God Of War 2018's Kratos Saved Sony's Franchise From Irrelevancy
The soft reboot for God of War in 2018 heralded a new era for the longtime PlayStation exclusive franchise, and its most important reinvention was a new Kratos, which saved God of War from looming irrelevancy. Kratos had, like the series at large, grown stale by the time Ascension released. Although new features appeared in every game, God of War had failed to properly mature. In 2018, a change of scenery and an overhaul of Kratos' character carried the series to new heights, saving it from becoming a PS2- and PS3-era relic.
Including the two PlayStation Portable games, Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, the God of War series had six games featuring Kratos' destructive romp through a mythological ancient Greece. With Kratos' revenge on the Olympians thoroughly completed by the end of God of War III, there were no compelling leads left, necessitating that Ascension be a prequel. The mainline console entries especially are still very good hack-and-slash games, but even in spite of tragic backstories and mythological storylines, Kratos remained a fairly flat character.
Related: Why God Of War's Dead Keep Rising
Kratos' enduring rage was enough to carry the games for six entries, but the series was clearly stalling by the time Ascension released in 2013. God of War possessed a certain brand of machismo that grew out of style. The early Gears of War games are cut from the same cloth, with gratuitous violence and plenty of swearing courtesy of the exceptionally muscular male leads. Alongside every horrible murder Kratos commits, God of War had a reputation for including a sex mini-game in every entry prior to Ascension, always featuring multiple topless women. The series didn't shy away from its overbearing masculinity,
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