Personally, I think Kratos deciding to give hope to the people instead of Athena makes plenty of sense. Not out of goodness of his heart, but out of hatred and just sadness. Firstly he hates the gods, and one last chance to spite them is something he would certainly take, and secondly being he is genuinely at the end of his wits. Revenge has been achieved and nothing has changed for him. He is an angry and bitter man who simply wishes to just be done, at the very least he can spite the gods one last time and maybe stop other mortals from their machinations. It really comes off as more pity then goodwill, he'd rather that whats left of humanity not go through what he did, there was certainly some kind of good person in kratos at some point, not much of one but something. Also yeah he is pretty awful to women throughout the games, not that he didnt do that to men as well, he did burn that one dude alive, which was pretty fucked up, not saying that its ok just saying i think it was more even then you portrayed. admittedly it almost never happened to helpless men so I do see your point. Great video as always dude, i don't agree with everything you say all the time, but i appreciate that you explain it all fairly clearly and in a way easy to digest and understand.
Some symbolism that is easy to miss is that during the after credit scene, the blood-trial continues all the way up to a cliff resembling the one from the 1st game, which implies Kratos decided to take the leap at the end. While the actual intention behind the scene is a mystery, I don't think it's a stretch that the implication is that Kratos contemplated suicide at the end to free himself from everything. Allthough it does make the fear scene contradictory as he tried to forgive himself for his past actions. Maybe this is his way of moving on. Regarding the sexism, I always found that gruesome death in Posiedon's chamber to be...suspicious, as it went too far in my eyes personally. The original name for the trophy you unlock afterward killing her is very morbidly dark.
You do assume that Kratos was thinking about Athena though and what the power meant to her, what I like to think is that Kratos just wanted to be done with his life and hope going out to humanity was just a side effect of that, not what he directly intended.
If gow 3 ever gets a remake, I would love Poseidon's boss to have more moves and after Kratos pulls him out of his avatar we get to fight him in his true form and he has his trident and after Kratos defeats him he takes his trident, second thing I would like in the reamake is give Helios a proper boss fight, and maybe add more bosses like Achilles, Apollo
tbh in the world of Greek myth, I don't think there's such a thing as "helpless men." i cant really remember any in the game. they are either imposing their will on the world until they run into Kratos or cannon fodder from the start (chaos blade fodder?).
I recently played through every game in the series, and as much as the series makes the player recognize that Kratos is the villain, at least in GW3, the side games and the series as a whole is a nonstop "How can the Gods fuck Kratos for the millionth time." I finished every other game before jumping to 3 and the amount of wrong the gods do to Kratos builds up to a point where being the villain doesnt matter, as long as the gods are gone. And I while it's not a good message to play with revenge like that, the hollow satisfaction of finally getting rid of them is really impactful. Idk, I got super sucked into this series and the end of 3 made me feel incredibly hollow, which I think was the point for people who played every game. Its 6 full games of one character getting screwed constantly, that by the time you're done, you're just exhausted for it to be finished.
Throughout the games chronologically, you see kratos slowly lose his humanity. Going from getting the captains key from him to unlock the door, sadly being too late though in the first game at the beginning. To just using an innocent woman to keep a gate open, letting the wheel used to open the gate wind up on her and killing her in the third game.
GOW 3 was meant to be Kratos diving down into the same level that the Gods had - wrecking the lives and the worlds of others with no remorse or second thought Now don't get me wrong The Gods certainly deserved it considering the hell they put him through from day goddamn one however people like Poseidon's princess and Icarus' old man didn't deserve to die at all - they just wanted their loved ones to come back And Kratos took their loved ones already I mean shit Hades is only attacking Kratos out of both grief and his obligation as God of the Underworld It's like an emotionally powered train wreck - both parties are wrong and commit horrid actions for reasons they deem out of their control (with ofc the exception being Zeus and Gaia - those two chose to try and control the world as is)
You know what's funny, most of Krato's character develop actively comes from the Spin-offs. Ascension is creating the Monster Chains of Olympus is what he will do for family. Ghost of Sparda is his back story, and what drives him as a god. What's baffling is all 6 games are amazing. if you enjoyed GoW1 the most, chains is going to be spectacle for you I think.
"Ghost of Sparda" Imagine if Kratos ever met Dante's dad and they just hung out. Insofar as Kratos is capable of "Hanging out". And interesting to see someone have a positive opinion on all mainline Greek era games! Ascension seems to be the most disliked out of them all. Still looks intereting to me.
@@jurtheorc8117 Ascension is mainly the black sheep in terms of being the point where series fatigue started to hit. It's a decent game, but it's always that game you go "oh yeah, we also had this game".
@@leithaziz2716 I forgot about that. I've never looked into the GoW series until about a year ago, so a lot of feelings from over the years by fans passed me by. From what i know, it does seem to have some interesting ideas going for it, at least. thanks for taking the time to write a reply and clarify!
@@jurtheorc8117 I think I'm in the minority. I've been playing the series since Chains of Olympus came out and have gone through each game multiple times, and I actually really like each entry. I think my least favorite is actually the first game, and Ascension is probably my second least favorite, but I still think each one is at least very enjoyable.
Ascension is his one of his earliest spark of hate against the gods. Chain of Olympus is his desperation, his lowest point. The point where he were made to admit that the only way for his wishful redemption is through the very thing he hates the most. Only for it to be denied at the end of GoW 1 Ghost of Sparta is one of his final straws (before the destruction of Sparta by Zeus in GoW 2). When he realized that the so called gods have no remorse no cared for anyone, even letting a false child being imprisoned if it means that it'll fulfilled the old propechy in which Athena might benefits from
I think i like the attacks more in gow1. Idk but something feels good about it, when you get to the challenge of hades with your maxed out kratos and ripping through enemies with some of the smoothest attacks. maybe that's why he likes it too
@@Hamzaxx369 idk there were certain sections in gow 1 where the combat made it incredibly frustrating. Like when you had to kill those centaur monsters inside of those rings in hades. Gow 2 or 3's combat would have made that part actually fun
About God of War 3's ending. I don't think Kratos knew that stabbing himself with the Blade of Olympus would release hope into mortal hands. I think he was just trying to kill himself again. He did say something like "at least my vengeance is complete" or something like that, which means he blames himself as much as the other gods for his family's death.
This, exactly. He didn't try and stop Athena. I think he planned to die either way. Vengeance was his literal last flicker of light left keeping him alive. I'm glad he found new purpose, and I think him being an evil monster is WHY God of War 2018's story works so well in trying to make a monster a man.
@@tombraider200571 Amazing that most of the interviews make it come off as if he was never compelling at all before, but in game, it does show someone understood there was a compelling aspect to it which makes him essentially trying to calm and raise the child he was never able to that much more interesting taking the past into context. So it was odd to see more people or interviews made it come off as if '18 was better because it was less anger driven and "cinematic" and not that it felt pretty right if the direction was where we thought it was....which it ended up being.
It's crazy how you talked about GOW3 not giving you a reason to use different weapons while showing footage of you fighting an enemy type that a specific weapon has advantage with; the Nemean Caestus breaks shields, also overheats the hammer statue guys. There's a pretty consistent Rock-Paper-Scissors system with all the weapons (and items like the bow or the dash boots) & corresponding enemy types in that, not sure how you didn't pick up on that.
@@YetiCoolBrother My apologies. I've seen a lot of GoW and other hack-and-slash type game fans around that get very enthousiastic in talking about combat game mechanics in depth, and i'm curious to learn more about combat design in such types of games myself. And different views or explanations to consider from different people/sources can go a long way in research. I've had pretty big convos on such subjects via YT comments, which is testament to said enthousiasm people carry on this subject. Probably useless info from a random stranger on the internet, but i wanted to clarify on my line of thought. Thank you for taking the time to reply regardless, and I wish you a good rest of your day.
@@jurtheorc8117 there are probably countless videos out there explaining in detail the combat systems of various action games, it's honestly wonderful the things creative devs will put in their games.
I think the issue at hand is that they took utility and complexity out of the BoC and put it elsewhere, but the game isn't demanding enough that you really have to do anything more than swing your Blades most of the time, so Kbash here ends up with a main weapon that feels less than it used to be and wasn't interested enough in the other weapons to really experiment with the full breadth of his kit. Personally none of this matters to me because I "Light>Light>Heavy'ed" my way through the entire series and I enjoyed every second of it.
Most of Kratos' personality is shown in the PSP games and Ascension weirdly enough. It Humanizes him way more than what the main trilogy could have done because the trilogy was about his downfall, with each game he becomes more miserable than the last. The moment where he makes Poseidon's wife hold the lever without her will and which results in her death, is the moment the player realizes that he is too far gone and can't be called an antihero anymore (he couldn't before but that time it was definite). The world isn't kind to women but Kratos generally was respecting of them, or as much as he could. He never forced himself sexually and when he killed women, he didn't brutalize them regardless how terrible they were. So this moment was really telling on how far he fell
I'd really love a remaster of Ascension. I worked at PlayStation when it came out and had countless copies of the game, but I gave them all away because I was kinda sick of God of War at that point. These days, you can find PS4 remasters of three mainline games and easily emulate the portable spin offs, but Ascension is strictly locked on the PS3, and I REALLY want to play it now.
@@Tenchigumi I mean idk if you’d be down for this but Ascension is available on the PS Plus Premium service as part of the classics lineup. Unfortunately you can’t download it but if your internets good enough you can stream the game to your PS4/PS5
@@52Darthvader I've thought about it, but I feel like I can only stream games that are turn based and not as action heavy. I've learned that even the biggest bandwidth suffers from random network stutters (I have fiber but live in a densely populated area), and for someone like me who can get frustrated at the input lag of standard TVs alone, any extra lag would drive me nuts, lol.
don't fall for this bait. Kratos didn't respect anyone. He uses people for what they are useful. If it was man he kill, if it was woman he sex. If he didn't want the sex he used as a way through. That's the way it is. Poseidon's wife die for her own weakness to hold the level, he just didn't care enough because was his enemy's wife.
Hmmmm. Not quite. He later on almost gives up his quest for vengeance over Pandora as he genuinely bonds with her almost like she is Caliope. It is a pendulum. He oscillates between being self aware and the destructive path he is in or being consumed by rage.
Kratos is the result of The Gods of Olympus hubris, cautious attitude towards mortals, and overly self absorbed personalities. The whole bit about women, especially the violence towards them, help show Kratos had become what he set to destroy so much. He started viewing others lives as only objects for his aggression or in some cases pleasure to repress his long suffering but to temporary avail. Pandora, a child reminds him of his more humane side and not willing to sacrifice her even when she is the one who can GIVE him what he wanted.
