History YMMV / GodOfWarPS4

*** To Mimir's credit, if one beats [[BonusBoss Sigrun]] her claims that he corrupted the Valkyries do back up his assertions that Odin is a pretty terrible person.

** Many of the valkyrie bosses, frustrating as they are, DO qualify for this for being a post-game BonusBoss that feels very rewarding.

* GameBreaker: An exploit with the Talisman of Betrayal allows players to slow time down indefinitely, allowing you to pull off full combos with all your weapons in the time it takes an enemy to perform one attack. This can even be used to make the brutal BonusBoss, Sigrun, a cakewalk.

* {{Narm}}: The scene where Atreus decides that Sindri is "little people with little problems" is noted for being incredibly out of place. At this point, Atreus has been almost nothing but kind and generous, willing to help people where Kratos finds them as an annoyance. Yet less than hour after learning he's a god, he's grown so arrogant that his personality has switched 180°. Granted this could have to do with being a young boy to being a man killer less than day before, but Atreus has shown no arrogance the entire game and has been very insecure. Also of note, is him also shitting on his mom for not being godly when he spent the entire game feeling more attached to her than Kratos. His anger makes sense, his undesired sense of pride and entitlement does not.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Not the game in respect to prior entries in the series obviously, but many have taken issue with the game being an [[AlwaysOverTheShoulder over-the-shoulder]], character and story driven game since [[VideoGame/{{Uncharted}} many]] [[VideoGame/TheLastOfUs other]] [[VideoGame/TheOrder1886 Sony]] [[VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn exclusives]] are like this. They fear that the series has lost its unique identity in favor of Sony homogenizing its game output.

** A patch was released for the PS4 Pro that allowed the game to be played in either 4K Resolution at the PS4's standard 30 frames per second or kept at the standard 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second. This patch was updated on the release of the PS5, allowing both the higher framerate ''and'' resolution. The game is so gorgeous that it looks at home among next-gen titles, with almost no increase in fidelity between this game on a PS5 and the native PS5 version of the sequel.

** The Greek era got criticized for its portrayal of some of its female characters, as aside from Athena and Gaia, most of them were either used for the motivations and arcs of male characters and thus [[FlatCharacter didn't receive much characterization by themselves]], such as Pandora and Kratos' family, or were hyper-sexualized to serve as {{Fanservice}} in {{Hot Coffee Minigame}}s, with Poseidon's princess in particular being the subject of controversy. In the Norse era, however, there are no such minigames, Freya is a complex and plot-relevant character who is never sexualized and, while a PosthumousCharacter, Faye gets characterization and agency in the narrative through dialogues.

** The Greek era got criticized for its portrayal of some of its female characters, as aside from Athena and Gaia, most of them were either used for the motivations and arcs of male characters and thus [[FlatCharacter didn't receive much characterization by themselves]], such as Pandora and Kratos' family, or were hyper-sexualized to serve as {{Fanservice}} in {{Hot Coffe Minigame}}s, with Poseidon's princess in particular being the subject of controversy. In the Norse era, however, there are no such minigames, Freya is a complex and plot-relevant character who is never sexualized and, while a PosthumousCharacter, Faye gets characterization and agency in the narrative through dialogues.

** Averted by the time of ''God of War: Ragnorok''. WordOfGod states that Kratos is the strongest he's ever been due to a combination of recovering his old skills during his adventures with his son while also tempering all his sheer power with the wisdom of age and experience. This makes him much more dangerous overall if a little less flashy. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, his foes are also the strongest they've ever been, with Odin in particular officially recognized as the most dangerous being Kratos has ever faced.]]

* SalvagedStory: The shift to a new pantheon with more sympathetic and understandable figures, along with Kratos' character development into a harsh but more responsible father figure, provided a much-needed change after he got particularly [[TooBleakStoppedCaring hard to root for]] over the previous entries and considered ALighterShadeOfBlack compared to the vile Greek gods.

