God of War Retrospective & Development Deep-Dive | The Golden Bolt

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The first God of War is a tough game to properly revisit - it's a game defined more by cultural response, legacy, and even parody than by the contents of the game itself. Within a year of this PS2 classic's 2005 launch, Kratos was already being boiled down to an angry brute, at times even within official PS marketing materials. Nearly 20 years later, with a whole second saga of games that's redefined this series and its anti-hero, it's time to revisit both the original God of War and its development - to see how that development defined both the game and its later evolution...and to see how it changed the dynamic of PlayStation's internal development as a whole.
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This video is not intended for viewers under 13 years of age, and may contain content inappropriate for such viewers. Parental guidance suggested.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

If you're enjoying this one as you watch through it, please share it around to help the channel grow! I've been privately reuploading chunks of this one over and over again for the past two weeks, to figure out which parts were triggering KZbin's finicky age-restriction stuff - so I'm hoping that enough early traction can push us past having to worry about it getting sent to purgatory now that I've finally had one version sit safely for more than a few hours. (Or if you're _really_ loving this video, consider supporting at www.patreon.com/TheGoldenBolt to get access to the TGB Discord, early/ad-free videos, and more!)

[@Whoeverhitme]

Can you do an episode on the Jet Moto franchise. As a member of jetmotocentral i would be very happy

[@prowlingmonkey]

"Let's take greek myth and add sex to it" is like saying "I'm writing a musical but with songs in it"

[@josesosa3337]

Something I just noticed is that kratos served the gods for 10 years while it took the greek hero Odyssyeus 10 years to get home.

[@tylerfox5003]

46:21 "the hitboxes on kratos' chainblades" my mind immediately went CHAINBLADE! CHAINBLAAADE!

[@TenshiCat]

Call now to bring Chainblade and the B-2 Brawler into your living room! But put away the fine china!

[@UltimaXVI]

Returning to battle is everyone’s favourite gladiator! He slices, he dices, he carves up a mean dish! Please welcome, CHAINBLADE!

[@SockLove]

SAME AHAHAHHAHA I love Chainblade

[@berxsol]

32:55 pandora's box making you giant clank xD good one

[@enessulejmani772]

01:07:25 The bridge sword acctually has the same moveset as the blade of artemis😂

[@mitch.paulsen]

Im a simple man, i see a golden bolt video. I watch

[@uncutfandu3179]

Exactly

[@absolsama]

Same my frend samw

[@PrimordialChaos1]

Smart man

[@tehparol]

same

[@Medi4243]

Fun fact! The prize for Season 3 of The Tester (the season featuring Egoraptor) was a QA job for GoW: Ascension. The winner, Wilson "Akilleez Might" Santiago, sometime after that game, would take a break from the games industry, before eventually returning to Santa Monica for the Norse saga as lead QA!

[@mrrandomdude4291]

Whenever KZbin recommends me one of these retrospectives, I usually roll my eyes. Most of these “retrospectives” are really dry retellings of the game’s narrative without any insight into anything. You are the “golden” standard for these things, and I’m not even halfway through this first video!

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Everybody's got their own style, so I can't knock others - but I'm glad to hear mine's clicking with you!

[@joshuamarks4425]

So then, I guess we can expect the following from you? - God of War 2's transition phase with Cory Barlog now in charge, Jaffe proceeding to do his own thing after GOW's success, and the awkwardness of releasing a PS2 game in the midst of the PS3's launch struggles, especially when it became even more well regarded than its predecessor critically. - The mess that was GOW 3's development in dealing with a new system and the departure of Barlog, leaving Stig Asmussen with no choice but to push forward himself as director to meet the sky high expectations that was imposed on this game, and his departure from Santa Monica afterwards. - Ready at Dawn's PSP spin-offs and how they pushed the handheld to its absolute breaking point (on top of being well remembered as some of the better PSP spin-offs Sony put out), as well as their beginnings as ex-Naughty Dog staff and their unfortunate Icarus-style fall from flying too close to the sun with their AAA PS4 exclusive, The Order 1886. - And the even bigger mess that was GOW Ascension, down to its prequel storyline, difficulty spikes and its infamous multiplayer mode, that led to the eventual soul searching that would reinvent Kratos after the game underperformed critically and commercially (by the high expectations of the franchise of course). Hell, Sony even paid so much money for a Super Bowl commercial, hoping that it would be a success on par with GOW 2 (as a finale for the PS3 of sorts just like how 2 was the PS2's) before it fell short of expectations (and TLOU stealing much of its thunder). What's truly fascinating is that almost all of their troubles with GOW 2 and 3 were covered in such extensive detail due to both games containing a documentary featurette about the making of each respective title, both of them worth watching if you are interested in how Western game development worked in the 2000s. Also a fun fact, these featurettes were the sole reason why these games got the "Strong Language" descriptor on their ESRB ratings (due to profanity being said by the developers) until the PS4 game which started using them proper in the dialogue.

