As the final announcement of the June State of Play, God of War Laufey has inspired a lot of discussion about the story and mechanics shown off in its opening moments. One of the voices with the most to say weighing in is David Jaffe, original creator of the God of War series. His mixed reaction during his stream of the event opened up into a discussion about the game’s potential shortcomings and departure from the core identity of the series.
After watching the trailer, David Jaffe’s immediate reaction was to preface his criticism with praise for the series’ writing and director. Jaffe speculates that “he got forced into a situation where. . . we can’t give you the money to make a brand-new thing,” forcing any idea to be tied to the God of War series when it may not fit. As a result, he claims that the new game looks “uninspired” and “dull”. He also cites the reinvention of the series in 2018 as the reason that the franchise didn’t get stale, worried that now each game is only emulating the success of the last.
His main criticism is that God of War Laufey strays too far from the origins of the series. The focus on different mythologies and a different protagonist makes the title difficult to recognize, leaving it “like just a fantasy” and “just a story about a goddess who dies” with the title being the only connection to the series. He ends the discussion about God of War Laufey by saying, “I’ll probably play it for the stream, but if it wasn’t for that, I’d have no interest in playing the game.”
With only one trailer to base judgment on, it isn’t clear yet whether or not Jaffe’s fears for the game are justified. Fans will have their answer when more information about the game comes out and people eventually get the chance to play it.