God of War: Ascension Multiplayer No Woman No Cry

If you read my article over at Real Otaku Gamer, you have heard by now that God of War: Ascension will include a multiplayer component.

Watching the stream left me both excited and disappointed. When I first saw the customization options available, I hoped there would be an option for a female Kratos, or the opportunity to use Athena.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. According to Todd Pappy (the Game Director of GoW: Ascension), the female character just looked too strange on the rig.

You may remember one of the challenges in God of War 2. Finishing the game in Titan Mode would unlock the Athena costume, allowing the player to play the game as a female character. I loved the idea of the costume, but actually defeating the game on Titan mode frustrated me to tears. It hurt that what I wanted was so close I could see it, but never quite reach it. At the time, I found myself asking why they couldn’t have just made that an option after beating the game. I mean, cod of war? Really? We could have done without that one.

I will tell you a little secret about me and the GoW franchise: I never get sucked into the games. The idea of the franchise was fun, the puzzles were fun and challenging, combat was satisfyingly visceral, but I just didn’t LIKE Kratos. If I could have played all of the games as a female character, regardless of the non-canonical form of it, I feel I would have enjoyed them more and they would have held my interest longer. Instead, I often found myself only able to play for short spurts before losing interest.

Now along comes an opportunity to customize Kratos and, once again: girls get jipped. Perhaps Sony could have a little chat with BioWare about making female rigs?

Regardless, I’m still looking forward to seeing the latest iteration of the God of War franchise and will be on the lookout for more news. Multiplayer is always fun, and the thought of pulling down a giant monster with my friends still sounds downright appealing.