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.
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."
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
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!
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.
@@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.
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.
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
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.
@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.
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.
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
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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
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
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.
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
@@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.
@@ino_mation Not really. The Final Boss is always meant to be that "Final Test" moment of a game, see how well you know all the tools you have. The Blades of Chaos and the Magic were already tested in the First Ares Fight and during the Phantom Swarm. That leaves the Blade of Artemis style. Like Devil May Cry, God of War gives you a large number of tools and expects the Player to experiment with them. Likewise, the Blade of Artemis (alongside every other spell) only has 3 upgrades, so at the least, the Devs had the idea that people were going to be pouring Orbs into the weapon at least, as opposed to ignoring it. If one did ignore it, then it makes sense that one should be punished, as they aren't willing to experiment. Plus, the Blade of Artemis isn't a terrible weapon by any means. It legit deals more damage than the Blades of Chaos, which can help expedite fights too.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
I also absolutely love the Soldiers in the background of Pandora's Temple. Some of them looking like Spartans as well, because the Spartans follow Kratos loyally, and when he becomes God of War they are fanatic worshippers. In fact, an easily missed detail is that in God of War 3 despite never actually seeing them in game, the beginning cutscene shows Spartan soldiers fighting the forces of Olympus and even killing a Cyclops. The Spartans are so fanatically loyal to their God of War they will literally follow him to destroy Olympus. In God of War 2 he becomes so furious about being tricked into killing one of his own men and hearing about Zeus destroying Sparta that he won't even attack the Kraken right next to him, just angrily yell at the other Gods. I absolutely love the Spartans in this game and they are a heavily underrated part of the story.
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.
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.
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.
@@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
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.
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.
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 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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
@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.
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!
@@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
@@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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 ;)
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.
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.
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.
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
@@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".
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.
I never knew about the phone call secret until now. I really liked the doing the challenges, they unlocked making of videos and the developer comments is really interesting, just like Ratchet and Clank 2's Insomniac Museum.
When one regularly watches creators like kingk, foxcade, aesiraesthetics, vaatividya, and many more... ez watch. But I understand where you're comin from
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.
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 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
@@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.
@@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.
It was harder. The 2nd segment of the Ares fight was a practice in strategic consistency, and I'm a little disappointed in how Josh gave so much crap to the last fight when doesn't need to be a puzzle to be good.
@@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
@@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
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.
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
@@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.
"No one one used the Blade of Artemis" Not only did I use it, there are enemies it is way better against, such as minotaurs. Use the gorgons eye, and it only takes a few hits with the blade. Also it is strong vs Ares, the reason it was given to you in the 1st place, you are expected to know the move set, so by time you have to use it's move set, you can defeat Ares much easier. If people avoided using it, then it is on them.
If you master the game you'll probably learn its value. But most first time players don't like to use it as it's just a sword. The unique blades of chaos is what they play this game for.
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.
@@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.
@@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
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
I had played bits and pieces of god of War 3, but after beating Ragnarok I have gone back and been playing through the original trilogy and damn! Nothing hits that spot like some classic hack and slash character action games.
The answer is a resounding yes. This game blew my mind so hard when I first played it at 13. It looked amazing, played amazing, great music, decent story, the combat was fun and brutal, the puzzles I felt absolutely hit the sweet spot of being not too hard but not easy either, and the level design, absolutely genius level design. This was one of those games where I replayed it almost as soon as I finished it and enjoyed it just as much as the first time. It absolutely doesn't need it but a proper remake of this would be pretty sweet.
I do love how this game has a very human take on Kratos compared to the sequels. A brutal yet regretful Kratos, he seems very disinterested in most people, yet you can hear him still have some care for strangers when in a situation that merits it, be it a woman running dangerously from him (you could hear him worry when calling her to wait), an old man just speaking weird stuff to him (The tone of "A grave? In the middle of a battle?" feels so casual), the way he refers to the harpy of Ares, "Foul beast, I know who it is you serve! Return to your master! Tell him I am his no longer" is SUCH a classic way of communication, I read such lines from the Iliad and Odyssey, and the sorrow when Kratos' nightmare ends with the Blades of Chaos killing his family, "No! ... No... Not again..." it's just heart wrenching. I'm not a fan of GoW 2 and 3 because the writing felt less satisfying, it feels more like Kratos is a "Fuck it all" bastard, and while he does deserve his revenge against the gods, in GoW 1 he seemed to know where his priorities lie. You can also make a point that his devolution on 2 and 3 are part of his character arc, I feel it's not thaaaaat well done, but that's just me. I adore this game, is a playable greek tragic epic, and it deserves copious amounts of love... Wish Dad of Boi used a different title tho. Also > Like everyone, I used the Blade of Artemis for 5 minutes > You're given a whole new sword for the final fight without any time to learn how to use it See what happened there? I dunno if they're one to one, but the Blade of the Gods has a very similar moveset to the Blade of Artemis. Regardless, your points about the sword being forgotten and the sudden change on the final battle are still valid, even tho I think that final battle is cool AF because, yeah, it's a single issue, BUT IT'S TOUGH AS SHIT thus there's a very simple way to fix it for as hard it is to pull off: Don't screw up.