[@wolffster25]

I’d like to mention a cool GOW:1 easter egg that wasn’t mentioned in the video. There are a couple secret phone number you can acquire by destroying the Ares and Minotaur statues in the throne room it takes a long time but they will break. If you call those numbers you’d get a message from Kratos on how cool you are the first one is notable as it has Divid Jaffe in it. Now as of right now I do not know if the numbers still work luckily they are both uploaded onto KZbin in full so check them out when you get a chance. Edit: OMG after over 10+ years the phone numbers still work I wonder if Sony is even aware they are still paying for those lines.

[@MrInuhanyou123]

Even david jaffe thought kratos he was one dimensional and wanted him to be like that. Im glad people are looking at the game wholistically now without him like that

[@twilightfire93]

I've played GoW since I was a preteen after one of my best friends lent me the first couple games to play through. Me and my bro were big mythology nerds, so seeing how someone could reinterpret the myths into their own twist was just so amazing to us. We've followed the series ever since and adore the Norse series as much as the Greek, and this vid is just such a throwback to when I was a kid, along with learning new info about the series. It's gonna be fun to see what you dig up for the other games!

[@SaiyanCherry]

My Fiancée told me to watch this! She is a fan of your R&C & I’m a fan of GOW

[@arizona-hunter6684]

Play GoW (2018 or as I prefer Dad of Boy), it's very good. Glad to see that I'm not the only one who got hooked on R&C because of Mr Golden Bolt.

[@SalveASMR]

She's a keeper

[@HyperDefective]

1:07:45 - That ending line always gets me. Kratos is such a baller

[@TheSpearkan]

It is fascinating that God of War and Ratchet and Clank are both 20-year old PS2 titles that have survived to the present day with a mostly intact continuity yet have developed in tone from the first intalment with its studio.

[@maxthullen6408]

Finally something to watch while I cook dinner

[@Adamatronamus]

I'm picturing you hitting refresh on your sub page, refusing to cook dinner without a new quality video dropping.

[@TheMetalGaia]

​@@Adamatronamusdon't call me out like that 😅

[@masterofdoom5000]

God of War 1 at the very least has a similar place as Jak 2 in my memory of "I don't wanna play the game again but I do want to play specific moments of levels because they're kinda cool" and this retrospective only further solidified that. I AM THE GOD OF SQUARE SQUARE TRIANGLE

[@axilus_4012]

From Ratchet and Clank to God of War??? Oh we eating good fellas

[@ItsOver9000Productions]

GOW is one of my favorite franchises of all time and I watch a lot of content deep diving into it. Some make great points and come out with awesome analysis while some just miss it entirely. I'm hoping you deliver because honestly, your past video essays deep diving into stuff is great and offers alot to consider from a Watsonian and Doylist perspective. Fun fact: I got into a car accident listening to one of your ratchet and clank videos

[@nunchuk28]

You take that back about hades army! I'll take it anyday over medusas, zeus rage or god forbid artemis blade (I'm not sure if I missed the sarcasm but isnt the blade against the final boss just a copy of it too?). I dont mind too much the length of pacing of this game tbh, it could have done with an hour less but I feel it's a more correct length for what it aims to be compared to 2 (which I actually prefer but you can feel it goes for a little too long for its own good), there's a few signs of age, but I think it holds remarcably well nearly 20 years later (god typing that made me feel old). The ending of this game always made me wonder if this was initially intended as a one off franchise or something more akin to FF in connectivity with how Kratos seemingly gets to witness modern wars.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

There's a chance I'm just an idiot, if I'm being real - my recording sessions did have a decent length gap near the end because of a trip, so the sudden tutorial pop-up with moves that felt vaguely similar to the Artemis Blade but lacked the oomph (and some of the actual moves) made me think it was a different beast. In the context of the fight it sure is, but maybe after a week or so off of playing, I bit on a placebo and thought it was _more_ different than it is!