I mean, kratos is a spartan patriot, Spartans were bred to be war machines, so he was a hero for his people, don't think of him as a modern hero, heroes then didn't have morality, they were generals who committed many war crimes in the name of their home land so he doesn't mind killing innocents in order to win, that doesn't justify the merciless war crimes he did on God of war 3 but that game was made to make you hate kratos as much as he hated himself!
Great video. I do think a lot of people are taken aback by the poseidon princess sequence because she's framed as someone you would care about in a typical heroic story. I think it's a good way to nail it home if you've managed to forget that Kratos is a Greek god hell-bent on vengeance and has long lost his humanity in that quest to get even with the pantheon.
It's the developers saying, "You know those people fleeing in fear in Greece, that you can just grab and kill for health? Yeah, let's point that out in a more direct way."
@@nehuenmutiozabal6339 "It's bad because it was a chick" Should have a named trope by now it happens so often. Kratos is the bad guy. The idea that Kratos has bed time wrestling with some of them somehow makes it gendered is nonsense. The guy is a mass murdering monster in those games, controlled by his lowest instincts and him getting off is what shocked people? Should be happy he wasn't forcing chicks considering it's a greek game with that kind of character. His father was Zeus after all and he raided villages gleefully for Ares before his betrayal. Would it suddenly be fine if Kratos was Bi? The answer is no, and that's because there was nothing wrong with it to begin with. Kratos is a bad person, or at least was in his greek saga. The games never try to deny it either. Some people are just looking for shit to go "SEXIST!" like some sort of fetish. The game was trying to portray him as a monster there, which actively was done far better in that scene then those random innocent people before the first cyclops in the first game who gave you health orbs for killing no less.
@@theworstcatholic7247 I actually forgot about that orb bit from the first game, but them being almost colorless background characters make it easier for your mind to gloss over. The indignation that comes from the Poseidon princess sequence is that she is actually fleshed out in her limited time as a character and sympathetic with realistic reactions to what's happening, in addition to being an attractive woman.
My favorite of the trilogy was always God of War 2, which was actually directed by Cory Barlog (who later made the reboot). I like the locales, bosses, music, and new weapons/abilities more than GoW1 or GoW3. I think it got a bit overshadowed at the time cuz it came out in 2007, the year of next-gen hits like Modern Warfare, Mario Galaxy, Bioshock, etc.
Sure but counter point, The reboot is ass, at least to me. I ain't god of war anymore, the new direction is just....wrong. But anyway who cares, It sold gazillions so that's the direction they will probably kept even after ragnarok, and yes I played 2018 to completion and hated almost 70% of the game but I got hope in that SCENE that ONE PART OF THE GAME where for a moment it felt like God of war was back, everyone knows that scene and love it.
@@raulrojas9253 “It’s never me that’s wrong it’s everyone else is wrong” The reboot is fantastic. There’s only so much you can do after 6 fucking games. By the time Ascension came out, the formula and the setting were already tired. There’s nowhere else to go. People who complained that Kratos in GoW 2018 is no longer a raging asshole that murders senselessly didn’t pay attention to his character development during the original games. His last line in GoW3 was literally “My vengeance ends now.” He’s no longer fueled by vengeance. New GoW is Kratos’ redemption story. His second chance to be a father again. It’s very much in line with how he treated his family + Pandora in the old series.
Cruelty to Men? Meh, so its Monday. Cruelty to Women!? Wow, you just crossed the line, kratos! The biggest irony is that white knighting mindset is an insult to Women. White knighting comes from the place of insecurity, the man turns Women into an object to be won over&protected so that he can feel better about himself.
It's not about the violence targeted on women, it's how women are portrayed during violence How many men you kill have their d*cks out when you slaughter them? And how many women have their boobs out when you do the same? Things like these don't make the game or the story bad, but it's a detail that points how problematic the gaming industry can be (like any other industry)
@@antonioacvr123 There's nothing worse than being brutally killed and Men are primarily the targets of violence in Society&Media. Oh, but that's not "problematic"? *'it's how women are portrayed during violence"* How should they be portrayed during violence, then? Like Athena, being a modest wise&commanding character? Or like Persephone&Sisters who are physically capable warriors? See, you may have a point if God of War Franchise didn't equally give spotlight to female characters when it came to strength&agency.
It just hit me, your reviews are really unique simply because you play all of these games back to back. It gives a far different perspective then just a one off review. Kudos for another great one. Keep up the good work.
Kratos has always been a complex, interesting character. Yes, his bottomless pit of rage is super hammy and downright hilarious at times. But can you blame him for being so angry all the time? He has been constantly screwed over since he was a child; his brother taken away, he and his mother growing up poor, enduring ruthless Spartan training. And this was BEFORE he signed with Ares and made the greatest mistake of his life. His rage is only a mask for the deep depression and self-loathing he has for himself. It's just people don't see enough of the tragedy that is Kratos's life
still one of the most entertaining yet poignant video essayists on the platform. In particular your pacing and editing is masterful and keeps such a smooth and steady flow through your videos, they fly by despite their length. Keep up the good work Kbash!
From all the retrospectives of the GOW series out there, none of them mentioned your insight point of how the game avoids ludonarrative dissonance. Great work as always.
Kratos killing innocent people isn't out of character. You're purposely leaving out "the gods demand a sacrifice of us all" while he literally burns a man alive that is begging for his life
That sex slave murder in GoW 3 originally gave you a trophy that was basically a rape joke. It had to be patched out so no way in hell did the devs think through how their game was treating women for no reason in most scenes. Ascension had also got a new trophy name through a patch the scene there was fine, just not the trophy name. Santa Monica itself also agreed with the criticism in the end and Kratos was nearly kicked out of his own game for GoW 2018. GoW3 is legit icky. No question.
@@residentgrigo4701 in gow 3 after gaia's betrayal, he basically had enough of the gods, titans and literally anything breathing that got in his way, that was the main focus on God of war 3,to hate kratos as much as kratos hates himself and not being able to justify his actions, which is why everyone loved the ending of gow 3, and the fact he survived!
@@darthkaliath4014 i just love how that final act of 'releasing hope unto the world' is his last middle finger to gods, especially Athena (the same b*tch that let Deimos taken away in Ghost of Sparta psp game). Not to mentioned that since all human have died, no one were given that 'Hope' power, a perfect final F*UCK YOU to the gods lol
@@ShatteredGlass916 about that, he released hope to the few survivors of Greece from each land that wasn't swallowed up, not for the good of man, just to spite Athena!
@@رضاعلي-ب8قI don't understand his criticisms regarding difficulty. The game has difficulty settings for a reason. If you wanna get challenged, then don't fucking pick normal or easy. Hard is there for a reason. That's the difficulty for people who want to be challenged.
@@De_La_Evo yeah honestly I get he's very jaded now which is understandable - dude does nothing but research games for a damn living but goddamn I get some of the content is very questionable but he fundamentally misunderstood GOW 3 and the implications in every part of the story i.e. Kratos and the Gods are all evil but most of these people are victims of circumstances out of their control (especially Hades - man just wanted to avenge his wife and do his job as God of the Underworld)
another great vid kbash bro! when i was a kid i would get hospitalized frequently for my asthma, and i remember one time i was in was during GoW 1's release. i felt like shit, all i wanted to do was go home and play it and not be sick. by some happenstance the nurse watching me during my stay revealed he was a """gamer""" and would talk about the game with me and share in the hype. made the stay a lot more bearable, hard to think it was almost 20 years ago. this has really made me want to go back and replay those old games, i haven't even touched the newer reboots lol. keep up the great work homie!
Kratos was justified in what he did up until the Poseidon mistress part, that has no justification and is the moment Kratos went too far. Tactical Bacon Productions went into deeper detail about it, but that moment is when we're supposed to separate ourselves from Kratos and see how far he's fallen.
I'll always love the Greek saga of GoW for the way it adapted Greek myth *as well as* Greek storytelling into a video game. So much media uses mythic source material as little more than set dressing for an otherwise modern narrative. GoW is everything that it is *as a result of the source material.* GoW could have been some righteous hero rescuing Greece from a million monsters. Instead, it's a tragedy in the fashion made famous by Greece. Which necessitates our plucky adventurer become a traumatized soldier. Kratos is made a Spartan, infamous for their brutal and inhuman upbringing, not only so that he's believably capable in combat, but also that he's believably out-of-touch with his own heart. He has no choice but to project his inner struggle onto the outside world, and his only method of problem-solving is violence. The gods are just as petty and flawed as they were in myth, and like many other Greek myths, it's the machinations of the gods which spur Kratos into action. This lends naturally to an extremely video-gamey mythic spectacle. All of it just fucking *works* where so many similar attempts fail to escape artificial imitation. As for the ending of GoWIII, I honestly really love the spin that "hope" was inside Kratos this whole time. In the first game Kratos opens Pandora's box to receive the power to kill a god, but we aren't told what exactly that power is, nor is the actual myth of Pandora's box addressed. When Pandora opened the box, she inadvertently unleashed all manners of evil and misfortune on mankind. All that was left inside was hope. Of course this is what Kratos retrieved by opening it a second time, the only thing that could possibly cut through the darkness over Greece (which caused his suffering to begin with). This is the hero's power. But by the time he reaches this power, hope is meaningless to him, and he only sees it as a means for vengeance. So now Kratos has the mythic power that allows him all sorts of incredible feats, while the world around him is simultaneously doomed to his rampage. And at the end of everything, Kratos realizes there was no reward at the end of his path, and that he has no use for hope. Is it spite for Athena, penance for his sins, or something else that leads him to release hope back to mankind? I like that it isn't exactly clear. Also, Kratos's very first line in the franchise (in a scene that takes place after he opened the box) is "the gods of Olympus have abandoned me... *now there is no hope*."
27:50 "You literally can't mash Y into Y anymore... It sucks." Well yeah. The PS3 doesn't have a Y button. It appears that your problem is that you tried to play this game with an XBAHKS controller, which is actually quite impressive.
Vid starts: dude complains that GoW is too simple and isn't in the leagues of Bayo, DMC, and Ninja G. OK spicy start. Vid continues: dude starts to complain that the game is removing exploitable moves and starts demanding the player manage resources and find new combo routes. Me: *confused Jackie Chan face* Edit: I'm positive he never played these on hard, I'm not saying this out "try hardism" but the Devs are on record for saying the game was designed around it's hard difficulty and normal was made mass accessibility, the Director of the OG series has a UA-cam channel and did a vid on it.
@@frogglen6350 God of War should be played on hard because this allows you to appreciate the mechanics for at least 3. The challenge of OG DS is all about surviving the environment, exploration, enemy placements, and controls. They tackle similar gameplay concepts but do it in different ways, e.g. DS being slow-paced pattern recognition action while GOW is all about fast-paced combo-focused action.
