New God of War Starring Aged Kratos Shown Off at Sony's E3 Presser

Hades

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Kratos is a father now? The man who destroyed the world after a temper tantrum is raising someone? Is he be going to teach his kid to burn the school down when his teacher tells him to behave?

If the boy has thunder powers then perhaps he's Thor which would make this exiled Kratos....Odin! Or its just a kid with thunder powers.

Is it me or am I seeing some open world bits?
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

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I might be remembering this wrong, but didn't Kratos kill himself by impaling himself on his blades to release hope into the world? And wasn't the world proper fucked at the end of GoW3, with all plantlife dead, no solar deity to move the sun across the heavens and everything except Olympus flooded by the sea?

Seems the world recovered quite handily from some seriously cataclysmic events, which, by the way, Kratos caused himself.
 

Ihateregistering1

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Interesting. Sort of seems like 'God of War' meets 'Skyrim'. And were those skills I saw the game have?

Anyway, color me intrigued, thoigh I must admit it's hilarious to hear Kratos say 'You need to be patient and think! Have a plan!' since that's literally the complete opposite of his approach to all problems.
 

RealRT

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Okay, first of all: the gameplay doesn't look like God of War at all. Maybe it's the camera angle which is, well, total shite (always hated over-the-shoulder camera for being terrible), maybe it's the way combat goes, but still. All of the Skyrim stuff with open world doesn't help at all.
Second of all: I kinda feel it would be better as a reboot. I mean, you didn't even bother to make up a new bloody name (a trend that needs to die a horrible, horrible death).
Third of all: how in the heck did he crawl from Olympus all the way over to Scandinavia?
 

scotth266

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I like the way the story seems to be trending, but damn is it odd seeing a franchise other than Final Fantasy completely change its combat system. It might be needed though considering the stupid tie-in titles they pumped out probably made people weary of the original play style.

Might go back and play the first two again once I'm done with Okami HD and Overwatch splurging - though I was never particularly good at the games. I could never really find the right rhythm of fighting and dodging.
 

Worgen

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Cowabungaa said:
Y'know what stood out for me? Kratos calling for his kid to stay calm, plan and think. Really shoulda taken that advice to heart yourself Kratos, might've saved you a lot of trouble.

Also, seems like some Skyrim leaked into God of War there.
Wait, so this is literally starring someone else who just happens to be called Kratos? Cause Kratos doesn't plan, he doesn't stay calm or think, he just murders civilians for health or puzzles or because they didn't fuck him.
 

Winnosh

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Worgen said:
Cowabungaa said:
Y'know what stood out for me? Kratos calling for his kid to stay calm, plan and think. Really shoulda taken that advice to heart yourself Kratos, might've saved you a lot of trouble.

Also, seems like some Skyrim leaked into God of War there.
Wait, so this is literally starring someone else who just happens to be called Kratos? Cause Kratos doesn't plan, he doesn't stay calm or think, he just murders civilians for health or puzzles or because they didn't fuck him.
I think that's the point. He's teaching his son to be a better man than he was. And from the way things looked in the trailer I'm betting that the kid is actually the main character. and that you'll switch to him ala Raiden in MGS2 or Jake Marston.
 

happyninja42

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What I'd like to see, is him having a redemption arc from his previous incarnation. Since it's got that Norse vibe going on, if they actually spark off Ragnarok, I'd like to see him working on the side of the Norse pantheon, to try and stop Ragnarok. That way he can still be the "god of war", and fight Fenrir, and Loki, and all the Frost Giants and etc. We can have the godlike scale of battle, without him having to be a jackass and kill gods who didn't really do anything wrong (at least to him).
 

Worgen

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Winnosh said:
Worgen said:
Cowabungaa said:
Y'know what stood out for me? Kratos calling for his kid to stay calm, plan and think. Really shoulda taken that advice to heart yourself Kratos, might've saved you a lot of trouble.

Also, seems like some Skyrim leaked into God of War there.
Wait, so this is literally starring someone else who just happens to be called Kratos? Cause Kratos doesn't plan, he doesn't stay calm or think, he just murders civilians for health or puzzles or because they didn't fuck him.
I think that's the point. He's teaching his son to be a better man than he was. And from the way things looked in the trailer I'm betting that the kid is actually the main character. and that you'll switch to him ala Raiden in MGS2 or Jake Marston.
I'd still be much much more interested if you played someone else trying to kill his ass. Didn't he pretty much ruin the world by the end of gow3? Someone is going to want revenge for that.
 

