The BEST And WORST Parts Of Every God Of War Game 

Fun fact about the minigame of Kratos pushing Calliope away. It's the *ONLY* instance of the entire series where Kratos has to mash the O buttons *3* times to succeed. It was literally the most demanding thing Kratos has ever done.

About the experience of someone who played God of War (2018) first before the rest: I fell like that scene does a really excellent job of expressing how important it is even to newcomers.

i always loved that the whole meaning behind kratos' tattoo is that its to commemorate his brother since its literally a identical version of deimos' birthmark and shows how much he cared for him especially at the end of ghost of Sparta when you realize in your battle against deimos kratos is clearly holding back just to let his brother let all the years of anger and suffering out due to a punishment that was meant for kratos himself

About the prophecy on destroying Olympus, it existed since the 1 game. On the chamber just before you reach Pandora’s box there’s a painting on the ground with the legend of a mortal challenging Zeus. It’s a weird thing that stuck in my mind since the first time i played it

My absolute favorite thing about God of War(05) is its simplicity. The story is a straightforward greek tragedy. The games length isnt too long or short. And the gameplay doesn't overwhelm the player, but still requires you understand the core mechanics.

I wish Kratos talked more about his daughter on the Norse games

On par with the blades of chaos in GoW '18 is the moment Kratos gains the rage of the titans ability (I forget the name they use for it in that particular game). The way it became available only when Atreus' life was threatened speaks to how much Kratos is supressing his own identity and the stakes it takes for him to release it. Its a very John Wick 'I'm thinking I'm back' moment.

6:57 If you skip all of the events between Zeus killing Kratos and Kratos reaching the Sisters of Fate, Kratos doesn't get the Rage of the Titans or the Golden Fleece, and without either of these he probably doesn't get past the Sisters of Fate and if by some miracle he manages to put up a fight against Zeus he would die in the QTE without the Golden Fleece. I'm also pretty sure a lot less players would have completed the game if they never got Atlas' Quake, including myself.

6:34 about the filler aspect of GOW 2, i did noticed it when you see the amazing animated intro in GOW 3 which recaps events from previous games. I remeber that the GOW 2 segment was very short despite the game having so many great moments.

I liked how the rythem game symbols are actually the Greek letters Δ Ο Π and Χ arranged to resemble the playstation buttons

This series has amazing story telling and not enough people give it that credit

The prophecy was first teased at the end of the first game. There are murals depicting a human warrior going after the gods.

My favourite part of GOW Ragnarok was Thor, through both of these new GOW games we've been told what a despicable person Thor is, and at first we see that, he fights us, we barely survive, but then we see him as Atreus and realise that this guy is just as broken as Kratos was at the start of GOW 2018, he's lost both his sons, one of them being his own fault, finding out that he's tried to stop drinking recontextualizes the start of Ragnarok, despite bringing Mead as a peace offering, he never actually drank a single drop, and when Odin saw that he said Thor's "not fun anymore" trying to gaslight him into drinking again, I won't go over everything, but seeing Thor get drunk was truly sad, he looked pathetic being carried by Atreus and Thrud, and then the talking to he gets from Thrud, saying that she and her mum are both there for him, even when he's at his worst they love him, to which Thor acknowledges that he fucked up. His death at the end was heartbreaking, because Kratos actually was getting through to him, he was going to be better for Thrud.

I love the puzzles in old GoW, sadly the newer games have much more simple puzzles + the newer games literally tell you immediately how to solve them. When it comes to some enemies, I think most of them are fun and I rarely find really annoying ones. I totally agree with you that the spinning cylinder with the blades spinning around is so ANNOYING! The blades are so way too close to each other and there are only small holes in between where you can and need to avoid them, forcing you to memorize they placement and movement.

I’ve gotta stand up for my boy the rhythm game. I absolutely love that part. No joke it’s one of my favourite parts of the entire game. It’s just so satisfying to play

Nothing like breakfast beacon with eggs while enjoying the most recent tactical bacon production video 🎉

For the 'rediscovering' the Blades of Chaos, it's really the musical cue that puts it over the edge for how amazing it is. Just those hints of the theme right before they come out.

14:50 The one area I hated in this game was the Cerberus who continuously spits out exploding dogs just before the final fight with Zeus.

