WithGod of Warreleasing in just a month’s time,the hype is undoubtedly building for the return of Kratos. To help build this hype, Sony and its Santa Monica Studio recently released a brutal15 minutes of extended gameplay footagefor the game. Moreover, a director has also compared the game’s combat to the highly-popularDark Soulsfranchise.

In the below video, Jason McDonald – lead gameplay designer forGod of War– began by discussing the power fantasy of Kratos and how maintaining that aspect was important in the upcoming action-adventure game. Then, Cory Barlog, the Creative Director behind the game, mentioned the two earliest decisions for the game: not makingGod of Waran open-world game and not simply mimickingDark Souls.

In fact, Barlog said, “We don’t want to just mimicDark Souls, as much as we like that game. There is kind of this interesting loop inside of it that we wanted to capture.” They continued to discuss decision-making in combat, which may be the interesting loop Barlog mentioned, and it even seems that the combat ofDark Soulscould be one of the reasons that lead the team away from the previous hack-and-slash installments of the game to its new more comprehensive combat style. Check out the full video here:

Nevertheless, the changes to the graphics and combat ofGod of Warhave seemingly paid off, as Digital Foundry recentlypraised the game’s visuals on the PS4 Pro. With its upcoming release date, players who have yet to upgrade may want to do so to capture the full power of the upcoming game. It helps that there is limited edition PS4 Pro bundle forGod of Warreleasing alongside it.

While it would be interesting to see Kratos face another Pantheon such as the Egyptian Gods, it has also been recently revealed thatfuture sequels are currently in planning, but will be remaining in Norse mythology. For now, players can anticipate the upcoming game’s combat to have some similarities toDark Souls, which is a comparison often made, but not always lived up to. However, the wait to see ifGod of Warjustifies this comparison is dwindling every day.

God of Warreleases on June 22, 2025 exclusively for the PlayStation 4.