Kratos is NOT a nice person, that's undeniable. But people seem to be split as to whether he's a tragic Sociopathic Hero or an outright heartless emotional monster. There's a good amount of support for each (with another argument to be made that he drifts between the two from game to game).
Regarding Zeus:
In the first game, he might have been trying to connect with his estranged son Kratos through the Grave Digger disguise.
Interpretation of Zeus often depends on how one interprets Kratos. Some view Zeus as betraying Kratos, breaking his own rules, and deserves everything Kratos did to him. Others view Zeus as completely justified in attempting to stop a mad god and more heroic than Kratos.
Does Zeus really want to stop the destruction that Kratos causes, or is he just terrified that he'll be killed and is putting on a tough face? What was Zeus doing while Kratos was killing his entire family and destroying the world by proxy? Even if he saw nothing else over the course of the series, Zeus definitely watched Poseidon get murdered and did nothing to stop it. The King of the Gods only comes out to fight when Kratos either shows up on his doorstep or threatens the source of his power - situations where nonaction would lead to his own death.
In mythology, Aphrodite did have two handmaidens in the form of the daughters of Oceanus Peitho and Paregoros, though it's unlikely that the developers were aware of this fact.
The story about the old man that Kratos tells to Atreus before Ragnarok isn't a metaphor for his own life he came up with on the fly, it's an actual story told by the Greek fabulist Aesop. The isn't the first time Kratos references him either; in the pervious game, he tells Atreus the story of The Tortise and the Hare, arguably Aesop's most famous fable.
Awesome Bosses: Okay, some of the boss fights are pretty god-damned awesome so take your pick. Just one example: The dragon in God of War (2018). It's the biggest thing you actually get to fight in the game, and between the amazing but gory animation of the steadily increasing damage Kratos does to it, the fast-paced fight, and the way it ends, with the dragon crashing down, Kratos standing unmoving between its jaws, it makes for a brilliant mid-game boss.
Badass Decay: In the third game, the Titans are demoted to Fake Ultimate Deities. Although the gods are seemingly terrified of them in the second game, the Titans are completely stomped during their invasion of Olympus. None of them display any power beyond their huge size, despite previous depictions hinting they are capable of unleashing devastating magic attacks. This even applies to the greater titans like Kronos and Gaia: the battle against the former has Kratos just moving around his body and chopping parts of it one by one; while the latter would have gotten killed many times if it weren't for Kratos' help. By the time Kratos manages to escape from the underworld, the gods' only casualty is Poseidon (whom Kratos himself killed), while all the titans who assaulted Olympus have been killed except for two: (Perses and Gaia).
Base-Breaking Character: Kratos himself is this in the original series. Some consider him a compelling Tragic Hero undergoing a Protagonist Journey to Villain, seeing him as a deconstructionist take on the mythological hero by showing how arrogant and selfish they would be by modern standards. Others consider him too unsympathetic and/or idiotic to root for, seeing him as a toxic case of Testosterone Poisoning. This mostly changed with the soft reboot of the franchise, in which an Older and Wiser Kratos greatly regrets his past deeds and is more empathetic towards others, trying to control his rage to only attack in defense rather than revenge.
Despite being Kratos' default weapon, Blades of Chaos/Athena/Exile are the most reliable of all weapons available. Even when the games offer you weapons that deal more damage (Blade of Artemis in 1, Barbarian Hammer in 2, Nemean Cestus in 3, Gauntlet of Zeus in Chains of Olympus), chances are, guides will prioritize upgrading the blades first due to their sheer versatility. This trend continues even into the Norse Era games, where players tend to favor Blades of Chaos over the Leviathan Axe.
Even amongst the vast movesets of the blades, Plume of Prometheus (Square, Square, Triangle) will be your bread-and-butter combo, especially in higher difficulties. The combo is short, has good range and damage, launches smaller enemies into the air, and is cancellable. It is also available at blades level 1. It is easy to use by beginners, and a must-use by experts.
Greek era PrimarilyFirst game; Ghost of Sparta; Ascension: Ares, the depraved God of War, is Kratos's predecessor upon Olympus. Not content with merely ruling over warfare and coveting sole rule of Olympus, Ares busied himself with endless slaughter. Responsible for directing every human conflict, massacre, and genocide, Ares gloried in the usage of monsters to torment humanity and the Furies to torture them. Upon arriving in Sparta and taking the boy Deimos, Ares gave him to the god Thanatos for eternal torture. Saving the life of the Spartan Kratos years later, Ares used him to conquer most of Greece with bloody purges until the day when Ares tricked Kratos into murdering his wife and child. Finally losing patience with his role, Ares then tried to annihilate all of Athens, with his ultimate goal being to destroy the other Gods, heedless of the damage it would do to the world.
The Satyrs are practically impossible to stagger, meaning you spend more time dodging their attacks than countering. If you grab them, it initiates a button-mashing grapple for the satyr's staff, which would be well and good except there's usually two of them per fight, and they show blatant disregard for the rules of Mook Chivalry.
