Was it Good? - God of War (2005)

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The gods of Olympus have abandoned me, now there is no hope.
Let's head back to 2005 and replay the game which started it all, the original Kratos adventure through Pandora's temple to find the power to defeat Ares and save Athens.
I'll be critiquing every mechanic and reviewing every cutscene as we ask, God of War, was it actually any good?
Thanks as usual to my very patient Patreon supporters who keep the channel alive.

[@brunohommerding3416]

I always found that ending kinda funny. "The city have been saved" while literally being in flames because a dead god exploded like a thermonuclear bomb right next to it.

[@deadlyninja112]

Exactly i was like daaaamn he blew up like a nuke

[@thechugg4372]

It really shows the brutality of the times and how worthless a life actually was, really good story telling

[@leithaziz2716]

"We did it Patrick! We saved the city!"

[@fotis3v480]

@@thechugg4372 nothing has changed nowadays mate lol. In case you were talking about irl.

[@mithos92]

Reminds me of the ending of Sonic Adventure. Most buildings were destroyed and the entire city is flooded. Game ends with Tails saying, "all's well that ends well."

[@RyanlilmanGamin]

"If I kill you....I will get health orbs." - Kratos

[@vanconojl]

Atreus: you only kill those who deserve it! Kratos: *i killed Mother f*ckers for 1 green orb BOY!!!*

[@KaiUndMoritz]

He said "YOU LOOK KIND OF PASTY" i think you cant say anything worse to him then that

[@thegamingprozone1941]

Dante: Ooh me too!

[@haldir108]

It's weird. Throughout the game, he sounds like Kratos, but in the Easter Egg, he sounds like Christopher Judge. It makes no sense.

[@thekey1175]

@@KaiUndMoritz that's because hes lathered in the ashes of his dead nuclear family

[@Judgement_Kazzy]

Love the order of operations in Kratos' brain when he meets the Oracle. "Kill? No, not supposed to kill this one. Grab tiddy? Tiddy is illusory, can't grab it. Better just stand here and stare in bewilderment"

[@TAREEBITHETERRIBLE]

*LMFAOO THIS COMMENT WAS ALL OUR EXACT TRAIN OF THOUGHT*

[@mrhamburgler480]

noticed this too 😅

[@you1027]

That PS2 era really was golden in gaming. The "multiple problems" facet being the secret genome to engaging material is 100%. A couple titles that managed to sink their hooks into me like no others around that time were Eternal Sonata and the first Prototype. They, too, had numerous moving puzzle pieces at all times.

[@saltiney8578]

I was so very dissapointed by prototype, I hated how you got all these cool powers but every power just did like one specific thing, like you cant mix and match the powers into interesting battles its just, This enemy takes claws, this enemy takes swords, this enemy takes hammer. also the idea of a shapeshifter wasnt really realized well either imo Idk one of my biggest dissapointments in gaming was that game.

[@mjay6245]

​@Saltiney Man you must have ridiculously high expectations then. Prototype was the shit. Was it perfect? No, but it let you be a shape-shifting God. Even the 2nd one was fun even if just the gameplay, not the story overall.

[@makeitthrough_]

​@@mjay6245Prototype was incredibly mid, Infamous was much better

[@plain_simple_garak]

Both Prototype and Eternal Sonata were PS3/Xbox360 games, not PS2

[@scenczyk1429]

Soul Reaver?

[@MrDark086]

Poseidons rage comes from Poseidon being not only the god of the seas but also storms, earthquakes, and horses, which also explains the creatures' design for God of War 3's initial boss battles

[@TheGoodWillSpreader]

and that his temperament in myth wasn't all that different from zeus's when enraged,

[@brunohommerding3416]

Yeah its kind of annoying how many people just assume poseidon is ocean water and nothing else. Its not only in God of War that i have seen this comment about poseidon using lighting in one way or another as if it was Zeus exclusive.

[@cyrusthegreat3299]

That wasn't a horse in GoW 3, u dumbass. Kratos says it himself in Ragnorak. That was a Hippocamp.

[@cyrusthegreat3299]

@@brunohommerding3416 more annoying is u thinking Posidon was riding a sea horse.

[@brunohommerding3416]

@@cyrusthegreat3299 i never even said anything remotely close to that lol

[@joseaca1010]

One thing i really liked about Pandora's Temple is that the further you go, the less living and dead soldiers you find, implying Kratos is reaching parts of the temple noone else had reached yet

[@kvx4862]

I never noticed that! That blew my mind

[@khaledbebo9]

this game made me love gaming 10x more than I did before playing it, I never even liked its genre before trying it, the fact that nearly 100% of every bit of detail gives hints that its creator thought thoroughly about it always blows my mind, it's like every pixel is there for a reason & nothing is there as just a filler!

[@stevengrass6800]

Except the moment you needed a specific skull to open a door, you were then the only person to proceed beyond that point

[@lErickl]

Because Pandora's temple was also a challenge from the gods and those who fail die, and is the reason that guy on the door was "punished" to be the doorkeeper, he failed and fled, so he was punished in that way.

[@VictorIV0310]

@@lEricklHe was, in fact, the very first to attempt to enter Pandora’s Temple. He failed and was then cursed by the gods to stand guard and watch as future champions try to enter, burning their maimed corpses over the centuries.

[@Keandros]

Behind the Atlas statue is a muse key. There are 3 spots for muse keys. If you get the 2 first ones, the third becomes red orbs. Same for the gorgon eyes and Phoenix feathers. If you miss some, it's still possible to get max hp and mana. But if you get them all early, the chest that would've had them later become red orb chests. It's nice way to accommodate players that missed some secrets, yet reward players that have been exploring everywhere. I also discovered this game in GameStop back in 2005 without knowing anything about the game, nor having heard of it before. I'm a fan for life of this series.

[@jaythomas468]

Yup, that initial demo disc that my boy who worked at GameStop took home was what convinced me I HAD TO GET THIS GAME.

[@hvd6199]

fan for life for sure, fantastic fantastic game

[@kennykiller]

When I first heard of this game it was a mate recommending it a lot, yet I never got it. When I was 28[2013ish] I spent a weekend or two at a different mate's house and his PS2 had both 1 and 2, I asked what they were like and spent ages playing the first when he lent it me as well as the second at his...To this day I still have the GoW1 he lent me cos he never wanted it back... Slight PS never worth gettin a ps3 just to play the later ones so ive only played 1 and 2 since I never saw/see them on PC.

[@Parambolumberienriatta]

This explains why some chests that should give eyes or feathers gave me orbs. When I first played this game I didn't know it and was pretty frustrated when it happened.