While yes- the "Prophecy" thing brought up in GoS came in as a suprise, it was already teased in God Of War 1, in a floor painting, where it shows a hero defeating the Olympus, although more than a hero it was a warrior.

Mate, you forgot to mention the leveling system in GOW1 (2005). That snail-speed system that takes forever to level up anything beyond 3k orbs.

I'm genuinely surprised you mentioned the Nokia game, with god of war betrayal I think for 2nd place of worst aspect definitely has to be the lack of music and sound effects, the only sound you get is with a 10 second cover on the main theme in the menu and during gameplay the silence is interrupted by the single really loud blade explosion sound effect they had. If they spent a little more time giving some ambience to the game it would of made a whole difference!

One thing i dont like at all about chains of olympus is the choice for villain. Atlas and Morpheus working together made much more sense. Persephone kinda came out of nowhere. Ironically they show Persephone again in GOW3 but when Helios dies Morpheus is nowhere to be seen, even though his powers should be unstoppable now that the sun is gone forever

28:07 Oh, FINALLY! Someone says it! Honestly, playing Rift Apart for the first time and dealing with this made me say "Where the hell was THIS in the reviews?" Admittedly, I wouldn't go far as to call them walking simulators, but the emphasis on forcing the story DOES consistently get on my nerves. Seems to always be an issue in all games from Insomniac lately.

I originally thought you’d talk about stuff like levels and such. I just love this franchise honestly. One interesting thought that came to mind is how Kratos became the God of War as a reward that he didn’t even want, and after Ragnarok, he learns that he is destined to become Odin’s successor, the new All-Father and King of the Eight Realms. A title which he never expected, and never thought he’d be worthy of attaining, which rather than anger him and cause him conscious rage because of his past, it gives him joy .

Oh man, i loved even Ascention combat, it was really fun change between the powers. Of course, not as fun as the third main game (which is my favorite, with Gow 2 being a close second) but man i had fun with Ascention, i felt like there was a very steep learning curve in that one, and it was hard, but i loved it... i think i like that they tried something different. What i didn't like about ascention is its story :p

The best part of the Valhalla dlc is the moment where Kratos literally talks to his younger self and it plays out like a Greek play and its just poetic and beautiful also seeing young kratos on ps5 is so amazing

100% agree on the calliope scene in chains of Olympus. Of all the things I did while playing the God of war series, that was the one that made me feel like a monster. Amazingly well done.

Excellent video. You are wrong about Ghost of Sparta, you can parry the grabs of those enemies that come out of the ground.

Despite how badly designed the Hades level is in GOW 1, I gotta say... it captures the feeling of the Underworld quite well. A foul purgatory of endless pain and suffering to relentlessly torture those unfortunate enough to end up in its depths, with only the strongest of mortals being able to escape its confines. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't make it a good level by any means whatsoever and I completely agree with all your criticisms, but if the developers intended to give us a taste of what literal hell would be like, I feel they did a decent job of it. That said, it's still a frustrating mess and definitely could have used some more work. Heck, the developers flat-out admitted that they didn't even play test it. It's a shame, too, because with a bit of fine tuning here and there, it could have been a truly great level and an amazing lead up to the game's final boss. It just wasn't meant to be, I guess...

the grapple enemy you talked about Kari’s wrath can’t be blocked but can be parried you just have to get the timing down cause it’s really specific but they are still a major pain in the rear when they do get you especially on very hard cause it’s an instant death pretty much

In my personal opinion Thera's bane is the best mechanic in all of God of war history The fact that light the blades ablaze turn up your damage but you have to watch the meter to make sure you don't lose it is so fun and a really cool mechanic that fits with the blades of chaos

The worst thing about GOW 3 is definitely the Zeus boss fight. It’s mostly centered on cutscenes and QTE rather than actual gameplay

18:00 the prophecy wasn’t the end of the olympians but rather it was Zeus going to be overthrown by a marked warrior but as we all know and while Kratos did have valid reason to attack the gods, it was Zeus actions and decisions that would bring his downfall

I loved all of the different combos that you could do with the different weapons but especially in gow 3 with each of the weapons having different attacks

The light of dawn is very true, the fact that the arms of sparta does more damage than a literal ball of light imbued with magical properties is insane

