Warning: There are spoilers for God of War Ragnarok and God of War (2018) in this article.
God of War is quite the iconic and first-party exclusive for Sony. Fans have been following Kratos’ journey across multiple console generations at this point. But those of you who have been following the story from these past two installments almost had a different fate for Kratos. This news came from the narrative director behind God of War Ragnarok, Matt Sophos, as he spoke with MinnMax. During the interview, Matt Sophos brought up how the initial draft for Kratos in God of War Ragnarok was pretty significantly different compared to what the studio ultimately went with.
If you recall, there was a mural in God of War and God of War Ragnarok depicting the downfall of Kratos. That apparently was the plan early on in God of War Ragnarok. Apparently, Kratos was going to lose against Thor towards the start of the game, and it would have sent him to hell. But you couldn’t continue this narrative without Kratos, so the journey would turn to Atreus, who would spend over twenty years fighting through a journey to hell and rescuing Kratos. So players would essentially have this massive time jump within the campaign relatively early.
However, the team looked at the draft and felt that Kratos had died and come back before, so it wouldn’t be much of a shock. Likewise, there wasn’t enough of an emotional draw to see Kratos die early in the game. That seemed to be the main reason why the developers scrapped this idea. Another reason that the developers opted to go a different route with the narrative was that it could show that the character’s fates were not sealed. There might have been murals or depictions of what was going to happen, but the final storyline chosen for the game proved that people could overcome what most believed would be their fates.
Of course, fans of the franchise are eagerly awaiting to see what the studio will do next. We don’t have any official details about a new God of War title being developed or a spin-off storyline that would mainly focus on Atreus. Whatever the next installment ends up being, the bar was set incredibly high from God of War Ragnarok, and it could be a struggle to ensure the next game could reach the same levels of success.
