God of War Creative Director Says He Was Brought on to "Break the Rules"

Anyone with eyes can see that the God of War franchise took a dramatic turn in both the lore of the game, and with many of the title's mechanics. Most notably was the shift in mythology and the welcome addition seeing Kratos on a new role: a father. Apparently this new shift was because Sony didn't want another God of War, so the team had to shake things up a bit to make the pitch worth supporting. Enter creative director Cory Barlog who was brought in for just that purpose, to 'break the rules' as he put it.

Both Cory Barlog and Santa Monica Studio Head Shannon Studstill took a moment to talk about the franchise as a whole and how it came to be what we will be seeing later this year (hopefully):

"I think you need to know the lineage. It's a very deep storyline, and bringing in someone that understands that history is the respect the franchise deserves. We don't want somebody that thinks they know the best next step, but [someone who] really truly embodies it," Studstill said. "Cory, of course, with God of War 2, had that passion."

Barlog himself has been doing the media circuit, including this hilarious video where he answered 102 rapid fire questions (where things got weird, fast). In addition to Studstill's commentary, Barlog added on: "Gotta know the rules to break the rules. We have to rip literally all of the walls down." This also explains why many mechanics from previous games have been left in the dust, and also why there is no jump feature.

It looks like this new direction is paying off however, because fans can't wait to see how the new mythology works out regarding their favourite god slayer. So much so, that talks of bringing the franchise over to even more mythologies are on the table - including both Egyptian and Mayan timelines.

Barlog finishes off in his interview by saying:

"We have a diversity of memorable moments that is far greater than we've had in previous games. The memorable moments range from a single line spoken by one character who spoke strongly to them, to an epic moment that is sort of bombastic, to a moment that we didn't even think was that epic, but they perceived it as being this most amazing epic thing."

To read more of this interview and see what else the duo had to say, you can check out the full details right here.