The thing with your argument is that Kratos needlessly kills the boat captain with little remorse. I'd also include the sacrificed soldier (allthough that one's more complicated since its the only way to pass the trial). The trait seems to be that Kratos will do whatever's required to complete his goal. So you feel sympathy for Kratos, but he is an anti-hero from the start. I think Ghost of Sparta bridges the change in attitude for later games better and make it more palpable with a middle road: making him ruthless against obstacles (sometimes to the extreme, but it's rarely for the sake of it) but still sympathetic towards the people close to him. His mother, brother, Spartans, etc. After losing the rest of his mortal connections thanks to Olympus, and not being able to fall to the ocean this time, he sets his goal towards the olympians. It's still not perfect (Kratos is a d*ck at the start of 2 with invading Athens, and I'm 50/50 with 3's ending), but now there's a slow shift where you can notice Kratos becoming a monster over the games. It should also be noted that Kratos only set out to kill Zeus at the start, which he tells Athena in 2. He only decides to kill every god when he realises they'll all defend him to the end.
@@leithaziz2716 I didn't know about Ghost of Sparta and I thank you for bringing this up. Yeah, I did think about the captain of the ship but it still feels like a far call from monster Kratos as seen in 3 killing people he could've just pushed aside... Although killing civilians for health orbs does also exemplify that he can do that for the benefits... Wouldn't that be reserved for the needs of battle anyway? Bah, if I keep going on details I'll stay here all day. I'll take your word, you've followed the series more than me.
Ascension, Chains of Olympus and GoW1 do a good job of showing Kratos before he is too far gone. The memory of Ares's manipulation is still fresh, and while he is still a ruthless Spartan warrior that fought long and hard for the glory of Sparta, and sold his soul to the God of War for the sake of military might, he still has some humanity left in him despite all the crap he has to go through. Just barely hanging on. Unfortunately, figuring everything out about his past come Ghost of Sparta just broke something in him, and that pure hate evolved into a lack of care for anything except his own needs, becoming just as heartless as Ares in his new seat if not moreso, but at least he now has a goal on his own terms: revenge. And from then on, he's either consumed by murderous rage, or left to his thoughts to spiral further into self-loathing. And while GoW3 showed the natural escalation of that, at the end, once everything was said and done, he had nothing left, having sacrificed an innocent child and the world for the sake of empty vengeance. You can't justify his actions, but man. It's depressing to think about it.
@@Zero-ds9ws personally I see Ghost of Sparta as Kratos' moral breaking point because it's that game that he loses his last to family members that he thought were already dead, his mother who he had to kill with his own hands like Lysandra and Calliope, and Deimos his brother who was taken by the gods when they were children, someone he could finally connect to with everything the gods put him through. But Deimos hated Kratos and felt abandoned and when it finally looked up for the brothers Deimos died in Kratos' arms just like all his other loved ones. So that's why I believe GoW II and GoW III Kratos is so much more ruthless and uncaring.
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
The newer games have leaned heavily in Kratos himself, Zeus as the final object of hatred, and Athena as his last ally and a symbol of his failures and the steep cost of his vengeance. But yes, it IS almost bizarre the extent to which Ares, the primary antagonist of the debut title of this series, has been seemingly forgotten. The one who cursed Kratos in the first place, who seared the blades into his flesh, who drove him to the act that plagues his nightmares. Nobody ever talks about that guy anymore.
@@Actiondanny There was an unlockable cutscene that implied Kratos had Ares soul somewhere, I think behind the throne at the end of the game. Would have been nice if they had followed up on that storyline.
@@Actiondannystrange how he didn't show up un that segment from the newer games where Zeus and Athena return. Ares could've returned too. if there's someone in the God of War franchise who deserves to come back at least once, it's the main man himself.
Poseidon's rage being a lightning AoE makes a little more sense if you consider that while Zeus is known for lightning, poseidon is known for being the god of the seas but also storms. Among other things
I finished GoW 2018 yesterday and wanted to see what the previous games were all about. You're video is fantastically detailed and I can't wait for your take on the latter games in the series. You have such an eye for the smallest bits of game design. It's really admirable. I would love to see you talk about the Prince of Persia games if you've played them. They have a similar vibe to the first GoW and they were pretty solid. Is there any chance of you tackling it on? Cheers from Poland!
Don't forget, that when giving you the Medusa Gaze it gives you infinite mana, and there's a fun way to get out of that room, letting you keep the infinite mana
Man this game is now 17 years old and it still looks enjoyable today. I really miss this style of gameplay in God Of War. Let’s hope they bring it back in their next new sequel.
I miss it too but I dont think it would work, comparing to the new style and modern era of gaming the franchise would most likely try a new style of gameplay instead of repeating an old style that jus brings nostalgia.
I'm sorry to say but this game is nigh unplayable. Its a master class in frustrating design with respawning enemies, annoying and mindless puzzles, and repetitive combat. I'd recommend skipping this game.
The "Was it any good" videos are the best videos on RUclips. Extremely thorough, well put together movies (basically) which sometimes hosts nostalgia and sometimes new experiences that always leave you laughing and entertained beyond what you could hope for. They are long projects that take endless hours of work and it pays off massively. I fucking love these, and am so glad to see a new entry. These videos are quite simply brilliant.
