faux machismo. Actually he is! I remember a certain article from this website where the director talks about the whole purpose of the sex scene was to show the audience how awesome he is.
http://www.destructoid.com/oh-no-god-of-war-iii-almost-didn-t-have-a-sex-mini-game-165571.phtml
There are also other things where the developers talk about how awesome and strong Kratos is and how they made his so you can love how bad ass and tough he is!
God of War was also the most shallow of Greek tragedies. The fact that it was one is not worthy of praise. Really, the moral of the story is "Don't senselessly kill" but thats how Kratos accomplishes EVERYTHING in life. How was he a rising Spartan leader? Because he kills things real good. How did he become the God of War? He killed the old one, which is technically a raise of his status, not a lowering. I find Kratos guild to be unbelievably considering the character.
Just wanted to share my thoughts. Great video however. I'm really becoming a fan of yours.