[@codyhoward7640]

Love to see the history of PlayStation games. Excellent work, a very enjoyable watch.

[@DoomGuy-wx4ps]

Golden Bolt. You're a great creator. Hell yes

[@CristianLopez-xi4rt]

Original God of War: Zeussss! Old Kratos: boiii.

[@keybladeciel3716]

Considering that this is God of War, this will be a violent introspective.

[@NoahMonroe_]

I love how you can hear the laughter in Kevin's voice when he does his Metroid bit 30 minutes in.

[@AtelierGod]

26:50 Block the Roar!

[@professorbadvibes695]

I'm so ready for another Golden Bolt retrospective series. Your point about this game being the nexus of modern Playstation makes me see it in a whole new light!

[@josephbuchanan2319]

Fantastic video, hope you’ll do these for all the GoW games. Especially the PSP games, I think those will be the most interesting to learn more of their development history.

[@joejoejoe3115]

Quickly becoming my favourite video maker. Always engaged with whatever your talking about and I appreciate the effort you go to in sourcing relevant information on the development. I'm with you on the sword, always found it fun to use to mix things up a bit. I tend to think the GOW games get better with every major entry, nothing in 2 is as frustrating as some of the combat encounters in the first game.

[@dandytetsuiga338]

Great video, man! I love God of War, as well as Ratchet and Clank and many other PS juggernaut icons. Your videos, explanations, breakdowns, and journalistic approach to acquiring as much info as possible is extremely thorough and enjoyable. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing further entries in your God of War retrospective.

[@RainbowPh0enix]

Love hearing about your opinions on any game, keep branching out man!

[@LuxBellator92]

I'm so happy to see you doing a God of War retrospective! For me, this series and Ratchet & Clank defined my gaming childhood--and I have loved your R&C docos. They're both two series of which I have played every instalment at release since the very original title. I adore this franchise so much, from its inception to now, so I can't wait to see you tackle everything that is to come! Thanks, GoldenBolt!

[@patriciaf2766]

So excited to watch this! I've been looking up other god of war retrospectives but none of them seem to hold up to anything from the Golden Bolt!

[@TheGodEmperorOfMankind_]

I remember when it released, the graphics were mindblowing for the PS2 and then God of War 2 released and it looked even better. 2018 was good, but I still prefer the originals

[@pemitaza_]

Always makes me happy when I see a new Golden Bolt video.

[@obi-have]

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO. GB is doing God of War. I called it all the way back in your Ragnarok review.

[@tristanmereles1485]

I saw you posted and that just hyped me tf up

[@ATAGChozo]

I remember popping in God of War a while ago to give it a try, but had to stop around 30 minutes in because my hands got extremely tired from all of the button mashing QTEs. I can handle button mashing events here and there but damn does this game demand it a lot, and it's not even like I have arthritis or any hand-related disabilities. A re-release with an accessibility option of being able to hold the buttons instead like in other modern playstation titles would do wonders for the game's accessibility

[@TheMetalGaia]

Love watching all your videos, sir 😊

[@TheSlnistro]

Another Goated Series about to be covered by one of my favourite creators. Hell Yeah!!

[@Yozzoy]

I have an exam tomorrow why you gotta drop peak rn 😭

[@TheGoldenBolt]

study up, it'll be on the test

[@mehmetjj9163]

Moooooommmm wake up new gold bolt video

[@Drumpizza]

Golden Bolt time let's go!

[@fabriciofontes2898]

The blade of Artemis is made from combining the two blades of Chaos, so without them Kratos could not use the blade of Arthemis for the final fight.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Good shout - if that's it, I can totally live with it! Odds are good I missed that line while writing down notes/recording timestamps or something, assuming it's a line.

[@alimowla3204]

@@TheGoldenBolt it's not a line, buuuut, during gameplay when activating the blade of artemis, kratos is seemingly smacking the two blades together and then the blade of artemis pops up. either way tho, when ripping away the blades of chaos, ares states "no price is too high for what i offered! and you rejected me, a god! now you will have no power, no magic! all that is left for you is death!" so i think it's safe to assume that the ability to summon the blade of artemis is considered magic like all the rest of the powers you get, which ares takes away.

