God Of War Fans Hate Sony's Skinny Kratos Design
A scrapped early design of Kratos in God of War: Ascension has been revealed on Reddit, and it's pretty freaky.
What Did The Early Design Of Kratos Look Like?
Well, pretty disturbing. He looks nothing like the Kratos that we've grown to know and love. Instead of being huge and intimidating, he looks old, very slim, and weathered. And half of his stomach is missing. The only real indication that it's supposed to be Kratos is the red line tattoo across his face.
However, a little context is needed here. This was an early design for God of War: Ascension, the PS3 exclusive that was released all the way back in 2013. The prequel was the seventh instalment in the series, but to add a little bit of confusion to the mix, chronologically it's actually the first chapter.
The timeline is roughly six months after (spoiler alert) he unintentionally kills his wife and daughter. The game itself was pretty well-received, with an 80% Metacritic score, and 7.8/10 from IGN.
Would it have been as successful with the above monstrosity as the main character? We'll sadly never know. Although personally, being faced by that zombie-looking character (rather than the beast we're now more than familiar with) would've been quite off-putting.
What Are God Of War Fans Saying About The Early Design?
It's a bit of a mixed bag of opinions, but the general consensus seems to agree that it's pretty creepy. One Reddit user wrote: "I don't think anyone can recover from this lol". Another added: "An adult Kratos without muscles is so strange… Aside from the missing flesh I’m not even sure this version of him could pick up the blade of Olympus without breaking his back!".
However, a few people did point out that the idea itself was quite interesting: "Unpopular opinion, but this would’ve been a really cool concept. To see kratos probably weaker than he’s ever been, then see him rise up again and become even stronger than he was before. (at least that's what i assume would’ve happened) the only thing i dislike is that he doesn’t look like kratos much in the face, i would’ve preferred his normal pre reboot face with slightly less accentuated features to show that he’s weaker/worn out," added a supporter of the design.
Either way, we're glad to see that Sony decided to run with a design that's much closer to what we saw in God of War (2018), and will see in God of War: Ragnarok on its release in 2022. There's something about this bearded and bulging Kratos that has won over fans old and new - with this fatherly new rendition making God of War the hit it was. By the looks of it, it's much of the same in what could be Kratos' last chapter.