There are several of these in the PSP version - or perhaps they just get introduced into gameplay more quickly. The worst ones are guys who are Dual Wielding: you can't block their attacks, they have five-second-long combos, and they always come in packs. So: Dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge, land one hit, Lather Rinse Repeat. (Actually, if you're quick, you can stagger them out of their attack patterns, but if you miss that first dodge, it's them juggling you.)
Designated Hero: While Kratos' Rage Against the Heavens is perfectly reasonable considering what the Gods are like, half the time he's willing enough to doom scores of at-least-relatively innocent civilians if they're in his way or even if they're just there breathing his air provided he needs to kill one to make progress (just ask the Princess Poseidon enslaved in the third game). Not to mention that when he kills the gods, it literally kills the order of something in world around him, likely causing mass devastation and miserably short lives for everyone else. Of course this might have been intentional from the creator(s), considering the Ancient Greek idea of a "Hero" was more about machismo and physical might instead of any real moral fiber.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The original series runs into this as it progresses, as while Kratos is clearly portrayed as a selfish, violent sociopath with minimal regard for anyone else's lives (stating at one point he "cares little" for issues of gods and men alike), a deconstruction of the Spartan hero, the entire point of the original series is to kill the gods and monsters in violently awesome ways.
Even Better Sequel: The PS4 game would receive critical praise and ratings of well over 90% before its official release.
The first seven games of the series are often collectively called the "Greek era" or "Greek Saga" by fan communities, whereas God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök are called the "Norse era" or "Norse Saga", in order to differentiate the two parts of the franchise due to the changes in setting, gameplay and tone.
Related to the above, Kratos is frequently referred to as "Norse Kratos"/"Greek Kratos", or "Old Kratos"/"Young Kratos" depending on which game he's in, thanks to the huge differences in his characterization between the sagas.
Although Word of God says otherwise, many players choose to believe that underneath all the enchantments and visual changes, the Blades of Athena and Blades of Exile are still the same old Blades of Chaos. With the revelation in the Norse Saga that Kratos can never be rid of the Blades of Chaos no matter what happens, Athena giving him the newer sets of blades can be interpreted as the curse returning the same blades to him, just with a fresh coat of paint and enchantments.
It's almost universally accepted that when Atreus is grown up, he'll have a mark over his left eye to match his father's. Although opinion is split on if it'll be the same marking, or if it'll be something more Nordic.
A good amount of players have interpreted the World Serpent's first words to Kratos and Atreus as it attempting to say "I know you, Ghost of Sparta." in Norse.
Goddamned Bats: Harpies. Fairly easy to kill on their own, but they tend to show up while you're fighting tougher enemies or bosses, and often disrupt your combos or distract you enough to get clobbered. They also like to knock you off narrow beams.
Good Bad Bugs: Due to the way the game is designed, some Game-Breaker bugs exist that allow you to have - among other things - infinitely regenerating magic and maxed out weapons early in the game. Also, holdover features remain from when the game was in "test" phase, including invisible ledges, which can lead Sequence Breaking. There are a whole bunch of gamers dedicated to finding and refining them in order to perform better speed runs.
Chains of Olympus: Persephone, Goddess of Spring and unwilling Queen of the Dead, was forced into marrying Hades. Disillusioned with the gods that abandoned her and mortals for their selfishness, Persephone decided to destroy the world and return it all to Chaos. Freeing the Titan Atlas, she sent him to kidnap Helios, causing the sun to fall and Morpheus' influence to spread, putting the gods to sleep, neutralizing them. She then sent Atlas to break the pillar that held the world up while at the same time using a vision of Kratos' daughter to lead him to her. Playing on his love for his daughter and his apathy towards humanity, Persephone tricks him into giving up his powers to purge his sins so he can join his daughter in Elysium, scorning him afterwards for how selfish he is. Driven to nihilism by the fate thrust upon her, Persephone came close to destroying the whole world.
2018 game & Ragnarok: Freya is the beloved Queen of the Vanir, a powerful and cunning sorceress, and skilled warrior who wed and later left the cruel Aesir Odin for his abusive ways. Cursed by Odin to never leave Midgard or harm another living soul, Freya nevertheless loved their son Baldur and "gifted" him invulnerability while robbing him of his ability to feel pleasure and pain in the process. Outcast from both the Vanir and Aesir, Freya lived in exile as a healer until she by chance met Kratos and Atreus on their quest to spread Faye's ashes. The motherly Freya aided them many times in their journey while also secretly stealing their mistletoe that could hurt Baldur and cursing Mimir during his resurrection to never reveal her son's weaknesses. During their battle with Baldur, Freya cleverly works around her curse by indirectly harming and hindering Kratos and swearing vengeance upon him when he kills Baldur to save her. She later retrieves her Valkyrie wings and tries to murder Kratos multiple times and puts both him and the innocent Atreus in harm's way by manipulating human survivors of Fimbulwinter into attacking them. Ultimately, Freya uses Kratos to break her last curse, helps him meet the Norns and forgives him in the process, and works with him to finally cast down Odin and destroy Asgard.
