At the precipice of Mount Olympus his journey begins. His well-developed and corded arms hang as he clings from jagged rock to jagged rock. He struggles as he climbs towards the zenith of the mountain. His hands are callous and the flesh is raw to the bone in many areas.
Kratos roars in defiance at the impossible difficulty of his undertaking. His facial expression bears more than his current pain. It displays years of hatred and the desire for retribution. The hot sun bakes his milky white flesh; he is as pale as the snow-capped mountains except for the cobalt blue lacerations of his tattoos that stand out like blood droplets upon pure ivory.
Wait, the cobalt blue tattoos? Kratos doesn't have blue tattoos! But originally he did, according to David Jaffe.
Jaffe, the director of the first God of War recently shared this fact in a development story about the third-person action-adventure game on his personal blog.
He said that a few days before the game was first announced to the press, some members of the development team revealed the similarities between Kratos and the Barbarian from Diablo II.
"I had played Diablo I but never II, and this was sure news to me," Jaffe said. "As it was to clearly to many/all others on the team, as this was the first we'd heard of the character, let alone the similarity. So you can bet we changed it, lickity f**kin' split! Which is good cause I think this is a much better look for our guy."
After working on the first two entries of the God of War series. Jaffe Left SCEA in 2007 and founded a new studio called Eat Sleep Play. Jaffe recently left Eat Sleep Play and the studio is currently focusing on iOS games.
The latest game in Kratos' saga is God of War: Ascension, which serves as a prequel to the original trilogy and will depict a "more human" Kratos. The game will be released on March 12, 2013 for the PlayStation 3 video game console.
So what do you think about "The Ghost of Sparta" having blue tattoos? Would Kratos still be a badass without the crimson red tatted gashes? Tell us what you think in the comment section.
You can check out the images of the blue-tatted Kratos below and read about God of War: Ascension' s multiplayer mode here.
