BW Media Spotlight

I should start by saying that I have not played the God Of War games. It’s not my kind of playing genre. However, I have enjoyed PlayFrame’s full story playthroughs of the 2018 God Of War and the sequel God Of War: Ragnarok. I am aware enough of the original games set in Greece and the story of the franchise to some degree, and I did some research prior so I have some idea what I’m talking about. At some point I would like to watch a playthrough of the Greek adventures, but we’re talking just the Norse period of Kratos’ life, so I know what I need to for this article unless there’s another game in this period I’m not aware of. I know enough that when Kratos takes his weapons from the old games to use again, I get the significance of the event to his character arc beyond nostalgia and gameplay mechanics.

Also, I am incredibly behind in his videos, but not this series.

Geeks & Gamers has reported on a rumor concerning a new entry from Sony’s Santa Monica game studio of a new game in the series, currently unconfirmed by Sony. The rumor, and both G&G and I stress it’s ONLY a rumor and thus means little on the internet without official confirmation, is that the game will focus on Kratos’ second wife, the Viking warrior Faye, aka Laufey The Just. This could be a trial balloon or just someone starting trouble. Either way, it got a reaction from the game’s fanbase…and it was not a positive one. In just the tweets chosen by Geeks & Gamers fans were complaining that Kratos was being replaced in the franchise, one commenter saying that not being able to play as Kratos in segments of the Norse games was bad enough. I don’t really agree, but I was a story watcher, not a gamer.

Atreus goes through his own story arc in the game, and getting to play as him allows the story to focus on him when needed, but not at the expense of Kratos’ only storyline. Kratos had to find peace with his past and Atreus with his future, as well as them bonding as father and son. The games took liberties with the Norse gods to match their story to the Greek gods so that Kratos has a reason to off them like he did the Greek pantheon. Note that there will be spoilers of significant reveals in this article if you’re waiting on the games or upcoming Amazon Prime live-action series (because Zeus/Odin forbid there be an animated series in the game’s art style with the original voice cast). I was drawn to the story, Dan of PlayFrame was enjoying the gameplay switch-up, and it all seemed to work well to me.

But what about following Faye’s story? Is there a story to tell? Can it be told without coming off as another gender swap, replacing Kratos with his “clearly superior girlboss” wife? I actually think it can, but not as a full game, or maybe not a game at all. The truth is there is something to tell…but not much.

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