Possibly one of the biggest changes to Sony Santa Monica’s God of War for the PlayStation 4 (aside from the shift to Norse mythology and Kratos now having a son) is the new weapon Kratos uses to kill of enemies.
In previous God of War games, the Blades of Chaos was the main weapon for Kratos, and even factored into the story. But if the most recent gameplay demo from E3 is any indication, it’s gone for good, and is now replaced with a magical axe. In an interview, God of War Director Cory Barlog explained why Kratos (and the studio) dropped the far-reaching chains for a rather more grounded weapon.
We were experimenting with lots of different weapons, lots of different things…I think we wanted to create an identity, because to me the blades represent a very dark time in [Kratos’] life. They are not just a weapon to him. They are his scarlet letter. They are the marking that somebody tricked him, that he made a bad deal, that he made a mistake. Powerful, but I think also powerfully charged in its emotion. So I think of part of him wanting to move forward is being able to [leave the blades behind].
Balrog also explained the move from a game designer standpoint and how they knew it was time to move on from the Blades of Chaos.
“It gives us the freedom to experiment with what we really want to do. I think the magic moment with the axe, honestly, was when a programmer and a combat designer was like, ‘I have this cool idea.’ Right away the magic of throwing the axe, having it stick anywhere in the world, and then recalling it, and then kind of playing around with that, and realizing you can hit people with it, you can throw it behind them, move in front of them, recall it and hit him in the back.
Well, there you go, God of War fans. Let’s hope this is explained in the game’s plot as well. I’m definitely OK with Kratos using an axe, but I do want to know why he’d ditch his trademark weapon.
Are you OK with Kratos using an axe? Or are you hoping there’s a Blades of Chaos-like weapon available in the game?
God of War will axe its way out onto the PS4 sometime in “early 2018.”
[Source: Games Radar]
