This week’s podcast roundup is dominated by the numerous appearances of the always vocal and entertaining David Jaffe.
Terri writes: "In a recent video released by the creator of the God of War series, David Jaffe, we can see that Jaffe is not fond of the direction PlayStation took regarding the franchise, and in particular, Kratos himself."
Well, I personally think that Santa Monica did an absolutely phenomenal job with Kratos, showcasing insane character development in all the right ways.
I disagree. God of War went from a brutal action game where Kratos was slaying gods to a boring father figure. God of War 3 was my favorite in the series.
I much prefer the focused and purposeful with reason Kratos who still gets into brutal combat and still has to kill gods even though he tries not to. Past Kratos was just anger personified and did nothing but subvert any expectations of him being something else other than just rage.
2 is still my favorite. Everything about that game is top shelf design. the scale and scope of things like fighting the colossus of rhodes to awakening the steeds of time... just epic. 3 was good, but 2 is the high point of the original trilogy (for me).
The direction santa monica took for the reboot was less GoW (god of war) and more GoW (gears of war). The whole 3rd person perspective, having a partner (even if its his son), and lack of verticality with no more jumping and creating crazy areal combos... it was difficult to come to terms with but i managed. the story was good though, but i still give the nod to greek mythology over norse (and likely egyptian if that is where they go next).
I can see it either way. I agree that the series now has nothing in common with the original beyond superficial character appearances and general setting. They sort of used the IP to sell an entirely different style of game. That said the new games are well made in their own right.
I don't even think Jaffe really understood Kratos, despite creating him. Or rather, he doesn't seem to understand how he created the fertile ground for this kind of character development arc.
He was always a warrior, but he had a very human element since day one. He had a chance to protect his family again in God of War I and Ares took them away... Again. He knows he can't get them back and moved forward as the new God of War. Fast forward, the Gods betrayed him (though he was still sympathetic to Athena at the time). Eventually, he waged war with Olympus.
He was part of the pantheon and that would've been the entirety of his story arc where he oversaw war for all time.
But the truth this, Kratos has changed, but he largely remained the same. His two constants were always pride in his family and revenge against those who have wronged him. You take those two together (a threat to his family and Gods looking to kill him) and the direction he's taken is pretty congruent with who Kratos always has been. I guess you can say Kratos would just be a merciless monster for the sake of it, but the old games never explore present aspects of the character (e.g., what kind of father Kratos was). We got a look at that, and with a boy, no less.
I find the franchise did well to age with the audience. I was an angry teen when the original came out. Now I'm kinda mellowed out with a family and I just get it.
I think it did an excellent job of connecting with the audience as we grew up. It's a bit like Toy Story in that regard.
Agree. I liked GoW 3 the best as well. There weren't enough unique boss fights in the reboot.
Well he aged considerably. Define boring father figure exactly? Maybe your father was boring but don't put that blame on others.
As far as slaying gods ...you're right ...he went from god slaying to....hmmm god slaying.
The newer Kratos matured with the audience. They could have just kept doing the same game over and over but they saw it getting stale so they had to switch the formula...they did so incredibly well.
While God of War 3 is undoubtedly excellent in its own manner, the "boring father figure" part is something I don't agree with. For starters, if the situation calls for it, the old Kratos is back on camera, like when he fights against a particular Aesir god in Ragnarok.
He achieved his goal... he actually got the revenge he was so desperately needing and in the end what? It'd be terrible character development if he would just go to another mythology to kill more gods just for the sake of they being gods. They actually gave them a meaning in life, and even better, they got an amazing idea of how to create a new game with actual bealavility and a plot, not just merciless kill.
Agree 100% Kratos had about an inch of depth before the norse version. Now he feels like a real character, a real dad, with real reactions based on his experiences.
Wasn't Jaffe the one who got stuck on something easy in Metroid Dread and started bashing the game because of it? From what I played of GoW 2018, they actually gave Kratos some much-needed depth. I definitely plan to finally go through the newer entries once my PS5 comes in.
Jaffe got stuck with his young mind thinking and it really showed with his latest attempt in gaming "Drawn to Death" it was like a teenage dream that became true and also, sucked.
This whole video was essentially him finding comments to back up his own opinion. "It looks like a lot of people think..."
Yeah, well what do the review scores, sales, user scores, and completion rates on the last two say? Anything on that?
Nothing wrong with his opinion. He created it so he's earned the right to criticize. Review scores and sales have nothing to do with it. It's success was never in question.
You should probably read the first part of my comment. He's cherry picking opinions to support his but ignoring the plethora of other opinions.
Yeah, he's allowed his opinion, but his arguing method is to act like people just agree with him and not the diverse opinions out there on the subject.
People won’t like it I know but he’s entitled to his opinion being the games creator
I totally disagree but it’s not going to ruin the game for us who do like it
Yeh I may or may not disagree but he created the original and without him we would have no god of war, (or maybe one that wasn’t as good). So he can say what he wants in my books
Last I heard of him he made a black ad white game with a weird sketch art style. Similar to Sega Madworld
Haven’t heard from him since
Shame
Drawn to Death, yeh, played it at the Playstation experience, it was quite fun, an old school arena shooter. Then it came out, and everyone died quicker, so strafe battles gone. It essentially turned into die, insta spawn, use ult, get a kill, they insta spawn, ult you, you die, and just repeat that loop lmao, its was terrible.
I just have a problem with him saying they shouldn't have called it God of War because his opinion doesn't align with theirs on the future of the IP. That part I felt was pointedly petty.
Starting with the top 128 best rated games on Metacritic and putting them head-to-head tournament style! The round of 16 for the March Madness Podcast. Vote for which games you think should go through!
GETL Podcast says: "In episode 81 we discuss the interesting nuance surrounding narrative and lore elements within video games, and how this interactive medium is both a boon and a curse for lore junkies".
The short answer is, it depends on the game and whether or not narrative is the focus. For example, maybe it's important to provide us with the social commentary that accompanies the fall of civilization as we come face to face with the dark side of humanity in the struggle for survival. On the other hand, maybe we just need to shoot zombies, and that's cool too. The videogame medium is versatile enough to allow for either approach, some combination of both, or something in between.
