When God of War was first revealed last year, fans were ecstatic at the long awaited return of Kratos and Sony’s flagship action game franchise- but a bit worried, too, because it seemed like the game would function as a soft reboot, jettisoning the gameplay and story of the franchise so far.
This year at E3, the new trailer for the game confirmed that while the game is going to play like no previous God of War game, it still will be set in the same continuity as the original games, something that director Cory Barlog recently confirmed in an interview with COG Connected. “What crazy person would throw out an eight-game backstory for a brand new story arc?” Barlog mused.
The new game, even though it will have its own fresh arc, will still draw from the originals- we can only hope that it does so to give Kratos and his character more gravitas. In the original games, Kratos was a caricaturized angry person, all too willing to destroy the balance of the world for his own selfish revenge. Perhaps by juxtaposing a new, calmer, more moderate, better Kratos against that old Kratos, the game can hammer home just how much growth he – and the franchise – have seen since then.