@@frogglen6350 it's not about Kratos having a hard time, it's about you learning the various tools and mechanics at your disposal to get a leg up on competent adversatries so that you earn your power fantasy, you know like how Kratos earns his glory through hardships, *Ludo-narritive harmony*. GOW is one of a few titles that put thoughtful design in their hard mode, it's not just enemies hit harder and are more spongy like you'd see in other games; they attack more often and use new attack patterns, more specific enemy placement too.
Wait a min….Kratos is a Demigod…raised in Spartan culture…what type of “humanity” is he supposed have at this point in his life, that has been about war, death of his brother, wife and child, betrayal from a cruel father he never knew and the pantheon either trying to use him as a weapon or kill him entirely????? What game was this guy playing????
Shame you didn't play with the hammer in GOW2. Thing is an absolute powerhouse. In terms of DPS against a single target, it's the most powerful weapon in the game. Yes, even above the blade of olympus. This primarily requires using the Triangle-Triangle combo, cancelling recovery with the bow, and repeating this ad-infinitum, and makes dodging quickly just a bit more difficult to accomplish (though still totally doable), but man is it cool just destroying damn near everything in seconds with a huge-ass hammer.
Definitely thought some criticisms were unfair or flat out wrong but overall great video, and you at least understood kind of what the story was going for unlike most
I know this video is almost 2 years old now, but im really hoping you decide to go over the newest God of War games. A lot of the criticism you had towards Kratos' character is made self aware and reflected on in the future games. The plot actively goes against justifying his flaws; instead it takes on the approach to humanize Kratos again, giving him a purpose beyond senseless violence, especially with the inclusion of a new family for him to care about. Also the newer inclusions of female characters is significantly more empowering than before, the ick factor is practically gone with some of the most powerful and well written people in the universe being women, both allies and enemies. Its overall an extremely well done redemption story especially with the free Valhalla DLC that Ragnarok got which has direct references to these old games.
Feel like Bash would enjoy playing the spin-offs, because of how important they are to fleshing out Kratos as a character. Otherwise the video might feel a bit incomplete. Still, its very nice to see God of War content on this channel!
Thank you for this! God of War has such a special place in my life. It was my first M rated game, and also the second game that my mom and I bonded over. We finished it about 22 times, I used to be able to recite it like a play.
I very rarely post comments on reviews since they are almost always made by casual players that aren't interested in the intricacies of a game's mechanics, but I feel the need to because this is just ridiculous. At 27:50 you claim that "you literally can't mash y into y" (which I assume is 'triangle into triangle'), in the next clip you are shown doing EXACTLY that. Were you under the assumption that the heavy combo had been removed? Because it's literally just pressing triangle again after the three hits at 27:57. I'm actually not sure if that's what you were saying because the game SHOWS THE INPUTS ON THE SCREEN when the blades reach level 3. Then at 29:03 you said "if they're gonna curtail individual weapon utility just to have multiple weapons". What does this even mean? God of War 3 has the biggest move lists in the entire series. None of the weapons are more limited in any way compared to what came before. And at 27:37 you say that "you can't start combos off of heavy attacks", which is just completely wrong, and that "many strings have been cut". What strings? They were REPLACED yes, but GoW2 did the same thing. And the new ones have even have variations not present before. I'm so sick of people not doing the bare minimum to look at what the game gives you access to and then saying shit like: "There are people who do insane things with this system (...) it isn't necessary in any way to complete the game." As if this isn't also the case for DMC. AND THEN you criticize GoW2 for daring to give you a challenge and forcing you to "pay attention more often" (somehow a bad thing). All of this after having claimed you're a "mechanics guy". What a joke.
KBash, seriously. Thank you for posting this today. I had a relapse, remembered something traumatic, and needed something to lift me up. The part where you said "I wanna press the buttons!" made me laugh so hard that for a brief time, I didn't feel terrible. I pray your channel blows up soon, because you are hilarious, and a breath of fresh air in a world gone crazy.
If the woman you chain to the paste maker was a man would people have been as bothered by it even if they kept the focus on him for as long as they did poseidons princess
Seriously. all the whining about women being brutalized in a game where the main character brutalize ANYONE is silly as hell. He did messed up stuff to male characters as well, even innocents one but one sickening sight of women being killed brutally and we be like "thats too far"? Huh?
I unabashedly love that the statement "This'll get 60k max and die off in a month" has been objectively contradicted with more than twice the view count. You really killed it with this video man, never sell yourself short. You do good work.
Y'know, you can cancel the recovery of dodge with the light attack and cancel the recovery of light attack with dodge. This is a lot faster than that combo you showed in the beginning of the video and it works in every greek god of war, this is the only way I move in god of war
Honestly I put off playing GOW 4 for so long because I couldn’t see myself ever liking Kratos after the first three games but they made him likable. I still think GOW 3 is my favorite because it has some of the best boss battles of all time and GOW 2 is a grand adventure plus the Sisters of Faith boss battle is truly mind bending
The sequence with Pos's princess is tailor made to push you, the player, over the edge into that "are we the baddies" territory. So far, everything Kratos had done was specifically targeted at a scumbag who had screwed someone else over (boat captain) or the gods who had wronged Kratos himself. The princess is supposed to be the breaking point for the player, if they hadn't hit their limit already. She's the first innocent that Kratos canonically kills completely on his own volition (the caged soldier in GoW1 was part of a trial set up by the gods)
While I understand that the game has a juvenile approach to how it portrays women, the fact that you had to censor a pair of PS2 tits while at the same time showcasing footage of you absolutely brutalizing innumerable men, peeling-off a fingernail, gouging out Poseidon's eyes all while controlling a shirtless dude wearing nothing more than a skirt is hypocritical. It's infuriating to see how many modern reviews feel the need to point this out, it comes off as pandering at best and condescending virtue signaling at worst.
Just when i think i know what kind of games this channel will cover you surprise me. Wasn't expecting god of war of all franchises but a pleasant surprise
It’s been forever since you’ve popped up on the Algorithm! Still putting in nothing but the finest of content as usual! Thank you for the laughs you’ve given me for years
Ok 2 things. 1-Yes, the intention is making you see Kratos as an evil person but is also a complex character at the end of the day. 2-Dude, at this point, just say you are unconfortable with sex and brutality on women on media, no one is gonna blame you and you don't win anything blaming the game for it. The guy brutalize a bunch of people with almost no exeptions, and that's is the tragedy of it. In fact I was surprised you took the example of that slave woman, but you didn't even flinch at that one injured soldier Kratos used for a puzzle as meat cannon. Anyhow, for me, 1 is the best of the triology despite feeling a bit odd coming back on it after playing 2 and 3
GoW 1-3 I'll stand by is one of the best paced trilogies ever. There's no fat, no filler it shows and doesn't tell most of it's puzzles so it's easy to infer what you're supposed to do so it's able to keep up it's breakneck pace. It communicates it's story very precisely in a very abriged visual way that means you get it after watching 5-10 minute long cut scenes. It's set pieces are all incredibly badass, brutal or communicative of what it's trying to get across through gameplay. I think you can only get that kind of confidence to pace it like that with the trust your audience aren't idiots and can figure stuff out and they could which is why the original GoW trilogy is beloved I think as much as violence and boobage also probably contribute. It's a real accomplishment of game design that knows what it is, knows who's it's audience is and crafts a really kinetic fulfilling experience. It really deserves to be included in the great series imo.
considering all of the terrible things kratos has done, at this point he probably feels he's too far gone and just wants to finish his revenge quest. It took until the end of 3 for him to finally forgive himself and years later to move on.
@@mysteryperson1958 right. I know when I bought GOW 3 when it first released, I was just as far gone as Kratos was. Like no redemption, just keep going
Y'know, the bit about finding an input string to optimize movement in the first game only for it to be removed in the second got me wondering about something. What is it that makes unintentional traversal methods/movement tech (eg b-hopping/strafejumping/zoren coptering) more engaging than purpose-built traversal mechanics (eg wall-running/sprinting/bullet jumping)? And how/why do the addition of those additional traversal mechanics manage to improve gameplay to such a dramatic extent, when they (excluding stuff like b-hopping and strafejumping) simply replace holding the left stick?
Probably because of the fact that it is unintentional. People are pretty defiant by nature, and also strive to achieve beyond. Were we meant to traverse beyond Earth? Most likely not because we have still yet to discover any form of intelligent life outside of it, but we still do it anyway.
I think one of the primary reasons that they seem to be more engaging is because they are usually way more active. When running or sprinting normally you are primarily holding up on the left stick and maybe holding a trigger button at most, which can be kinda bland. With stuff like strafe hopping or b jumping you are actively engaged , even if you might not be going all that much faster it just feels better (of course these methods usually being faster is a nice plus).
@@lucylu3342 why does it matter how the series treats women when it doesn't treat men any better? in the second game Kratos literally smashes an older man's head open until the blood from his head leaks into the grooves on the floor to open a door, why is that okay but an innocent girl being crushed by a wheel isnt?
I disagree with you on Kratos as a character. He is a great character. His entire character in the original character was being an angry selfish hypocrite. And by 3 the mask was off. And he is far from stupid. He just blamed everyone else for his own failures. And I think the princess scene was supposed to make you realize you're the bad guy at that point.
Eyyy, I'm not the only one! I spent a lot of time playing those two games in particular over and over again. IMO two fantastic and criminally overlooked entries.
@@Road_to_Dawn Kratos gives up all his power to be with her. The multi button press added to the experience and was I my opinion a example of useful to story Quick Time Event. Ghost of Sparta has Kratos refusing to hurt his brother Demos and happy to fight alongside him as a warrior. Both these games showed the spark of depth in the God of War story.
In game where you constantly see men get turned into hydra's snacks, get decapitaded by doors, burned alive, eaten by sea monsters, turned into mincemeat on some god forsaken trap and generally being brutally murdered left and right by Kratos you choose to make a piece when one woman gets crushed by a wheel and another gets her neck snapped? Really? Kbash my guy lay off the kool-aid.
Am I the only one who wishes we got a proper boss fight with Helios, and when Kratos pulls Poseidon out of his giant sea avatar, really wish he had his trident with him and the camara moved back to gameplay and we fought him for a few more minutes and then did the qte and the first secondary weapon Kratos acquired was Poseidon's trident, would have been so cool
Unusually cruel to women? He's unusually cruel to everyone. He ripped and chopped millions of men's heads off. Why do I have to care more if it's happening to a female in game? God I hate that people with these savior complexes. Like men, "we must be better, only we are allowed to be abused in games."
Exactly. Kratos does horrible stuffs to men and female. He is a very flawed, tragic but borderline evil character. But thats what makes him interesting. I dont want every main character to solve everything with the power of friendships. One scene of Kratos brutalizing females and this guy gotta whine and be all white knight and defending women? Meh
"You're like a Smash pro playing his main against his friends from his home town. Grow up." I'm. Fuckin. Dead. Zeus "Fuckboi" Olympusman being the god equivalent of that 46 year old guy that still gets in fights at bars makes this line sooo much better.
