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00:05Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're looking at the biggest controversies
00:10surrounding Sony's God of War series, but before we dive in we publish new
00:22content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to get
00:26notified about our latest videos. A change in Kratos, God of War 2018
00:33From the 2005 original to 2013's Ascension, Kratos was voiced by T.C. Carson, but as we all know,
00:42he was replaced by Christopher Judge during the Norse era. This came as a pretty big shock to
00:47Carson, who claims he was never notified by Sony about the change and called the move
00:52unprofessional. It's undeniably crummy to treat the voice behind one of your most famous characters
00:58so disrespectfully. Corey Barlog, director of the 2018 game, stated the change was so that the
01:04stature of Kratos' actor would match his body, since everything was motion captured. Still,
01:10Carson deserved to at least be kept in the loop.
01:13Whatever it is you seek, I do not have it. You should move on.
01:18Fat Thor, God of War Ragnarok
01:29Teased in the 2018 game to be a major antagonist in the follow-up, the reveal of Thor caused a
01:35debate
01:36within the God of War fandom. Some very vocal fans were against him being quote-unquote fat,
01:42featuring a prominent gut. Maybe this was due to Chris Hemsworth's chiseled appearance in the MCU,
01:48or just because they felt like this made him less intimidating. Either way, those that were for this
01:53design were quick to point out that it was accurate in Norse texts. Not that loyalty to
01:59traditional myth has ever stopped the developers from changing things before. The beer gut also comes
02:04from Thor's excessive drinking, a major part of his characterization and arc. Plus, this in no way
02:11affected how intimidating he was. This design controversy was somewhat overshadowed by that of
02:17another character, but we'll get to that later. Trophy changes. God of War Ascension and God of
02:24War 3 Remastered. God of War Ascension is far from the most popular entry, but one of its trophies caused
02:31a bit of a stir on release. After completing Chapter 20, players are rewarded the Bros Before Hoes
02:38trophy. Several reviewers criticized it for being misogynistic, notably Adam Sessler of Rev 3 Games,
02:45since you earn it after brutally murdering one of the Furies, the female villains. Director Todd
02:51Pappy commented on the controversy, saying it was actually a female producer who came up with it.
02:56Still, Sony decided to change the trophy's name to Bros Before Foes, as a way to appease those
03:02offended. And when God of War 3 Remastered was released in 2015, it seemingly tried to get ahead
03:08of any similar controversies. The trophy, I didn't do it, but I wish I did, earned in the original version
03:15after killing Poseidon's princess, was removed. Two others had their names changed. Hooker, earned after
03:22killing Hades, was changed to Depths Below. And Are You Horny to Win, earned for finding all of the
03:29minotaur horns, was changed to Horn of Plenty. The copyright infringement lawsuit. In 2008, Sony and
03:37series creator David Jaffe were hit with a lawsuit that claimed God of War stole certain elements in
03:43relation to characters, themes, plot, and other aspects. The accusers were Jonathan Bassoon Dath and
03:51Jennifer Barrett Herzog, who had submitted several treatments and screenplays for a potential film to
03:56their agents, who shopped it around at several studios, allegedly including Sony Pictures. However,
04:02two years later, the case was dismissed by the judge. While there were similar elements, notably
04:07violence and setting, it was ruled that their film ideas lacked the, quote,
04:11thematic centrality and intensity of the games. An example was given about the protagonist refusing
04:18to kill a rampaging Nemean lion and instead taming it, something that Greek Erokratos would not do.
04:25All the lawsuit managed to do was briefly cast doubt on the series while wasting time and money.
04:31The PC Launch. God of War Ragnarok.
04:35What's next?
04:38Who?
04:39In recent years, Sony has been trying to grow the audience of several franchises by bringing games
04:45to PC. Unfortunately, this has not always gone well. When God of War Ragnarok made the jump to
04:52Steam in 2024, it was review-bombed over Sony's insistence that players have a PSN account to
04:58connect to the game, despite PSN not being available in certain countries and this game being single
05:05player with no online modes or features. In response to the backlash, Sony eventually removed the
05:11requirement for this game and others, but that was far from Ragnarok's only issue. It also launched with
05:17a slew of technical issues, such as framerate drops, mouses and controllers just not working,
05:24and crashes, even on high-end PCs and after troubleshooting. Even after patches, some players
05:31still had to find their own solutions.
05:34The GOAT Event. God of War 2.