** Averted by the time of Ragnorok. WordOfGod states that Kratos is the strongest he's ever been due to a combination of recovering his old skills during his adventures with his son while also tempering all his sheer power with the wisdom of age and experience. This makes him much more dangerous overall if a little less flashy. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, his foes are also the strongest they've ever been, with Odin in particular being the most dangerous being Kratos has ever faced.]]

** Mimir makes a side comment about if there was an accident that happened to Brok's brain. The next game reveals [[spoiler:there was indeed an accident that actually ''killed'' him during the construction of the Levaithan Axe, and Sindri went to Alfheim to retreieve his soul. Only, it wasn't complete.

* {{Squick}}: When Mimir's head is revived, the first thing he does is cough up a bunch of ''maggots'', implying those were festering in his head the whole time.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Not the game in respect to prior entries in the series obviously, but many have taken issue with the game being an [[AlwaysOverTheShoulder over-the-shoulder]], character and story driven game since [[{{VideoGame/Uncharted}} many]] [[{{Videogame/TheLastofUs}} other]] [[{{VideoGame/TheOrder1886}} Sony]] [[{{VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn}} exclusives]] are like this. They fear that the series has lost its unique identity in favor of Sony homogenizing its game output.

* SpiritualAdaptation: A Norse mythology setting with an OlderAndWiser god on a journey together with [[spoiler:younger version of Loki]]? It's easy to see this game as a video game adaptation of the 2011 run of Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/JourneyIntoMysteryGillen'', with Kratos in place of [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]].

** In general, the series' new direction has been well-received, ironically because it's perceived to be more mature than past games' bloody carnage. While people still love previous God of War games, the newest game has been met with open arms as it sticks to its roots while providing a fresh and new twist to both the gameplay and the story.

** The moment in the FinalBoss Fight where Kratos and Atreus deliver an epic father-son beatdown has become a meme, usually set to "Sing for the Moment" by [[Music/{{Eminem}]].

** Some of the harder [[BonusBoss Valkyries]] have a very nasty attack where they scream "VALHALLA!", launch themselves into the air, and dive-bomb you. You have a ''very'' tight window to dodge this, and if you don't you'll get pinned and take a minimum of three stomps to the head, which is enough to kill on the highest difficulty. Worse still, some Valkyries have a unique riff on the attack. For example, Gondul will rain down a fireball, ''then'' perform the dive, when you've probably had plenty of practice with the typical timing before fighting her. Others will attempt the dodge three times in a row. [[ThatOneBoss Sigrun]] can use both those variations ''and'' switch ''mid-combo''.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Kratos' character development into a harsh but more responsible man could be seen as this after he got particularly [[TooBleakStoppedCaring hard to root for]] in previous entries.
** One of the major factors hampering the game's longevity was its lack of a NewGamePlus option. The 1.30 update adds one in, but also adds a swath of other new content to NG+. This includes: an entire new rarity of gear (Perfect) that requires a NG+ only resource called Skap Slag, new enemy moves on NG+, and new gear sets. Even better, said update also allows the cutscenes to be skipped on a subsequent playthrough (be it new game plus or just another play-through from the beginning), addressing a major grievance of fans who want to replay the game but don't want to be forced to sit through the game's numerous cutscenes a second time.
** For those that don't like the ''Dark Souls'' style controls or using the trigger button as your attacks, there is a control scheme called Classic. The control lay out is set up more like old ''God of War'' games with Square being your light attack, and Triangle being your heavy attack.

** WordOfGod is that part of the whole Kratos/Atreus dynamic can subtly be seen as this for ''VideoGame/GodOfWarChainsOfOlympus'', which tried to make Kratos more human by having him openly dote on his daughter Calliope in one scene. This got a mixed reception as many found Kratos' sudden display of fatherly love to be jarring and out of character rather than heartwarming, a criticism Cory Barlog considered while making this game, ensuring that Kratos and Atreus' relationship would develop more slowly and naturally than the "out of nowhere" scenes Kratos had with Calliope. It should be mentioned that no one wondered if Kratos ''cared'' for his daughter which he obviously did (given his family's death being the whole reason for his revenge towards Ares), the complaints were more on the manner of which Kratos acted like a blatantly doting parent that seemed out of character for such an otherwise stoic, brutal character.