If you asked me what was the worst part of GoW1 after my first playthrough, I'd almost agree with your choice in Hades. But with repeat playthroughs, the area becomes pretty fun cuz you know what to expect and how to handle it. If I was to pick my least favorite thing about GoW1, it's a toss up between the lack of bosses or the circle mashing QTE's. I'm a huge boss fight fan so that's obvious why it's my least favorite, but I absolutely hate how quick and hard you have to mash circle for those QTE's. They hurt the hell out of my hand and make me refuse to do those QTE's outside of the required boss fights. Thank God they knocked it down a lot in the sequels. The worst part of Ragnarok is easily the inconsistent pacing. When I played 2018, I barely ever put it down but the pacing in Ragnarok was so bad it took me a month to beat the game. Whenever the game slowed to a crawl, I just felt a crap ton of exhaustion and stopped. It doesn't help that the actual Ragnarok event just comes and goes. I was expecting us to participate in a huge war where we'd switch between Kratos and Atreus doing cool stuff and a battle with Thor that took us all over the battlefield. Then we convince Thor to join us and we duo against Odin until he kills Thor and enrages Kratos and then the rest of the fight goes how it does in the game. Instead we just run in a straight line, fight Thor in a very undynamic way and then fight Odin. The final fight with Baldur felt more epic and dynamic than the entirety of the Ragnarok event. Which is a huge shame cuz I really like Thor and Odin as characters.

The best part of ragnarok is by far that moment in Asgard where Kratos tells Atreus to open his heart, it is an amazing moment and just sums up everything I love about ragnarok

There are so many great moments in the series. I think 3 and Ghost of Sparta hit the hardest.

With what you said about the Sisters of Fate, I can't wait for the inevitable boss ranking.

Love this channel I really am the only person I know that played all of the GOW (except Rangok I am broke) but you hit everything on the head, the blades of chaos was such a powerful moment in 2018 and I can not wait to finish the series if Ragnarok is the last one

We need the gow bosses ranked video

My gf’s sister was going through the games for the first time with us (I’m a long term fan) and when she got to that point in GoW 2018, she absolutely lost it. So I’d say it’s affective even to new fans

God of War Ascension is proof that if the team responsible for optimization gives a damn then there's no reason for your game to perform as bad as so many games do nowadays.

The worst thing about God of War Betrayal IMO isn't that it doesn't hold up, it's still a fine experience on feature phones. The worst thing is that the game is too short and ends on a cliffhanger. I've beaten this game so many times back in the day and it was fun each time.

Damn that just unlocked some memories. I'm pretty sure I dropped Ascension and never came back to it because of the exact reason in this video. That trial was too damn hard and I believe there was no health refill back when I first played it so I just got frustrated with it and uninstalled. Never even finished the story and didn't care whatsoever.

Love your videos man 🤝🏼

Really nice vid dude👌💖

That Hades level nearly broke me with how frustrating it was. Played on emulator on PC and boy did I hate how many times I ended up dying by falling off a platform or getting sniped by archers. That level can go to Tartarus for all I care.

the trial of archimedes on Ascension, used to be way harder i think, cuz there was no checkpoints in between the phases, also, managed to platinum the game before the patch (beating the game on hard difficulty was one of the trophies) and not gonna lie, the adrenaline rush was awesome. Despite the difficulty overall, i just love that part

Glad that you finally highlighted God Of War: Betrayal in this vid. I thought I was the only one who played this fever dream of a game XD

When I first played the 2018 game, I hadn’t played the originals. Even as a newcomer I knew the significance of the Blades of Chaos and felt chills when he uncovered them in that scene. After finishing Ragnarok recently I went on to play the original three games, and I’m so glad I did. I’m in agreement on your worst part about GOW 1. I absolutely despised the Hades level, especially the blade walls. Great video.

The most surprising revelation I heard from this video is the fact you described GOW3 as perfection when I had the impression GOW2 was your favorite.

The Wraiths in GoS on Very Hard was the first time I came close to tossing my controller in sheer rage. Using Thera’s Bane explosions or any combo ender means the Wraiths are gonna try to grab you, 100%.

Man I remember the first time I played sisters of fate , best boss fight I had in my life when I was a kid it was really memorable fight

Tbh i would say the worst thing abour gow 3 is the scorpion boss its not the hardest but its the only boss thats not fun to fight for me

Kratos led the charge against Asgard and dispatched it, along with Odin in about an hour or so. That's insane when you think about it from that perspective.