[@pedrosilvamusician]

A work colleague from my mom had a bunch of pirated ps2 games back in 2006-7. I never heard of God of War since I only rarely could have access to the internet. I remember me and my sister playing it but the game had a weird bug in the second hydra fight in which it froze. We attempted to re-burn the disk to no avail. But we liked it so much we bought it. I was maybe in 7th grade and was really into the game and have fond memories, my PS2 memory card still has the save from back in 2007. We then bought GoW 2 and were amazed. It was a shame that I beat the second game in the same day, thinking of how bad it was to have a cliff hanger. I eventually played them all, beat them all and have great memories. GoW is actually the first game I ever platinumed on my PS3

[@HQ_Default]

As someone trying to develop a game, that "never just one problem" piece of game design is easily one of the most helpful things I've heard in a while. I never really thought about it, but yeah, you're absolutely right. Making the player deal with multiple problems simultaneously is incredibly important, otherwise they're just going through the motions of "If Problem X, do Solution Y". I had not really considered that when making my game, so I'm very glad you brought that up.

[@Paul_Ward]

This is called making the player face dilemmas instead of just problems. A dilemma is two or ore problems that must be overcome at the same time, where there is a sacrifice to be made to overcome them. You want the player to face having to make a sacrifice to tackle these dilemmas but you need to be careful to balance these sacrifices so that it doesn't feel unfair. Good luck with the game - another aspiring dev

[@thaddeushill7080]

Yea same er m8

[@maxmustermann3938]

I am reminded of BotW. Did we all hate weapon durability? Probably. But thinking about it, that was what gave you another problem. Without it, your answer would always be the most powerful weapon in an encounter, and you'd have no need to explore to restock weapons. The durability encouraged you to try alternate approaches in combat, varieties of weapons and incentivised exploration. In hindsight, it worked great in that game - but in a lot of other games, it doesn't, because all the durability does there is hold you back or annoy you/require some grind, etc.

[@derp195]

​@maxmustermann3938 All valid, but at least for me, durability anxiety took a lot of fun out of it. I just ended up hoarding bows and not wanting to use them. I much preferred the mechanic in fallout (new vegas and/or 3, I don't remember) where they slowly degrade, but can be repaired. In botw, you get like 10 shots and they explode. It l was ridiculous.

[@ReverendLeRoux]

One of the best games I've seen put this into practice in plain black and white so readily readable that anyone could pick up on it is DmC: Devil may Cry. Some enemies can be hurt by any attack, but some enemies require certain weapons or they don't take damage at all. At first you'll encounter a few of them at a time alone, but then they end up getting mixed together. Combat goes from "mash one combo repeatedly to win" to "Use all of your tools all of the time or lose." Make no mistake, the game is still kind of okay at its best, but they showed a really good grasp of game fundamentals.

[@simon62821]

This video ended up just a bit shorter than Christopher Judge’s speech at the game awards

[@jaylee8157]

Fortnite won game of the year award for game play. What the fuck

[@StUCaboose]

Judge was the real mvp. He knew Valve was giving away Steamdecks every minute

[@Metal-Gear-Moogle]

There are now three different occasions where I've seen him cry like a bitch lol

[@theguyinthere]

You funny man.

[@saniakshay12]

Lol true but it was a nice speech and at least he dressed well unlike most of the devs.

[@WannaComment2]

1:16:35 If the dying minotaur hadn't kicked in the door here you wouldn't have been able to progress any further. That's the architect playing some serious 5D chess right there.

[@Sassy_Witch]

OOPS

[@xXGodkidGamerXx]

he could have just opened the door, the minotaur broke the chain, remember?

[@pileksander2412]

I heard the narrator say 'Kratos found the memes to destroy the god of war' and it sparked a great image in my head of Kratos printing out the memes on A4 sheets and showing them to Ares

[@LukeSparrow221]

Ha! And then Ares holding his face like in the classic painting "The Scream" to then collapse and explode.

[@snailthelostcow63]

I can't believe Ares died of cringe. Truly a meme worthy for God of War

[@jacksmith3148]

"You're too late, Spartan! I've already recovered the seething soyjaks stored within Pandora's Box and depicted you as one of them!"

[@ThePhobophile]

I don’t know why but the fact that you specified the paper size of A4 is funnier to me than anything else lol.

[@butchbabytoaster]

If the MGRR writers wrote GOW

[@frostspork6930]

The character of Kratos being a Greek tragedy fits so well with the setting. Simple back story that was masterfully executed. Brilliant!

[@natediaz1863]

No mention of the fake out where the game makes you think you have to push Pandora's box all the way to Ares. I thought that was brilliant because it lasts just a little bit too long, just enough to make you worry.

[@trivo1216]

He can “ask” Cronos who carries the temple on his back to walk to Athens.

[@FeartheKlown]

I remember that now. I was willing to do it, and when that pillar comes out of nowhere I was so shocked.

[@ballad5708]

and then two stupid ass harpies come and take it away with 100 times more ease than someone as inhumanely strong as kratos

[@vgman94]

@@ballad5708 And they made the box so heavy that it barely moves when you charged your kick, implying it’s insanely heavy. The cutscene adds insult to injury with that one.

[@doihavetobeg]

@@ballad5708 Well, his inhumane strength varies wildly. One moment he's toppling down building sized statues and rotating titan sized temples and the next moment he struggles with detaching a skull/head from a skeleton/rotten corpse :D

[@AceHammerheart]

Would love to see God of War 2 and 3 done in the same way, Josh! This was brilliant!

[@Jermaine2099]

He'd have to rename the series. There's no question at all if those games are good, same for this one actually lol

[@senta52]

yes please.

[@epictv5580]

Pretty please

[@primusgrant3426]

I can't believe this guy is crying, literally crying because the boss fight with Aries was hard, and he liked the understanding that the reason why you fought with the unfamiliar weapon was because the weapon that was taken away from cradles actually came from Aries, that's just pure common sense. Why would I allow someone to kill me if I'm a God with the very weapon that I made, and I have the power to do something about it, and then he was like crying once more about the mechanics fighting Aries was all that you can handle you simply can't handle other stuff getting in the way as you're fighting Aries, he said it himself that he died lots of times so what is all the crying about it's f****** sickening to me.

[@ThePandaSupreme]

Yes please

[@NourArt02]

I still think GOW1 has the best storytelling in all of GOW games, the flashback storytelling style really work, and it's just a great origin story, and Linda Hunt's narration made it even greater.

[@DeathG64]

Which is funny since it has the least story-based environments/backtracking

[@SuBZer0lp]

Poseidon's room, with the secret tunnel underwater, was the only puzzle I was unable to solve for two days straight. I remember it was 2007, I was 11 years old, my dad just earned GoW for me after winning a Darts game with his friends ( they were pretty drunk). I had no internet at that time, but I remember that I was able to access a God of War forum at the Internet Caffee where I red about the exit, as there were no youtube tutorials ( I think I was not even aware of youtube platform at that time). Truly unique memories - God of war will forever be in my heart.

