In Part I of our Team Assault Q&A, Cory Barlog talked about transitioning from lead animator on God of War to game director for God of War II, and the challenge of finding a new emotional hook for the sequel. In the final part of our interview, Barlog discusses why he had Kratos face off against the heroes of Greek mythology; reveals his original vision for the Colossus of Rhodes opening sequence; and explains why Guitar Hero and Paper Mario could have an impact on future of the God of War franchise. Sort of.

In God of War II, we discover that the narrator for both games is in fact Gaia, one of the Titans. This leads to a shift in perspective that's unusually sophisticated for a videogame. Gaia retells the story of Zeus slaying the Titans from her point of view, and in her version, Zeus is not a savior but a villain, punishing all of the Titans for sins committed by his father Cronos alone. What's the back-story behind how you and the other members of the creative core came up with that concept? Also, how did you come up with the idea to have Kratos face off against the heroes of Greek mythology like Theseus and Perseus, which effectively transforms Kratos from a literary anti-hero in the first game to a literal anti-hero in the sequel?

Oy-vey!! That's a big question. Seriously, I am intimidated by how terribly large your question is. It is actually giving me feelings of inadequacy. I hope I can step up and represent.

[Spoiler alert.] Well, I knew from the beginning that if I used Zeus as the main antagonist, I would not get the powerful moment of revealing that Kratos is, in fact, his son. I had been kicking around the idea of using the narrator as a character to kind of switch things up a bit. I knew I did not want to tell the game in the 'flashback' style, like the original God of War did. But I am also such a huge fan of what Linda Hunt brings to the story that I did not want to diminish that with such a strong anchor for the world. When I started looking into the Titan war, and the whole possibility of the World War II of the Gods, the Gaia connection just clicked.

It's interesting that you bring that up, because I really did think it was going to be a cool reveal. But from what I have been reading in various reviews and message boards is that it has kind of come off as a 'heh-whatever' sort of thing, which kind of bummed me out a little. That has definitely made me go back to the second story and really break down what works and what doesn't.

As far as the choice to fight Greek heroes, that was really something I wanted from the beginning. I knew that I wanted to incorporate a few more mini-bosses into the game as well as more larger bosses. I wanted these interactions to have more personality than a standard creature so they would help flesh the story. It also helped to reinforce where Kratos was and what he was going after by showing all these heroes seeking the Sisters of Fate in an attempt to right some 'wrong' in their past. So the real hard part was deciding who Kratos would fight. We ended up cutting Hercules later in production because we just did not have time to make the fight/interaction what it needed to be.

I am glad we didn't have to cut Perseus though because how cool is it that you get to fight Harry Hamlin? I mean I must have watched Clash of the Titans like 30 times. I wore that VHS out when I was growing up. So it was pretty cool to be able to have a little homage to a movie that inspired me so much. And after talking with Harry, he dug it too. Of course I was not exactly forthcoming about the gruesome way in which we were going to kill his character, so when I was talking to him at the launch party he was asking "When is the Perseus game gonna come out? C'mon...let's do a spinoff!"

I didn't have the heart to tell him that we drown him in God of War II. But the way this series works he could appear in Hades, or something like that, as Fire Hamlin! Now that is a pretty sweet idea; I am going to have to write that one down.

I don't know about [Kratos] becoming a literal anti-hero because of fighting [the Greek heroes] though, since the way it is written has each one of these characters having a large part in the instigation of a fight with Kratos. I mean, Peruses thinks that fighting and killing Kratos will help him change his fate and get Andromeda back. That's a little self-centered on his part, don't you think? I think he had it coming.

Because the Blades of Chaos are simultaneously ranged and melee weapons, and because of the scale of the environments, Kratos has to be smaller on screen and the camera must be set further back. As a result, Kratos is sized closer to the boy in Ico than to, say, Dante in Devil May Cry. How much of a challenge is it to convey Kratos' power and ferocity when he appears that small on screen, and what various techniques did the team use to overcome this on both games?

Scale is always an issue in our games. We have such massive set pieces, and big creatures as well as gigantic bosses. So we are always assessing the cameras position in order to keep Kratos as large as possible in any given shot. The other cool trick is the context sensitive grabs and throws; we pull the camera way in for most of those so it really helps you get right into the heart of the action with Kratos.

For the most part we took each situation as it came along. I knew that there were moments in the game I wanted the camera far away to show the scale, as well as times I wanted the camera in close on Kratos to make it all about him. Beyond that though, it was really a case-by-case type of thing for the rest of the game. It is sad when I really think about it; a lot of my methods are not very scientific. I would so not get into the 'cool' designers club...or maybe that is the 'smart' designers club. Well, either one really, either way--I'm not in it.