I really like the rythm game actually. My least favorite part of gow 3 is (controversially) the opening. It was awesome the first time, but after that it's just beating up a few hippocampi and the really easy fight against the sea god himself. Part of it might be bias though because I love Poseidon and I was disappointed by how little he was used

God of war Ascension did the same thing to my PS3. My system kept crashing and turning off. I feel better knowing it wasn’t just me.

I'm pretty sure the developers admited that they did not playtest the underworld level in the first god of war and it shows XD Though oddly I would consider the kratos clones worse. Yes metaphoricly it's brilliant, but playing through it is a pain the sisters of fate are such a great boss fight, I always forget that I have to fight Zeus right after, who I don't enjoy as much... I dunno, the arena looks more great, the sisters clearly have more power than zeus and more unique and creative designs and overall just feels more epic.

Gow 2018 was my first gow game and that moment was chilling without even the full context

16:36 honestly, kere's wraith is kinda easy to deal with, you just gotta know the time to to press L to deflect them 17:53 it needed, actually, in gow 3 when Gaia comes back before the final fight with Zeus, he says she shoud've chosen the "other one", and in Ghost of Sparta we get to know who's that other one

"The Greatest PlayStation Video Game On Planet Earth".

14:07 YES I CALLED IT! I don't mind puzzle solving sections, but the rythym section was so unnecessary to me.

for GOW4 is not only enemy repetition, I think finisher repetition too. This goes up to Ragnarok unfortunately BUT, in the grand scheme of things, it would just take like half a point away from a 10/10 game if you're super strict.

I only played 1-3 but for me the worst would have to be: the spinning log ride in hades (and beam walking in general) in 1, basically anything to do with the wings in 2 (at the time my x button was bad and I would fail to deploy them and die lol) and Hera's garden in 3 (the monochrome-ness really screws with my eyes)

as someone who just platinuimed ascension that trial on hard was stupid like I was trying for 2+ hours 😂 and you don't get health at all most of the enemies give magic while the others give rage orbs ...

Fun fact. The first God of War has a bonus feature that talks about Deimos and Kratos' childhood in Sparta as a trailer-esque tease

14:30 Not so fun fact: You can get softlocked while doing this, and you’ll have to reload from the last autosave or supernatural checkpoint. Source: This happened to me once on God Difficulty.

Mostly agree your takes on the game. So, this was a good analysis for all the GOE games 👍

I still remember getting god of war 2005 and being glued to the screen because it was like nothing I had ever played before. The blood and gore, the story, the scenery, the fighting and seeing ares in the background destroying a different part of the city was awesome. As far as god of war ragnarok goes, I don’t want to play it again because of the Atreus segments. I couldn’t be more disinterested in the lackluster combat and forced walking segments. I got 100% completion on my first run and it will likely be the last time I ever played it. I feel like the way it ended with Sindri is just asking for the next antagonist if there is another.

For me the worst part of GoW 1 is that damn box puzzle with the arrows at the beginning of the game

Yeah in ragnarok when i played new game+ and teaching iron wood i give IT to my brother to play this part😂

The only good part of the Ironwood segment is when you throw a skipping rock at the drauger that comes out of the water and it actually does a bit of damage

I am surprised."that Athena was not mentioned or brought back in Ragnorok, even in the Valhalla DLC, but it never crossed my mind until this video.

I was aboutta say that hades level in gow 1 wasn’t that bad but then u thought up the cylinder and I remembered I was stuck on it for 30-45 mins

THAT SCENE from 2018 was one of my favorite moments in gaming ever.

I shed a tear the moment Kratos said "today we will be better" in Ragnarok. To me, that's one of the most iconic lines in pop culture, up there with "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse", "no, I am your father", "Bond, James Bond" and "why so serious?"

I always liked the tune of that guitar hero QTE in God of War 3

You know, i just do not remember grappling enemies in Ghost of Sparta. It was a decade ago at this point . Maybe they don't grapple as much because I just played it on normal difficulty?

wanna a suggestion of the best and worst things in god of war games? here is a good one (if u didnt already make it cuz m new to ur channel): the best and worst boss fights in all games. that includes the side bosses that u r not forced to fight.