[@nanangrahman9597]

Man i was stuck on that puzzle too when was little haha

[@SuBZer0lp]

@@nanangrahman9597 god of war uniting ppl around the globe

[@DSzaks]

It's kinda amazing how well Judge's and Carson's voices line up for Kratos. They really do sound like the same person in different stages of their life.

[@kingstarscream320]

People’s voices really don’t change that much from puberty to old age. I mean it changes, but not so much that you’d need a different voice actor necessarily. Judge is great tho.

[@igorpedro8995]

@@kingstarscream320 to be fair, do we know how much time there is between GoW 3 and GoW 2018 ? Cause people's voice can change between their adulthood and their old age, and Kratos doesn't look like he's being portrayed as a 30/40yo like he did in the first three games. I'd give him a 55-60 years in the 2018 game, or even a little bit older, it looks like they're trying to portray him as a "Zeus" kind of character, the old father figure he didn't have.

[@HotDogTimeMachine385]

@@igorpedro8995 It was never really said, but there's some lore on the timeline we get If you want the "historic" route then you can calculate the gap between the Spartan and Norse ages. Really basic math is: Sparta fell around 200 BC and the Norse age/norse religion was between 500 AD to 1000 AD. So Kratos would be millennia old. But probably not. It's much more likely the GoW universe doesn't go by real time. The novelization states Kratos got his blades under the floor for 50 years. Doesn't explain how or when, so that says at least 50 years. The biggest confirmation is at least 150, Freya explicitly stated that the temple of Tyr was submerged for over 150 years and in the temple was a piece of pottery with Kratos on it. Add Atreus to that and spending time with Faye it was 150-200 years in Midgard. GoW 2018 takes place at least 200 after GoW 3.

[@mrblack7302]

Carson was let go because he was not tall enough and muscular. Had nothing to do with his voice

[@realamericannegro977]

They do not. TC sounds like the Kratos you see in the greek saga. Judges sound like the Kratos you see in that norse saga. Two completely different characters. Greek Kratos is the real one. Norse is different character using the rep and clout of the original.

[@kakokapolei123]

Replayed this back in the summer after not playing it for a good decade or so. It absolutely still holds up today.

[@Chuckles-kz1kr]

Honestly, I can only hope for you to do this type of video essay for not only God of War II but the entire trilogy. This was absalutely awesome and I really do hope you continue to be successful in the future.

[@Tr055]

God of War is the crowing jewel of the franchise in my opinion

[@amy.586]

Fun fact, if you upgraded the blade of artemis it will make the bridge sword more powerful, I had it at max level and I killed Ares first time because the damage increase is BIG

[@GerardoFirestorm]

yeah, the bridge is an artemis sword re skin

[@theninjamaster67]

That must be why I didn't have nearly as hard a time as he made it sound cause I split all my red orbs among my other weapons rather than only focusing on one so it definitely confused me hearing he struggled with this fight.

[@videoplayback_]

yeEtp

[@Hecatom]

Same. When he said What about the Artemis blade, and why introduce a new mechanic, I was like, mate, that sword is an Artemis Blade reskin. Barely touching that weapon and not upgrading it was why the fight felt so terrible for him

[@ino_mation]

@@Hecatom Being able to miss that is also itself a bad mechanic. The weapon in the final fight being tied to the progress of another weapon, rather than balanced around a weapon you'd be expected to raise, like the main weapon itself. If you're not in to how it controls, you're going to ignore it, and then be punished at the end of the game for it.

[@franklinturtleton6525]

So GoW was actually inspired by DMC exclusively. The director talked about it in an interview, saying that they never intended to try and out-do devil may cry, only that they loved the game so much and they wanted to make that kind of game.

[@morkgin2459]

But it is not a clone.

[@MasterBohne86]

@@morkgin2459 it's far from that

[@habbababba69420]

I wish that both new GoW games were also inspired by good games.

[@Ronbotnik]

@@habbababba69420 amen

[@diamondhamster4320]

@@habbababba69420 BASED?

[@PankekoTheDragon]

I love the way you review games. It's a nice condensed walkthrough of sorts, a good way to re-experience these games with the lovely commentary and critique you bring, thanks Josh!

[@danielcardoza5177]

“The gods of Olympus have abandoned me” is a cold bar to start a franchise

[@reinoob]

27:25 That's not just a visual touch, it's to indicate that the soldier tried to jump there because there's a secret if you jump where the soldier is.

[@coffeedude]

🤯

[@Karlach_]

Man the GoW games are so fucking good, every single one of them

[@dallinferguson994]

@@Karlach_ Agreed. Even the PSP ones feel substantial and polished

[@ElShogoso]

@@Karlach_ It tells a lot when Ascenscion is the bad GoW game and that one is still better than more than half of the PS3 library.

[@guardianvalor962]

Do you have to jump on the ledge?

[@mauriciobetimpaesleme8702]

53:50 The story of Pathos Verdes III to me is one the best in the entire series. It is the quintesential Greek Tragedy. The gods ask PV III to create the temple to hide Pandora's box forever, he sacrifices everything for it, even his sanity, his loyalty, his family, his life. He completes the task but in the end it is fruitless, for the gods themselves ask, AND HELP, a mortal to take the box out of temple and use it.

[@madmrtvola8606]

But the box was supposed to be recoverable, if by the gods' chosen only, and Pathos acknowledged it in his first message. He actually succeeded in making the temple kill everyone before Kratos. His fatal flaw seems to have been his obsession with uncaring gods and throwing his life away for their sake was his fatal action.

[@Fuchsfeuer]

Well unfortunately they made Kratos a demigod from the 2nd Game and is the son of Zeus. Thus, no mortal has ever reached the box.

[@YEY0806]

@Fuchsfeuer Well, considering Kratos's feats, how else could he not be a demigod? Also, demigods are still mortal, so a mortal did succeed.

[@oscarfriberg7661]

@@Fuchsfeuer Kratos was the son of Zeus already in the first game. It's revealed in one of the bonus material videos unlocked after finishing the game.

[@Topcatyo.]

@@oscarfriberg7661 There's a funny special feature in God of War 2 where the director talks a bit about working on it, and he mentions how in God of War 2, they sort of retcon that bonus video. I don't remember exactly what the director says, but it's something along the lines of "...and fans are always saying 'Hey, didn't Kratos learn he was Zeus' son in the bonus video from the first game? Why is Kratos learning this again?' My response to them is... uh... I don't care. [hard cut on video]" Gave me a hearty laugh back when I first saw it.

[@YourMomMyBed8000]

These long videos are fantastic. I'm so tired of 15 minute vids with generic reviews. These are beautiful

[@shughan666]

I revisited this game last year and finally beat God Mode. I got the phone numbers and tried them for fun; they still worked!

[@dungeonseeker3087]

Holy shit, that grave digger throwback might genuinely be the best bait and switch I've ever seen. I was absolutely sure Krates was gonna die during the game and end up in a coffin, then he died and didn't which confused me and finally they used it as an exit from the underworld which was a situation that never even came into my mind at all. Sheer and utter brilliance.

