God of War Developer Reveals Interesting Detail About Kratos' Axe
A developer on 2018's God of War has revealed a curious visual trick about the eponymous [...]
A developer on 2018's God of War has revealed a curious visual trick about the eponymous character, Kratos, and his weapon of choice in the title, the Leviathan Axe. More specifically, animator Robert Morrison recently shared on social media that the size of the powerful axe is actually bigger in his hand than it is on his back, which seems to be a detail folks missed despite seeing both situations frequently throughout gameplay.
"Kratos' axe is a different scale when it's in his hand than when it's on his back," Morrison shared on Twitter. In a followup comment, Morrison noted that he believed the Leviathan Axe to be 20% bigger when held by Kratos than when it is on his back. He also noted that while it is possible there are other scaling effects like this on blades, he did not believe there to be any scaling shenanigans going on with Mimir's head. You can check out Morrison's tweet for yourself below:
Fun lil dev fact. Kratos’ axe is a different scale when it’s in his hand than when it’s on his back. 🤓 https://t.co/5jm3T5eRnl
— Robert Morrison (@RobertAnim8er) August 20, 2021
It's not terribly uncommon for developers to use visual tricks like this to impart whatever sense of scale is best in a given situation. Morrison went so far as to tell GamesRadar+ in an additional comment that this is often done "usually to give the best visual presentation for any given camera view or scenario," and that it "[h]elps to 'frame the shot' if you will."
As for the God of War franchise from Sony's Santa Monica Studio, the latest and greatest title is available for PlayStation 4 and as a backwards-compatible title on the PlayStation 5. It also just so happens to be included in the PlayStation Plus collection. Beyond that, a sequel which appears to be called God of War: Ragnarok has been teased, but details remain sparse at this time. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the God of War franchise right here.
What do you think about the fact that Kratos' axe is a different size on his back and in his hand? Are you looking forward to the next God of War title? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!