God of War: Kratos’ humanity and the Last of Us influence

First released in 2005, God of War is one of the most successful games of the 21st century. With a polished story and balanced action gameplay, the game became the flagship for the PlayStation franchise. With the latest installment announced at E3 2016, God of War is receiving a lot of positive signals. Of course, these games aren’t perfect, with protagonist Kratus often criticized for his personality, but this is probably about to change.

Speaking to GameSpot recently, God of War’s creative director, Cory Barlog, talked about the failures of creating characters that players can empathize with. He talked about how the new game will give depth to the character. Barlog believes that one way to do this is to bring Kratos into Norse mythology and retrieve the personality lost to the violence of the Greek plot.

[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=””]I really don’t want to have to reboot Greek mythology, I want to explore something new. I give Kratos a new context, a fresh start will be more important. Changing Kratus, or at least opening up a different view of Kartos, gives the character more depth, like digging for humanity in Kratos, to find the personality behind it, from a human who have fallen…”[/penci_blockquote]

If we look at this series, it is completely understandable to break away from Greek mythology to find conscience in Kartos. The vast majority will remember that God of war begins with a resentful and suicidal Kratos, unable to cope with the loss of his family. Unfortunately, as the sequels progressed, the plot became broader, the conscience in Kratos was lost, and the character gradually became a killing machine. Any attempt to fix this aspect of the character has failed. “There were so many things I missed,” Barlog said of Kratos’ personality. “I probably tried to give Kratos a big impact to make sense of the game world”

Of course, changing the location wasn’t enough to change Kratus and help find another person inside the character. Barlog and the team at Santa Monica Studio believe that the key to growth lies with Atreus, son of Kratos. As seen in the video, Kratos becomes softer if he wants to be a good father to his children and let Atreus not follow the same path he left before. Using children will explore aspects of fatherhood, similar to the relationship between Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us. Both Joel and Kratos are tough men, tormented by painful pasts and only love for their child, or a surrogate son, can uncover other depths.

Barlog describes a moment seen during the E3 demo when the duo went hunting. Atreus made a mistake, and while scolding his son, Kratos suppressed his anger to a calm, but not quite gentle, ending. Barlog calls it the “decisive moment.” “Kratos doesn’t know how to express himself or avoid hurting his children, so he doesn’t talk much” and “Those are some very human moments when Kratos goes silent.”

To varying degrees, Atreus’ relationship with his father goes deeper than that, forcing Kratos to show his personality and be willing to learn and change. At the very least, Kratos is a man in a new world, with customs and traditions so new to him that he sometimes has to listen to his son, for this is a world only Atreus knows and understand. Of course, this can be understood in tandem with the relationship of both characters in the father-son direction. Atreus is living as an ordinary person but does not know the previous identity of his father (demigod). Thus, through Atreus, Kratos will learn how to become human again.

[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=””]Atreus is a way for Kratos to become a little more open, but Atreus also has a lot to teach Kratos, in a way. Atreus sees the world as an ordinary person, he doesn’t understand the gods, he understands what it’s like to be a human, that’s how Atreus was raised. Atreus will help Kratos see it and pull it out. This boy will teach his demigod father what it’s like to be human, while the father tries to teach his son not to make the same mistakes he made.”[/penci_blockquote]

With the game less than a month away from release, fans won’t have to wait long to see the changes inside Kratos. Certainly, this is the part that cannot be missed in this series.

God of War will be released on April 20, 2018 on PlayStation 4.