Just in time for God of War’s first anniversary, Sony, along with developer Santa Monica Studio, has announced a full-length feature detailing the critically-acclaimed game’s development.
Raising Kratos, a full-length feature documentary on the development of 2018’s God of War, was first announced by Sony in a trailer. The short trailer features scenes of director Cory Balrog during the game’s development, as well as the motion capture work done by Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic, who play Kratos and his son, Atreus, respectively.
Oh, to all asking about the final shot in the trailer.
— the fake cory balrog (@corybarlog) April 20, 2019
That was the original pre-rendered teaser trailer for GOW 2018 we were going to hide on the GOW 3 remastered PS4 release. But we ran out of time to get it on the disc so it ended up getting put on the shelf until now.
❤️? pic.twitter.com/9G8cTg27Un
God of War was mostly seen as a return to form for the stagnating series, with eight games in a single decade all being set in the Greek mythology canon. The original God of War was one of the PlayStation 2’s flagship titles, and formally introduced the character of Kratos into the world of video games.
The original God of War was followed by two direct sequels, God of War II and God of War III, all of which chronicle Kratos’ journey against the Olympic gods. In between, the series also branched into different platforms; God of War: Betrayal was released for mobile phones, God of War: Chains of Olympus was released for the PlayStation Portable and God of War: Ghost of Sparta was also released for the same platform two years later. A prequel to the original God of War, called God of War Ascension, was the final game released which covered Kratos’ history with Greek mythology.
The move to reinvent Kratos and introduce him to Norse mythology divided much of the fans of the game during its very early stages. It was a huge risk, as Kratos did very well in the Greek setting. A section of the fanbase attributed the move as something akin to milking the franchise, and it wasn’t very surprising that some were content to just let Kratos’ story end in III.
But, as history would have it, Kratos’ journey is far from over. 2018’s God of War was considered a critical and commercial success, and was subsequently hailed as Game of the Year by hundreds, if not thousands of publications. Santa Monica Studio has since been keen on continuing the series in its Norse setting, with the developer providing numerous teases as to what the future would bring for God of War.
Raising Kratos will be released some time this year and will be available to watch for free on PlayStation’s YouTube channel.
