The 2nd Most Important Character in the Game Almost Wasn’t Included
God of War is coming out in just a few days and has garnered critical acclaim from nearly every gaming critic on the Internet. While its gameplay has received a lot of praise, this new God of War game has also been been lauded for its story and characters, particularly Kratos’ son Atreus.Â
However, a recent interview with God of War’s developer team revealed that Atreus was almost never included in the game at all.
“It would have been very different,” explained God of War’s Creative Director Cory Barlog in a recent interview with Gamespot. “The early phase when they told me, ‘Man, this might be too hard, too expensive, we’re already looking at so many challenges, it’s maybe too much.'”
If Atreus hadn’t been included in the game then Kratos would’ve just spent the 30-plus hours of his adventure talking to himself after long stretches of silence just like Robert Redford’s character in the 2013 film All is Lost, Barlog added.
With that argument, Barlog was able to successfully convince Sony to let him have Atreus in the game even though his inclusion could’ve cost more money to make God of War.
The creative director also explained that having a son changed how he went about creating this much older and wiser Kratos. “I had just had my son, at the start of this game, and I was kind of looking at it like ‘Oh, wow, how much of myself do I wanna show here.’ said Barlog. “How much of my faults do I want the mask and cover up and how many of the dumb things that I’ve doe in my life do I wanna prevent him from doing?”
“And, it’s like, wow, that’s Kratos, that’s Kratos to a T–he has made the worst decision in his life, but be able to actually, earnestly, be a parent,” Barlog continued.
God of War will come out on April 20th for the PS4. You can read our review of the game here.