God of War almost feels like a reboot at times- new characters, new setting, new style of gameplay. But you still have Kratos at the center of it all, and as you play more and more of the game, it becomes very evident that this is not a reboot, it is a direct sequel to the original trilogy- though how the two stories are linked is never actually properly explained.
Is that one of those things that director Cory Barlog views as relevant, the specifics of that connection? Is that something he might look at explaining in a future game? When GamingBolt got the chance to talk to Barlog in an exclusive interview, we asked him that question.
“[That connection is] super relevant,” he said. “It’s one of those things, that as I started to break things down, and I looked at the timeline, the sort of rough outline when I was thinking about this, this aspect was so much more interesting once you found out who Faye was. Once you discovered Chapter 2 in his journey, Chapter 1 became more interesting, and if you told it chronologically, it would give away too much that would make the realization that Atreus has less special. And the realization needed to be after the coming of age of Atreus.
“So I realized that it’s important, and we hint at it, Kratos talks about it a bit, but we do when we share things with other people, even our children, we’re guarding. When we feel the relationship is matured enough that they’re ready to hear what we have to say- and with Kratos, what he has to say is pretty dark- his journey from Greece to Scandinavia is essentially him hitting absolute rock bottom, and meeting Faye when he has hit rock bottom. And it is that relationship that pulls him out of that, that forms the sort of unfinished sculpture of Kratos that is at the beginning of the game.”
Barlog went on to add that he does want to tell the story of how 3 links to the new game- that there isn’t just one story in there, in fact there are multiple ones. “But it is to me way more interesting- there are other avenues, other stories we are telling, but I do want to tell that very specific story of Kratos directly linked from 3 to this game, and what happens to him. It is deliberately undefined, this period of time, because I do think there are multiple stories there. I think there’s an overarching story, and then there are several smaller stories.”
I do hope that is a story that is told in the future some time- I think the dramatic evolution Kratos’ character sees from who he was at the end of God of War 3 to who he is in the new game, is something that would be extraordinarily interesting to behold. God of War is out now, only on PS4.