Found your channel last week and binged everything. It's basically a greatest hits of my childhood with fantastic thorough analysis. Here's hoping a few bullfrog/lionhead games make it to the backlog. Thanks again for the fantastic content.
The God of War trilogy is so addicting whenever I play it I end up playing for a long time telling myself ok I’ll shut off the game after the next check point just to end up not doing it. That and the puzzles are really tough, tougher than most games. A nice breather from the action really makes you feel like a genius when you figure them out
Concerning the final battle, and the game looping back around on itself; is the Skill set of the sword bridge the same as the Blade of Artemis? And could it be a punishment for committing too hard on the Chaos Blades, which was literally the weapon made by Ares? Haven’t played it through myself, but seems odd to have such a jarring contrast of design choices, as they seem to have been consistently well thought through up until the very end. Great work once again Josh!
@@thechugg4372 You clearly haven't gone back to play the game recently enough. There is nothing ''exact same'' about the move set of the Bridge Sword and that of the Artemis Blade. They are both giant sharp sticks which Kratos rests on his shoulders while not attacking and that is where the similarities end. The Bridge Sword has really flashy, cool...and rather long combos, it just is not advisable to use them because trying to gets you killed; thus we tend to forget they exist and personally I am bit sad they are not a little more viable. The Artemis Blade was given moves with more practical use...and also the advantage of having targets that can be stunned if hit hard enough (thus letting you actually finish the combo and live), rather then need to fight Ares.
@Trin__ I didn't need a save editor to know what I know. Incase there is any difference, my experience is only with the original PS2 version, haven't played the rest.
@@Alpha.Phenix So you're confronted with game files and facts and then try to shield yourself. Smh. The basic movesets are exactly the same albeit slightly slower in animation.
Excellent as always. I do really like these older God of War games. They are very enjoyable to play and you're thankfully not constantly pestered either.
even the spin offs were good if we forget acension existed(even then its just a bad god of war game) i dont think the series ever had a truly bad game.
I have lots of great memories growing up and playing this game with my dad on those CRT TVs. My dad worked away from home and would spend weeks at a time away so when he came home I always looked foward to booting up God of War and spending time with him
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
The other shortcoming of this game was its approach to replay ability, or rather lack thereof. It basically meant starting over from scratch, but on a harder difficulty, and that made God Mode so painful to play through (for a secret that wasn’t even worth it back then). The third phase of the final fight was completely ridiculous, as Ares could basically kill you in 1 or 2 hits while you had to chip away at his health at a slug’s pace.
@@metallboy25 It is a problem for a game that obviously takes inspiration from Devil May Cry and whose campaign is on the shorter side (8 hours or so) compared to the norm back then. For such a short amount of playtime and the kind of game it is, possessing *a modicum* of replayability was part of the bare minimum in terms of expectations.
@@cristhianramirez6939 While I can definitely see the PS2 Rygar’s inspiration, I find it a little hard to believe that one of the most popular character action games of that time didn’t play any role in GoW’s development. Then again, it makes more sense for Onimusha to be its other source of inspiration, since they both share a slower and more methodical gameplay.
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!
Please tell me you will eventually be covering the second and third game as well, love your style of commentary and have been wanting to brush up on the games myself for a good while now!
I always found the description of Kratos killing his family to be an interesting one. Because in this game they talk about "Ares' rage" and "lost humanity ", which makes it sound like it's mostly Ares fault, but going forward they mostly focus on Kratos. Anyways good video as always.
1:05:46 really surprised you felt that one was unfair, it shows you the spikes before it opens up. You say it shows you no hint, but from the footageshown, you can see the spikes so I'd argue it is telegraphed there.
People always bring up the human doorstop lady in GOW 3 as the most fucked up moment, but to me, the version of that in GOW 2 is worse. You do the same thing to a man who's not only injured and pleading for help, but he's one of your own worshippers.
It's amazing how the original trilogy is so masterful, and then it gets a reboot that's miles different in gameplay and tone, but is still excellent. Also, interesting... The game I played, the dude you have to sacrifice to the flames had already been zombified, and the note on the soldier said that "they were men once".
That was a censored scene where the soldier is instead one of the enemy fodders you fight normally. It has its unique charm with Kratos smiling deviously at the zombie and it starting to panic once it realises what's going to happen.
At 1:30 there is an echo of Holst's Mars. Somebody not only has studied his humanities, they also were quite knowledgeable when it comes to modern orchestral music. Which, I would suggest, settles the age-old argument in games are art. That music was as original as Beethoven using stuff from Haydn and Mozart who in turn quoted he Mannheim Lolcats. This story and this game is a sum of echoes. Tropes which are older than people who think that an image macro is a meme. By thousands of years.
i always wondered why people seriously ask themselves why kratos is such a dick to the captain, besides the point being is due to all the shit he has been through and done to others resulted him loosing his humanity. The captain grouped and locked all the women (and invisible children, cause there aren't any anywhere) in his room and left the fucking ship, as he sailed through an area that was known to have a monster (as Poseidon points out in the immediate cutscene). Why oh why would he let him fall, twice. The captain is half the reason that all women (and the invisible kids) on the ship died
15:00 while a bit bizarre I always assumed it was going with the older version of Poseidon where he wasn't just god of the seas but also storms and earthquakes.