Great review as always KBash, i always love and enjoy your videos. Entertaining and informative. When it comes to God of War franchise in general , i love it very much and highly appreciate it. I may have played most of the games especially 1 and 2 continuously and i'd like to play 3 sometime but i do know how it all plays out. i Have always been a fan of Hack and slash games and God of War's story, characters and themes have always had a place in my heart. I would say that i do love Devil May Cry and Darksiders more to some degree because due to great characters combat systems and lore. However, I still do love God of war and other similar games. I'd highly recommend Dante's Inferno and Bayonetta. I think you might love those games and doing reviews on them.
I also very recently played through this trilogy. Pretty good review, I agree with a lot of your points here. I'm glad someone else struggled with that last QTE in God of War 2 lmao, that shit felt like it required ridiculously fast reaction speed. I'd have to agree with you on your points about God of War 3's story, especially the ending bits. I thought it was kind of weird that they were trying to both show you probably the worst Kratos has ever been (everything about Poseidon's wife, probably even more emphasis on extreme violence than before, lack of story emphasis on the tragedy of his character before the ending, etc.) as well as trying to make you sympathize with him more (the whole Pandora relationship, the bit when he literally navigates through all his trauma, and sacrificing himself to defy the gods one last time). I feel like 2 and most of 3 moved away from how the first game's whole tragic Kratos backstory tried to make you sympathize with him (although its not like 1 didn't have moments of Kratos being despicable), and instead they really embraced the edginess and that feeling of being a living killing machine...which I felt was really appropriate, but then the end of 3 came around and I was confused by how it tried to have its cake and eat it too. Maybe I'll change my mind once I get to playing the 2018 game and it is worth noting that I've never played the side games, but I really don't understand why they even tried to pull this whole hope thing off with such an over-the-top edgy character like Kratos.
This video is really good and great but I gotta say I don't really understand many of your criticisms. Your complaints about the gameplay are just kinda strange after the first game considering they just added to the original games combat. And you showing your deaths to supposedly "dumb" things are just confusing considering your given plenty of time to react. Also you saying you can't combo triangle into triangle anymore then 5 seconds later the video showing gameplay of you doing exactly that just made it hard for me to take your criticisms very serious.
Excellent review KBash. This might be some of your clearest writing. I really appreciated your explanation of Kratos as a character of genuine evil at the end.
Kratos in god of war 1 burns an innocent man alive 🤷♀️ Poisidens princess is not even close to out of character And I think the fact kratos hates himself as much as you do makes him compelling He was a monster and he knew it and is actively trying to be better The man tries to kill himself several times. Besides all this happened to a spartan, the very city state hell bent on war and glory
The thing the original series does the best is give you this feeling of constant control with kratos. The QuickTime events and button mashing is done a way that doesn’t feel cheep or like a chore
To me GOW really hits the groove of 'a game but also cinematic' that I feel a lot of games don't. I didnt play 3?, i forget but something about it made me either stop or not even start, i do own it tho lol. But like i do not understand why the industry went from THIS, to walking sims. I just feel like theres no game there, theyre so focused on visuals or story telling, a reason Ive never touched the reboot. So ty for still talking about this now, im sure there are peeps who had no idea there was a previous franchise lol.
Hey Kbash! Loooong time viewer, first time commenter. I just wanted to let you know that your content and, by extension, you are awesome. I'd miss you if you stopped posting.
im a doctor, ive seen some disgusting shit in my career (from magot infested wounds to massive bowel necrosis) but for some reason seeing someone(yes even computer generated kronos) makes me weak in the knees.
It's always funny to me how a dude can murders milli9ns of men brutally, but seeing a sexy woman have sex or be mistreated is what really gets people mad.
No, the problem is the fact that women in the GOW series seem to only exist 90% of the time as either fanservice for the male players or for kratos to fuck out of nowhere.
Most of the time, I see KBash talking about games I have next to no knowledge of, while still keeping it highly entertaining. Now, I see KBash actually talking about one of my favorite series! Plot twist! Thanks so much for the content, dude. Always a fun time. Hoping to see you talk about Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta, and Ascension sometime soon! (I’d be EXTREMELY shocked if you also wound up playing Betrayal, the incredibly old phone game that I somehow managed to play through twice as a high schooler with my mom’s old Motorola lol)
I did enjoy the video and i understant the take and where your coming from but i believe you missed most of the point of kratos as a character and the story i would like to refer you to a different perspective my further your opinion or may change your perspective but check out a channel "tactical bacon productions" he has like 3 videos on kratos as a character and the story in general
You can definitely enjoy DMC and Bayonetta even if you suck. That's part of their beauty: easy to pick up, difficult to master. It's not like they have a set difficulty like the soulsborne games, they have easy modes. Only played Ninja Gaiden Sigma Omicron Phi Omega or whatever lol and didnt scope the difficulty options, so dunno about Ninja Gaiden.
Hey man, i’ve been binge watching ur vids and i think you need to do a compilation of all the times you’ve said simple and clean. And then like, each time you say it, you add another audio track Utada Hikaru’s simple and clean that plays in the back ground.
I goddamn knew he was gonna make the sexism argument from the begining of the video. These games are brutal to everyone, what kratos did to that princess is on par with ripping helios's head and zeus's death. Not to mention that there are actual positive portrayals of females in the trilogy, athena and pandora being among them. As for the sex minigames, all i gotta say is that aphrodite was thebone thar suggested it in the first place
"On par" Nope. Helios was shooting fireballs at kratos, so kratos killing him makes sense. That random woman that he kills was just unnecessary..I'm positive kratos could have found an alternative route
In "Ghost of Sparta," Kratos meets with King Midas, a harmless and tormented old man who was hiding and begging to be left alone, but that did not stop Kratos from beating the sh!t out of him and throwing him in a river of magma just to make a bridge. In GoW 3, Kratos was more of a psychopath than he had ever been and had no mercy on anyone, and that's the point; he was supposed to be a monster blinded by hate; man or woman, he wouldn't be sparing anyone because THAT would be out of character.
"Boy, I once chained a woman to a wheel to open a door and she became a paste"
"Then, there was this God that I tore his head off and used as a lamp."
"Dad, what the hell are you talking about?"
"I also had a half-brother whose face I beat into an actual smashed in water melon."
"Also, I skull-fu@#%d your grandpa"
"Boy listen closely, Atreus you're not my firstborn."
"WHAT?!"
"sir this is a wendy's"
Personally, I think Kratos deciding to give hope to the people instead of Athena makes plenty of sense. Not out of goodness of his heart, but out of hatred and just sadness. Firstly he hates the gods, and one last chance to spite them is something he would certainly take, and secondly being he is genuinely at the end of his wits. Revenge has been achieved and nothing has changed for him. He is an angry and bitter man who simply wishes to just be done, at the very least he can spite the gods one last time and maybe stop other mortals from their machinations. It really comes off as more pity then goodwill, he'd rather that whats left of humanity not go through what he did, there was certainly some kind of good person in kratos at some point, not much of one but something. Also yeah he is pretty awful to women throughout the games, not that he didnt do that to men as well, he did burn that one dude alive, which was pretty fucked up, not saying that its ok just saying i think it was more even then you portrayed. admittedly it almost never happened to helpless men so I do see your point. Great video as always dude, i don't agree with everything you say all the time, but i appreciate that you explain it all fairly clearly and in a way easy to digest and understand.
Some symbolism that is easy to miss is that during the after credit scene, the blood-trial continues all the way up to a cliff resembling the one from the 1st game, which implies Kratos decided to take the leap at the end. While the actual intention behind the scene is a mystery, I don't think it's a stretch that the implication is that Kratos contemplated suicide at the end to free himself from everything. Allthough it does make the fear scene contradictory as he tried to forgive himself for his past actions. Maybe this is his way of moving on.
Regarding the sexism, I always found that gruesome death in Posiedon's chamber to be...suspicious, as it went too far in my eyes personally. The original name for the trophy you unlock afterward killing her is very morbidly dark.
You do assume that Kratos was thinking about Athena though and what the power meant to her, what I like to think is that Kratos just wanted to be done with his life and hope going out to humanity was just a side effect of that, not what he directly intended.
If gow 3 ever gets a remake, I would love Poseidon's boss to have more moves and after Kratos pulls him out of his avatar we get to fight him in his true form and he has his trident and after Kratos defeats him he takes his trident, second thing I would like in the reamake is give Helios a proper boss fight, and maybe add more bosses like Achilles, Apollo
tbh in the world of Greek myth, I don't think there's such a thing as "helpless men." i cant really remember any in the game. they are either imposing their will on the world until they run into Kratos or cannon fodder from the start (chaos blade fodder?).
I love how Kratos' response to Athena asking him why he gave hope to humanity and not her can be boiled down to "Because fuck you."
I recently played through every game in the series, and as much as the series makes the player recognize that Kratos is the villain, at least in GW3, the side games and the series as a whole is a nonstop "How can the Gods fuck Kratos for the millionth time." I finished every other game before jumping to 3 and the amount of wrong the gods do to Kratos builds up to a point where being the villain doesnt matter, as long as the gods are gone. And I while it's not a good message to play with revenge like that, the hollow satisfaction of finally getting rid of them is really impactful. Idk, I got super sucked into this series and the end of 3 made me feel incredibly hollow, which I think was the point for people who played every game. Its 6 full games of one character getting screwed constantly, that by the time you're done, you're just exhausted for it to be finished.
Throughout the games chronologically, you see kratos slowly lose his humanity. Going from getting the captains key from him to unlock the door, sadly being too late though in the first game at the beginning. To just using an innocent woman to keep a gate open, letting the wheel used to open the gate wind up on her and killing her in the third game.
Heh, Kratos deserved it. Mind, not his family or those close to him, but Kratos himself? Yeah he deserved being fucked with.
GOW 3 was meant to be Kratos diving down into the same level that the Gods had - wrecking the lives and the worlds of others with no remorse or second thought
Now don't get me wrong The Gods certainly deserved it considering the hell they put him through from day goddamn one however people like Poseidon's princess and Icarus' old man didn't deserve to die at all - they just wanted their loved ones to come back
And Kratos took their loved ones already
I mean shit Hades is only attacking Kratos out of both grief and his obligation as God of the Underworld
It's like an emotionally powered train wreck - both parties are wrong and commit horrid actions for reasons they deem out of their control (with ofc the exception being Zeus and Gaia - those two chose to try and control the world as is)
"the end of 3 made me feel incredibly hollow"
Kinda like you had a foot-long hole in your stomach?
