God of War: Ascension dev on gore and sexual content: We'll 'push the envelope as far as we can'
- Posted February 8th, 2013 at 19:39 EDT by Kyle Prahl
- 8 Comments
God of War: Ascension will attempt to explore a different side of Spartan anti-hero Kratos; a side less jaded by betrayal, but freshly bruised by the death of his family. We'll find out whether Ascension succeeds in plumbing the depths of Kratos' character when it launches on March 12, but many fans are wondering whether the prequel - which features the series' first multiplayer mode - will live up to the God of War legacy in other respects. Lead Combat Designer Jason McDonald believes that it will.
Always eager to serve the PSU forum community, I seized my chance at a press event in Hollywood last week to ask McDonald how Sony Santa Monica will be treating the issue of graphic content - sexual or otherwise - in God of War: Ascension. "We always try to push the envelope as far as we can. Sometimes we get pushed back and we have to censor our stuff a little bit," McDonald lamented. "We're always trying to find new ways that we can rip guys open and just do things that we want. Multiplayer gives us a little venue where we can do that as well, where now we're killing other people."
"That kind of allowed us to go there with kills that we haven't even shown yet."
Of course, I also asked McDonald about the motivation behind telling an earlier story in the God of War universe. "We knew that as Kratos went on from God of War 1, 2, and 3, he also became a little less likable, because he started becoming more of a bastard," McDonald explained. "So I think a lot of the drive from [Todd Papy, Game Director] was to tell a story with a Kratos that was slightly different - he's not as angry. He's still a warrior, still powerful, still a Spartan guy, but he's not as just blatantly angry." I was glad to hear that Kratos may demonstrate a larger emotional range in Ascension, as the one-dimensionality of his character has alienated me in the past. McDonald echoed my sentiment: "We recognize that it might appeal to some more people - people that didn't like Kratos, may like this version of Kratos."
For more on God of War: Ascension, check out our hands-on impressions and watch the first 30 minutes of the game. Stay tuned to PSU.com for our review.
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Alex Christian Boehm |
SON_OF_KRATOS666- 8:04pm EST - February 8th, 2013
- 1
It's FAR too late to try and make his character more dynamic. At this point, I, and other fans alike, have come to love his personality the way it is. Rage, even missplaced, Anger, Wrathful, thats who Kratos IS. you cannot try to make him different and more emotional in a goddamn prequel, it doesnt work like that.
Mr.Papy, you should not be directing this entry, or any entry for that matter. You are trying to change things that dont need changed, trying to make too big of an impact on Kratos as a character. Evolution is welcome, but negative change is NOT.
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Fijiandoce
- 9:24pm EST - February 8th, 2013
- 3
@1 Alex
the reasons for what made him the way you've descibed intrigues me more than simply continuing on with what they've climbed to.
i'd quite like to see a krotos who thinks about things other than mindless killing, i'd also like to see what it was that brings about his change in perspective ;)
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Alex Christian Boehm |
SON_OF_KRATOS666- 11:03pm EST - February 8th, 2013
- 4
@3
We already know WHY he was angry, and acted the way he did. At this point they are milking Kratos. If they want to make more God of War's, then they should not be tampering with prequels. Every time they make a prequel, they risk more and more plotholes and inconsistancies. The 5 entries for Kratos are enough, atleast for this generation.
If they must continue to make more entries, why not explore Deimos and the time period between his youth and being found by Kratos later? Why not make spin offs fulfilling Jaffe's ideas of attack other mythologies? As of now, the series does not need more prequels.
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Fijiandoce
- 11:38pm EST - February 8th, 2013
- 5
@4 Alex
thats understandable, but i'd still like the reason to be explored as opposed to just referenced ;)
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PS3-The Ultimate Machine
- 11:09pm EST - February 9th, 2013
- 6
I for one, think that Ascension's story will fill a VERY large void in Kratos's character. He was a proud warrior, with a loving family, yet his ambitions for honor and glory left him emotionally in tatters. But still, there's a huge difference between the hate and anger of Kratos from GoW 1 to GoW 3, and I think this will fill that hole of when Kratos lost all hope in everyone around him. As seen in the e3 demo, he saved a guy by pushing him to the side, that was the human side of Kratos, and what this game will tell us (I hope) is why and how that side of Kratos got buried so deep in his anger and rage that he became the monstrous reckoning of the greek gods.
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Dantess
- 6:36am EST - February 10th, 2013
- 8
I have to agree with Alex Christian Boehm, it is a bit late to develop a character who's story has already concluded. It's not like they can go back and revise the original trilogy to make us like him even more. He'll still be a rage-fueled murdering machine in GOW's 1, 2 & 3 no matter how many prequels they can make.
This will permanently ban this user and delete all associated comments. This action is irreversible, are you SURE you want to do this?!