So I noticed... you missed a nereid!!! One secret escaped you apparently. There is an hidden behind a breakable wall nereid in the underwater area which would have net you the final feather to have maximum magic power (which allow you to cast twice hades spell).
Great thanks as always. As a Greek I am proud of these games! Also can you do God Of War 2 and God Of War 3? With your unique commentary it will be amazing to watch.
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.
Exactly i was like daaaamn he blew up like a nuke
It really shows the brutality of the times and how worthless a life actually was, really good story telling
"We did it Patrick! We saved the city!"
@@thechugg4372 nothing has changed nowadays mate lol.
In case you were talking about irl.
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."
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
I never noticed that! That blew my mind
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!
Except the moment you needed a specific skull to open a door, you were then the only person to proceed beyond that point
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.
@@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.
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.
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
Yea same er m8
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.
@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.
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.
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
and that his temperament in myth wasn't all that different from zeus's when enraged,
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.
That wasn't a horse in GoW 3, u dumbass.
Kratos says it himself in Ragnorak.
That was a Hippocamp.
@@brunohommerding3416 more annoying is u thinking Posidon was riding a sea horse.
@@cyrusthegreat3299 i never even said anything remotely close to that lol
"If I kill you....I will get health orbs." - Kratos
Atreus: you only kill those who deserve it!
Kratos: *i killed Mother f*ckers for 1 green orb BOY!!!*
He said "YOU LOOK KIND OF PASTY" i think you cant say anything worse to him then that
Dante: Ooh me too!
It's weird. Throughout the game, he sounds like Kratos, but in the Easter Egg, he sounds like Christopher Judge. It makes no sense.
@@KaiUndMoritz that's because hes lathered in the ashes of his dead nuclear family
“The gods of Olympus have abandoned me” is a cold bar to start a franchise
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.
He can “ask” Cronos who carries the temple on his back to walk to Athens.
I remember that now. I was willing to do it, and when that pillar comes out of nowhere I was so shocked.
and then two stupid ass harpies come and take it away with 100 times more ease than someone as inhumanely strong as kratos
@@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.
@@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
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
yeah, the bridge is an artemis sword re skin
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.
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
@@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.
@@ino_mation Not really. The Final Boss is always meant to be that "Final Test" moment of a game, see how well you know all the tools you have. The Blades of Chaos and the Magic were already tested in the First Ares Fight and during the Phantom Swarm. That leaves the Blade of Artemis style.
Like Devil May Cry, God of War gives you a large number of tools and expects the Player to experiment with them. Likewise, the Blade of Artemis (alongside every other spell) only has 3 upgrades, so at the least, the Devs had the idea that people were going to be pouring Orbs into the weapon at least, as opposed to ignoring it. If one did ignore it, then it makes sense that one should be punished, as they aren't willing to experiment.
Plus, the Blade of Artemis isn't a terrible weapon by any means. It legit deals more damage than the Blades of Chaos, which can help expedite fights too.
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.
Man i was stuck on that puzzle too when was little haha
@@nanangrahman9597 god of war uniting ppl around the globe
This video ended up just a bit shorter than Christopher Judge’s speech at the game awards
Fortnite won game of the year award for game play. What the fuck
Judge was the real mvp. He knew Valve was giving away Steamdecks every minute
There are now three different occasions where I've seen him cry like a bitch lol
You funny man.
Lol true but it was a nice speech and at least he dressed well unlike most of the devs.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
Carson was let go because he was not tall enough and muscular. Had nothing to do with his voice
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.
I also absolutely love the Soldiers in the background of Pandora's Temple. Some of them looking like Spartans as well, because the Spartans follow Kratos loyally, and when he becomes God of War they are fanatic worshippers. In fact, an easily missed detail is that in God of War 3 despite never actually seeing them in game, the beginning cutscene shows Spartan soldiers fighting the forces of Olympus and even killing a Cyclops. The Spartans are so fanatically loyal to their God of War they will literally follow him to destroy Olympus. In God of War 2 he becomes so furious about being tricked into killing one of his own men and hearing about Zeus destroying Sparta that he won't even attack the Kraken right next to him, just angrily yell at the other Gods. I absolutely love the Spartans in this game and they are a heavily underrated part of the story.
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.
But it is not a clone.
@@morkgin2459 it's far from that
I wish that both new GoW games were also inspired by good games.
@@habbababba69420 amen
@@habbababba69420 BASED?
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.
The twist is even better when you find out the grave digger was Zeus all along.
I remember absolutely losing my mind when we climbed out of that hole lol
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.
@@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
@@theninjamaster67 "You will, MY SON"...
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.
It made me feel as small and as large as I've ever felt.
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.
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.
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.
@Fuchsfeuer Well, considering Kratos's feats, how else could he not be a demigod? Also, demigods are still mortal, so a mortal did succeed.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
Yup, that initial demo disc that my boy who worked at GameStop took home was what convinced me I HAD TO GET THIS GAME.
fan for life for sure, fantastic fantastic game
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.
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.
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
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
Ha! And then Ares holding his face like in the classic painting "The Scream" to then collapse and explode.
I can't believe Ares died of cringe. Truly a meme worthy for God of War
"You're too late, Spartan! I've already recovered the seething soyjaks stored within Pandora's Box and depicted you as one of them!"
