Trivia / God of War (PS4)

• Author's Saving Throw: Word of God is that part of the whole Kratos/Atreus dynamic can subtly be seen as an apology for God of War: Chains of Olympus, which tried to make Kratos more human by having him openly dote on his daughter Calliope in one scene. This got a mixed reception as many found Kratos' sudden display of fatherly love to be jarring and out of character rather than heartwarming, a criticism Cory Barlog considered while making this game, ensuring that Kratos and Atreus' relationship would develop more slowly and naturally than the "out of nowhere" scenes Kratos had with Calliope. It should be mentioned that no one wondered if Kratos cared for his daughter which he obviously did (given his family's death being the whole reason for his revenge towards Ares), the complaints were more on the manner of which Kratos acted like a blatantly doting parent that seemed out of character for such an otherwise stoic, brutal character.
• Crossdressing Voices: Atreus is voiced by women in the Mexican Spanish and Japanese dubs. Averted in the original English, European Spanish and likely other languages.
• Defictionalization: In 2020, Dark Horse Comics published God of War: Lore and Legends, a recreation of Atreus' diary, the Lore Codex of the game. It also adds expanded information about events from before, during and after the story made in collaboration with the video game's writing team, all told from Atreus' point of view.
• Follow the Leader:
  • While having the game set in Norse Mythology was one of the many ideas tossed around all the way back in God of War III, there's no doubt that the Norse Pantheon's popularity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is what gave the devs enough confidence to go forward with it.
  • The game takes many cues from The Last of Us, ranging from the more grounded tone and combat, the emphasis on scavenging the environment for supplies, and the fatherhood theme that carries over into having a child companion that assists in combat.
  • Defied in one aspect as one of the major settings the development team experimented with was an Egyptian setting, but it was scrapped partly because of the racist connotations of an European god screwing up an African pantheon, but also because the film Gods of Egypt was such a disaster that they didn't want to be associated with it.
  • The reboot has inspired the combat of several games such as God Fall and Marvel's Avengers.
• God Never Said That: For a long time, it was believed that Magni and Modi knew their fates were to survive Ragnarok and Modi's shock at his brother's death stems from the fact that Kratos had defied fate yet again. However, this was a mistake. Baldur, Freya, Mimir, and Odin knew there was an apocalyptic event on the way but they don't know anything else other than that. Odin's role as an antagonist stems from the fact that there's a blind spot in his knowledge and he wants to learn as much as possible about Ragnarok so he can be better prepared. Gróa the knowledge keeper was the only one who knew and the secret died with her because she discovered that Odin had Aurvandil, her husband, killed by Thor and she chose to keep the secret out of raw spite.
• Hilarious Outtakes: One behind-the-scenes video had Christopher Judge and Danielle Bisutti have this conversation between their characters:
  The Witch: I also need lamb's cress, do you mind? It's a white-petal flower in my garden. Just a handful.
  [Beat as Kratos considers]
  Kratos: Fine... [walks off, muttering to himself] Lamb's cress... I'm a fucking God of War...
• Killer App: Not only did the game sell millions of copies on its own, but it gave PS4 sales a significant boost. In April 2018, more people bought a PS4 than bought an Xbox One X or a Nintendo Switch.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: The Collector's Edition of the game includes a digital artbook, comic, PS4 theme, some in-game goodies, and a physical statue, steelbook case, carvings, lithograph, and cloth map. The Stone Mason’s Edition costs a little more, but also comes with a ring, a keychain, and a more carvings along with the Collector's Edition items.
• Missing Trailer Scene: One of the official trailers showed a clip of a large wolf walking in the shadows, indicating a possibly important character such as Fenrir or one of Odin's wolves. While Kratos and Atreus occasionally fight wolves in the game, they're regular enemies and the particular trailer scene of the large, ominous wolf is nowhere to be seen.
• Newbie Boom: Resulted in increased interest in the rest of the series by people who had never played a God of War game previously.
• The Original Darrin:
  • Carole Ruggier, who voiced Athena in God of War and God of War II, returns for her brief appearance in this game, having been replaced by Erin Torpey from God of War: Chains of Olympus onward.
  • During the second journey to Helheim, Corey Burton returns as Zeus, having played the role from God of War II onward but been briefly replaced by Fred Tatasciore for his most recent appearance, in God of War: Ghost of Sparta.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Kratos is no longer voiced by Terrence C. Carson, but Christopher Judge of Stargate SG-1 fame. Word of God states this was due to the switch to using mo-cap tech to animate the characters and make them more realistic, leaving Carson, who could previously embody the role through voice alone, now lacking the physical fitness and size to continue to play Kratos.
  • Ditto in the Japanese dub, as Kenta Miyake replace Tesshō Genda as Kratos.
  • And the same goes in the Latin American Spanish dub, albeit in this case, it was because the dub of the last game with a Latin American dub (Ascension) was done in Argentina, and this one was done in Mexico, partly due of the negative reception the dub of that game, along other Sony's games with Argentinian dubs, had in the past.
  • Many other dubs of the series follow suit and recast Kratos to represent the series' change in direction. The only known exception is the Brazilian Portuguese dub, which keeps Ricardo Juarez in the role (though the only previous game to get a Brazilian Portuguese dub was Ascension).
• Permanent Placeholder: When Christopher Judge started his voicework the team had yet to settle on a final name for Atreus so they had Kratos refer to him as "boy". The original plan was to do a second pass at a later point with Judge redubbing lines with the actual name, but the team decided they actually liked the flavor this added to the father-son relationship and chose to make it part of the final script.
• Playing Against Type: In the Mexican Spanish dub, Atreus is voiced by Susana Moreno, a voice actress mostly well-known for voicing cute little girls or spunky teens, not boys.
• Pre-Order Bonus:
  • Pre-ordering the game at certain retailers got you three in-game shield skins.
  • If you pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition on the PlayStation Store, you got a physical Kratos and Atreus pin.
• Throw It In!: At least one former Sony employee has stated that roughly half of Brok's dialogue was improvised.
  • Atreus being Loki was allegedly a last-minute addition.
• What Could Have Been: Apparently◊, the team experimented with an Egyptian setting, before settling on the current Norse narrative.
  • Hræsvelg (the giant eagle in Hel) was intended to be a boss fight but according to Word of God, it was cut from lack of development time.
• Word of Gay: In September 2018, creative director Cory Barlog tweeted that his favorite LGBTQIA character was Brok, without elaborating exactly what kind of gender/sexual minority he is — though, given his self-admitted ban from Asgard for "swearin' and stealin' and fuckin'", as well as his reputation as a "Huldra Brother", he's probably not asexual.
• Word of God: Accordingly, the reason why Atreus is still a young boy in his vision of Thor's attack on the house is because that's what he knows himself as. Of course, it's also because they didn't want to make a new asset just for the scene. The more accurate version is shown in a trailer for Ragnarok.
• Word of Saint Paul: When asked in a stream a former Sony employee stated that the in-universe time gap between the original trilogy and this game was roughly 1,500 years.
• Write Who You Know: Atreus' behavior is based on director Cory Barlog's son.

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