Throughout the original God of War trilogy and its spin-offs, Kratos left a lot of dead gods in his wake. Some of those late deities may come back to haunt Kratos’s wife, Faye, in the upcoming title, God of War Laufey. While Kratos is still among the living, Ariel Lawrence–the director of God of War Laufey–hinted that one of his first foes could return.
“We’ve been killing gods for a really long time,” Lawrence told GameSpot. “So we’ve been thinking about this question. Since Ares died, we were like, ‘Okay, great. Does he go to the underworld?’ We asked that question. ‘Where did he show up after Kratos killed him?’ I think this has been really bubbling around for like 20 years.”
Kratos killed Ares–the Greek god of war–in the first game in 2005, which marked the former’s ascension to godhood. In the subsequent games, Kratos murdered several additional gods, including Zeus, Athena, and almost the entire Greek pantheon.
Laufey’s story will unfold in the Everywhen, which Lawrence describes as a place that “is a return for all magic. So it’s not just gods, but magical creatures and all sorts of things. Magic is pulled to this place.”
Ares didn’t appear in the game’s debut footage, but the Mongolian and Egyptian gods of war–Begtse and Sekhmet–made their debut as a villainous duo. It remains to be seen which gods Faye will encounter as she explores this strange new land.
The good news for Faye is that she doesn’t have to face these gods alone. She will be joined by a sentient ribbon companion called Rue and a talking gelatinous cube named Pharanque, who was our pick for the breakout character of State of Play.
God of War Laufey will be released on PlayStation 5, but it doesn’t have a release date yet.