I don’t know why but the fact that you specified the paper size of A4 is funnier to me than anything else lol.
If the MGRR writers wrote GOW
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
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.
@kennykiller, yeah, his basically an undead janitor
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.
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.
@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.
@@mjay6245Prototype was incredibly mid, Infamous was much better
Both Prototype and Eternal Sonata were PS3/Xbox360 games, not PS2
Soul Reaver?
I revisited this game last year and finally beat God Mode. I got the phone numbers and tried them for fun; they still worked!
Sadly they are diconnected now
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!
Yeah, it's annoying that people fawn over kratos' new portrayal and as if he was only "grr angry man" in the originals.
@@Bourikii2992 yeah that’s doing a disservice to who kratos was in those games
@@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
@@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.
@@Thunder_Roy Tell me you've never played Dark Souls without telling me you've never played Dark Souls.
1:52:51 "if I kill you... I will get health orbs..."
This was unreasonably funny
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.
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
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
Noticed this too
JUMP TOWARDS IT, JOSH! NO WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
@@signmeupplz What timestamp?
27:25? Yeah it was really obvious secret location
He also missed one at 23:23 you can see the ladder by where he jumps off of the ball-handed ogre
@@gabbagoo9774That's only a health refill tho
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
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.
Or she. Girls like gow too
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
@@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.
@@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
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.
This game was damn good and it was insanely good in 2005. It was mind blowing back then.
It was straight up one of the best games of all time still holds strong up to today
Heck yeah
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.
Fromsoft announced a new arma core game o/
@@mohandasjung Its so exciting.
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.
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.
Report the scam artist.
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.
@@osky516 what?
@@fleshyindividual3220 there was probably a bot comment when he made the comment. Luckily it's been removed it seems
Man, the game really does love callbacks, huh?
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.
OOPS
he could have just opened the door, the minotaur broke the chain, remember?
Duuuuude
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!
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.
wait till you see the second and third game
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 ;)
Damn that's interesting.
Using Medusas head is always necessary in any area with the imps/harpies. And they give extra red orbs when they fall
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.
Also fully upgraded flash freeze is pretty useful
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.
If you play in the god difficulty it is a regular human soldier
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
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.
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
All the old ones are still good in my opinion
@@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".
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.
I never knew about the phone call secret until now. I really liked the doing the challenges, they unlocked making of videos and the developer comments is really interesting, just like Ratchet and Clank 2's Insomniac Museum.
The Insomniac Museum was so good. I wish more games did things like that.
Absolutely love this series. I usually have a hard time with 1+ hour vids but yours are great.
Me, who just watched a 8+ hour video breaking down Megaman lore:
When one regularly watches creators like kingk, foxcade, aesiraesthetics, vaatividya, and many more... ez watch. But I understand where you're comin from
try watching the four hour version of dances with wolves
@@ssfbob456 I watch a 7 hour pokemon ruby analysis, twice...
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.
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.
ironically it got Kratos AND that box faster to athens
@@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
@@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.
@@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.
@@Extreme_Annihilation BULLSHIT your just running to the defense of the sunk cost and quit moments
this game is such a timeless treasure; a finely crafted masterpiece of gaming.
I genuinely had no problem with the last Ares fight. I thought it was fairly easy. I thought saving your family was way harder.
It was harder. The 2nd segment of the Ares fight was a practice in strategic consistency, and I'm a little disappointed in how Josh gave so much crap to the last fight when doesn't need to be a puzzle to be good.
I think that the "Yes, but what else is happening?" part of the game's design is really missing in many modern titles today
Play My Friend Pedro.
The God of war trilogy is a masterpiece.
All of those games are overshadowed in ALL aspects by other games that came after.
@@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
@@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
@@nicholassullivan1239 wrong.
Absolutely one of my favourite series ever. It is also incredible how well the graphics/art design have held up.
This video has inspired me to add many small problems into my life to keep things fun and entertaining. Much appreciated!
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.
Agreed 100 percent.
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
@@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.
As someone who spent a stupid amount of time to beat Ares on God Mode... I really, really don't like the Ares fight.
@@Ashley6100 I imagine playing at the highest difficulty setting will do that.
"No one one used the Blade of Artemis" Not only did I use it, there are enemies it is way better against, such as minotaurs. Use the gorgons eye, and it only takes a few hits with the blade. Also it is strong vs Ares, the reason it was given to you in the 1st place, you are expected to know the move set, so by time you have to use it's move set, you can defeat Ares much easier. If people avoided using it, then it is on them.
@J.D. that's why I found the review funny. If Josh actually used the blade, he would know how Op it is, especially once it's upgraded.
Important part is it stuns enemies unlike blades so it's great for crowd control
Huh, on spartan I found it too slow to use it that frequently when sst would knock in the air everybody
If you master the game you'll probably learn its value. But most first time players don't like to use it as it's just a sword. The unique blades of chaos is what they play this game for.
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.
"the 3 sirens are just one problem" I wanna see you defeat them on the highest difficulty, I died so many times 💀
Doesnt invalidate his point. It's just 1 enemy repeated 3 times.
@@TheProkonover still doesn't make it easier on higher difficulty
@@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.
