God of War Director Took Inspiration from Zelda for Combat

David Jaffe, director of the first two installments in Sony’s popular God of War franchise, has told EDGE Online that when making the game, SCE decided to make the combat system in the first God of War title “intentionally shallow.” Jaffe compares God of War‘s mechanics to the intricate battle system they had seen in Devil May Cry and explains that they didn’t want to create something so “deep.”

“I was going for Zelda in terms of depth of combat. I was looking for the presentation of DMC, but I wasn’t interested in doing a deep system. To me, the combat, the spatial challenges, the exploration: they were all pieces of the adventure, and all of these came together to push the player along. The actual game loop in GOW is very simple. … If this had been the kind of game that didn’t have much money, it would have been an absolute failure, because if it wasn’t for new things to do around every corner, you might feel the core mechanics are actually quite shallow. They’re intentionally shallow, because we didn’t want them to overpower the experience. … Our combat’s not deep, but thanks to great animators, it is fluid.” — David Jaffe, God of War Game Director

Jaffe goes on to say that if he were developing the game now, he would actually make it even more like Nintendo’s beloved The Legend of Zelda franchise, as players of the game “feel they were watching a great action-adventure movie,” as opposed to “participating in an action movie.”

“There are cinematic moments and character moments I’m proud of, but I think maybe it was too combat-centric. Today I would make it more like Zelda, ironically: I’d immerse you in being the hero rather than watching him. By making that game, I’ve realised there’s more to be mined from gameplay that way, rather than just taking people for a ride.” — David Jaffe, God of War Game Director