Kratos, anti-hero of the upcoming God of War: Ascension, has never been known to hold back. Hell, he decapitated an Olympian god with his bare hands and gutted a titan from the inside, spilling guts and gallons of blood without a nanosecond of hesitation. So it’s only natural that God of War developers Sony Santa Monica want to ratchet up the brutality in order to avoid the dreaded been-there-done-that syndrome. Unfortunately, reaching that goal meant striking the nerve of many gamers and press members, but the uproar isn’t even stemming from the violence.
Just as a heads up, the next paragraph might have minor spoilers, so read at your own caution!
Now, it’s a no-brainer that Kratos will absolutely triumph over almost all his major opponents, given that God of War: Ascension is a prequel. In one of his encounters with a major female character though, Kratos curb-stomps this character’s face to a pulp. Stomping on a female character could elicit some controversy on its own but that’s not what has gamers talking right now, particularly renowned game critic Adam Sessler.
It’s what follows that had Mr. Sessler furious — a trophy entitled “Bros Before Hos” that pops up after the encounter. Sessler, who’s best known for the now-defunct G4 show X-Play, posted a video review of God of War: Ascension, saying mostly positive things about the tile until you reach the review’s final two minutes or so. Around the 6:50 mark, Sessler calls the trophy “depressingly unfortunate” and a “gut-punch of misogyny,” noting that it significantly soured his experience with a franchise he’s a fan of — yeesh.
Personally, I take no offense to the title of the trophy but it’s easy to see why some aren’t too keen on the frat boy-esque nature of the joke. It seems like Sony Santa Monica looked to make a simple pass at a “dudebro” kind of joke but didn’t think about the possible ramifications, so now they’re paying for it. The studio is now going to issue a patch that will accompany the title when it releases on March 12th reports Joystiq. Said patch will rename the trophy to “Bros Before Foes.” Here’s what the studio had to say:
“We have created and will soon push out a patch for God of War: Ascension that alters the title of one of the game Trophies. The text was offensive to some members of our community and impacted their enjoyment of the game.”
Hopefully the controversy doesn’t take away from the quality of the title or diverts sales. The topic of misogyny is a topic in gaming that frequently rears its head and, despite having at least one sex-related scene in each God of War title, the franchise was never really thought of as disrespectful, so it’s interesting to see it succumb to the misogynistic label. Perhaps more fascinating is how gamers will respond when they finally get to experience the sequence first-hand when they pick up God of War: Ascension on March 12th.
What do you think of this? Does the title of the trophy offend you? Let us know in the comments below.