[@theninjamaster67]

The twist is even better when you find out the grave digger was Zeus all along.

[@rightinthedome9973]

I remember absolutely losing my mind when we climbed out of that hole lol

[@jaythomas468]

Right? Even funnier is the callback to the sea captain in Hades where he sees Kratos and is like, “AHHH NO, NOT YOU AGAIN” before being kicked into the abyss.

[@skateplays8880]

@@theninjamaster67well I’ve only played the first game of the Greek games so far but I’m confused by why Zeus would try to save Kratos, like wasn’t he trying to get rid of him because of the prophecy or did he simply need Kratos to kill ares first before he could act

[@WexMajor82]

@@theninjamaster67 "You will, MY SON"...

[@caseywilliams4145]

It was straight up one of the best games of all time still holds strong up to today

[@ALMUDDY]

Heck yeah

[@Otamie]

It´s not such a big deal to break the 180 rule when there is only 1 character on screen. It mostly refers to a moment when 2 characters (or more) are having a conversation/interaction. Then it becomes really hard to figure out where everyone is in the existing space. But I do agree that that cut is very jaring and could use some more smooth motion like in the other segments.

[@merlith4650]

not when it's a video game. the 180 rule is arguably more important for a videogame because you are directly interacting with the events on screen. abrupt and drastic transitions in perspective will disorientate the player in relation to the 3D space they are traversing, and even mess up the controls because now the directional inputs no longer lines up with perspective in a way that makes logical sense

[@rsmith8113]

Man… these first 3 games were the peak of the series. I even think the voices and designs were much better too. I don’t know, but the new games are missing style and epicness of the original games. It’s too slow and feels really small, these older games felt grandiose even though they were linear.

[@DesignIncase]

The new games are intentionally a different kind of a game. I think they have plenty of style and epicness but in a different way. The first game is literally "I just want to spread my wife's ashes and then get some sleep".

[@adevilscupoftea]

Speaking of design, Kratos in the original trilogy had a certain comic book aesthetic to him which I really liked. They had a stronger sense of style for their designs back then. I believe the shift in style was because a lot of the original team members left (sculptor, character designer) I believe the character designer who designed Aphrodite was also one of them, although the combat guy that did the Blades of Chaos/Athena stuck around up to the new GoW. If you look at the new Kratos sculpt done by the new sculptor you can see they've toned down a lot of his pointy features. He looks totally different with his beard off and even weirder with a goatee. Cory Barlog also worked on Tomb Raider 2013, so that explains the shift in the camera angle as well. Not a lot of people in Santa Monica was on board with the new change but they decided to stick with it.

[@drake9634]

@@DesignIncase trying to minimize the grandness of the old games can be done with the newer ones too, gow 2018 is "I feel sad and have to take care of a child"

[@drake9634]

@@adevilscupoftea the shift in camera angle, the lack of impact of hits on the newer games and the lameness of the voice actor did it for me, god of war ended in gow 3 in the story and in ascension in the series

[@kalark]

Always love the entries in the "Was it good?" series. Well done! Fantastic video!

[@Juliett-A]

No one expects the 3rd boulder.

[@Jopovicious]

Love em, but unfortunately it also brings up the nostalgia boomers from their holes -_-'

[@CoopsNME]

@@Jopovicious how dare they 🙄

[@Jopovicious]

@@CoopsNME Yeah exactly. What kind of mental midget goes around and keeps repeating "everything was better in the old days" ? When literally each genre has gone better over the years -_-'

[@CoopsNME]

@@Jopovicious I wouldn't say each genre has gotten better over the years. First person shooters and action adventure games come to mind. Sure, they might *look* better, but with things like battlepasses/microtransactions and trying to integrate game mechanics that keep the gameplay "fresh" can take away from what people loved about those games initially. God of war is obviously an outlier in that regard, as it sacrificed some of its fast paced, linear gameplay for more enriching storytelling and exploration. But things like Call of Duty adding jetpacks and wallrunning or Assassin's Creed adding RTS mechanics, can really take away from what made players pick the game up in the first place. Especially when you throw in something like a battlepass that locks a portion of the game behind a paywall. Obviously there's a case for "rose tinted glasses" where games were nowhere near as good as we may remember them, but it's also important to consider that those games may have been groundbreaking at the time, and not as formulaic or refined as they are today. I just think it's a bit dismissive to say something like "mental midgets" when there's probably not anyone who thinks as single mindedly as you make them out to be.

[@-tHeGaMe-]

It's funny how Josh mentions looking for secrets in out of view areas, mentions the visual of the cross beam but never once thinks to try and jump to it to look for a secret

[@signmeupplz]

Noticed this too JUMP TOWARDS IT, JOSH! NO WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

[@asdbanz316]

@@signmeupplz What timestamp?

[@asdbanz316]

27:25? Yeah it was really obvious secret location

[@gabbagoo9774]

He also missed one at 23:23 you can see the ladder by where he jumps off of the ball-handed ogre

[@raresmacovei8382]

​@@gabbagoo9774That's only a health refill tho

[@BAGGStheAugmented]

This game blew my mind with how epic it felt back in the day. I have many fond memories of this game when it was released. It was so epic that a lot of my non gamer friends would stop to watch the gameplay whenever they were hanging out. It felt like playing through a cinematic masterpiece.

[@mastermill79]

It made me feel as small and as large as I've ever felt.

[@biggusdickus1234]

Honestly, the ending of the original God of War game makes it completely understandable why he chooses to go rogue and start invading places. He wants to free himself of his nightmares, to finally have release, and they go "No, you're immortal now. Have fun with those terrible memories forever!"

[@Ko700el]

not only that but after playing GOD3 (and its theme about hope) you realize that he was """normal""" before the box opened at the first game, gained the power of hope which helped him kill ares, he became "a true monster" at the second game for the reason you just said, meaning he had lost hope, which allowed the evils of the box to consume zeus and provoke his paranoya (gow2 intro The Cycle End Now) .....and in the 3rd game he started to """calm down"" (found hope again) when he met pandora, not only because she was for him a kid but because she symbolized that there is still hope for an end at his path ....which helped him kill zeus...thats why Athena freaked out in the end about the contents of the box, because a power that could controll such grand events events and such powerhouses of people, is something that she would definitely want for herself to exploit....thankfully by then Kratos stopped being "a monster", brought him enough clarity to realize this and killed himself, releasing this power to the realm.

[@Truestoned0]

​@@Ko700el Hope was the dumbest reveal I've ever seen it a video game this brutal but it played nicely into these last 2 games

[@booknamebasis]

@@Truestoned0 I mean, hope was literally what was left in Pandora's Box in the myth, so it's nice to see the games incorporating classically known myths into this fabricated one.

