God of War Ascension, a female lead, and the two-player experience that never was

When I began the portion on God of War Ascension I mentioned that Sony Santa Monica had three goals for the game. They wanted to create a single player adventure, in the vein of the classic GoW titles. They also wanted to create an Online Multiplayer mode. They delivered on both counts, but the third goal for the game was dropped due to time, and budget constraints. The studio wanted to create a co-op adventure as well. I don’t know if the co-op mode was going to share the story, and locations of the main game. Perhaps it would have visited some of the multiplayer sites. I have a feeling this might have been the case when we look at some of the characters that were planned to have much bigger roles in Ascension, including dialogue. The first of these was Archimedes.

Archimedes was born in Syracuse, Italy in 287 B.C. He was a world renown philosopher, engineer, inventor, physicist, and mathematician. He mastered the lever, and perfected compound pulleys for moving heavy objects. He created new ways to pump water, and grain uphill. He discovered formulas for geometry that were still taught to this day. His type of genius wouldn’t be seen for another 1700 years when Leonardo DaVinci was born in another small town in Italy. We had actually seen the work of Archimedes previously in the Ghost of Sparta. He had engineered the mechanisms that kept the Methana Volcano from erupting, as well as the pumps that made Atlantis the masters of water. Before he was turned into a mummified corpse the team at Sony Santa Monica had plans for giving him a cut scene in GoW Ascension.

The engineer wasn’t the only person that was left on the cutting room floor. Another character from history would have also had a bigger role. The Cyclops had been a part of the GoW series since the very first game. They were the heavy-hitters in the franchise. Bigger, and stronger than the minotaur, juggernaut, or Talos. They weren’t often presented as very bright. Their job was pure destruction. Ascension would have had the biggest, and most famous of all the one-eyed creatures. Polyphemus was a one-eyed giant. He was the son of Poseidon, and the sea nymph Thoosa. He was blinded by Odysseus in the story of the Odyssey. Polyphemus was fueled with rage, and cursed the explorer. He prayed that his father would help him get revenge. Poseidon, and the other gods obliged. They kept Odysseus from reaching his home for two decades.

Polyphemus was supposed to have several speaking lines in Ascension. Having the massive character talk to, or challenge Kratos didn’t seem to be an impossible task. The developers had already created stages around the titans Atlas, Gaia, and Cronos. Plus the Hecatonchires stage was as massive as any other battle Kratos had to go through. I wonder though if Polyphemus would have chased Kratos, thrown a building at him, or interacted in some other way. Sadly as the studio was short on time, and money. They made the cyclops an interactive background character, and target for the multiplayer stage in the Desert of Lost Souls. Now I want you to imagine a series of encounters for Kratos, and a second playable character as they met Archimedes, Polyphemus, and perhaps other characters from Ascension. How would this have worked?

The studio wanted to create a complimentary figure to travel with Kratos. This person would have to be able to fight just as good, if not better than the god of war. They would also have to have their own library of weapons, and special attacks. The designers at Sony Santa Monica put together dozens, and dozens of proposed characters. There were men, women, monsters, gods, and Demi-gods all designed to help carry the adventure. The studio had so many choices to pull from that picking just one was all but impossible. That was until one of the senior artists proposed a few characters before he left the studio. Andy Park’s artistic fingerprints were all over GoW II, GoW III, and a little bit in Ascension. Andy helped come up with the look of many of the minor, and major villains in the series, including Persephone, and Cronos. He also helped set the tone for locations like the Temple of The Fates, and Kratos’ throne room on Olympus. One of the creatures he designed was similar in build to a centaur, but instead of the torso of a man, and a body of a horse, this one was a woman with the body of a lion. That design really stuck out to Izzy Medrano who was working on a lot of the characters in GoW Ascension.

The question was who this character would become in the canon of the series. Was she a queen of some sort? A Demi-god, or god reinterpreted? There were a lot of characters in Ascension, would she be related to them? In a way the answer was yes. The studio decided that she would be Artemis the twin sister of Apollo. If you remember the previous blog there was a statue of Apollo on the isle of Delos. This was central to the story, and historically accurate as both of the gods were said to have been born on that island. Apollo, and Artemis were twins born from Leto, and Zeus. Leto was a goddess, born from the titans Coeus, and Phoebe. When Hera, the queen of the gods, and wife of Zeus had found out about about yet another extramarital affair she cursed Leto. She conspired with the other gods as to not allow Leto to find shelter on any land. Plus she sent the Python to constantly pursue her. In ancient times the Python was a child of Gaia. It was a giant serpent that lived in the center of the Earth. It could be summoned to destroy the enemies of the gods. All of this would ensure Leto, and her twins would die during childbirth.

