Despite being nominated for numerous awards and even winning Game of the Year in 2018, the creator of God of War, David Jaffe, is not a huge fan of the new direction the series has gone in. Jaffe himself hasn't worked on these new God of War games, but thinks that they're not staying true to the spirit of the character and the franchise. The creator noted that if developers want to pour their life experiences into their work, they should do it with new IPs and characters.

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[–] iyaerP@lemmy.world 112 points 10 months ago (9 children)

the Original God of War Kratos had all the depth of a puddle.

nuKratos is by far the superior character.

[–] Rakonat@lemmy.world 66 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Modern Kratos wouldn't be nearly as impactful or enthralling if we didn't intimately know his past and what he is capable of. Replacing him with another character who acts identical and had a similar background revealed in flashbacks would just undercut how Kratos acts now.

We see him show restraint his younger self was incapable of, and how when hes holding back, its not for his benefit, but for those who are antagonizing him and his friends. HE knows he is a monster, doesn't view himself as redeemable in the slightest, but has no intention of returing to his old ways while he has the ability to help those he's come to care for, and also show his son a better a path than the one laid out for him.

So while yes, ps2/ps3 kratos had all the depth and bredth of a puddle, modern Kratos is built entirely off that puddle and wouldn't hold its own weight without the previous foundations.

[–] juroku@feddit.nl 4 points 10 months ago

as someone who’s only played GOW 2018 I still thought he was a compelling character 🤷‍♂️

[–] gullible@kbin.social 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There were innumerable opportunities for kratos to develop character beyond raging angry guy of rancorous fury. Every betrayal and every reconciliation was so bland after a while. The originals were one long soap opera.

[–] hansl@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Meh. Not everything need to be deep. It’s a video games. Nobody is asking what the DOOM character backstory is. He’s there to shoot some hellspawns and that’s fun.

There’s a place for both, really.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

My friend, you're missing out on the batshit insane lore of DOOM Eternal. The game itself is amazing, but the lore is even better!

[–] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

My favorite part of the lore is how doom guy doesn't give a shit about the lore.

Not every franchise needs to be deep, and doom eternal kind of suffers for being more story focused.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Really? I enjoy the lore very much, but it seems more than easy enough to ignore - most is told through collectibles, so you can just breeze through everything without reading pretty much anything.

Not every franchise needs to be deep

I kind of disagree - I like it when a lot of thought has been put into things. I'd rather have it available and be able to ignore it than not have it available at all.

[–] iyaerP@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

To repeat myself from a response to another user:

You don't even need the deep lore hidden text and recordings for Doomguy. The show-not-tell storytelling is fucking amazing in Doom 2016.

Like they don't need any deep lore dumps or in depth explainations. The simple and casual disregard of Samuel Hayden for the lives of his employees and everyone else on Mars is in direct contrast to how deeply it's immediately obvious that Doomguy DOES care about those same dead scientists and colonists just from a few simple actions.

No long-winded explanation necessary. Those 10 seconds were a masterpiece of visual storytelling. It lets us know the stakes, it shows us that Doomguy cares about the lives lost far more than any ostensible greater good or Hayden's justifications.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There’s a place for both, really.

Sure, but when someone whines "Why did they give this character depth? They could have made them shallow and boring!" I'm not going to give that person much credit.

Also, DOOM guy does have some backstory for those that care to look for it in the games. Easily ignored for those that don't.

[–] iyaerP@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You don't even need the deep lore hidden text and recordings for Doomguy. The show-not-tell storytelling is fucking amazing in Doom 2016.

No long-winded explanation necessary. Those 10 seconds were a masterpiece of visual storytelling.

[–] BURN@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

100% my biggest issue with modern games right now is there’s too much damn lore. I need to know a hundred different things to understand the game, and I generally don’t know those things.

I’m a huge fan of Doom Eternal, and it’s one of the few single player games I’ve finished in the last few years. Too many games now end up needing to spend half my play session in conversations or cut scenes, and I realized I don’t have fun playing games like that.

[–] GONADS125@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A buddy of mine got me to play Dark Tides and I had fun, but he kept telling me I needed to look into the lore of the Warhammer universe.

Looked into it and realized I don't have the time or interest to get into such a fictional universe that feels like it has more depth than most religions. I feel like there could be a degree track for Warhammer historians..

Not hating on people who are into it. But it's too overwhelming for someone like me who just wants to play games to clear my mind and distract myself. Also socialize.

[–] TrejoPhD@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have friends that are deep in the tabletop 40k universe and know all the lore. I couldn’t give two shits about the story and have still enjoyed many sessions, plus the computer games: vermintide, darktide, etc.

It’s possible to play and ignore all that.

[–] GONADS125@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Oh yeah, I was doing just that. I wasn't saying the lore interfered with the gameplay at all. I was just relating to feeling like I can't be bothered by extended universes.

[–] Zehzin@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Honestly, I liked him better when he was just an angry sad revenge monster man. The way the games were structured made so that was never a crutch.

That said, David Jaffe needs to disappear already.

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 1 points 10 months ago

He wasn't deep but he was Metal AF.