@@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
@@TheProkonoverstill hard as balls, sirens arent easy when it's 3 on one
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.
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!
The Doom developers said the same thing
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)
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.
I love how Josh calls Cyclops Trolls, Harpies Imps and Satyrs Anubis...es?
Cerberuses - Doggos
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.
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.
The move set is not 100% the same as The Blade of Artemis.
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.
I had played bits and pieces of god of War 3, but after beating Ragnarok I have gone back and been playing through the original trilogy and damn! Nothing hits that spot like some classic hack and slash character action games.
The answer is a resounding yes. This game blew my mind so hard when I first played it at 13. It looked amazing, played amazing, great music, decent story, the combat was fun and brutal, the puzzles I felt absolutely hit the sweet spot of being not too hard but not easy either, and the level design, absolutely genius level design. This was one of those games where I replayed it almost as soon as I finished it and enjoyed it just as much as the first time.
It absolutely doesn't need it but a proper remake of this would be pretty sweet.
Beware of scam artists
@@osky516 uh OK?
@@THMARKDWARRR the scam artists comments were removed.
This was awesome, I would love to see a review like this for the other two games
Im so glad this series is finally back. Literally my favorite long form content on the platform.
I do love how this game has a very human take on Kratos compared to the sequels. A brutal yet regretful Kratos, he seems very disinterested in most people, yet you can hear him still have some care for strangers when in a situation that merits it, be it a woman running dangerously from him (you could hear him worry when calling her to wait), an old man just speaking weird stuff to him (The tone of "A grave? In the middle of a battle?" feels so casual), the way he refers to the harpy of Ares, "Foul beast, I know who it is you serve! Return to your master! Tell him I am his no longer" is SUCH a classic way of communication, I read such lines from the Iliad and Odyssey, and the sorrow when Kratos' nightmare ends with the Blades of Chaos killing his family, "No! ... No... Not again..." it's just heart wrenching.
I'm not a fan of GoW 2 and 3 because the writing felt less satisfying, it feels more like Kratos is a "Fuck it all" bastard, and while he does deserve his revenge against the gods, in GoW 1 he seemed to know where his priorities lie. You can also make a point that his devolution on 2 and 3 are part of his character arc, I feel it's not thaaaaat well done, but that's just me. I adore this game, is a playable greek tragic epic, and it deserves copious amounts of love... Wish Dad of Boi used a different title tho.
Also
> Like everyone, I used the Blade of Artemis for 5 minutes
> You're given a whole new sword for the final fight without any time to learn how to use it
See what happened there? I dunno if they're one to one, but the Blade of the Gods has a very similar moveset to the Blade of Artemis. Regardless, your points about the sword being forgotten and the sudden change on the final battle are still valid, even tho I think that final battle is cool AF because, yeah, it's a single issue, BUT IT'S TOUGH AS SHIT thus there's a very simple way to fix it for as hard it is to pull off: Don't screw up.
The thing with your argument is that Kratos needlessly kills the boat captain with little remorse. I'd also include the sacrificed soldier (allthough that one's more complicated since its the only way to pass the trial). The trait seems to be that Kratos will do whatever's required to complete his goal. So you feel sympathy for Kratos, but he is an anti-hero from the start.
I think Ghost of Sparta bridges the change in attitude for later games better and make it more palpable with a middle road: making him ruthless against obstacles (sometimes to the extreme, but it's rarely for the sake of it) but still sympathetic towards the people close to him. His mother, brother, Spartans, etc. After losing the rest of his mortal connections thanks to Olympus, and not being able to fall to the ocean this time, he sets his goal towards the olympians. It's still not perfect (Kratos is a d*ck at the start of 2 with invading Athens, and I'm 50/50 with 3's ending), but now there's a slow shift where you can notice Kratos becoming a monster over the games. It should also be noted that Kratos only set out to kill Zeus at the start, which he tells Athena in 2. He only decides to kill every god when he realises they'll all defend him to the end.
@@leithaziz2716 I didn't know about Ghost of Sparta and I thank you for bringing this up. Yeah, I did think about the captain of the ship but it still feels like a far call from monster Kratos as seen in 3 killing people he could've just pushed aside... Although killing civilians for health orbs does also exemplify that he can do that for the benefits... Wouldn't that be reserved for the needs of battle anyway? Bah, if I keep going on details I'll stay here all day. I'll take your word, you've followed the series more than me.
Ascension, Chains of Olympus and GoW1 do a good job of showing Kratos before he is too far gone. The memory of Ares's manipulation is still fresh, and while he is still a ruthless Spartan warrior that fought long and hard for the glory of Sparta, and sold his soul to the God of War for the sake of military might, he still has some humanity left in him despite all the crap he has to go through. Just barely hanging on.
Unfortunately, figuring everything out about his past come Ghost of Sparta just broke something in him, and that pure hate evolved into a lack of care for anything except his own needs, becoming just as heartless as Ares in his new seat if not moreso, but at least he now has a goal on his own terms: revenge. And from then on, he's either consumed by murderous rage, or left to his thoughts to spiral further into self-loathing.
And while GoW3 showed the natural escalation of that, at the end, once everything was said and done, he had nothing left, having sacrificed an innocent child and the world for the sake of empty vengeance. You can't justify his actions, but man. It's depressing to think about it.
