New God of War game inspired by cancelled Star Wars show

If you've played the God of War series and seen the gameplay reveal for the upcoming God of War, you'll have noticed that Kratos acted a bit... different. While you can certainly question his parenting, it was obvious from the demo that the Zeus-slaying character cared for the kid he was raising. And that's quite the turn for someone who usually greets people by ripping their arms from their sockets.

And it's all down to game director Cory Barlog reading the scripts for the now-cancelled Star Wars live-action TV show that was in development a few years ago, writes VG247.

"Probably the really small beginnings of this idea, the germination of this — when I was working at [Lucasfilm], I was allowed to go up to the ranch and read the scripts for the [canceled live-action Star Wars] TV show," Balrog says. "It was the most mind-blowing thing I'd ever experienced. I cared about the Emperor. They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this fucking heartless woman. She's this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor. That's something magical."

From there, Barlog began thinking about how to make Kratos a more sympathetic character.

"That first idea, though, was pitching Kratos getting another chance at being a dad," Balrog says. "That was the essence of the pitch. People were kind of looking at me sideways. 'What are you talking about?' But you start thinking about it a little bit. How would he deal with that? Just saying, 'Oh, Kratos wants redemption' is selfish. It's old Kratos. It's self-centered. It has no purpose. But this idea — something beyond him is motivating him to change. He's known for a long time that he needs to change. But the change is coming from not wanting to repeat the mistakes of his past."

You can watch the gameplay reveal of God of War below.