[@Truestoned0]

@@booknamebasis oh forsure but I still quite disliked it nonetheless

[@booknamebasis]

@@Truestoned0 fair enough

[@matthewlongo6404]

This game was damn good and it was insanely good in 2005. It was mind blowing back then.

[@sirpuffball6366]

1:52:51 "if I kill you... I will get health orbs..." This was unreasonably funny

[@jakelee7083]

The Sword Bridge has the same basic moves as the Blade of Artemis, so it's not completely different. Someone else mentioned that it could be a punishment for relying too heavily on the weapon that Ares himself gave to you and I kinda like that theory.

[@osky516]

Report the scam artist.

[@Hecatom]

It not only has the the same basic moves, but if you upgrade the Artemis blade to the max, the last sword has a massive damage bonus, making the fight easier at the end. IIRC, it also has all the move set. The fight felt terrible for Josh for relying only on the 1st weapon, so being a punishment sounds very fitting, lol.

[@fleshyindividual3220]

@@osky516 what?

[@eddydrouet1888]

@@fleshyindividual3220 there was probably a bot comment when he made the comment. Luckily it's been removed it seems

[@snailthelostcow63]

Man, the game really does love callbacks, huh?

[@casedistorted]

“A cute little puppy” Me: “Awwww! …Oh dear.” Oh yeah, I remember that area. It is crazy that I can remember everything in this game as Josh plays through it, despite not playing this game since it first released. I did totally forget about the spinning pillars in Hades. I don’t remember them bothering me that much so I guess I forgot about it.

[@ageoflove1980]

I always like it when games are made in such a way that the player feels like he came up with a solution to a problem himself.

[@MissCosmosEdits]

Or she. Girls like gow too

[@JuliusCaesar103]

Kratos saying at the end: "Athena, rid me of the memories that haunt me still" always hits me in the feels, goddamn such an unforgettable moment.

[@Ghost_Drive]

And another story to add to the list of "What I thought/heard was the premise was actually a plot twist". Kratos was introduced to me as the guy who killed his family serving Ares, so to see how it was portrayed in the actual game was great. I also like how the game can simultaneously use violence for fun with the incredible gory kills and gameplay, but also seriously in the story. Kratos tearing a head off of a gorgon looked fun. Watching him stab someone in a cutscene felt disturbing. Glad to see why this was a great game!

[@Bourikii2992]

Yeah, it's annoying that people fawn over kratos' new portrayal and as if he was only "grr angry man" in the originals.

[@zzodysseuszz]

@@Bourikii2992 yeah that’s doing a disservice to who kratos was in those games

[@Thunder_Roy]

@@Bourikii2992it’s the new video game cinema. The new god of war isn’t a real god of war game. They cut corners. People only care about graphics now. 4K 60fps. Just takes the fun out it. Dark Souls copy

[@Bourikii2992]

@@Thunder_Roy Yeah it's insane to me that nioh 1 got shit on for enemy variety when GoW4 has like 6 enemy types in the whole game on top of mediocre gameplay.

[@xXSamir44Xx]

@@Thunder_Roy Tell me you've never played Dark Souls without telling me you've never played Dark Souls.

[@loutmouth]

Honestly hearing you talk about playing it as a kid brought me back to being 11 years old and somehow figuring all this stuff out. All of the puzzle gameplay is really intuitive and the power fantasy was RAGING! What a great game.

[@bonkiru9818]

Say the line, John Strife! "Never just one problem!" Jokes aside thank you for this very good retrospective review, many of the things I didn't even notice when I played the game you pointed out. One hell of a video and well thought out one!

[@Zamoxino]

now i know why his content is so enjoyable to watch... cause there is always something happening on my 1st and 2nd monitor

[@Zerphses]

The secret number absolutely still works. I have “Kratos” saved in my phone, and just called it a few days ago.

[@AndresLionheart]

This is funny. Yesterday I checked Josh's channels because I was wondering where he may have been. Now this comes out.

[@kidren50]

Dude, S A M E. LoL

[@TheSlayer117]

Lmfao. same! I missed the guy

[@gilleslambert4232]

I was rewatching the Armored Core one when I saw this one come up lol

[@MaitreMechant]

same !

[@nakano15]

Check his twitter, he made a thread today talking about his absence of making videos and streaming.

[@Muzakality]

This was a fascinating video! Much is owed to your masterful presentation, script, and editing here. It was very easy to keep my attention for the entire two hours.

[@Drudicta]

This, was fantastic. All the memories came rushing back, especially the last 25 minutes of the video. Never got to play the sequels and would love reviews on them that cover the story on top of the gameplay just like this one did. Thank you for showing the cutscenes in full.

[@DJ_Khaalis]

I like how he mentioned not being able to show every cutscene due to boobs and then at 19:19 it plays a cutscene that shows boobs anyway.

[@Ric_373]

He is pretty selective with censoring them 🤣. Boobs are okay on Medusa, but not on the oracle of Athens. I guess since the oracle doesn't move much it was easier to just put Kratos' face on them.

[@AlphaSquadZero]

@@Ric_373 But he does show the Oracle's boobs in a later cut scene

[@fireandbombs12]

@@Ric_373 There are times when he didn't even censor the oracle.

[@YEY0806]

Actually, the presence of the soldiers within the temple makes sense, as the undead helper confirms that he lets soldiers and other mortal heroes enter the temple only to fail, which leads to his purpose of burning the dead bodies from which he is actively doing now. Also, the soldiers come from Athens, meaning that like Kratos, they also were on the mission to find Pandora's Box to save Athens. It's a great example of indirect storytelling

[@kennykiller]

I love the boredom in that guy's voice, like he's given the speech about 1000 times before and since they all ended up dead he's all blasé at this point.

[@YEY0806]

​@kennykiller, yeah, his basically an undead janitor

[@joshbrekke6374]

Nicely done & a great reminder of how fun this one was & still is. It’s been almost 20 years ago now, my how time flies! I forgot all the great aspects of this one. Thanks!

[@Reeartse]

My favorite game of all time. It grabbed me at a time when I was done with video games and from the bloody, brutal combat; the well told story and that soundtrack. I have been back in gaming since. Probably play it at least once a year. The following games might be "better" but this felt raw, brutal and can't be topped to me.

[@stolensentience]

Gow2 was less brutal iyo?

[@erickschusterdeoliveira2662]

at 1:06:03 I'd honestly say that's not unfair, you've already seen that the room is moving and that the spikes were up and are now down that clearly insinuates that they're going back up

[@kennethzeranski2833]

All these years later, I still remember how I struck the final blow on the final phase of the final boss fight....and the game locked up and I had to do it allllllll over again.

[@hillhank1275]

I absolutely love your videos in general - especially this one. The first God of War isn't talked about often but you gave it a proper and well presented video and I really enjoyed your thoughts on it

[@marctestarossa]

Duuuuude

[@theguyinthere]

Ya know i bought armored core because of your video after 25 years. I used to play the demo with my sister and that's a good moment.