Ragnarok: The Norns are the Goddesses of Fate in the Norse Pantheon and powerful seers who reveal one's destiny while forcing them to face their flaws. In truth, there is no such thing as fate and the Norns are simply masters of foreseeing what others will do based on their personal actions and history. When Kratos and Freya come seeking them to discover Atreus's whereabouts, the Norns hinder their journey by creating illusory paths and monster ambushes. Their final challenge involves placing Kratos, Freya, and Mimir in horrible nightmares to force them to confront their greatest fears. During their confrontation, the Norns work together to harangue the trio with a combination of blunt sarcasm and mockery that ultimately prove effective enough to drive both Kratos and Freya to overcome their flaws and become better people.
Memetic Loser: Many like to poke fun at Kratos for his Psychopathic Manchild tendencies, his extreme craving for vengeance, his refusal to take responsibility for his own actions, and the many times he gets played for a fool despite being one of the most powerful characters in the series.
Kratos is Greek.ExplanationAn infamous meme joking about Kratos following the practice of pederasty in ancient Sparta where Kratos shouts "I'M GREEK, NIGGA! SHOW ME YOUR BUTTHOLE!" and then anally rapes Pit from Kid Icarus (who is both male and a child) in the manner of the Greek games' Hot Coffee Minigames.
"Circle Button appears over X's head".explanation The circle button has become infamous in the game for the quick-time events it triggers, pretty much all of them involving Kratos dealing some poor bastard or less-guilty person a gratuitous, agonizing demise. The basic rule is 'if the circle button appears over something's head, Kratos is almost always about to kill that something and do it with style'. This meme also has a dirty variant, thanks to the first three games having Hot Coffee Minigames with topless women who have a Circle Button above their heads to engage them. This has led fans to also make jokes that Kratos only knows sex through these minigames or if the circle button is above a woman's head then coitus will ensue.
"I COME SEEKING THE WEED OF OLYMPUS"explanation A meme parodying the Greek games where instead of wanting revenge on Zeus, Kratos wants to smoke the "Cabbage of the Gods". Numerous other memes have been made with different scenarios in the same format.
Kratos CarExplanationA series of images showing gray or white cars with asymmetrical red stripes, vaguely resembling Kratos' distinctive markings.
Moral Event Horizon: The game makes it clear that you're put in control of a character who starts as a Sociopathic Hero only to evolve right into what is wide open to being called a class-A douchebag. For quite a percentage of players, Kratos will eventually cross the MEH; the only question is when. For many players when Kratos decides to destroy Olympus regardless of the consequences on the world is the point where he goes from Nominal Hero to Villain Protagonist.
Polished Port: The PS3 ports of the first two games, as well as the ports of the PSP titles, qualify for bringing many framerate and visual improvements to the gameplay while keeping all of the playability.
Rated M for Money: Everything bleeds in the Greek era. A lot. Also, the Hot Coffee Minigames are always story-irrelevant eye candy and mostly used as a ploy to boost the rating. This changed in the Norse era, as while the games are also rated M and have stronger language than the previous ones, there is no nudity and the violence against non-monstruous characters is much less gratuitous.
Rooting for the Empire: You could be forgiven for hoping the gods killed Kratos off before he completely destroyed the balance of nature. Quite frankly nearly all Kratos’s enemies, post Ares, have pretty legitimate grievances with him and few of his targets end up being bigger bastards than Kratos himself could be. Zeus’ fears of insurrection turn out pretty spot on, Hera is doing her best to pick up the slack of the other gods Kratos killed and Hades is justifiably-enough pissed off Kratos has repaid his kindness from the first game by killing off his family members left and right.
Self-Imposed Challenge: The fans of Greek era games have devised a whole system for playthroughs with self-imposed restrictions. It involves a set of playstyle limitations that make the games harder to complete, ranging from easily bearable restrictions, to the ones that make the experience ten times as hellish. While individual games have some unique rules of their own, there's a set of restrictions that are applicable to the entire franchise: no health / magic chests, no use of alt. weapons, no use of magic, no health / magic extensions, and no upgrades to anything. Additionally, completing a challenge only counts if a run is done on a very hard difficulty, without NG+ benefits. You can pick whatever set of restrictions you want, but runs that enable all categories at once (including those unique to an individual game) have a special name – PAIN+. Finish it, and you can safely call yourself a master of an installment.
"No grabs" category is a Harder Than Hard option among franchise-wide restrictions, to the point that it's not even included in PAIN+. Since grabs deal high damage and provide protection from other enemies, they end up being one of the few things that prevent no-upgrade runs from feeling insurmountable. Combining both usually leads to an experience that's too much even for the biggest hardcore junkies.
Values Dissonance: Even before going off the deep end in the sequels, Kratos is very morally reprehensible if not just highly guilty by our standards. But to Ancient Greeks, he would've been hailed as a mighty warrior, to Spartans a legendary hero. The first game in the series could very well have been an actual Greek mythical tale, and nobody of that time would have batted an eye. In ancient Greek mythology, "hero" means only that you accomplish mighty deeds. Being a paragon of virtue is optional.
