After Valhalla, What's Next For God Of War?

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War Ragnarok's new update, Valhalla, has kicked an important decision about the series' future down the road. The Norse saga told by the two games since the soft reboot is over, and there are a lot of different ways it could go next. Do we stick with the Kratos/Atreus duo? Do we go back to just Kratos? Do we 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:twist to Atreus? And does this more mature Kratos return to the Greek pantheon, or stay on the move to hit up somewhere fresh - 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Egypt is the obvious choice, but the series has 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:earned🙈 the right to be less predictable. Valhalla a🅰nswers none of these questions, and so they grow louder.

Valhalla's approach is probably the correct one - it will 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:likely be a while before we see more of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War in any major form, and that's before you take into account that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sony Santa Monica might want to explore a new IP. Valhalla only extends our time with Ragnarok, giving the studio more time to decide what direction to pursue, or to reveal it on its own terms later on. The fact we're playing as Kratos seems like the safe, obvious option rather than a conscious choice, but it underlines that no matter how much the new iteration has evolved or shaken up the formula, ultimately God of War always comes back to Kratos.

Kratos stands with his blades and his axe on his back in God Of War Ragnarok.

A 2.5 game, similar to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man: Miles Morales, has been suggested for God of War's path forward. Something that lets us play as Atreus alone, but within the confines of a spin-off, without the pressure to 'take over'. However, in the case of Miles Morales, this seems to have been a dress rehearsal. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man began as a Peter game, had a Miles spin-off, then 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the sequel was a joint affair carried by Peter, with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Miles set to💫 carry on from here on out. That's not too dissimilar to God of War - the first game only had Kratos playable, but the sequel let us play as Atreus even if it was mainly shouldered by Kratos.

Ragnarok’s initial draft 🐓even killed Kratos off, so it has definitely been discussed.

Then there's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us Part 2, which is ahead of the curve. In the first game, we play as Joel with Ellie by our side. In the sequel, Joel dies, and we play as Ellie, only for an incredibly mid-game twist to then also have 🉐us play as Abby. It feels like a risk to get rid of your iconic mascot in order to tell a stronger story, and Kratos and especially Peter Parker have much longer histories than Joel. But The Last of Us proved it can be done to great success, offering a lot more freedom to tell a completely new tale rather than pounding on the treadmill with the same narratives over and over.

Heroes get remembered, but legends never die

We're seeing this in movies too. Scream refers to it as a requel, part reboot part sequel, a descriptor that, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:in true meta style, also fits Scream. Movies are resurrecting their cinematic universes with their old figureheads at the helm, then having them step aside so the new stars can shine. Alongside Scream, we've seen 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Wars, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Matrix, Rocky/Creed, Mad Max, and arguably even the MCU, whi♏ch feels like a perpetual requel machine, embrace this idea. Games, where the characters are made of pixels and therefore ageless, are not forced into this evolution of storytelling - but may be ready to embrace it anyway.

Typically games reboot themselves with new eras, but there is rarely the idea of 'legacy' characters. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lara Croft, Mario, Sonic, Samus, Link, and so on and so forth, have always been the figureheads of their games, because there has been no need to replace them the way there has been for Neve Campbell, Sylvester Stallone, or Mel Gibson. God of War itself did thisܫ, reinventing Kratos for the modern age as a stoic father with a more tender motivation than pure and bloody revenge. But moving forward, it may change tack once again.

God of War Ragnarok Valhalla is already proving a popular expansion, but it's less the future of God of War and more a consolidation of the present. What comes next is still unknown, but just in case, I'd enjoy this time with Kratos while you can - it might be a while before he picks up the axe again.