@@questioningespecialy9107 I just spit up my drink
You know what's funny, most of Krato's character develop actively comes from the Spin-offs.
Ascension is creating the Monster
Chains of Olympus is what he will do for family.
Ghost of Sparda is his back story, and what drives him as a god.
What's baffling is all 6 games are amazing. if you enjoyed GoW1 the most, chains is going to be spectacle for you I think.
"Ghost of Sparda"
Imagine if Kratos ever met Dante's dad and they just hung out. Insofar as Kratos is capable of "Hanging out".
And interesting to see someone have a positive opinion on all mainline Greek era games! Ascension seems to be the most disliked out of them all. Still looks intereting to me.
@@jurtheorc8117 Ascension is mainly the black sheep in terms of being the point where series fatigue started to hit. It's a decent game, but it's always that game you go "oh yeah, we also had this game".
@@leithaziz2716 I forgot about that. I've never looked into the GoW series until about a year ago, so a lot of feelings from over the years by fans passed me by.
From what i know, it does seem to have some interesting ideas going for it, at least.
thanks for taking the time to write a reply and clarify!
@@jurtheorc8117 I think I'm in the minority. I've been playing the series since Chains of Olympus came out and have gone through each game multiple times, and I actually really like each entry. I think my least favorite is actually the first game, and Ascension is probably my second least favorite, but I still think each one is at least very enjoyable.
Ascension is his one of his earliest spark of hate against the gods.
Chain of Olympus is his desperation, his lowest point. The point where he were made to admit that the only way for his wishful redemption is through the very thing he hates the most. Only for it to be denied at the end of GoW 1
Ghost of Sparta is one of his final straws (before the destruction of Sparta by Zeus in GoW 2). When he realized that the so called gods have no remorse no cared for anyone, even letting a false child being imprisoned if it means that it'll fulfilled the old propechy in which Athena might benefits from
I've never heard someone who preferred 1's combat over 2 and that over 3. Strange
I think i like the attacks more in gow1. Idk but something feels good about it, when you get to the challenge of hades with your maxed out kratos and ripping through enemies with some of the smoothest attacks. maybe that's why he likes it too
Perhaps, because people rarely played them back to back.
@@Hamzaxx369 idk there were certain sections in gow 1 where the combat made it incredibly frustrating. Like when you had to kill those centaur monsters inside of those rings in hades. Gow 2 or 3's combat would have made that part actually fun
Army of Hades and Poseidon’s Rage are the most powerful useful abilities in the whole franchise.. and they’re exclusive to the 1st game
@@batmanvsuperman_ that's a matter of opinion. And rage of poseidon isn't exclusive to 1 you can use it in 2
About God of War 3's ending. I don't think Kratos knew that stabbing himself with the Blade of Olympus would release hope into mortal hands. I think he was just trying to kill himself again. He did say something like "at least my vengeance is complete" or something like that, which means he blames himself as much as the other gods for his family's death.
This, exactly. He didn't try and stop Athena. I think he planned to die either way. Vengeance was his literal last flicker of light left keeping him alive. I'm glad he found new purpose, and I think him being an evil monster is WHY God of War 2018's story works so well in trying to make a monster a man.
@@tombraider200571 Oh look, someone who enjoys both games. What a pleasant sight.
@@tombraider200571 Amazing that most of the interviews make it come off as if he was never compelling at all before, but in game, it does show someone understood there was a compelling aspect to it which makes him essentially trying to calm and raise the child he was never able to that much more interesting taking the past into context. So it was odd to see more people or interviews made it come off as if '18 was better because it was less anger driven and "cinematic" and not that it felt pretty right if the direction was where we thought it was....which it ended up being.
Nah, he knew.
@@Hecatom how did u come to that conclusion? Like seriously dude lunged right for the blade and practically threw it into his own stomach
It's crazy how you talked about GOW3 not giving you a reason to use different weapons while showing footage of you fighting an enemy type that a specific weapon has advantage with; the Nemean Caestus breaks shields, also overheats the hammer statue guys. There's a pretty consistent Rock-Paper-Scissors system with all the weapons (and items like the bow or the dash boots) & corresponding enemy types in that, not sure how you didn't pick up on that.
In what ways do the weapons and enemy correlate to each other in this Rock-Paper-Scissors system, if i might ask?
@@jurtheorc8117 ...I literally gave an example in my comment, I'm not about to explain the whole combat system to you in a YT comment lol
@@YetiCoolBrother My apologies. I've seen a lot of GoW and other hack-and-slash type game fans around that get very enthousiastic in talking about combat game mechanics in depth, and i'm curious to learn more about combat design in such types of games myself.
And different views or explanations to consider from different people/sources can go a long way in research.
I've had pretty big convos on such subjects via YT comments, which is testament to said enthousiasm people carry on this subject.
Probably useless info from a random stranger on the internet, but i wanted to clarify on my line of thought.
Thank you for taking the time to reply regardless, and I wish you a good rest of your day.
@@jurtheorc8117 there are probably countless videos out there explaining in detail the combat systems of various action games, it's honestly wonderful the things creative devs will put in their games.
I think the issue at hand is that they took utility and complexity out of the BoC and put it elsewhere, but the game isn't demanding enough that you really have to do anything more than swing your Blades most of the time, so Kbash here ends up with a main weapon that feels less than it used to be and wasn't interested enough in the other weapons to really experiment with the full breadth of his kit.
Personally none of this matters to me because I "Light>Light>Heavy'ed" my way through the entire series and I enjoyed every second of it.
Most of Kratos' personality is shown in the PSP games and Ascension weirdly enough. It Humanizes him way more than what the main trilogy could have done because the trilogy was about his downfall, with each game he becomes more miserable than the last. The moment where he makes Poseidon's wife hold the lever without her will and which results in her death, is the moment the player realizes that he is too far gone and can't be called an antihero anymore (he couldn't before but that time it was definite). The world isn't kind to women but Kratos generally was respecting of them, or as much as he could. He never forced himself sexually and when he killed women, he didn't brutalize them regardless how terrible they were. So this moment was really telling on how far he fell
I'd really love a remaster of Ascension. I worked at PlayStation when it came out and had countless copies of the game, but I gave them all away because I was kinda sick of God of War at that point. These days, you can find PS4 remasters of three mainline games and easily emulate the portable spin offs, but Ascension is strictly locked on the PS3, and I REALLY want to play it now.
@@Tenchigumi I mean idk if you’d be down for this but Ascension is available on the PS Plus Premium service as part of the classics lineup. Unfortunately you can’t download it but if your internets good enough you can stream the game to your PS4/PS5
@@52Darthvader I've thought about it, but I feel like I can only stream games that are turn based and not as action heavy. I've learned that even the biggest bandwidth suffers from random network stutters (I have fiber but live in a densely populated area), and for someone like me who can get frustrated at the input lag of standard TVs alone, any extra lag would drive me nuts, lol.
don't fall for this bait. Kratos didn't respect anyone. He uses people for what they are useful. If it was man he kill, if it was woman he sex. If he didn't want the sex he used as a way through. That's the way it is. Poseidon's wife die for her own weakness to hold the level, he just didn't care enough because was his enemy's wife.
Hmmmm. Not quite. He later on almost gives up his quest for vengeance over Pandora as he genuinely bonds with her almost like she is Caliope. It is a pendulum. He oscillates between being self aware and the destructive path he is in or being consumed by rage.
Kratos is the result of The Gods of Olympus hubris, cautious attitude towards mortals, and overly self absorbed personalities. The whole bit about women, especially the violence towards them, help show Kratos had become what he set to destroy so much. He started viewing others lives as only objects for his aggression or in some cases pleasure to repress his long suffering but to temporary avail. Pandora, a child reminds him of his more humane side and not willing to sacrifice her even when she is the one who can GIVE him what he wanted.
I mean, kratos is a spartan patriot, Spartans were bred to be war machines, so he was a hero for his people, don't think of him as a modern hero, heroes then didn't have morality, they were generals who committed many war crimes in the name of their home land so he doesn't mind killing innocents in order to win, that doesn't justify the merciless war crimes he did on God of war 3 but that game was made to make you hate kratos as much as he hated himself!
Kaybash: I wouldn’t compare Gof of War to DMC, Bayonetta or Ninja Gaiden.
Also Kaybash *compares God of war to DMC for the whole video*
Right this video is so off.
16:22 you know it's bad when one of his complaints is him saying he has to get good at the game
Yup
mEhhhh God of War 1 and Devil May cry did it Better
Great video. I do think a lot of people are taken aback by the poseidon princess sequence because she's framed as someone you would care about in a typical heroic story. I think it's a good way to nail it home if you've managed to forget that Kratos is a Greek god hell-bent on vengeance and has long lost his humanity in that quest to get even with the pantheon.
It's the developers saying, "You know those people fleeing in fear in Greece, that you can just grab and kill for health? Yeah, let's point that out in a more direct way."
Which is mega anoying that Bash was trying to make it a gender problem considering all of Kratos previus victims
@@nehuenmutiozabal6339 "It's bad because it was a chick" Should have a named trope by now it happens so often. Kratos is the bad guy. The idea that Kratos has bed time wrestling with some of them somehow makes it gendered is nonsense. The guy is a mass murdering monster in those games, controlled by his lowest instincts and him getting off is what shocked people?
Should be happy he wasn't forcing chicks considering it's a greek game with that kind of character. His father was Zeus after all and he raided villages gleefully for Ares before his betrayal.
Would it suddenly be fine if Kratos was Bi? The answer is no, and that's because there was nothing wrong with it to begin with. Kratos is a bad person, or at least was in his greek saga. The games never try to deny it either. Some people are just looking for shit to go "SEXIST!" like some sort of fetish. The game was trying to portray him as a monster there, which actively was done far better in that scene then those random innocent people before the first cyclops in the first game who gave you health orbs for killing no less.
@@theworstcatholic7247 I actually forgot about that orb bit from the first game, but them being almost colorless background characters make it easier for your mind to gloss over. The indignation that comes from the Poseidon princess sequence is that she is actually fleshed out in her limited time as a character and sympathetic with realistic reactions to what's happening, in addition to being an attractive woman.
This entire thread is based af.
My favorite of the trilogy was always God of War 2, which was actually directed by Cory Barlog (who later made the reboot). I like the locales, bosses, music, and new weapons/abilities more than GoW1 or GoW3. I think it got a bit overshadowed at the time cuz it came out in 2007, the year of next-gen hits like Modern Warfare, Mario Galaxy, Bioshock, etc.
Sure but counter point, The reboot is ass, at least to me. I ain't god of war anymore, the new direction is just....wrong. But anyway who cares, It sold gazillions so that's the direction they will probably kept even after ragnarok, and yes I played 2018 to completion and hated almost 70% of the game but I got hope in that SCENE that ONE PART OF THE GAME where for a moment it felt like God of war was back, everyone knows that scene and love it.
