A FIGHT THAT OCCURRED EARLY IN THE GAME WOULD HAVE A SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT OUTCOME.
According to God of War Ragnarök’s Narrative Director, Kratos Would Have a Different Ending.
Warning: This article has spoilers for God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök.
When asked about the conclusion of the 2018 God of War game, in which Kratos views a mural depicting his demise, Matt Sophos replied, “It’s a prophecy that may happen in the future game.”
Kratos ultimately survives, despite the mural being repeated early in Ragnarök, and Sophos was questioned about whether or not there are ever any plans to truly kill him off.
“There was the earliest, earliest draft of an outline that we had come up with, that we took to
director Eric Williams,” Sophos replied, revealing that in this draft “Kratos died in the Thor fight at the very beginning of the game.”
He continued: “And so, he was gonna die, and then it wasn’t a permanent death. What was going to happen – and I don’t care, we can tell this, because it doesn’t happen any more so this is all fan fiction at this point – he would get pulled out of Hell, essentially, by Atreus.
“But it’s now been, like, 20 years have passed – it was going to be a big time jump-type thing. So that was a version of it.”
Williams ultimately decided against moving in that way, according to Sophos, and that was the right choice.
“Eric was like, ‘I don’t want to do that, Kratos has died and come back from it too many times, and it’ll feel a little bit too ‘oh, you said he was gonna die and oh, you just killed him but he came right back”,” he recalled.
“The hook, the emotion, wasn’t really going to be there, and he was absolutely right, and so that’s why it didn’t last very long.”
The fact that Kratos is still very much alive at the conclusion of the game, according to Sophos, also serves as a reminder to gamers that their futures aren’t predetermined.
“As we were developing the story, we knew we wanted it to be about letting go and changing,” he explained. “Knowing that Norse mythology is all about fate and prophecy and everything, and we wanted to say ‘that’s bullshit’, you know?
“Nothing is written that can’t be unwritten, as long as you’re willing to make changes in your life then you’re not bound to fate. And so when we landed on that, when we know that was the story we wanted to tell, we knew that Kratos couldn’t die.
“Because then it would be like, ‘well, are we just going to say that Kratos couldn’t change?’ And that would suck.”
