God of War creator criticizes new 2D action title Sons of Sparta

God of War creator David Jaffe has publicly criticized the newly released 2D spin-off God of War: Sons of Sparta, arguing the game fails to “respect” the license.

The details:

• Sons of Sparta, developed by Mega Cat Studios, was announced and shadow-dropped during last week’s PlayStation State of Play exclusively for PS5. The game serves as a prequel to the original God of War trilogy, following Kratos and his brother Deimos during their training at the Spartan Agoge, with series developer Santa Monica Studio offering writing support.
• However, Jaffe, who directed the original God of War and is credited as the series’ creator, has since confirmed that he is not a fan of the title and cannot recommend it to others. In a new YouTube video, the designer shared that while he has always been open to the idea of a 2D God of War game, he doesn’t “understand” why Sons of Sparta exists and that it focuses too much on the plot. “What I played—which was only about an hour of it, and I’ll never go back to it—it's just like, 'Get over yourselves, man,'" Jaffe said. “It’s like they just kept stopping over and over and having the characters just talk and talk and talk. And the voice acting is not very good.”
• He explained that he does not appreciate the portrayal of a much younger Kratos, suggesting the character has been reduced to a “generic” kid rather than the brutal anti-hero found in the original series, and argued that fans were instead hoping for a darker, bloodier take closer to titles like the 2019 Metroidvania, Blasphemous.
• The designer went on to describe Sons of Sparta’s gameplay as “serviceable,” but claimed that overall execution and production values fall short of recent 2D action games such as Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. Complaints were also aimed at elements including level design and a lack of clarity in its UI and art.