@@Zero-ds9ws personally I see Ghost of Sparta as Kratos' moral breaking point because it's that game that he loses his last to family members that he thought were already dead, his mother who he had to kill with his own hands like Lysandra and Calliope, and Deimos his brother who was taken by the gods when they were children, someone he could finally connect to with everything the gods put him through. But Deimos hated Kratos and felt abandoned and when it finally looked up for the brothers Deimos died in Kratos' arms just like all his other loved ones. So that's why I believe GoW II and GoW III Kratos is so much more ruthless and uncaring.
@@a_cynical_mad_man_vods Definitely agree on that one. Last dregs of his sanity go right out the window.
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
I wish Ares was in other GoW titles. He’s my favorite of the Greek gods & his portrayal in this game is so cool
Nah ngl he looks goofy
The newer games have leaned heavily in Kratos himself, Zeus as the final object of hatred, and Athena as his last ally and a symbol of his failures and the steep cost of his vengeance.
But yes, it IS almost bizarre the extent to which Ares, the primary antagonist of the debut title of this series, has been seemingly forgotten. The one who cursed Kratos in the first place, who seared the blades into his flesh, who drove him to the act that plagues his nightmares. Nobody ever talks about that guy anymore.
@@Actiondanny There was an unlockable cutscene that implied Kratos had Ares soul somewhere, I think behind the throne at the end of the game.
Would have been nice if they had followed up on that storyline.
@@Actiondannystrange how he didn't show up un that segment from the newer games where Zeus and Athena return. Ares could've returned too. if there's someone in the God of War franchise who deserves to come back at least once, it's the main man himself.
Poseidon's rage being a lightning AoE makes a little more sense if you consider that while Zeus is known for lightning, poseidon is known for being the god of the seas but also storms. Among other things
I finished GoW 2018 yesterday and wanted to see what the previous games were all about. You're video is fantastically detailed and I can't wait for your take on the latter games in the series. You have such an eye for the smallest bits of game design. It's really admirable.
I would love to see you talk about the Prince of Persia games if you've played them. They have a similar vibe to the first GoW and they were pretty solid. Is there any chance of you tackling it on? Cheers from Poland!
God willing, Josh does a video on Sands of Time. Absolutely goated game.
Don't forget, that when giving you the Medusa Gaze it gives you infinite mana, and there's a fun way to get out of that room, letting you keep the infinite mana
Man this game is now 17 years old and it still looks enjoyable today. I really miss this style of gameplay in God Of War. Let’s hope they bring it back in their next new sequel.
Nope. Sony is committed to third person adventure genre since Dark Souls and Souls-Like games blew up.
I miss it too but I dont think it would work, comparing to the new style and modern era of gaming the franchise would most likely try a new style of gameplay instead of repeating an old style that jus brings nostalgia.
I'm sorry to say but this game is nigh unplayable. Its a master class in frustrating design with respawning enemies, annoying and mindless puzzles, and repetitive combat. I'd recommend skipping this game.
@@TyrellGames you're trolling bro
Go away
@@TyrellGames Go away, GOW is not for you.
I really like this format, great blend of analysis and let’s play.
The "Was it any good" videos are the best videos on RUclips. Extremely thorough, well put together movies (basically) which sometimes hosts nostalgia and sometimes new experiences that always leave you laughing and entertained beyond what you could hope for. They are long projects that take endless hours of work and it pays off massively. I fucking love these, and am so glad to see a new entry. These videos are quite simply brilliant.
Found your channel last week and binged everything. It's basically a greatest hits of my childhood with fantastic thorough analysis. Here's hoping a few bullfrog/lionhead games make it to the backlog.
Thanks again for the fantastic content.
The God of War trilogy is so addicting whenever I play it I end up playing for a long time telling myself ok I’ll shut off the game after the next check point just to end up not doing it. That and the puzzles are really tough, tougher than most games. A nice breather from the action really makes you feel like a genius when you figure them out
Concerning the final battle, and the game looping back around on itself; is the Skill set of the sword bridge the same as the Blade of Artemis?
And could it be a punishment for committing too hard on the Chaos Blades, which was literally the weapon made by Ares?
Haven’t played it through myself, but seems odd to have such a jarring contrast of design choices, as they seem to have been consistently well thought through up until the very end.
Great work once again Josh!
Yes the skill set is the exact same.
@@thechugg4372 You clearly haven't gone back to play the game recently enough.
There is nothing ''exact same'' about the move set of the Bridge Sword and that of the Artemis Blade. They are both giant sharp sticks which Kratos rests on his shoulders while not attacking and that is where the similarities end.
The Bridge Sword has really flashy, cool...and rather long combos, it just is not advisable to use them because trying to gets you killed; thus we tend to forget they exist and personally I am bit sad they are not a little more viable.
The Artemis Blade was given moves with more practical use...and also the advantage of having targets that can be stunned if hit hard enough (thus letting you actually finish the combo and live), rather then need to fight Ares.
Fun fact, upgrading the blade of artemis makes this sword stronger in the ps2 version
@Trin__ I didn't need a save editor to know what I know.
Incase there is any difference, my experience is only with the original PS2 version, haven't played the rest.