Poseidon took pity on Leto, as she was denied safe passage at every port she traveled to in the Mediterranean. Plus he must have felt some responsibility since his own brother had gotten her into this situation. So he lifted a rock from the ocean floor where she could give birth. This island would become Delos, and since it was not attached to any land mass, nor was it attached to the bottom of the sea, then he was not bound to Hera’s curse. The twins were born like most gods, pretty much fully formed perfect adults. Apollo would kill the Python for hunting his mother. He would also become the patron for, and claim the oracle’s temple at Pytho, which would later be renamed Delphi. These bits of history helped shape the mechanized snake encounters, and murals within the temple in GoW Ascension.

Both Apollo, and Artemis loved archery, and hunting. Both were also very competitive, but never hateful of each other. Artemis was the goddess of the Hunt, the Night, and Chastity. She was associated with silvery moonlight, as Apollo was associated with golden sunlight. She mostly hunted at night, and only with other women so she could keep her vow of chastity. Only one man ever hunted alongside her, that was the giant Orion. He was an exceptional hunter in his own right, using a bronze club as his primary weapon. He wasn’t always a pleasant character. He got drunk in Chios, and sexually assaulted the princess Merope. He was blinded by her father Oenopion in retaliation. Orion would regain his site in Lemnos, the place where Kratos was born. Orion once threatened to kill every beast on the planet. Apollo didn’t like him, or his antics, and summoned one of Gaia’s children to sting him. It was the enormous Skorpius. He succumbed to the poison. Artemis, and Zeus turned Orion, and the Scorpion into a constellation in atonement. Skorpius was an enormous monster that showed up to fight Kratos in the Labyrinth of Daedalus in GoW III. It was also seen in the multiplayer mode in Ascension as well.

Although we never saw Artemis in full body perspective, she has been part of GoW canon since the very first title. When Kratos is exploring the Temple of Pandora he comes across a portal to the gods. Artemis appears to him, she seems to have a shaved haircut, and small horns on her temples. Artemis says “Kratos, the gods demand more of you. You have learned to use the Blades of Chaos well, but they alone will not carry you to the end of your task. I offer you the very blade I used to slay a Titan. Take this gift and use it to complete your quest. Take this weapon, take this power, and use it to defeat your enemies.” The sword is very large, you could imagine that it could pierce the thick skin of the titans. It also leads us to believe that Artemis is much larger than Kratos. A more proportional version of the weapon also appears in GoW Ascension.

Izzy Medrano decided to adapt Andy Park’s female character, and turn her into Artemis. Her human torso was roughly in scale to Kratos, but when it was attached to her big cat body she was much longer, and taller than the Ghost of Sparta. We can see this in the earliest sketches of the goddess.

Izzy made a number of changes to the figure in his own iconic style. The lower half lion body was changed to a tiger body. She wore a shoulder pauldron, and helmet. But she did not have any armor on her animal half. As Izzy was making adjustments to the character he featured her in very dynamic poses. We could see that she fought amazingly well.

She did wield her namesake sword it one sketch, but she was better known as an archer. Izzy came up with a wicked bow design. You could imagine that she could shoot ranged targets, but also swing the angular bow in close combat. By now fans of the two newest GoW titles are guessing that a lot of this planning, and pre-production talk was eventually revisited for the character of Atreus. His library of archery attacks, and melee bow strikes in GoW Ragnarok may have come from the plans for Artemis. Of course by looking at the variety of action poses that Izzy created she was going to be a superior warrior.

Artemis would probably be able to hold her own in hand-to-hand combat against Kratos. The fact that she had two arms, and four massive paws meant she probably could probably even defeat him in unarmed combat. Her sword was equal in strength, if not more so than the Blades of Chaos, and she also had a bow, so her range of attacks was even greater. I can only imagine that the character would have been amazing to see in a co-op mode.

Sadly there wasn’t a model, or render of the character that I know of. We don’t have any test footage to look at. So we’ll just have to use our imagination and wonder how the game would have played. I’m sure there are lots of fans out there plotting out the adventures of Kratos, and Artemis. Part of me hopes that one of those fans works at Sony Santa Monica, and pitches the studio to revisit some of their earlier ideas. Anyhow, that wraps up my look at GoW Ascension. Did you enjoy the game? What do you think of the co-op idea? Would you have wanted to play as Artemis? Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!