God Of War PS4 Dev Talks About How Some Wanted To Leave Kratos Behind

Kratos is the hero of God of War, but his role in the franchise was at some point put into question, however briefly or non-seriously it might have been. In a new interview, creative director Cory Barlog said Kratos has always been important to him personally, but some inside Sony--and some fans--questioned if it might be time to leave Kratos behind.

"A lot of people, throughout the development process, [in the public] and in the studio, were like: 'Why keep Kratos?'" Barlog told IGN. But when asked directly if Sony ever seriously considered dropping the character, Barlog said, "No." However, there was a point in development that Barlog was apparently being pushed to drop Kratos' son, Atreus, but he pushed back.

"There was a point where I was almost forced to get rid of Atreus, because everyone was panicked about how complicated it was going to be," Barlog said. "But Kratos, no; I was pretty adamant right from the beginning in saying: I wanted the challenge of taking a character that some people loathed. They're like, 'Look, I don't like this character. He's just reprehensible at times.' We wrote him that way. We made him the anti-hero intentionally."

In the new God of War, Kratos is not going to be an all-around good guy. He will still have some rough edges, but the overall goal is to make Kratos more relatable. Barlog said he wants players to come away from God of War feeling bad for Kratos, rooting for him, or relating to his experiences.

From what we've seen and learned of God of War so far, we are seeing a softer side of Kratos who is still firm with his son, Atreus, but also more understanding. Of course, Kratos is still a brutal killer who eviscerates enemies with savagery. So it will be interesting to see how the game balances this. We'll find out relatively soon, as God of War, a Nordic adventure set in Scandinavia, arrives for PS4 on April 20.

For more on God of War, check out GameSpot's new opinion piece, "God Of War Finally Fixes The Series' Boring Combat."