It was a new PS2 game right when the PS3 was brand new, it was bound to get lost in the transition.
@@raulrojas9253 I’ll always prefer the old games, but I’m sticking around to see how Kratos’s story ends
@@raulrojas9253 “It’s never me that’s wrong it’s everyone else is wrong”
The reboot is fantastic. There’s only so much you can do after 6 fucking games. By the time Ascension came out, the formula and the setting were already tired. There’s nowhere else to go.
People who complained that Kratos in GoW 2018 is no longer a raging asshole that murders senselessly didn’t pay attention to his character development during the original games. His last line in GoW3 was literally “My vengeance ends now.” He’s no longer fueled by vengeance. New GoW is Kratos’ redemption story. His second chance to be a father again. It’s very much in line with how he treated his family + Pandora in the old series.
@@raulrojas9253 that scene was so good man, one of my favorite moments in gaming history.
Says you can't have heavy attack into another heavy attack but then shows footage of him doing the 3x triangle move wtf
Yeah I don't really get many of his criticisms after GoW 1
*kratos Disembowels 15 men and uses there skulls as cups
Man this games really mean to women
Kratos hated everyone equally
It’s having their tits out and making them defenseless more than anything
Cruelty to Men? Meh, so its Monday. Cruelty to Women!? Wow, you just crossed the line, kratos! The biggest irony is that white knighting mindset is an insult to Women. White knighting comes from the place of insecurity, the man turns Women into an object to be won over&protected so that he can feel better about himself.
It's not about the violence targeted on women, it's how women are portrayed during violence
How many men you kill have their d*cks out when you slaughter them? And how many women have their boobs out when you do the same?
Things like these don't make the game or the story bad, but it's a detail that points how problematic the gaming industry can be (like any other industry)
@@antonioacvr123 There's nothing worse than being brutally killed and Men are primarily the targets of violence in Society&Media. Oh, but that's not "problematic"?
*'it's how women are portrayed during violence"*
How should they be portrayed during violence, then? Like Athena, being a modest wise&commanding character? Or like Persephone&Sisters who are physically capable warriors?
See, you may have a point if God of War Franchise didn't equally give spotlight to female characters when it came to strength&agency.
It just hit me, your reviews are really unique simply because you play all of these games back to back. It gives a far different perspective then just a one off review. Kudos for another great one. Keep up the good work.
3:39-3:43 No, Kratos didn't kill him "for treasure." He took the key, to unlock a door that some people were trapped behind.
Kratos has always been a complex, interesting character. Yes, his bottomless pit of rage is super hammy and downright hilarious at times. But can you blame him for being so angry all the time? He has been constantly screwed over since he was a child; his brother taken away, he and his mother growing up poor, enduring ruthless Spartan training. And this was BEFORE he signed with Ares and made the greatest mistake of his life. His rage is only a mask for the deep depression and self-loathing he has for himself. It's just people don't see enough of the tragedy that is Kratos's life
Ehhhhh red dead redemption did it better
@@frogglen6350no it didn’t
still one of the most entertaining yet poignant video essayists on the platform. In particular your pacing and editing is masterful and keeps such a smooth and steady flow through your videos, they fly by despite their length. Keep up the good work Kbash!
Can we appreciate Bash’s hair? It’s luxurious!
I keep coming to each video dreading the eventual chop. I hope it won't be for awhile
Glorious
definitely shampoo-endorsement level
Hell yeah we can!
Suspiciously so, it reeks of the dark arts.
You should also play the prequel games. Chains of Olympus, and Ghost of Sparda. I think they're also great games in the franchise.
ghost of sparda is great. its my 2nd favorite of the greek games.
It's Sparta, the greek city. Sparda is Dante's father lol
@@c0mplex_Ale the fact that more than one person made that mistake in this comment section is so weird to me LMAO
For a handheld console, man thats great
From all the retrospectives of the GOW series out there, none of them mentioned your insight point of how the game avoids ludonarrative dissonance. Great work as always.
Kratos killing innocent people isn't out of character. You're purposely leaving out "the gods demand a sacrifice of us all" while he literally burns a man alive that is begging for his life
That sex slave murder in GoW 3 originally gave you a trophy that was basically a rape joke. It had to be patched out so no way in hell did the devs think through how their game was treating women for no reason in most scenes. Ascension had also got a new trophy name through a patch the scene there was fine, just not the trophy name. Santa Monica itself also agreed with the criticism in the end and Kratos was nearly kicked out of his own game for GoW 2018. GoW3 is legit icky. No question.
@@residentgrigo4701 in gow 3 after gaia's betrayal, he basically had enough of the gods, titans and literally anything breathing that got in his way, that was the main focus on God of war 3,to hate kratos as much as kratos hates himself and not being able to justify his actions, which is why everyone loved the ending of gow 3, and the fact he survived!
He kills so many innocents it’s part of his character. He’s completely self motivated in the OT
@@darthkaliath4014 i just love how that final act of 'releasing hope unto the world' is his last middle finger to gods, especially Athena (the same b*tch that let Deimos taken away in Ghost of Sparta psp game). Not to mentioned that since all human have died, no one were given that 'Hope' power, a perfect final F*UCK YOU to the gods lol
@@ShatteredGlass916 about that, he released hope to the few survivors of Greece from each land that wasn't swallowed up, not for the good of man, just to spite Athena!
Not feeling well today so seeing a new KBash video has brightened my day!
27:50 you could never mash triangle from the start, it was always a lvl 3 combo
he just want to say god of war 3 is worse and he also say the boss fight are not challenging hello what about Zeus, hades, Hercules
@@رضاعلي-ب8قI don't understand his criticisms regarding difficulty. The game has difficulty settings for a reason. If you wanna get challenged, then don't fucking pick normal or easy. Hard is there for a reason. That's the difficulty for people who want to be challenged.
These games are so up Kbash's alley that my first reaction to seeing this in my sub feed was "didn't he cover these already?"
too bad he didn't seem to be too impressed tbh
@@De_La_Evo yeah honestly I get he's very jaded now which is understandable - dude does nothing but research games for a damn living but goddamn I get some of the content is very questionable but he fundamentally misunderstood GOW 3 and the implications in every part of the story
i.e. Kratos and the Gods are all evil but most of these people are victims of circumstances out of their control (especially Hades - man just wanted to avenge his wife and do his job as God of the Underworld)
@@neinja66469 yes exactly, even Zeus is a victim of some magical force that corrupted him even if it wasn’t exactly his fault
another great vid kbash bro! when i was a kid i would get hospitalized frequently for my asthma, and i remember one time i was in was during GoW 1's release. i felt like shit, all i wanted to do was go home and play it and not be sick. by some happenstance the nurse watching me during my stay revealed he was a """gamer""" and would talk about the game with me and share in the hype. made the stay a lot more bearable, hard to think it was almost 20 years ago. this has really made me want to go back and replay those old games, i haven't even touched the newer reboots lol. keep up the great work homie!
Kratos was justified in what he did up until the Poseidon mistress part, that has no justification and is the moment Kratos went too far. Tactical Bacon Productions went into deeper detail about it, but that moment is when we're supposed to separate ourselves from Kratos and see how far he's fallen.
I'll always love the Greek saga of GoW for the way it adapted Greek myth *as well as* Greek storytelling into a video game. So much media uses mythic source material as little more than set dressing for an otherwise modern narrative. GoW is everything that it is *as a result of the source material.* GoW could have been some righteous hero rescuing Greece from a million monsters. Instead, it's a tragedy in the fashion made famous by Greece. Which necessitates our plucky adventurer become a traumatized soldier. Kratos is made a Spartan, infamous for their brutal and inhuman upbringing, not only so that he's believably capable in combat, but also that he's believably out-of-touch with his own heart. He has no choice but to project his inner struggle onto the outside world, and his only method of problem-solving is violence. The gods are just as petty and flawed as they were in myth, and like many other Greek myths, it's the machinations of the gods which spur Kratos into action. This lends naturally to an extremely video-gamey mythic spectacle. All of it just fucking *works* where so many similar attempts fail to escape artificial imitation.
As for the ending of GoWIII, I honestly really love the spin that "hope" was inside Kratos this whole time. In the first game Kratos opens Pandora's box to receive the power to kill a god, but we aren't told what exactly that power is, nor is the actual myth of Pandora's box addressed. When Pandora opened the box, she inadvertently unleashed all manners of evil and misfortune on mankind. All that was left inside was hope. Of course this is what Kratos retrieved by opening it a second time, the only thing that could possibly cut through the darkness over Greece (which caused his suffering to begin with). This is the hero's power.
But by the time he reaches this power, hope is meaningless to him, and he only sees it as a means for vengeance. So now Kratos has the mythic power that allows him all sorts of incredible feats, while the world around him is simultaneously doomed to his rampage. And at the end of everything, Kratos realizes there was no reward at the end of his path, and that he has no use for hope. Is it spite for Athena, penance for his sins, or something else that leads him to release hope back to mankind? I like that it isn't exactly clear.
Also, Kratos's very first line in the franchise (in a scene that takes place after he opened the box) is "the gods of Olympus have abandoned me... *now there is no hope*."
27:50 "You literally can't mash Y into Y anymore... It sucks."
Well yeah. The PS3 doesn't have a Y button. It appears that your problem is that you tried to play this game with an XBAHKS controller, which is actually quite impressive.
Vid starts: dude complains that GoW is too simple and isn't in the leagues of Bayo, DMC, and Ninja G. OK spicy start.
Vid continues: dude starts to complain that the game is removing exploitable moves and starts demanding the player manage resources and find new combo routes.
Me: *confused Jackie Chan face*
Edit: I'm positive he never played these on hard, I'm not saying this out "try hardism" but the Devs are on record for saying the game was designed around it's hard difficulty and normal was made mass accessibility, the Director of the OG series has a UA-cam channel and did a vid on it.
Eh..
bayonetta is more challenging. God of War combat is square square triangle 😅
Dark Souls.....is more of a challenge than gid of wars harder difficulty.....
@@frogglen6350 God of War should be played on hard because this allows you to appreciate the mechanics for at least 3. The challenge of OG DS is all about surviving the environment, exploration, enemy placements, and controls. They tackle similar gameplay concepts but do it in different ways, e.g. DS being slow-paced pattern recognition action while GOW is all about fast-paced combo-focused action.
@@melancholyman369
it would make no sense for kratos to have a hard time fighting grunts
@@frogglen6350 it's not about Kratos having a hard time, it's about you learning the various tools and mechanics at your disposal to get a leg up on competent adversatries so that you earn your power fantasy, you know like how Kratos earns his glory through hardships, *Ludo-narritive harmony*. GOW is one of a few titles that put thoughtful design in their hard mode, it's not just enemies hit harder and are more spongy like you'd see in other games; they attack more often and use new attack patterns, more specific enemy placement too.