[@Jianichie]

Was wondering where this video was after you mentioned it on Crub.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

I've spent the last two weeks alternating between hating my life and reuploading 10-minute chunks of this thing over and over again, trying to figure out which spec of blood was too violent for YT. Go figure that I never once had this issue with any of the more recent or more violent games I've covered!

[@AD3SPG]

That intro hits ❤️

[@ginos9131]

I literally found your channel yesterday because I wanted to watch videos on ratchet deadlocked and when I finished I hoped that you had a video on GoW. I saw that you didn't and now you post this. What are the odds.

[@Zenlore6499]

Boy, I wish that fool had a better therapist. If THIS is how he still is nowadays, after 20 years, I can’t imagine how bad he was back then.

[@ThisIsCSDX]

I remember when I first played God of War on Vita. I had so much trouble walking on the balance beam early in the game that the game asked if I wanted to lower the difficulty which earned me a Trophy. Gonna level with you, game, I don't think that'll help with my clearly poor equilibrium.

[@derekhogan9685]

The Poseidon temple, that swimming segment, is easily one of the most anger inducing things in this game. I despise it.

[@KennyFrierson]

I hope whoever put the names in the hat had God of War in there three times

[@berxsol]

Every time I see a golden bolt's video I get so sad when it ends.

[@Nechrome9]

Wow guess what I just finished playing through yesterday 0_o great timing

[@an_ancient_architect2889]

Great video, but I do wonder why you say the bridge sword you use is a different move set when it’s a copy paste of the Blade of Artemis. You used that spin move you said you liked and I’m pretty sure it uses the same sound effects.

[@Shift_Salt]

44:00

[@SkelitonLord227]

If I remember correctly, he didn't kill the captain just because in the first game. The woman and children were being trafficked. And since his wife and child were murdered, the captain was the scum for him

[@josukemcjoestar9856]

Where was that even mentioned?

[@SaggyWaggy-is8it]

@@josukemcjoestar9856 context from cutscenes and stuff, easy to miss because it's not very obvious. Pretty sure the new games forgot too lol

[@gfdggdfgdgf]

My theory is that many people remember how visually impressive god of war was, how great the fighting and the combos were but completely forgot how frustrating many parts in the game are.

[@jahmi4334]

It's ok guys, there is a Giant clank reference, no riot today.

[@frankybuster]

Just got a GOG ad for GOW 2018 a quarter into the video

[@jamesjones-cross8811]

Babe wake up a new TGB vid just dropped

[@hgmd3284]

I have the first 2 on PSVita and the psp games, are any of them worth playing?

[@eddiecano8488]

I literally just finished it last night lol

[@skibot9974]

I sadly haven’t played this game as I was far too young when I had a PS2 and lack PS Now. But I have read the Nocelization and it’s great

[@douglewis7946]

Hey GB, have you tried Bears in Space? I think it might be up your alley. It wears Ratchet & Clank inspiration on its sleeve and blends it with some more modern Doom-like gameplay. It's not as cleverly written or polished as R&C games, but I think you'd still get a kick out of it.

[@Stavvy0]

I'll be real, I didn't remember anything being difficult in the first game until you showed the room at 48:24. That room was an asshole purely due to timing.

[@2funnyrockrs]

Letsss goooooo!

[@theboysgaming4782]

You should do War of the Monsters!?

[@ThatGamerDude9000]

It would be amazing if The Gold Bolt got inspiration from Croc to pin this comment similar to how David Jaffe saw Croc, and was inspired to make God of War. I mean, they're basically the same game.

[@elmortalsoldier1393]

Now the big question, does this mean that we'll get also a retrospective on other games of the series?

[@ToniBot]

I lately watched a lot of lets plays and speedruns and now this video is here to top it all off. This game is a classic.

[@grimnar1999]

here's something I've been wondering and once you see it you cannot unsee it lol how do the weapons stay on the character's back? In this case it's Kratos's skin so whats keeping the weapons on his back? GOW 2018 adds that metal hook that holds the axe (doesnt do it for the blade on that game for some reason). also its not just GOW that does this. Another example of DMC lol

[@ShunyValdez]

1:06:04 . Ahh. Dad of War started here.

[@GamerNationTecno]

As someone who has beaten the first game on God of war mode, I will say this it just isn't worth it.

