Freya and Kratos with an ailing Atreus in God of War.
Freya and Kratos with an ailing Atreus in God of War.
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God of War postmortem — The alternate design and story choices that might have been

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 17 min

Some of the key moments and characters of God of War, the winner of Game of the Year at The Game Awards, might have been very different.

Kratos might have gone on a journey with his wife, Faye, rather than his son, Atreus. He might have always used his blades, rather than an ax. Kratos might have been much meaner than he was toward his son — to the point of child abuse. Kratos might not have been in God of War. He might have been as friendly as Qui-Gon Jinn, Liam Neeson’s character in the Star Wars films.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.