I don’t know why the didn’t just reduce the archers’ HP so the Light of Dawn would be useful.

YES i really lost the motivation to continue my second playthrough when I got to Ironwoods

there is a way to skip iron wood , just make a manual save after you go back as atreus to the house and every time you want to skip iron wood just reload that save

There is actually a damage threshold for the keres wrath, as long as you dont do full combos on them or hit them with theras bane explosive charge they wont try to escape and grab you

For me GOW 1's worst part is the way you make through Athens before you enter the temple, I've grown to like it more with time, but I still want to pass through it and the desert as quick as I can so the game can finally "start", but hey, I can't imagine the game without it

My least favorite thing about the original god of war is that godamn escort mission where you have too drag a cage up a cliff that will fall if you let go while being attacked by enemies that are actually pretty strong

I've played all of the Greek set games in this series, but not the Norse mythology ones due to not having the more recent system(s).

great video as always

GOW ghost of sparta is my only GoW games i got and you make a spot on mate. Adding to that, the addon armor is super awesome too (the spartan general armor) and the arm of sparta is so beast. And yeah, the amount of grapple happy enemy is obnoxious, it breaks the combat flow alot, you can parry the grapple of smaller enemy, but god the number, it makes the combat is tedious at some point and repetitive, since i feel like the parry is the main defense tool of the game.

The one bad thing I could say about God Of War 3 is that it lacked New Game+. I know it was impossible due to how the game was designed, but still

Pushing your daughter away is definitly not fun💀🤦‍♂️ IT was the worst thing in chains of Olympus seriously i didnt wanted to press that cicrcle😢

I remember getting GOW 1 on Ps2 and preordering GOW2, but what really suck with me about 2018 is the beginning. In all of the others shit has pretty much already hit the fan and youre in the middle of something. But 2018 start is incredibly quiet, almost peaceful, and is a very good example of "show, dont tell". We see Kratos, obviously much older, and we see him put his hands over a hand print, smaller than his, and hes grieving. But hes not in an uncontrolled berserk. We do see a sort of a flash of anger for just as long as it takes to cut down the tree, and then its back to a stoic demeanor. And his blades are gone, replaced with an axe. While still a weapon, an axe is far more "mundane" as its still a tool. It can be used to help "build" or create. And then we hear a small voice say "Father" and we know that Kratos is a father again, meaning the handprint most likely belonged to his lover, showing more growth because Kratos started a family again. All of this was a juxtaposition and contrary to the man we last saw in GoW3. And we continued to see how he had changed (and would still grow and change) with many things, such as killing. In GoW1, Kratos could and would kill civilians, people who were of no threat to him. In 2018, he teaches Atreus that they should refrain from killing if they can. And Kratos actually makes friends and shows concern for other people. The last person he showed concern for (chronologically) was Pandora, i think.

Ironwood took me 3 hrs to finish at intermediate difficulty atreus controls were so wild that i nearly broke my remote 💀 i had to put the game in easy mode for atreus gameplays and it was the one i hated to my core and best thing for me was dawn of ragnarok moment when kratos gives battle speech and blows gjallahorn it was absolute cinematic masterpeice for me and best game moment as well

I actually get a lot of use out of the Nemesis Whip. It works really well against Satyrs, which are a lot to deal with normally. But because you can do this game's version of Kronos' Rage with them, they fold like a cheap deck of cards.

I beat the trails in Ascension on my second try, pre-patch. 🤷🏾‍♂️

What i dont really like about GOW 2018 and GOWR is how much weaker Norse Gods are in comparasment to Greek, Norse arent weak but they arent gonna stack up against Greeks, there imo isn't anyone on Zeus's level, not even Odin and Thor, Odin might be smarter but he cant beat him imo

I'm sure someone said this already, but the icons in the god of war 3 rythm Minigame aren't actually the controller buttons, they're greek letters

Well for the rhythm game in gow3 they could have gotten rid off the bottom line on the square to make it pi. Then you could have Greek letters

I couldn't agree more with the best thing in GoW Ragnarok being Kratos himself and his development as a round character.

about Ghost of Sparta's prophecy thing, it had been a thing since the original GoW, but it was subtler. But yeah i don't really like that aspect of the story too, but it wasn't GoS that started it.