Politrukk

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Extra-Ordinary said:
This game looks awesome.
But I'm runnin' into the same "call it something else" problem I'm havin' with Prey, just remove the Kratos tattoo and call it something else and let me remember it as that game that's *like* God Of War; then again, once he gets to the god-killin' I'd probably call it a rip-off, I don't know what I want.

Anyway.

Game looks really cool, looks like they're really startin' from basics here and I like Kratos not being a complete dick anymore, the way he stops himself after his son first misses the deer, "ONLY FIRE-... only fire when I tell you to fire." He's a wee tad calmer, I like that. Oh he's still a bad dude but at least now he channels that into things that deserve it, that's pretty good by me.
what are they changing about prey?
 

shrekfan246

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The over-the-shoulder camera and the attack combos return
I don't know why this says "return". God of War has never had an over-the-shoulder camera.

Samtemdo8 said:
Mestraal said:
Re-humanizing Kratos from MURDER MURDER SEX MURDER is probably a step in the right direction.

I wonder if it'll be open world-y, from the whole 'Discovered X' and 'Knowledge Gained; tracking' XP, I'd assume they're at least aiming to make it feel big.
It's not god of war without the sex part :(

...But than again is Norse/Germanic culture and mythology known for its "Sexuality?"
Well, there is the whole thing with Freyja and Freyr potentially being incest babies who also slept with each other (and were also vaguely the goddess and god of sexuality for their genders, respectively).

LaughingAtlas said:
I'm getting a bit of Jack Marston vibe from that kid... I guess that'd be as good a reason as any to go butcher Norse gods, but I hope he gets more out of it than Jack did.

Really wish they'd done more with the title than that. A simple '4' may not be glamorous, but it's much less confusing.
Yeah, this whole "let's just release a new game with exactly the same name" thing is starting to get really frustrating. Sonic the Hedgehog, Twisted Metal, Syndicate, Devil May Cry, SimCity, Tomb Raider, Shadow Warrior, Killer Instinct, Strider, Thief, Star Wars Battlefront, Ratchet & Clank, DOOM, Prey... guys, get some bloody originality.

Hades said:
Kratos is a father now? The man who destroyed the world after a temper tantrum is raising someone? Is he be going to teach his kid to burn the school down when his teacher tells him to behave?
Technically, his temper tantrum was caused because he was a father in the first place.

Chimpzy said:
I might be remembering this wrong, but didn't Kratos kill himself by impaling himself on his blades to release hope into the world? And wasn't the world proper fucked at the end of GoW3, with all plantlife dead, no solar deity to move the sun across the heavens and everything except Olympus flooded by the sea?

Seems the world recovered quite handily from some seriously cataclysmic events, which, by the way, Kratos caused himself.
Well, not exactly. After the credits there's a scene that shows where Kratos was left to die, but he's not there anymore and there's a trail of blood leading off the edge of the platform. Also, while the cataclysmic events following the death of Olympus are pretty bad, it's worth bearing in mind that Greece is hardly the whole world (EDIT: especially when taking the reality of a living Greek pantheon into account would probably mean that other pantheons also exist within the in-game universe), and the release of Hope to the world is... well, a pretty big change too, surely.
 

irish286

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I got a funny feeling Kratos is raising one of the Norse gods in this. That would be a very interesting tie in.
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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Hummm, I seem to recall Santa Monica Studio saying that Kratos' story was done when GoW 3 was released. Whoops, apparently it's not. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. I feel like I'm one of the very few people who kind of appreciated God of War 3's story elements, and I think the ending was especially unusual in how Kratos ends up admitting to the monster he has become, and dies a lonely and miserable death. To this day Kratos is considered perhaps the most evil and irredeemable protagonist in video game history, and IMO this kind of waters that down. He was a complete and utter monster that didn't deserve redemption, and I would have way preferred continuing the series with a new main character and setting.

Though I could perhaps get interested if they put some special spin on it. This clearly is the same Kratos as before, as signified by the massive scar on his abdomen, but perhaps he's not entirely the same as before. Perhaps the old Kratos died in the sense that he lost his memory, his identity, or a part of those, and ended up just a wanderer. Or perhaps he's still haunted by visions of slaughter from an unknown past, and is trying to make right by it. I couldn't see the same Kratos from God of War 3 trying to redeem himself without some kind of identity change.