[@mohandasjung]

Fromsoft announced a new arma core game o/

[@seifer447]

​@@mohandasjung Its so exciting.

[@bounceycake1]

The og God of War games, Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta, are the reasons why I love combo based action games

[@Medicalguy]

Your commentary and style is so good. I love your videos!

[@JustSomeDamnGinger]

That moment discussed around 1:08:00 is really interesting because they removed the emotional aspect of the sacrifice being a living human in the remaster and replaced him with one of Ares' undead soldiers. And, considering you've killed hundreds of those by this point, you're instead looking forward to getting him into the fire and being done with. I feel it makes it more annoying than tense.

[@sikness1924]

If you play in the god difficulty it is a regular human soldier

[@fluttercoat3899]

Did they? Played the one that came out on ps3 could've sworn is was still a regular guy, been a number of years though so I could be forgetting

[@Bodragous]

Sorry Josh but im gonna need this whole series :((((( This was top tier!

[@TWIXTIMA0]

The God of war trilogy is a masterpiece.

[@nicholassullivan1239]

All of those games are overshadowed in ALL aspects by other games that came after.

[@marcioamaral7511]

@@nicholassullivan1239 Bullshit! Boss fights were better, that being what players most critiqued in the 2018 game Soundtrack was way more epic, now is more emotional which fits Story for me at least is equally great, the difference now is we've got more and better written characters Level design as always been great but the most iconic ones are in the previous games The old games had way better and harder puzzles I could on, but saying the new games overshadowed the previous ones in all aspects is straight up disrespectful and total bullshit! the new games are wonderful because of the previous ones and never forget that

[@JuliusCaesar103]

@@marcioamaral7511 preach brother, these types of fans are the worst thing about the newer games, if people wouldn't shit on the older games without even having played them, many fans of the older games would be much more open to the newer ones

[@BreakfastAtNoon]

@@nicholassullivan1239 wrong.

[@MindinViolet]

Absolutely one of my favourite series ever. It is also incredible how well the graphics/art design have held up.

[@j800r_aswell]

You successfully commanded nearly two ours of my time and kept my attention the entire time. The game is fantastic, as is your video observation of it. It is now nearly 3am and I have zero regrets.

[@similow9078]

I just came by this video and just to say, it was really really good and a nice opportunity to dig in again into the game. Well done!

[@klavakkhazga3996]

Massive nostalgia wave. Early 2000s childhoods were the pinnacle of edgyness, from DMC to GoW to Prince of Persia

[@morkgin2459]

DMC is not edgy

[@leithaziz2716]

@@morkgin2459As long as we don't talk about DmC or DMC2, that is correct.

[@morkgin2459]

@@leithaziz2716 i would rather call the games without those two "cheesy" than "edgy"

[@nicholassullivan1239]

The edginess is pretty much pure cringe at this point.

[@nicholassullivan1239]

@@leithaziz2716 the reboot was by far the best until DMC 5 was released. I say this as someone who played the og dmc on a demo disk an purchased the og gam on release day as well as having played all of the games. 1 is special, because it started the franchise. All the others are meh (disliked 2 and 4). The reboot was a breathe of fresh air. The most recent release is fantastic.

[@anglo-saxonconnor817]

The first game that started it all. It is still good to play even today and thanks to it popularity it enable the franchise to still go strong to this very day.

[@tyrantravealpha]

GOW as a series has always been incredibly strong as a franchise IMHO. The artistic direction, music and the game play are solid stone. The only weakness that is obvious for the franchise is the secondary weapons feel kind of weak in comparison to the main blades. Phenomenal series otherwise

[@realamericannegro977]

All the old ones are still good in my opinion

[@Kris-wo4pj]

@@tyrantravealpha the story also got kinda dumb after awhile. as a teenager it was cool as an adult original games are cringe-y but it explains why i enjoy the new games so much ya can feel like Kratos is finally healing and "growing up".

[@DanielAlejandroFuentesToro]

This was awesome, I would love to see a review like this for the other two games

[@CesarIsaacPerez]

I loved the Ares fight. I thought it was memorable and have always wanted to play a game that was nothing but that type of fight vs Different bosses... like a fighting game but in that style.

[@guidofedeli851]

32:24 Onimusha, a game that came out 4 years prior to the first GoW, also had a parry mechanic! It's actually what I tried to "remember" doing as I learned parrying in the souls games.

[@GuillaumeHuetGH]

27:09 Since I know you like nice tutorial mechanics and you might have missed it : Right after you get Medusa's gaze the room if filled with enemies you're supposed to turn to stone. This off course let you learn how to use it by actually using it but there's something special here. It's the only moment in the game where your mana continuously refills. You can see it in the video right after using it, it refills progressively. It avoids the potential frustration of failing to use it properly in the tutorial area and emptying your mana. This particular mechanic became interesting for speedrunners because if you manage to escape the room without killing the enemies, this mechanic is not disabled. Mana keeps on refilling during gameplay, allowing extensive use of magic for faster kills of about everything ;)

[@leonpaelinck]

Damn that's interesting.

[@whoisjojo5896]

This has been a very interesting review as someone who never really played the greek god of war series its crazy how similar the base game is to the norse god of war games are, just pure perfection.

[@dl_sep666]

wait till you see the second and third game

[@mrhamburgler480]

just found your channel. quality content my friend. loving these videos

[@famguy2101]

Me and my father mustve been exceptions, cause we used the blade of Artemis almost exclusively lol, hits like a truck Also at 1:20:00 that enemy is supposed to be a Satyr, half man half goat, which is a Greek mythological creature

[@TheArkhamjester]

I adore the ending. namely how ascension to godhood can be an ironic punishement. Becoming the very thing he hates more then himself and now there will be no age or death (non murder at least) to take away his visions. Hell the opening to 2 echoes Ares own actions but that's for another time.

[@goldmemberpb]

I died at least 50 times on the Ares fight on god mode. If you don't have all of your magic saved up for the clone fight, that phase is impossible to beat. The entirety of God of war 1 is me thinking " why are there so many trouble spots" playing at that difficulty.

[@jubeibob]

This was the best video I have seen in ages! would love to see a whole series about god of war, thanks again for the hard work

[@Coriore445]

The part after you FINALLY get pandoras box and he just yeets a pillar at you had me so mad that i stopped playing and didnt pick it back up for a few months.

[@leonpaelinck]

ironically it got Kratos AND that box faster to athens

[@Extreme_Annihilation]

@@leonpaelinck I wonder how Kratos would have taken the box to Athens if Ares hadn’t killed Kratos like how’d he take the box down the mountain and push it through the sands to finally get there XD

[@kennykiller]

@@Extreme_Annihilation My question is why the F he didn't just open the thing the second he got it, on reflection the whole Hades bit feels like an unreasonable timesink of more beam quit moments instead of him instantly powering up from the box and going after Ares.