05:37To promote the launch of God of War 2, Sony threw a themed party in May of 2007. It was
05:43covered by official UK PlayStation magazine, and that story was unfavorably picked up by
05:49the Daily Mail. The only thing was, since no one at the Daily Mail actually attended the
05:54event, their coverage was based on the invitation and not what actually happened. For example, the
06:00tabloid claimed guests were encouraged to reach inside a dead goat and eat its entrails. In
06:06actuality, the entrails were a traditional Greek meat soup, and while a dead goat was there, it was
06:13only to add to the theme and was returned to the butcher shop later. Still, Sony did apologize about
06:19featuring a dead goat and recalled 80,000 copies of that issue of official UK PlayStation magazine,
06:26which apparently did try to sensationalize the event with the pictures it chose.
06:31Censorship. God of War is an incredibly violent series, especially the Greek-era games. And that
06:38hasn't always gone over well in certain countries. Most of the games have had to undergo intense
06:44censorship in order to be released, particularly when it comes to violence and sexuality. For example,
06:50in the Japanese versions of the original games, Kratos can't kill any innocent civilians, nor can
06:56anyone be dismembered. And any instance of nudity throughout is censored by having characters fully
07:02clothed. Specific deaths have also been censored, such as Pollux's death from Ascension in Germany,
07:09Hercules's death from God of War 3 in Japan, and the Spartan soldiers from the original game.
07:15In the European and Japanese versions, these humans are turned into monsters. This is a unique case of
07:21the story being altered, since Kratos sacrifices one of them, a scene that speaks volumes towards his
07:27character.
07:38Going too far. God of War 3. Like I said, God of War has always been a violent series. When
07:46God of
07:46War 3 was released, and American reviewers got their hands on the uncensored version, some felt that it
07:52had gone too far. Indeed, some of the most brutal deaths from the entire franchise can be found in
07:59this entry. Even though producer Steve Katerson claimed prior to release that they never did
08:04anything just for the sake of being sensationalist or controversial, always aligning it with Kratos'
08:09character, others felt differently. GameCritics.com called the violence over the top and that the game
08:16didn't have much depth or maturity, liking it to, quote, a teenage boy's resolution to an adult
08:22series. Elsewhere, the Georgia Strait called its violence sadistic. These types of reviews still
08:28admitted that the game was entertaining, but that its brutality had crossed a line.
08:33You owe me this, Kratos. I owe you nothing.
08:38Angerboda's Race. God of War Ragnarok.
08:51Oh boy, some people got very upset over this one. As soon as Angerboda was revealed to be
08:57black in God of War Ragnarok, some players immediately started picking fights on the
09:02internet on the grounds that, according to them, there aren't supposed to be any black
09:06people in Norse mythology. This was seen as pretty silly by a lot of others, considering
09:12Sony has been making giant changes to mythological tales since before the first game was even released.
09:18No one seemed to mind that Kratos has nothing in common with his Greek namesake, or that Loki
09:24is his son instead of Odin's oath brother. Never mind that Angerboda belongs to a fictional race
09:30from a realm outside of Midgard, essentially Norse myth's earth. And in this case, her race didn't
09:36even impact the story, just made some people happy that a dev was finally getting black hair right.
09:42If you don't like Angerboda because it changes what's seen in mythology, well, then you also
09:47shouldn't like the series to begin with.
09:49Come with me. I've got something I want to show you.
09:55Amazon's adaptation. Something we can all agree on, however, is that Amazon's upcoming series
10:01adaptation has been in trouble from the start. Ignoring the fact that it arguably doesn't need
10:06to exist since it was said to retell the Norse games, a story that's already been told so well
10:12and so recently, there are a few details making fans nervous. It was announced in 2022 with Amazon
10:19enlisting showrunners from its other shows, Mark Fergus and Hawk Othsby of The Expanse and Rafe
10:25Judkins of The Wheel of Time. Unfortunately, all three left in October of 2024 when development was
10:31restarted as Sony and Amazon reportedly wanted to move in a different direction. Ronald D. Moore of
10:37Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Outlander then came on as showrunner, but he later revealed
10:43that he gave up trying to play any of the games since he found them too complicated.
10:47Despite his tenure on beloved shows, this made alarm bells go off in the heads of many fans,
10:53who worried his unfamiliarity would bleed into the adaptation. But we'll just have to wait,
10:59hope for the best, and see. Know of any other big God of War controversies?
11:04Which ones do you think were overblown? Share your thoughts in the comments.
11:17Let's go.
11:18Let's go.
11:19You
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