Also, when the hell are we going to see anything in video games based on Egyptian mythology? Or fuck, anything else but the same old Norse stuff. We've already seen Skyrim and Thor, do we really need more of that?

shrekfan246 said:
Well, not exactly. After the credits there's a scene that shows where Kratos was left to die, but he's not there anymore and there's a trail of blood leading off the edge of the platform.
I always preferred to think that wasn't a hint at Kratos being alive, but rather a way of bringing the series full circle, to the nearly first words we hear in the series: "And Kratos cast himself from the highest mountain in all of Greece". Hardly a mountain in Greece higher than Olympus itself, right?
 

Scarim Coral

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Anyone else think Kratos is abit of a deadbeat husband if he let his wife do all the hunting unless it was something she enjoyed?
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Feels like a slow-burn start considering every other GoW game (I'm getting Tomb Raider/TLoU vibes) but looks interesting.
 
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InsanityRequiem said:
I most likely am wrong, but I?m having this weird, strange feeling that Kratos will die and you?ll play the kid.
I know, right? Its the way you get the "knowledge gained" things pop up, but only when the kid learns something. I kind of doubt that'll happen though, because why go to the big reveal of Kratos looming out of the shadows if he's not the main character? And why showcase his abilities if its all going to be tossed aside when Baby-K takes over?
 

happyninja42

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Pallindromemordnillap said:
InsanityRequiem said:
I most likely am wrong, but I?m having this weird, strange feeling that Kratos will die and you?ll play the kid.
I know, right? Its the way you get the "knowledge gained" things pop up, but only when the kid learns something. I kind of doubt that'll happen though, because why go to the big reveal of Kratos looming out of the shadows if he's not the main character? And why showcase his abilities if its all going to be tossed aside when Baby-K takes over?
Because Legacy Story? I mean that's kind of one of the biggest tropes of any story about a parent/child, where the child doesn't get kidnapped/killed so the parent has to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge (though I suspect this very thing will happen with the kid at some point). The passing on of wisdom and tradition to a new generation is a staple of storytelling, and given the trailer is exactly about him teaching his son (or at least a kid he calls "Boy") how to "be a man", it would make sense.

Though after thinking about it, I'm suspicious as to whetherthe child is his? He never calls him son, only "Boy". And he speaks about the boy's mother, and giving him a knife. I don't recall the boy ever calling him "father"? Only sir.

So I wonder if it's a case of Kratos finding some woman that took him in, and he fell in love with her, but she already had a child. So he continued to raise the child after she died.

Though, for you Norse mythology experts out there.

Is there any Norse god that is famous for having a knife and/or bow? Because part of me is thinking he's teaching a soon to be Norse god? I mean, He is from the Greek times, which were before the Vikings. So simply by timeline, he is around before the beginning of the Norse Pantheon...assuming they exist once people begin to worship them. He sure looks a lot like Odin, and I seem to recall Thor being red headed in the myths? Perhaps they're going that route? *shrugs* Interesting to consider at least.
 

Dead Metal

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Happyninja42 said:
Pallindromemordnillap said:
InsanityRequiem said:
I most likely am wrong, but I?m having this weird, strange feeling that Kratos will die and you?ll play the kid.
I know, right? Its the way you get the "knowledge gained" things pop up, but only when the kid learns something. I kind of doubt that'll happen though, because why go to the big reveal of Kratos looming out of the shadows if he's not the main character? And why showcase his abilities if its all going to be tossed aside when Baby-K takes over?
Because Legacy Story? I mean that's kind of one of the biggest tropes of any story about a parent/child, where the child doesn't get kidnapped/killed so the parent has to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge (though I suspect this very thing will happen with the kid at some point). The passing on of wisdom and tradition to a new generation is a staple of storytelling, and given the trailer is exactly about him teaching his son (or at least a kid he calls "Boy") how to "be a man", it would make sense.

Though after thinking about it, I'm suspicious as to whetherthe child is his? He never calls him son, only "Boy". And he speaks about the boy's mother, and giving him a knife. I don't recall the boy ever calling him "father"? Only sir.

So I wonder if it's a case of Kratos finding some woman that took him in, and he fell in love with her, but she already had a child. So he continued to raise the child after she died.

Though, for you Norse mythology experts out there.

