The latest installments of the God of War series from 2018 and 2022 allow for an emotional development of the protagonist Kratos. However, the creator of the series, who did not work on these installments, criticizes exactly that. He expresses harsh words against Santa Monica Studios.
Who is the creator of God of War? The creator of the God of War franchise is David Jaffe, an American game designer. He was involved in the development of the first three parts, but not in the two latest installments of God of War from 2018 and God of War: Ragnarök from 2022.
Recently, he caught attention for criticizing the allegedly poor graphics of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: “I had it fixed by AI!” – The creator of God of War mocks the graphics of the new Zelda
He is currently no longer active in game development; his last project dates back to 2017: Drawn to Death for the PS4.
David Jaffe criticizes Santa Monica Studios and the “new” Kratos
What does David Jaffe criticize? In an interview with IGN, Santa Monica Studios talked about what contributed to the emotional development of Kratos. Bruno Velazquez, one of the co-directors at Santa Monica Studios, said among other things:
One could say that many of our projects in our games and the way we approach them reflect a bit the personalities and personal experiences of the studio. The earlier games of the Greek era were perhaps our college years; and now we have all grown up and have our own families. We try to reflect these personal experiences through Kratos and some of the other characters with whom he interacts.
In one of his YouTube videos, David Jaffe expressed his displeasure about the latest God of War installments. He believes that the approach of Santa Monica Studios is wrong. For him, it is important that existing characters remain true to the personalities given to them at the start.
He compared Kratos with Indiana Jones: He does not want these characters to grow up. Furthermore, he criticized that the studio could project their personal developments onto newly created characters, but not onto already established ones: “No, damn it, that’s not what these characters are, neither Indy nor Kratos!”
What else does David Jaffe say? David Jaffe also adds that he would like the games themselves, but in his opinion, they no longer represent God of War: “Don’t damn call it ‘God of War.'”
What are the reactions? The comments under the video are divided. Some are on the side of David Jaffe, some are not:
- theboshawguy7763: “You say the new Kratos is too emotional, but in the original games he wiped out a whole damn pantheon, driven by rage and sorrow – so emotions.”
- xxMKtooStronk__: “He’s absolutely right. I want the young Kratos, full of women, corpses, and without feelings – not some old family man.”
- BeretBay: “I understand the feeling of not liking a character to stray from their originally intended personality, but in the case of Kratos, I could not disagree more. This is one of those cases where it was simply executed too well to dislike it. He has evolved – not regressed.”
This is not the first time the creator of God of War has garnered attention through his statements. However, his thoughts on the video game Starfield were quite positive: The very critical creator of God of War explains what he thinks of Starfield