@@Alpha.Phenix So you're confronted with game files and facts and then try to shield yourself. Smh.
The basic movesets are exactly the same albeit slightly slower in animation.
Excellent as always.
I do really like these older God of War games. They are very enjoyable to play and you're thankfully not constantly pestered either.
They also have actually good gameplay too
@@roar104 100%, it's great.
even the spin offs were good if we forget acension existed(even then its just a bad god of war game) i dont think the series ever had a truly bad game.
I love what you are doing Josh, thanks. Please hurry up with other releases of God of War.
I have lots of great memories growing up and playing this game with my dad on those CRT TVs. My dad worked away from home and would spend weeks at a time away so when he came home I always looked foward to booting up God of War and spending time with him
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
The other shortcoming of this game was its approach to replay ability, or rather lack thereof. It basically meant starting over from scratch, but on a harder difficulty, and that made God Mode so painful to play through (for a secret that wasn’t even worth it back then). The third phase of the final fight was completely ridiculous, as Ares could basically kill you in 1 or 2 hits while you had to chip away at his health at a slug’s pace.
I dont think its a problem at all. I dont expect a game to be infinitely replayable.
@@metallboy25 It is a problem for a game that obviously takes inspiration from Devil May Cry and whose campaign is on the shorter side (8 hours or so) compared to the norm back then. For such a short amount of playtime and the kind of game it is, possessing *a modicum* of replayability was part of the bare minimum in terms of expectations.
@@Zeburaman2005 It wasnt inspired by DMC, David Jaffe said the inspirations were rygar and onimusha
@@cristhianramirez6939 While I can definitely see the PS2 Rygar’s inspiration, I find it a little hard to believe that one of the most popular character action games of that time didn’t play any role in GoW’s development. Then again, it makes more sense for Onimusha to be its other source of inspiration, since they both share a slower and more methodical gameplay.
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!
now i know why his content is so enjoyable to watch... cause there is always something happening on my 1st and 2nd monitor
Please tell me you will eventually be covering the second and third game as well, love your style of commentary and have been wanting to brush up on the games myself for a good while now!
1:37:00 The gravedigger was Zeus
It's a common trope of Greek mythos that Zeus would walk among mortals as a frail old man.
I always found the description of Kratos killing his family to be an interesting one. Because in this game they talk about "Ares' rage" and "lost humanity ", which makes it sound like it's mostly Ares fault, but going forward they mostly focus on Kratos.
Anyways good video as always.
The voice of Kratos is not Mace Windu. Mace Windu was played by Samuel L Jackson and TC Carson voiced the original Kratos
30000 years late, but TC Carson voiced mace windu in a pretty much every video game and tv show, so both are correct.
32:25 I remember Onimusha having a parry and counter mechanic as well, a few years before God of War
1:05:46 really surprised you felt that one was unfair, it shows you the spikes before it opens up. You say it shows you no hint, but from the footageshown, you can see the spikes so I'd argue it is telegraphed there.
I just realized how ironic Kratos saying "Now there is no Hope." just before taking the plunge is.
I love throwing "hey, do you remember that time when you had to tie up naked woman to a lever to progress?" randomly while talking about modern GoW
People always bring up the human doorstop lady in GOW 3 as the most fucked up moment, but to me, the version of that in GOW 2 is worse. You do the same thing to a man who's not only injured and pleading for help, but he's one of your own worshippers.
It's amazing how the original trilogy is so masterful, and then it gets a reboot that's miles different in gameplay and tone, but is still excellent.
Also, interesting... The game I played, the dude you have to sacrifice to the flames had already been zombified, and the note on the soldier said that "they were men once".
That was a censored scene where the soldier is instead one of the enemy fodders you fight normally. It has its unique charm with Kratos smiling deviously at the zombie and it starting to panic once it realises what's going to happen.
At 1:30 there is an echo of Holst's Mars. Somebody not only has studied his humanities, they also were quite knowledgeable when it comes to modern orchestral music. Which, I would suggest, settles the age-old argument in games are art. That music was as original as Beethoven using stuff from Haydn and Mozart who in turn quoted he Mannheim Lolcats. This story and this game is a sum of echoes. Tropes which are older than people who think that an image macro is a meme. By thousands of years.
i always wondered why people seriously ask themselves why kratos is such a dick to the captain, besides the point being is due to all the shit he has been through and done to others resulted him loosing his humanity. The captain grouped and locked all the women (and invisible children, cause there aren't any anywhere) in his room and left the fucking ship, as he sailed through an area that was known to have a monster (as Poseidon points out in the immediate cutscene). Why oh why would he let him fall, twice. The captain is half the reason that all women (and the invisible kids) on the ship died
15:00 while a bit bizarre I always assumed it was going with the older version of Poseidon where he wasn't just god of the seas but also storms and earthquakes.
So I noticed... you missed a nereid!!! One secret escaped you apparently.
There is an hidden behind a breakable wall nereid in the underwater area which would have net you the final feather to have maximum magic power (which allow you to cast twice hades spell).
just skip the fight where you obtain medusa's gaze and cast hades or Poseidon spell an infinite ammount of times.
Great thanks as always. As a Greek I am proud of these games! Also can you do God Of War 2 and God Of War 3? With your unique commentary it will be amazing to watch.