Is there any Norse god that is famous for having a knife and/or bow? Because part of me is thinking he's teaching a soon to be Norse god? I mean, He is from the Greek times, which were before the Vikings. So simply by timeline, he is around before the beginning of the Norse Pantheon...assuming they exist once people begin to worship them. He sure looks a lot like Odin, and I seem to recall Thor being red headed in the myths? Perhaps they're going that route? *shrugs* Interesting to consider at least.
I believe this is his son, he even stops himself from calling him father and instead calls him "sir" knowing that Kratos prefers that. After all, Kratos is Spartan and they were very authoritarian.
I guess his mother did the hunting and most of the raising, because Kratos wasn't home all the time, probably out pillaging as a viking.

I believe the kid is actually Thor, and Kratos is Odin. Over the course of the game Kratos will only refer to him as boy, and when the game is over he will finally refer to him as Thor, and then take the Throne and start the Norse gods.
The kid clearly has lightning powers, Kratos is war torn, and shows wisdom in this, plus Odin lost his left eye, Kratos has that scar over his left eye.
The big change is likely not that he'll murder the Norse gods, but that he's going to bring order by starting a reveolution because the world needs gods at that moment in time.
 

Dead Metal

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bartholen said:
Hummm, I seem to recall Santa Monica Studio saying that Kratos' story was done when GoW 3 was released. Whoops, apparently it's not. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. I feel like I'm one of the very few people who kind of appreciated God of War 3's story elements, and I think the ending was especially unusual in how Kratos ends up admitting to the monster he has become, and dies a lonely and miserable death. To this day Kratos is considered perhaps the most evil and irredeemable protagonist in video game history, and IMO this kind of waters that down. He was a complete and utter monster that didn't deserve redemption, and I would have way preferred continuing the series with a new main character and setting.

Though I could perhaps get interested if they put some special spin on it. This clearly is the same Kratos as before, as signified by the massive scar on his abdomen, but perhaps he's not entirely the same as before. Perhaps the old Kratos died in the sense that he lost his memory, his identity, or a part of those, and ended up just a wanderer. Or perhaps he's still haunted by visions of slaughter from an unknown past, and is trying to make right by it. I couldn't see the same Kratos from God of War 3 trying to redeem himself without some kind of identity change.

Also, when the hell are we going to see anything in video games based on Egyptian mythology? Or fuck, anything else but the same old Norse stuff. We've already seen Skyrim and Thor, do we really need more of that?

shrekfan246 said:
Well, not exactly. After the credits there's a scene that shows where Kratos was left to die, but he's not there anymore and there's a trail of blood leading off the edge of the platform.
I always preferred to think that wasn't a hint at Kratos being alive, but rather a way of bringing the series full circle, to the nearly first words we hear in the series: "And Kratos cast himself from the highest mountain in all of Greece". Hardly a mountain in Greece higher than Olympus itself, right?
No, Santa Monica didn't say that Kratos's story was done with GOW3, they said the story of his vengeance he started in GOW1 was over, but that there was still a lot of potential for more stories set in the universe with him, and maybe even without him.
Essentially what they're doing here is recycling the material they cut from GOW3. The original GOW3 was supposed to open with him killing Zeus, and he would then travel to different pantheons (Norse, Egyptian, Buddhist, etc) and kill those gods before then bringing new order by being one of the three kings visiting baby Jesus.

Ad he's not the most evil and irredeemable character, nore was he a complete and utter monster. The first game was literally about him trying to not become a total monster, the second was him having been driven completely mad. And the entire ending of GOW 3 was him finally learning to forgive himself for what he did. A complete monster does not get plagued by visions of its evil past to the point that its driven insane with guilt. And he gave each god a chance to back down and get out of his way.

Worgen said:
Cowabungaa said:
Y'know what stood out for me? Kratos calling for his kid to stay calm, plan and think. Really shoulda taken that advice to heart yourself Kratos, might've saved you a lot of trouble.

Also, seems like some Skyrim leaked into God of War there.
Wait, so this is literally starring someone else who just happens to be called Kratos? Cause Kratos doesn't plan, he doesn't stay calm or think, he just murders civilians for health or puzzles or because they didn't fuck him.
Except he does plan, you're forgetting that he was one of the youngest and most successful Spartan generals and rose in rank and power quickly due to his capabilities as a warrior, leader and strategist. He even shows his thinking skills during his calmer moments. It's just that we mostly got to see the very very angry version of him. This is very clearly him after calming down.