Wait a min….Kratos is a Demigod…raised in Spartan culture…what type of “humanity” is he supposed have at this point in his life, that has been about war, death of his brother, wife and child, betrayal from a cruel father he never knew and the pantheon either trying to use him as a weapon or kill him entirely????? What game was this guy playing????
Shame you didn't play with the hammer in GOW2. Thing is an absolute powerhouse. In terms of DPS against a single target, it's the most powerful weapon in the game. Yes, even above the blade of olympus. This primarily requires using the Triangle-Triangle combo, cancelling recovery with the bow, and repeating this ad-infinitum, and makes dodging quickly just a bit more difficult to accomplish (though still totally doable), but man is it cool just destroying damn near everything in seconds with a huge-ass hammer.
Yupe
Barbie's hammer is a nice weapon
GoW 2 was my first game on PS2 and one of the first AAA cinematic games.
I still remember it fondly.
Definitely thought some criticisms were unfair or flat out wrong but overall great video, and you at least understood kind of what the story was going for unlike most
I know this video is almost 2 years old now, but im really hoping you decide to go over the newest God of War games. A lot of the criticism you had towards Kratos' character is made self aware and reflected on in the future games. The plot actively goes against justifying his flaws; instead it takes on the approach to humanize Kratos again, giving him a purpose beyond senseless violence, especially with the inclusion of a new family for him to care about. Also the newer inclusions of female characters is significantly more empowering than before, the ick factor is practically gone with some of the most powerful and well written people in the universe being women, both allies and enemies. Its overall an extremely well done redemption story especially with the free Valhalla DLC that Ragnarok got which has direct references to these old games.
This man called Kratos a "pasty sasquatch" and I shot coffee out my nose and almost died 🤣😂
Feel like Bash would enjoy playing the spin-offs, because of how important they are to fleshing out Kratos as a character. Otherwise the video might feel a bit incomplete. Still, its very nice to see God of War content on this channel!
Thank you for this! God of War has such a special place in my life. It was my first M rated game, and also the second game that my mom and I bonded over. We finished it about 22 times, I used to be able to recite it like a play.
I very rarely post comments on reviews since they are almost always made by casual players that aren't interested in the intricacies of a game's mechanics, but I feel the need to because this is just ridiculous.
At 27:50 you claim that "you literally can't mash y into y" (which I assume is 'triangle into triangle'), in the next clip you are shown doing EXACTLY that. Were you under the assumption that the heavy combo had been removed? Because it's literally just pressing triangle again after the three hits at 27:57. I'm actually not sure if that's what you were saying because the game SHOWS THE INPUTS ON THE SCREEN when the blades reach level 3.
Then at 29:03 you said "if they're gonna curtail individual weapon utility just to have multiple weapons". What does this even mean? God of War 3 has the biggest move lists in the entire series. None of the weapons are more limited in any way compared to what came before. And at 27:37 you say that "you can't start combos off of heavy attacks", which is just completely wrong, and that "many strings have been cut". What strings? They were REPLACED yes, but GoW2 did the same thing. And the new ones have even have variations not present before.
I'm so sick of people not doing the bare minimum to look at what the game gives you access to and then saying shit like:
"There are people who do insane things with this system (...) it isn't necessary in any way to complete the game." As if this isn't also the case for DMC. AND THEN you criticize GoW2 for daring to give you a challenge and forcing you to "pay attention more often" (somehow a bad thing). All of this after having claimed you're a "mechanics guy". What a joke.
Kratos is like an onion. He has layers.
KBash, seriously. Thank you for posting this today.
I had a relapse, remembered something traumatic, and needed something to lift me up. The part where you said "I wanna press the buttons!" made me laugh so hard that for a brief time, I didn't feel terrible.
I pray your channel blows up soon, because you are hilarious, and a breath of fresh air in a world gone crazy.
Honestly, same. This video came at basically the right time for me too.
Hope you feel better friend!
Hoping you're alright, stay strong ❤
3:45 "not my new fav being problematic" someone has been on twitter too much as of late
If the woman you chain to the paste maker was a man would people have been as bothered by it even if they kept the focus on him for as long as they did poseidons princess
Seriously. all the whining about women being brutalized in a game where the main character brutalize ANYONE is silly as hell. He did messed up stuff to male characters as well, even innocents one but one sickening sight of women being killed brutally and we be like "thats too far"? Huh?
@@johans3164 I think it's just because she has her breast exposed but so did kratos
@@johans3164She’s a sex slave.
Yh ppl are also extremely bothered by the soldier kratos sacrificed. It was just so cartoonishly evil it's almost out of character even 4 young kratos
Lol the charge tackle thing, clearly Kbash doesn't know that these games have roll canceling. A mostly intentional mechanic
I unabashedly love that the statement "This'll get 60k max and die off in a month" has been objectively contradicted with more than twice the view count. You really killed it with this video man, never sell yourself short. You do good work.
Y'know, you can cancel the recovery of dodge with the light attack and cancel the recovery of light attack with dodge. This is a lot faster than that combo you showed in the beginning of the video and it works in every greek god of war, this is the only way I move in god of war
Honestly I put off playing GOW 4 for so long because I couldn’t see myself ever liking Kratos after the first three games but they made him likable. I still think GOW 3 is my favorite because it has some of the best boss battles of all time and GOW 2 is a grand adventure plus the Sisters of Faith boss battle is truly mind bending
THE REVIEW IVE BEEN WAITINNG FORRR
The sequence with Pos's princess is tailor made to push you, the player, over the edge into that "are we the baddies" territory.
So far, everything Kratos had done was specifically targeted at a scumbag who had screwed someone else over (boat captain) or the gods who had wronged Kratos himself.
The princess is supposed to be the breaking point for the player, if they hadn't hit their limit already. She's the first innocent that Kratos canonically kills completely on his own volition (the caged soldier in GoW1 was part of a trial set up by the gods)
What about where he could literally just kill people for hp? This isn't the first time kratos just kills people who happen to get in his way
@@angellara7040 that's not canon and was your choice as the player. There's no instance where Kratos is forced to do that to advance the story
@@Sparxcwg54 there's literally no way not to hit those people
@@angellara7040 get better
Blud forgot about the dying soldier grinded to a paste so Kratos could get the Golden Fleece.
Fuckin' spit my drink out to that Hercules joke, Jesus Christ.
While I understand that the game has a juvenile approach to how it portrays women, the fact that you had to censor a pair of PS2 tits while at the same time showcasing footage of you absolutely brutalizing innumerable men, peeling-off a fingernail, gouging out Poseidon's eyes all while controlling a shirtless dude wearing nothing more than a skirt is hypocritical. It's infuriating to see how many modern reviews feel the need to point this out, it comes off as pandering at best and condescending virtue signaling at worst.
It’s not juvenile. The gods had alot of women and they banged them. Not that complicated
Not his fault considering how youtube would've blocked this video
Just when i think i know what kind of games this channel will cover you surprise me. Wasn't expecting god of war of all franchises but a pleasant surprise
It’s been forever since you’ve popped up on the Algorithm! Still putting in nothing but the finest of content as usual! Thank you for the laughs you’ve given me for years
Ok 2 things. 1-Yes, the intention is making you see Kratos as an evil person but is also a complex character at the end of the day. 2-Dude, at this point, just say you are unconfortable with sex and brutality on women on media, no one is gonna blame you and you don't win anything blaming the game for it. The guy brutalize a bunch of people with almost no exeptions, and that's is the tragedy of it. In fact I was surprised you took the example of that slave woman, but you didn't even flinch at that one injured soldier Kratos used for a puzzle as meat cannon.
Anyhow, for me, 1 is the best of the triology despite feeling a bit odd coming back on it after playing 2 and 3
GoW 1-3 I'll stand by is one of the best paced trilogies ever. There's no fat, no filler it shows and doesn't tell most of it's puzzles so it's easy to infer what you're supposed to do so it's able to keep up it's breakneck pace. It communicates it's story very precisely in a very abriged visual way that means you get it after watching 5-10 minute long cut scenes. It's set pieces are all incredibly badass, brutal or communicative of what it's trying to get across through gameplay. I think you can only get that kind of confidence to pace it like that with the trust your audience aren't idiots and can figure stuff out and they could which is why the original GoW trilogy is beloved I think as much as violence and boobage also probably contribute. It's a real accomplishment of game design that knows what it is, knows who's it's audience is and crafts a really kinetic fulfilling experience. It really deserves to be included in the great series imo.
I didn't think him killing that chick in GOW3 was out of character at all. It's the 3rd entry and that man is fucking tired
considering all of the terrible things kratos has done, at this point he probably feels he's too far gone and just wants to finish his revenge quest. It took until the end of 3 for him to finally forgive himself and years later to move on.
@@mysteryperson1958 right. I know when I bought GOW 3 when it first released, I was just as far gone as Kratos was. Like no redemption, just keep going
I wonder how much different the classic God of War games will look compared to how Ragnarok will look later this year
It's coming out November 9th
You mean in a several days, the new title is right around the corner of the release of this video
@@angellara7040 more like 5 days
If the Poseidon's slave scene horrified you and made you realize that Kratos is a full on villain by that point, then it did it's job right.
You would have thought the boat captain would have done that
@@angellara7040Neh Perithious was enough.
2:00 SING WITH ME. SING FOR THE YEAR
Y'know, the bit about finding an input string to optimize movement in the first game only for it to be removed in the second got me wondering about something. What is it that makes unintentional traversal methods/movement tech (eg b-hopping/strafejumping/zoren coptering) more engaging than purpose-built traversal mechanics (eg wall-running/sprinting/bullet jumping)? And how/why do the addition of those additional traversal mechanics manage to improve gameplay to such a dramatic extent, when they (excluding stuff like b-hopping and strafejumping) simply replace holding the left stick?
Probably because of the fact that it is unintentional. People are pretty defiant by nature, and also strive to achieve beyond.
Were we meant to traverse beyond Earth? Most likely not because we have still yet to discover any form of intelligent life outside of it, but we still do it anyway.
I think one of the primary reasons that they seem to be more engaging is because they are usually way more active. When running or sprinting normally you are primarily holding up on the left stick and maybe holding a trigger button at most, which can be kinda bland. With stuff like strafe hopping or b jumping you are actively engaged , even if you might not be going all that much faster it just feels better (of course these methods usually being faster is a nice plus).
Why is it problematic for Kratos to crush a woman to paste but you don't have a problem with him burning a man alive in the first game in the cage
Kratos is literally brutal to everyone he didn't give fuck who they were
@@idkchocolate I think most people just have a problem with how the series treats women in general, not about who kratos kills or is brutal to.
