"What Were They Thinking?" - God of War Creator Criticizes Sons of Sparta Spinoff
"What Were They Thinking?" – God of War Creator Criticizes Sons of Sparta Spin-off
The creator of the original God of War, David Jaffe, has harshly criticized the recent spin-off God of War Sons of Sparta. In the developer's opinion, the new game about a young Kratos "does not respect the brand" and fails to reflect what fans actually want.
According to the developers of Sons of Sparta, the story is canon and depicts Kratos's youth during his training alongside his brother Deimos. However, Jaffe was not satisfied with this approach. He bought the game for $30, played it for about an hour, and stated that he cannot recommend it.
What I played — and it was only about an hour, and I don't plan to return to it — gives the feeling: 'Are you serious?' They constantly stop the action, and the characters just talk, talk, and talk. And the voice acting isn't very good.
Think about the choice that faced this team and Sony Santa Monica. The idea of making a 2.5D Metroidvania based on God of War — most hardcore fans would say: 'God, yes, of course!'
But instead — 'We don't want to make Kratos the way you know and love him — neither from the 2018 God of War nor from the Greek trilogy. To hell with it, this character is boring. No one likes that Kratos, the one we built a billion-dollar franchise on. Let's turn him into some ordinary guy, as if it's a show for WB Kids.' This is nonsense.
David Jaffe
The developer also compared Sons of Sparta to other recent 2D projects and was dissatisfied with the level of execution. As examples, Jaffe cited NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound, Neon Inferno, and SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance. According to him, these games offer more varied gameplay, better animation, and overall higher quality.
If you look at the production of SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance, at this Shinobi in 2D — just look at it. People want that level of quality, that atmosphere — and they want the classic Kratos.
David Jaffe
At the same time, Jaffe acknowledges that the gameplay itself is generally "passable": it's playable, there's nothing outright bad about it, but he didn't get any particular enjoyment from it either. Perhaps it gets better later, but in the presented form, the game seems too formulaic and bland.
In Jaffe's opinion, the main problem is not the budget or the quality of the animations, but that the project does not respect the license and the brand. He compares it to making a licensed "John Wick" film where the hero just sits in a coffee shop and talks — that is, using a famous name but failing to convey the essence and spirit of the original.
By the way, I don't need huge budgets. Of course, I would be happy with a higher level of production, smoother animations, and so on, but it's not necessary, you know? If the gameplay were interesting, if it were tough, with character, if from the very beginning gamers said: 'My God, I've never seen such mechanics in a game of this type' or 'How fun is this,' — the game could be made very inexpensive, as it apparently was here. I don't think much money was spent on this.
But why release it at all? In my opinion, all this will lead to is a bad taste in the mouths of God of War fans.
David Jaffe
To play God of War Sons of Sparta, form your own opinion, and (dis)agree with David Jaffe, you can currently only do so on PlayStation 5 with a text translation into Russian.