God of War’s Kratos said to be similar to Diablo 2’s Barbarian before launch

We know how particular and protective some companies get when it comes to protecting their intellectual property (think Apple versus Samsung), and it looks like Sony might have avoided potentially some legal drama only days before they introduced Kratos to the rest of the world. For those unfamiliar, Kratos is the antagonist in the God of War franchise, and he has a pretty distinctive look with his swords, get up and his red body markings. However it turns out that prior to the release, Kratos was decked out in blue body markings, and if you’ve ever played the Barbarian character in Diablo 2, you might be starting to realize that there could be a dispute over the originality of the character designs.

According to the game’s director David Jaffe, it seems that it was only days before the launch of God of War that someone on the team pointed out the similarities, and we guess Jaffe and his team wasted no time in remedying that. “I had played Diablo but never 2, and this was sure news to me,” Jaffe recalls. “As it was too clearly to many/all others on the team, as this was the first we’d heard of the character, let alone the similarity. So you can bet we changed it, lickety f*****’ split!” What do you guys think? Would a Kratos in blue body markings look similar to Blizzard’s Barbarian class in Diablo 2?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: god of war