Is this even more of a challenge on PSP, and can you say anything about how you plan to handle scale for the forthcoming God of War game on that device?

The PSP presents some of the same challenges in regards to sense of scale along with all new ones, but those cats over at Ready at Dawn are pretty hip to the PSP and have done some really amazing work so far. I know that with the game in their capable hands we are going to see some really amazing stuff.

I like the Ico comparison though, great freaking game! I never owned a copy and just recently bought one, cost me like 80 bucks. Not sure if I got a good deal or not but I don't really care. I am just happy to have my own copy so I don't have to keep borrowing the studio copy.

Since Giant Kratos fights Giant Ares at the end of God of War, why didn't you open God of War II with Giant Kratos doing battle with the Colossus of Rhodes with both at the same size before Kratos' godlike powers are removed, then shrinking him back to human size for the rest of the level where he must now face the much bigger Colossus?

Ahhh...such a good question. I actually had some "Giant Kratos destroys the city" gameplay that started God of War II off, but it did not end up making the final cut. When we had Kratos scaled up to the same size as the Colossus the impact was not as great in comparison to Kratos at mortal size. The impact was going to have to come from the two tearing an entire city up. A fully destructible city would take a long time to build, much longer than we had scheduled for that small part of gameplay. That, combined with the fact that I never really felt solid on the giant gameplay, led us to trim out the beginning and get right to the meat of the level. Because that is really what the first level of a "God of War" game is all about--getting right to it, like the beginning of a James Bond movie.

Don't get me wrong, a giant Kratos destroying the city would have been pretty sweet, but the time we would have had to invest into that small section to get it to look and feel as impressive as the rest of the game was far too great. We still had a ton of stuff to get done for the game, so it was for the best that we put that one in our "maybe on the next one" folder.

Have you and Shadow of the Colossus director Fumito Ueda exchanged any knowledge about making games with massively-scaled antagonists?

I did get a chance to meet Ueda and the rest of the Shadow/Ico team early in the development of God of War II. I really dig their work and it was a kick to find that, not only were we geeking out over their presence and picking their brain as to how they did things, but they were also asking us a ton of questions about our game. They were God of War fans. That was a very strange experience to have developers who I have a huge respect for actually liking something I worked on. And be willing to admit it no less! Yeah I know, I have a really high self-esteem, don't I?

The team found out they were coming the day before they showed up. The next morning everyone brought in their Shadow of the Colossus posters and copies of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus to get signed. It was a really good day for the team, and for me.

You've said publicly that there may well be a God of War III on PS3. As a former animator, what have you learned about the PS3's capabilities in this area that are relevant to God of War III?

I have been working so hard on finishing up God of War II--and not screwing it up--that I have had little to no chance to stick my head in and see what the PS3 is up to. In fact I just recently got back from my little mini-vacation, so I have had only a couple of weeks to assess the PS3. I don't think I can make a totally informed opinion. All I can say, is the quality of our animation is only going to get better thanks to the freaking amazing animation team we have. I tried animating a little on God of War II, only to be slapped in the face with the bitter reality that animation was not like riding a bike. If you step away from it for too long, in my case 6 months, coming back is pretty rough. Fortunately I knew when to throw in the towel and ask for the real animators to make it look good.

How much of the God of War canon is already written down on paper at Sony Santa Monica? How any stories do you think you can explore in this universe, and what other genres do you think this fiction can support?

I wrote a lot of stuff when I was working my way to the final story for God of War II, some of it good, and some of it pretty bad. I definitely think there are a few things in there that could be explored further. But as far as what other genres this fiction could branch out into- I would say almost any of the game genres. But honestly I think a God of War sports game would be kind of a stretch, or God of War rhythm action game. A God of War Hero [guitar game] would be a pretty sweet game though!!!

I think we could do a pretty cool MMO. Although I think someone is doing a Greek era MMO aren't they? I think it takes place in one fully fleshed out Grecian city or something. I am not 100% sure on that one. I think if we did an action MMO though, one where the combat was a little more involved, it might be pretty cool. Of course after playing through World of Warcraft a bunch, I seriously can't imagine heading up a project like that. I mean it is hard enough making the 15 hour single player game. I would most likely die half way through production of an MMO.

Or we could just make a God of Paper War RPG to get some props from [Stephen] Totilo. That would be pretty sweet as well.

Next: God of War II producer Shannon Studstill on, among other topics, the difference between working with Cory Barlog and David Jaffe.