[@Extreme_Annihilation]

@@kennykiller what I feel is Kratos was planning to open it when he left the elevator but he was so depressed and sank into the horrible memories of his past which gave Ares time to throw the pillar and kill him.

[@kennykiller]

@@Extreme_Annihilation BULLSHIT your just running to the defense of the sunk cost and quit moments

[@Iris_1217]

For the chests in the circular room with the spikes... I mean, you literally 'see' the spikes before they retract back into the floor and the gates open. I don't think it's a super deep leap in logic that if you go in there, you'll have to look out for the spikes.

[@MJStier1]

I really like this format, great blend of analysis and let’s play.

[@ishaqali5491]

What a hit of nostalgia! Wow! Thanks for this video.

[@smallbutdeadly931]

I think that the "Yes, but what else is happening?" part of the game's design is really missing in many modern titles today

[@civilwarfare101]

Play My Friend Pedro.

[@weisermetroid7293]

Hey Josh, not sure if anybody else has pointed this out yet, but at around 1:05:40 you talk about the spikes being the first trap in Pandora's Temple which didn't give any hint on being there beforehands. I noticed, though, that before going down and opening the way to the chests, the spikes are already covered in blood hinting at people having been killed by them before. It's still probably way too subtle especially with such a short time given to realize that, but technically there is a giveaway. Just noticed that and thought you might enjoy the observation

[@oldfag_adventures]

he was probably baiting you to drive engagement. he always leaves one or two stupid things like that in for us to point out, either that or he's not that attentive.

[@DemonicRobots]

@@oldfag_adventures God forbid someone make a mistake or two in an hour and a half video by missing an extremely small detail. Literally the worst.

[@oldfag_adventures]

@@DemonicRobots idk dude a pattern's a pattern. i've started leaving my hopes at the door when he covers a game i've played because he's just not as attentive. it's one thing to miss something but to bitch about something you didn't even bother to check out is a whole other thing. there's numerous instances especially in the mmo let's plays where he complains about something not being there/being hard to understand but the answer is on screen and he's moused over it at least twice. but no you're right i'm literally the worst for noticing the big flashing light on the screen i should be drawn and quartered for daring to notice it

[@Galhamon]

I think he more referring to the fact that there isn't an indication as when the spikes will trigger, I know a lot of games used ticking or clicking sounds. It has been way too long since I have play this game so I have no idea anymore if there was any sort of audio clues or not. Part of me wants to say that they did exactly this but also it would make sense that they wanted to force urgency and the need for the player to discovery the solution which was a very large part of this game and hands down still one of my favorite things about it.

[@garrettvenn9022]

The original God of War was a bolt of lightning upon gaming and did so many things right. I remember watching the BTS videos about it and the choices that were made throughout production to give the game and its main character their "feel", and how glad I was with the final result. God of War is among my top 10 games/franchises largely due to the impact the first game made on me (not only as a gamer, but also as a long-time fan of Greek mythology), and it seems like everything the first game did, the sequel did better (and bigger). For as much praise as God of W4r has garnered (deservedly), Kratos was a compelling character long before he went to Scandinavia. Any critic who wants to be on the bandwagon of calling Kratos "one-dimensional" has clearly never actually played any of the original trilogy at length. And I think it's also disingenuous to heap accolades upon Chris Judge, when TC Carson is the voice that defined this character. Okay, that said, I'm gonna watch this 2-hour video and see how my memories and impressions compare to yours, Josh. I'll say it now though, the answer to your question is: *YES*. 10/10. Okay, here's the [EDIT]: I honestly do not remember getting the Blade of Artemis (or the challenge of Atlas for that matter), and I've beaten this game like 3 times, but to be fair, they were all a *long* time ago. However, I did recognize the moveset as that of the sword you would wield at the end of the game against Ares (and to a lesser extent, as the Blade of Olympus in GoW2). The only thing that bothered me with this review/walkthrough was more of a nerdy nitpick, and that had to do with the mislabeling of certain enemies: Imps = harpies Trolls = Cyclopes And the "Anubis things" were Satyrs. Though you were right in mentioning they were fun to fight; aesthetically, they were my favorite enemies in the game (next to the scythe legionnaires), it's a pity they only show up for the last section of Pandora's Temple. Not a criticism on the quality of the video or yourself, just a gripe.

[@Perrylayne105]

Amazing job! Loved this.

[@pizzas4breakfast]

Using Medusas head is always necessary in any area with the imps/harpies. And they give extra red orbs when they fall

[@YEY0806]

Ah, an experienced GOW player, truly a rare good thing to hear about finally nowadays amongst the disgused spiteful "players" that clearly never played the previous games before making judgement on them.

[@TjM1978]

Also fully upgraded flash freeze is pretty useful

[@joshuanelson6795]

The Ares boss battle is actually one of my favorites of the franchise. The first phase requires you to use every single one of your abilities to bring him down, the second puts you up against a really challenging gauntlet of clones as you protect your "family" and the third hits you with a curveball that changes up the gameplay mechanics in a really interesting way.

[@EnergonCubed]

Agreed 100 percent.

[@astralchaos3441]

Yeah, his criticism of the boss is extremely flawed. Why would he want a puzzle mechanic in a boss fight, when the Minotaur was exactly that? Why would he want there to be enemies in the first phase when it's in the second already? What does he mean by there's not much skill involved? It's literally about using all your skills to defeat him. And about the third phase, the regular moveset of the Blade of the Gods is the same as the Artemis blade, and it and if you actually tried out the blade of Artemis, you wouldn't have a problem. It's not a badly designed boss, he just didn't think when he was talking about it

[@joshuanelson6795]

@@astralchaos3441 Agreed on all fronts. I really liked the video until he started panning the Ares fight. Enjoyment is all subjective, but his criticisms towards that particular fight didn't land for me at all.

[@Ashley6100]

As someone who spent a stupid amount of time to beat Ares on God Mode... I really, really don't like the Ares fight.

[@joshuanelson6795]

@@Ashley6100 I imagine playing at the highest difficulty setting will do that.

[@bilindshushe2586]

I love what you are doing Josh, thanks. Please hurry up with other releases of God of War.

[@vinnyvisual]

Great watch! Really enjoyed it. I would love to see a 2nd and 3rd game. Maybe back to back in one video combined?

[@lllucasm]

"the 3 sirens are just one problem" I wanna see you defeat them on the highest difficulty, I died so many times 💀

[@TheProkonover]

Doesnt invalidate his point. It's just 1 enemy repeated 3 times.

[@lllucasm]

@@TheProkonover still doesn't make it easier on higher difficulty

[@TheProkonover]

@@lllucasm That's not his point. Difficulty is not the point he's making. The point is enjoyment. He's saying that the fight is boring because is just one problem repeated 3 times. There are no variety or added elements. Is just 3 sirens that you need to defeat. Period.

