God of War PS4 Celebrates 5-Year Anniversary

UPDATE

Director of the PS4 game Cory Balrog made a video celebrating the game’s anniversary!

ORIGINAL STORY

When it comes to video game protagonists, only a few truly get to “reinvent themselves” and become something else in a video game. Mario is easily the best example, as he’s been in various games and genres. But for other protagonists, the ability to “change oneself” within their franchise is much harder. That’s why when Kratos ended his quest against the Greek gods in the PS3 era, no one expected him to return. But they were wrong, as God of War on PS4 came out five years ago today and blew everyone’s minds with how good it was.

Not only did it upgrade the visuals of Kratos’ world, but it gave a new perspective to his life. He was now a father and was doing all he could to suppress the rage that had long been inside of him. The game was an instant hit, and as many are noting on this anniversary, it was a hit in more ways than one:

That third point in the tweet is arguably one of the most important aspects because there is still a debate in the video game industry about single-player titles and their place in the world. But between the PS4 game and the success of God of War Ragnarok last year, there’s little doubt that if you make a quality single-player title, people will buy it.

But it wasn’t just fans and analysts looking into the anniversary. The team at Santa Monica Studio did too! On the PlayStation Blog, they talked at length about Kratos vs. Baldur and how the fight at the end was built.

Bruno Velazquez, Animation Director at Santa Monica Studio, first noted how they had to make the fight huge because that’s what the fans wanted:

“We knew that the players would expect a big epic finale, so our goal was always to try and push what we had done on the initial Baldur fight and up the stakes in every way.”

Meanwhile, Matt Sophos, Narrative Director for the title, noted that this fight, from a narrative standpoint, was about teamwork and consequences:

“The narrative objective was twofold. First, we wanted to convey from both a story and gameplay perspective just how far Kratos and Atreus had come in their relationship. We wanted to show they were working together seamlessly, protecting each other, and fighting as a unit.”

The “consequences” was about how killing Baldur turned Freyja into their enemy, a plot thread that would be picked up in the second game of the line.