@@lucylu3342that’s just the world the game’s set in. Not necessarily bc of how the developer’s intended kratos to view women
@@lucylu3342 why does it matter how the series treats women when it doesn't treat men any better? in the second game Kratos literally smashes an older man's head open until the blood from his head leaks into the grooves on the floor to open a door, why is that okay but an innocent girl being crushed by a wheel isnt?
@@lucylu3342 I feel like it doesn't treat men any better they are all assholes who die
I disagree with you on Kratos as a character. He is a great character. His entire character in the original character was being an angry selfish hypocrite. And by 3 the mask was off. And he is far from stupid. He just blamed everyone else for his own failures. And I think the princess scene was supposed to make you realize you're the bad guy at that point.
He was always the bad guy. I think two has a fight with a cyclops where you can kill random civilians for hp
I can't wait for the videos on Chain of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, those two are for me my favorite entries on the original series for story.
Eyyy, I'm not the only one! I spent a lot of time playing those two games in particular over and over again. IMO two fantastic and criminally overlooked entries.
@@Road_to_Dawn both emptional and the scenes with Kratos and his brother or his daughter stand out as tragic storytelling
@@jadencrawford2772 Absolutely, the fact that they made it so you have to physically push Calliope away (multiple times!) was just heartbreaking.
@@Road_to_Dawn Kratos gives up all his power to be with her. The multi button press added to the experience and was I my opinion a example of useful to story Quick Time Event.
Ghost of Sparta has Kratos refusing to hurt his brother Demos and happy to fight alongside him as a warrior. Both these games showed the spark of depth in the God of War story.
Psst, Kbash, in God of War 2 and 3 you can cancel your roll with an attack and then cancel the attack with a roll for increased floor movement ;)
When the God does a war idk ive never killed gods I'm just here for engagement good video
In game where you constantly see men get turned into hydra's snacks, get decapitaded by doors, burned alive, eaten by sea monsters, turned into mincemeat on some god forsaken trap and generally being brutally murdered left and right by Kratos you choose to make a piece when one woman gets crushed by a wheel and another gets her neck snapped? Really? Kbash my guy lay off the kool-aid.
Especially hera. She is one of the worst people in Greek mythology
Am I the only one who wishes we got a proper boss fight with Helios, and when Kratos pulls Poseidon out of his giant sea avatar, really wish he had his trident with him and the camara moved back to gameplay and we fought him for a few more minutes and then did the qte and the first secondary weapon Kratos acquired was Poseidon's trident, would have been so cool
Unusually cruel to women? He's unusually cruel to everyone. He ripped and chopped millions of men's heads off. Why do I have to care more if it's happening to a female in game? God I hate that people with these savior complexes. Like men, "we must be better, only we are allowed to be abused in games."
Agreed
Exactly. Kratos does horrible stuffs to men and female. He is a very flawed, tragic but borderline evil character. But thats what makes him interesting. I dont want every main character to solve everything with the power of friendships. One scene of Kratos brutalizing females and this guy gotta whine and be all white knight and defending women? Meh
God of war 2 is the godfather part 2 of games. You tripping tripping
Glad to be one of those 60k chosen view to enjoy this :)
"You're like a Smash pro playing his main against his friends from his home town. Grow up."
I'm. Fuckin. Dead.
Zeus "Fuckboi" Olympusman being the god equivalent of that 46 year old guy that still gets in fights at bars makes this line sooo much better.
Great review as always KBash, i always love and enjoy your videos. Entertaining and informative.
When it comes to God of War franchise in general , i love it very much and highly appreciate it. I may have played most of the games especially 1 and 2 continuously and i'd like to play 3 sometime but i do know how it all plays out.
i Have always been a fan of Hack and slash games and God of War's story, characters and themes have always had a place in my heart.
I would say that i do love Devil May Cry and Darksiders more to some degree because due to great characters combat systems and lore.
However, I still do love God of war and other similar games.
I'd highly recommend Dante's Inferno and Bayonetta. I think you might love those games and doing reviews on them.
I also very recently played through this trilogy. Pretty good review, I agree with a lot of your points here. I'm glad someone else struggled with that last QTE in God of War 2 lmao, that shit felt like it required ridiculously fast reaction speed.
I'd have to agree with you on your points about God of War 3's story, especially the ending bits. I thought it was kind of weird that they were trying to both show you probably the worst Kratos has ever been (everything about Poseidon's wife, probably even more emphasis on extreme violence than before, lack of story emphasis on the tragedy of his character before the ending, etc.) as well as trying to make you sympathize with him more (the whole Pandora relationship, the bit when he literally navigates through all his trauma, and sacrificing himself to defy the gods one last time). I feel like 2 and most of 3 moved away from how the first game's whole tragic Kratos backstory tried to make you sympathize with him (although its not like 1 didn't have moments of Kratos being despicable), and instead they really embraced the edginess and that feeling of being a living killing machine...which I felt was really appropriate, but then the end of 3 came around and I was confused by how it tried to have its cake and eat it too. Maybe I'll change my mind once I get to playing the 2018 game and it is worth noting that I've never played the side games, but I really don't understand why they even tried to pull this whole hope thing off with such an over-the-top edgy character like Kratos.
This video is really good and great but I gotta say I don't really understand many of your criticisms. Your complaints about the gameplay are just kinda strange after the first game considering they just added to the original games combat. And you showing your deaths to supposedly "dumb" things are just confusing considering your given plenty of time to react.
Also you saying you can't combo triangle into triangle anymore then 5 seconds later the video showing gameplay of you doing exactly that just made it hard for me to take your criticisms very serious.
your nuts man, GOW 3 was the best
Excellent review KBash. This might be some of your clearest writing. I really appreciated your explanation of Kratos as a character of genuine evil at the end.
Kratos in god of war 1 burns an innocent man alive 🤷♀️ Poisidens princess is not even close to out of character
And I think the fact kratos hates himself as much as you do makes him compelling
He was a monster and he knew it and is actively trying to be better
The man tries to kill himself several times. Besides all this happened to a spartan, the very city state hell bent on war and glory
The thing the original series does the best is give you this feeling of constant control with kratos. The QuickTime events and button mashing is done a way that doesn’t feel cheep or like a chore
I hope you can play ascension, apparently it starts with a non-psycho kratos and I wanna see your take on it
Watched your dmc and ninja gaiden reviews awhile back and was just waiting for that gow one. Godspeed
To me GOW really hits the groove of 'a game but also cinematic' that I feel a lot of games don't. I didnt play 3?, i forget but something about it made me either stop or not even start, i do own it tho lol.
But like i do not understand why the industry went from THIS, to walking sims. I just feel like theres no game there, theyre so focused on visuals or story telling, a reason Ive never touched the reboot. So ty for still talking about this now, im sure there are peeps who had no idea there was a previous franchise lol.
Hey Kbash! Loooong time viewer, first time commenter. I just wanted to let you know that your content and, by extension, you are awesome. I'd miss you if you stopped posting.
25:17 ain’t no way you snuck the YIIK ost in here
I always thought he did that just to spite Athena not so much to save humanity. You know to send a final F you to the gods as he goes out.
im a doctor, ive seen some disgusting shit in my career (from magot infested wounds to massive bowel necrosis) but for some reason seeing someone(yes even computer generated kronos) makes me weak in the knees.
When that one thing comes out of his shoulder… 🤮
It's always funny to me how a dude can murders milli9ns of men brutally, but seeing a sexy woman have sex or be mistreated is what really gets people mad.
Realest shit never understood it myself
Fr
Its the typical white knight agenda. Maybe they secretly hope to get some bonus points from the females they defended. Urgh
No, the problem is the fact that women in the GOW series seem to only exist 90% of the time as either fanservice for the male players or for kratos to fuck out of nowhere.
@@lucylu3342 98% of the male cast exist to get brutalised by kratos.
Mmm god of war 3 my favorite western game with an anime plot
Most of the time, I see KBash talking about games I have next to no knowledge of, while still keeping it highly entertaining. Now, I see KBash actually talking about one of my favorite series! Plot twist!
Thanks so much for the content, dude. Always a fun time. Hoping to see you talk about Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta, and Ascension sometime soon! (I’d be EXTREMELY shocked if you also wound up playing Betrayal, the incredibly old phone game that I somehow managed to play through twice as a high schooler with my mom’s old Motorola lol)
I did enjoy the video and i understant the take and where your coming from but i believe you missed most of the point of kratos as a character and the story i would like to refer you to a different perspective my further your opinion or may change your perspective but check out a channel "tactical bacon productions" he has like 3 videos on kratos as a character and the story in general
so glad he got 100k off this. u deserve it brother
4:50 proves KBash understands grief more than your average person
You can definitely enjoy DMC and Bayonetta even if you suck. That's part of their beauty: easy to pick up, difficult to master. It's not like they have a set difficulty like the soulsborne games, they have easy modes. Only played Ninja Gaiden Sigma Omicron Phi Omega or whatever lol and didnt scope the difficulty options, so dunno about Ninja Gaiden.
Hey man, i’ve been binge watching ur vids and i think you need to do a compilation of all the times you’ve said simple and clean.
And then like, each time you say it, you add another audio track Utada Hikaru’s simple and clean that plays in the back ground.
This was a Great video. Thank you Kbash
I goddamn knew he was gonna make the sexism argument from the begining of the video. These games are brutal to everyone, what kratos did to that princess is on par with ripping helios's head and zeus's death. Not to mention that there are actual positive portrayals of females in the trilogy, athena and pandora being among them. As for the sex minigames, all i gotta say is that aphrodite was thebone thar suggested it in the first place
"On par"
Nope. Helios was shooting fireballs at kratos, so kratos killing him makes sense. That random woman that he kills was just unnecessary..I'm positive kratos could have found an alternative route
"Athena is a positive potrayel"
How is lying to kratos and using him a positive potreyal? *She barely has any screen time or development* 😅
Know what you're talking about before talking about it
@@frogglen6350 what about the random people he can kill in gow 2?
I love that Hercules part that was so hilarious!😂😂😂😂
We will not speak of the past, boy.
What you said is important, games should be proud of being games. Games can take inspirations of other mediums, but they are ultimately games.
In "Ghost of Sparta," Kratos meets with King Midas, a harmless and tormented old man who was hiding and begging to be left alone, but that did not stop Kratos from beating the sh!t out of him and throwing him in a river of magma just to make a bridge. In GoW 3, Kratos was more of a psychopath than he had ever been and had no mercy on anyone, and that's the point; he was supposed to be a monster blinded by hate; man or woman, he wouldn't be sparing anyone because THAT would be out of character.
He really missed the point of pandora in gow 3 and how kratos fails her all in the name of revenge