[@lllucasm]

@@TheProkonover I'm not disagreeing with his point, MY comment is about difficulty I remember being surprised by how crazy they are comparing to easy and normal mode

[@fluttercoat3899]

​@@TheProkonoverstill hard as balls, sirens arent easy when it's 3 on one

[@hellraiser217]

I disagree with the part on the spikes around the chests being unfair. You see the spikes lower and fall, there's holes which they fall into. Normally, in video games, when you see those kinds of holes, particularly with the spikes withdrawing back into them, you think to yourself "this is a trap and those are going to come up from under me based on a certain condition." If you weren't watching your surroundings then falling into it is something which absolutely happens, but there are visual cues for it. EDIT: Also a nice visual touch to reinforce this hint. Those spikes are red with blood.

[@osky516]

Its a scam. Ignore and report.

[@hellraiser217]

@@osky516 I figured as much and did so.

[@amirking5452]

@@osky516 wdym?

[@osky516]

@@amirking5452 there was a scammer commenting as Josh. He's been removed now

[@amirking5452]

@@osky516 ah ok

[@tasleet]

We learn something new every day, great voice actors deserve way more recognition! You had me googling immediately when you said 'Kratos is Mace Windu' haha

[@ThatPurpleGirl81]

That recorded phone message from Kratos and the dev was so meta and funny. 👏 This isn't the kind of game I would ever play, but watching this video almost makes me want to play it.😅

[@cubialpha]

this game is such a timeless treasure; a finely crafted masterpiece of gaming.

[@jaayro]

Cory Barlog often talked about how, in game design, you work on the final levels first, and the first levels last. This way, your team can create the most bombastic and attention grabbing opening sequences as they gain ideas and skills from the course of development. I know Jaffe was behind GOW1, but I wonder if a similar approach was taken to this game, seeing the difference in complexity and scale between the Hydra and Ares fights.

[@karlk5801]

1-on-1 sword combat in a featureless flat bay does seem like the sort of thing you could program on day 1, good point!

[@jasonturek6671]

The Doom developers said the same thing

[@merlith4650]

this ironically sounds like terrible advice for a game design approach though. like, to me that just seems like making things much harder for yourself. it makes it difficult to adjust the phasing when you work yourself backwards from the end, not to mention balancing problems and the fact that the devs "new ideas" can't be too new or otherwise they are going to have to revisit the work they have already done to adjust for these new ideas. and you run into the risk of making the gameplay feel just as backwards as the game design proccess, where you have an incredible introduction only to be a served a lackluster finish. which in my opinion is worse than the alternative of a slow beginning with a climactic ending. a terrible beginning can be ignored, but a terrible conclusion could in many cases ruin the entire experience for people as they will leave the game unsatisfied and potentially feel like their time was wasted. though i guess maybe Cory Barlog really does live by this principle because both of the new GoW suffer from this exact problem where they blow their load too early. in the GoW reboot there is sore lack of boss diversity, Baldur is the best fight in the entire game which clearly the devs knows since they reuse him 2 more times, but you already fight him at the start of the game. the final battle is just the first battle with a few gimmicks on top. *(my comment was originally only going to have 4 more sentences but then i went on a tangent on GoW ragnarok)* GoW Ragnarok however is perhaps the worst offender on this subject. because the opening was to me the best part of the entire game.. and that's a problem.. because that means at no point in the "x" amount of hours i spent on the game was there a moment that lived up to the experience i had at the very beginning (Garm and Nidhogg came close though). when you introduce a game with all your guns blazing, then you set an expection.. an expectation that there will be more experiences like this or even experiences that surpasses it. and when you fail to deliver on those expectations, then the overall game seems dissapointing and overrated in retrospect. something is wrong when you have spent 40 hours on a game and the first thing that comes to mind when you are asked "what were your top 3 fights" is something that only occured in the first 2 hours of it. to me, Ragnarok completely fumbled it's conclusion. it felt rushed, forced and contrived. the entire event of "ragnarok" is just the last 30 minutes or so of the game, with some incredibly contrived writing and you suddenly have a massive army out of nowhere just because the elves "really like freyr". you then fight both Thor and Odin back-to-back, both fights being equally underwhelming compared to the first Thor battle, or even ANY of Baldur's fights. Thor's boss fight being pretty much identical to the first one but nowhere near as cinematic and with only like 1 or 2 new moves that doesn't change it in any meaningful way or for you to approach it differently, while ending on a comically anticlimactic note of Kratos just stabbing Thors hand to the ground. same problem with Odin's fight. it has visually cool moves and concepts. but the execution is lackluster. the biggest "powerplay" Odin ever does during the fight is breaking the tiny circular boss arena into convinient pizza slices. it also didn't help that both bosses are staggerable, and Odin in particular is pretty poorly designed as many of his attacks can be interrupted, which means you absolutely demolish both of them by just turning your brain off and staggerlock them by spamming all your special abilities (even on the harder difficulty)

[@gaminggenius88]

Just beat God of War for the first time and watched this video in pieces right after chunks I had beaten. Masterful game and really well done video. Liked and subbed.

[@davidcanada1927]

I'm so happy you played this classic, can't wait for the next one.

[@Harrinsain]

27:25 there actually is something mechanical going on here. If you jump back towards that beam the guy is lying on once you get to the top of the ladder, you'll find a platform leading to a chest full of red orbs

[@Ray-mw3js]

I think Kratos is kissing the Niads, because there is a popular story in Greek myth where a Niad falls in love with Hylas and drowns him. The move set for the Blade of Artemis is the same as the big sword, it's funny that you ask what happened to it, without realizing it was basically the tutorial weapon for the final fight. You have to fight a superior fighter (Ares). You can't be too aggressive though, not just because he can kill you quickly, but because every time he hits you his health regenerates. More than one problem.

[@Zolanark]

I do like that design of the final battle, another comment considered the idea it might be a "punishment" for over relying on the blades of chaos even after learning of their cursed nature and how they belonged to Aries (which from a narrative standpoint should be a big red flag of HE CAN TAKE THEM BACK IF HE WANTS), while ignoring the other weapons gifted by the other gods trying to legitimately help. The hp system is also interesting as it seems to be a tug of war scenario, both sides regenerate equally to the damage they deal so it's a matter of chiseling away in each exchange to gain the slightest upper hand to slowly turn things in your favor. And then the connection of the road sword to the blade of Artemis was also expounded in another comment where someone mentioned it's coded in as the higher level variant of the blade of Artemis? They also mentioned apparently upgrading the balde of Artemis increases damage output of the final battle road sword in that comment, it's further up somewhere. Can't verify myself but if that's true it does make the blade of Artemis being a tutorial for this final battle an even more fitting design.

[@TheShark94700]

The move set is not 100% the same as The Blade of Artemis.

[@wearetheend91]

This was the best one youve done yet. Thuroughly enjoyed.

[@Reiveth]

I love how these reviews are mini walkthroughs as well, very fun to play along with