[@weirdotzero7065]

I played a good chunk of the GoW series. The first one is probably my least favorite. I don't know if it's just me, but the QuickTime events are too strict for me. And its only really a problem with the first game. I played 2 and the PSPs games, and never had the same problems with the QTEs there.

[@Mace2.0]

"Mommy Milkers Kratos"

[@cosmindobre8899]

I hope you don t get demonetized because you showed Kratos jumping from the beginning of the game. Many GOW content creators faced that issue.

[@Jzwiz]

Recently played 2018 and ragnarok and loved them, ragnaroks pacing was a lil sus but they said its cause they decided to do 2 games instead of 3. Gonna watch a playthrough of the og series eventually, already know the plot/what happened cause fully read it one day when bored

[@fgdst6328]

commenting just to boost the algorithm sweet video

[@coaster1235]

the first thought I have when I hear kratos’s name is mmm hunky 🥰

[@AD3SPG]

This video cost TIME and a DOLLAR

[@TheGoldenBolt]

Thanks so much for the support!

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Brilliant research on the production, esp the challenge to be better than Japanese action games

[@draculactica]

Man this game woulda been so much better if Kratos used gunblades instead of chain blades

[@asakurawhyte4320]

How do we make you interested in making a series about the Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time trilogy?

[@gorestar216]

Need a jak trilogy review. Youve done the other trilogy mascots

[@Metrox524]

What was that udderly ridiculous costume? 1:02:48 Didn't know there were costumes

[@josesosa3337]

Has anyone played the original god of war games on play station streaming??? Is the button delay that bad??? Edit: If I ever stream on playstation, its too play the OG god of war games.

[@Cleanframe]

When quick time events were fresh and new, did we ever like them?🤔

[@runekofoed-petersen6578]

The first GOW is a classic, and I say that even when I prefere the norse saga

[@BugsyFoga]

Before the Boy

[@CommanderWolf104th]

i know this would never happen but i wish sony started selling these on pc platform

[@cosmindobre8899]

kinda weird to use a Chains of the Olympus thumbnail for the a God of War(2005) Retrospective

[@TheGoldenBolt]

This'll age poorly if I finish a/b testing and end up changing it to the alt. thumbnail that uses GoW II. (In a world where there's a single "good" image that's definitively made for the first game, and that image is the thumbnail for every single GoW1 video on the internet, sometimes you've gotta compromise. Doubly so when half of the pics online have metadata mistakenly indicating they're also key art from 1, like this one and the alt. thumbnail pic from II!)

[@cosmindobre8899]

@@TheGoldenBolt fair enough, I watched the first 20 minutes of the video & it s great so far. Let s hope this doesn t age poorly as well haha. Just joking, keep up the great work

[@aetherialpaff]

the gyyaaawwdd of woaaa (VIDEO)

[@Snaaake_Beater]

Ive played god of war 1 on ps2 february 2024 and it still holds up soooo well. Even this very first game is better than 2018 I played it on easy because I knew this game will Stretch your playtime. also because i played Gow 3 on titan before

[@spiral7399]

I love how that one reviewer said it was the first next gen PS2 game. You know, after that gen had already ended. Just what were they playing for 5y?

[@NivRel]

For how mutch i enjoyed Ragnarok It still hurts, It had to be Better, like valhalla left me a good taste in my month, but It hurts a lot on a narrative/feel and writing

[@Kleberoni]

Why is this under the ratchet retrospective series

[@vidyogaims]

Stop trolling us, i still can't believe your son isn't real

[@wearsjorge55]

Hated the first game with a passion. Even though 2 is harder, there was a jankyness to the first game that i could never get my head around, maybe other games with more fuild combat and movement ruined it for me

[@ViewtifulJae]

Man I miss and prefer this combat. Gow 1 -3 + ghost of Sparta and chains of Olympus are so good man. The new ones are cool but ppl who didn’t actually play the ones I just mentioned would always create this narrative that kratos didn’t do anything besides shout angrily even tho every game put him through emotional agony and we often saw him toned down reflecting on all that has brought him to where he was and where he was headed next. I liked the original voice actor waaay more too and think he would also do a better aged kratos than the new guy who doesn’t even have as deep of a voice lol. But anyway. No I’m not biased to the originals cuz there are a lot more frustrating moments in them I would argue than any of the new ones. But with that said I just don’t enjoyed the overall combat way more in the older ones. I will say that I didn’t get to spend much time with ascension tho