Report filed by Rakan Stanbouly
On Friday morning, Sony Santa Monica addressed their take on violence within God of War: Ascension, specifically violence towards women. David Hewett, Game Design Manager on the title, expressed in an interview with IGN that the way Kratos behaves towards women has crossed a threshold that the development team did not mean to cross. In an attempt to flesh out Kratos as a character, the development team felt the need to tone down his habitual violence around women.
“There are some things we’ve pulled back from.” explained Hewitt, “I think where this has been an issue is with violence against women — the team’s pulled back from some of that and assessed that a little more carefully. There are certain things that carry has a different kind of resonance that we don’t want to get into. This isn’t about statement-making in that regard. It’s about fleshing out this character.”
This is a bit of change from Hewitt’s previous statements on the subject, in particular during this past E3, when he defended the overall violent nature of the God of War franchise as an important feature for Kratos’ character. As of right now, there is no word on exactly how they are going to deal with this new design decision.