God of War Atreus Story Content Cut from the Game

God of War is a behemoth of a game. The latest entry in the long-running series overflows with content. Therefore, players are pouring dozens of hours into the main narrative, side quests, collectibles, and Valkyries. It’s a game that leaves you aching for more. Sometimes, however, the ache isn’t for the best of reasons. There are a few instances where certain character moments or emotional beats require more depth. According to game director Cory Barlog, the team at Sony Santa Monica are aware of these shortcomings. In fact, these gaps, especially where Atreus is concerned, were once filled but required excision.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for God of War.

After Kratos reluctantly tells his son they are Gods, Atreus begins acting differently. The once compassionate youth becomes overly arrogant, believing himself above all other creatures. At first, the transition is understandable, he’s curious and has had too much thrown at him all at once. Then it escalates at a pace that feels undeserved as Atreus’ arrogance leads to him making rash decisions that even Kratos finds alarming.

In an interview with Jagat Review, Barlog is asked what he wishes he could have done differently. He specifically addresses Atreus’ behavior.

“Atreus’ sort of moment of egos. He goes through that period of time where he starts to realize ‘we’re Gods, I can do whatever I want.’ Now in a real human life that takes a few years to develop… We didn’t have that kind of time, but we did have a lot more time than what’s allotted in the game. That was a section that we ended up cutting a good two hours out of. So, there would’ve been about 110 minutes maybe of Atreus getting more and more of a, as we call it, jerk mode… We had to shift everything back. He starts becoming a jerk right when you get to the boat…

“That begins the transition. But if you kind of B-line right exactly where you’re supposed to go, you end up accelerating through that. And it does feel very abrupt. It’s something we saw the whole time, but realized there’s just nothing we can do because we had literally cut out an entire level and rearranged a few things. So things were in a slightly different order. In doing so it kind of messed up [pacing for Atreus’ character development].”

Barlog then explains that developing a game narrative is tricky because of so many moving parts. A scene that’s planned early in development may undergo excision later because that allotted time no longer exists. For instance, an hour’s worth of cinematics set aside for banter may not be available. Thus, these conversations must now occur during gameplay. This can work wonders as players are able to better connect with the characters, but can be a trying process for a game’s writing team.

The inside baseball of development that emerges once a game ships is often just as intriguing as the game itself. This is, of course, no exception.