History YMMV / GodOfWar

* ValuesDissonance: Even before going off the deep end in the sequels, Kratos is very morally reprehensible 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.

* BadassDecay: In the third game, the Titans are demoted to [[FakeUltimateMook Fake Ultimate Deities]]. Although they are shown to scare even the gods in the second game, they [[CurbStompBattle 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 pelting parts of it one by one; while the latter would have gotten killed many times if it weren't for Kratos's help. By the time Kratos managed to escape from the underworld, the gods' only casualty had been Poseidon (whom Kratos himself killed), whereas only two titans out of the many managed to survive the initial struggle: ([[spoiler:Perses and Gaia]]).

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: In the original series, Kratos proved this to a lot of fans after the original game. Despite the villainy of the gods, Kratos himself frequently proved to be just as bad if not worse, and his motivations for revenge against Zeus, which he was willing to cause the end of the world over, came off as extremely petty.

* AccidentallyCorrectWriting: If you thought the name Kratos was just made up for this series, turns out the Greeks did have an actual Kratos in their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kratos_(mythology) mythos]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Kratos himself is this in later games where some of the fanbase still sympathizes with him while others feel he became far too unlikable a protagonist.

* BadassDecay: In the third game, the Titans are demoted to [[FakeUltimateMook Fake Ultimate Deities]]. Although they are shown to scare even the gods in the second game, they [[CurbStompBattle 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 pelting parts of it one by one; while the latter would have gotten killed many times if it weren't for Kratos's help. By the time Kratos managed to escape from the underworld, the gods have suffered no casualties, whereas only two titans out of the many managed to survive the initial struggle: ([[spoiler:Perses and Gaia]]).

* GoddamnedBats:
** 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. [[LedgeBats They also like to knock you off narrow beams]].
** The satyrs in are a source of eternal frustration for many a player, thanks to their seemingly immaculate ability to dance away and smack you whenever you dare to contemplate hitting them.
** Wraiths and Harpies, especially after they've learned that Firebomb attack. Their death animations are too perfect. It's like the designers came up with that first, then said "What attacks can we give them that will make the player want to do ''just that'' to them?"

* BadassDecay:
** The gods and titans suffer from this heavily as the series goes on. In the original game, Ares as a giant is presented as suicide for Kratos to take on without Pandora's Box, which by extension brings up how monumental a task fighting a god or titan is. By the second, Kratos is fighting Zeus human sized and starts hurting his giant form, but more and more, gods show up as bosses, and not even as a FinalBoss in ''III'' and ''Ghost of Sparta'', with Kratos killing them while human sized even if they're giants, along with the titans, causing the majority of the gods outside of Zeus and Ares to come off as {{Paper Tiger}}s. [[spoiler: Subverted as of the end of III with the revelation that the gods didn't exactly get weaker, rather Kratos still had the power of Pandora's Box, or rather Hope, sealed inside him throughout II and III.]]
** At least the gods in the third game are shown to be capable of being able to put up a good fight against Kratos. The Titans, unfortunately are completely demoted into [[FakeUltimateMook Fake Ultimate Deities]] as the gods despite being scared of them in the second game, [[CurbStompBattle are able to competely stomp the titans]], whom despite having hints of magic previously shows no power beyond their size. This even applies to the greater titans like Kronos and Gaia, the former is Kratos just moving around the body and pelting parts of his bodies one by one while the latter would have gotten killed many times if it weren't for Kratos's help. By the time Kratos managed to escape from the underworld, only two titans out of the many managed to survive the initial struggle ([[spoiler: Perses and Gaia]]).

* TheWoobie:
** Hephaestus, Deimos, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Pandora]], [[FateWorseThanDeath Prometheus]], Daedalus, Poseidon's Princess, [[BlessedWithSuck Midas]] and Calliope.

* PortingDisaster: The UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita versions of the first two games qualify. They're not unplayable, but they do run at a framerate of 30FPS and below, when the [=PS2=] originals could run at 60FPS. The audio is also compressed. Given the Vita is more powerful than the [=PS2=], the ports could have been better, though many will say if you want the two games on the go, they're still at least functional games.

* MoralEventHorizon: The game makes it clear that you're put in control of a character who starts as a SociopathicHero only to evolve right into class-A douchebag. For almost all players, Kratos will eventually cross the MEH; the only question is ''when''.
** The developers have stated that they originally wanted to give Kratos a cute little dog to follow him around, as a way to give him some humanity and remind him of better times. [[PlayerPunch He would then have to kill the dog before]] [[TragicMonster it turned into Cerberus.]] They eventually decided that was too cruel even for the series.
*** The concept lives on in the Cerberus monster. Little Cerberus pups quickly grow into mature Cerberus, and the easiest way to deal with them is to grab the puppies before they mature and [[KickTheDog grind their skulls into the ground]].
*** For many players when Kratos decides to destroy Olympus regardless of the consequences on the world is the point where he goes from NominalHero to VillainProtagonist.

*** The developers have [[WordOfGod implied]] that Kratos' position between sociopathy and monsterism depends on just how blinded by rage he is at the moment.
*** In an interview hyping the prequel in ''Magazine/GameInformer'', one of the developers was quoted as saying Kratos was "an asshole" and "unlikable" by the third game, and the prequel would try and humanize him.
** Zeus' vindictiveness toward Kratos is because Kratos released fear from PandorasBox, which infected Zeus. From a certain point of view, Zeus' actions are not his own and can't be blamed for wanting to kill Kratos.
*** By this interpretation, Kratos' death at the beginning of God of War II is a form of HoistByHisOwnPetard in hindsight since he caused the fear which made Zeus stab him. It also creates an infinite regress of circular motivations because Zeus wants to kill Kratos because of the fear he unleashed and Kratos wants to kill Zeus because he killed him once.
*** [[spoiler:Zeus 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 a more heroic than Kratos.
** For that matter, 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.

* BadassDecay: The gods and titans suffer from this heavily as the series goes on. In the original game, Ares as a giant is presented as suicide for Kratos to take on without Pandora's Box, which by extension brings up how monumental a task fighting a god or titan is. By the second, Kratos is fighting Zeus human sized and starts hurting his giant form, but more and more, gods show up as bosses, and not even as a FinalBoss in ''III'' and ''Ghost of Sparta'', with Kratos killing them while human sized even if they're giants, along with the titans, causing the majority of the gods outside of Zeus and Ares to come off as {{Paper Tiger}}s. [[spoiler: Subverted as of the end of III with the revelation that the gods didn't exactly get weaker, rather Kratos still had the power of Pandora's Box, or rather Hope, sealed inside him throughout II and III.]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Kratos himself, noted under AlternativeCharacterInterpretation, is this in later games where some of the fanbase still sympathizes with him while others feel he became far too unlikable a protagonist.
* BileFascination: Kratos' infamy as a cruel and heartless monster is a turn off for some, but for many, seeing just ''how far'' he can sink is fascinating incentive enough to dive into the hopeless black-depths of the Original Trilogy...

* MemeticBadass: The reason there are no more Greek gods, deities or mythological creatures anymore? Kratos killed most of them.
** Ironically, he didn't touch most of the gods; but then again, the series couldn't possibly fit in [[Main/LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters ALL of them]].
** Now he's done with the Greek gods, he is going to kill ALL the Norse gods.
* MemeticLoser: Funnily enough, to some Kratos fits within this category as well. Many like to poke fun at him for his his PsychopathicManchild 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.
* MemeticMutation: ''AREEEEEES!'' [[labelnote:Explanation]] Kratos has virtually NoIndoorVoice, so expect him to [[SayMyName shout somebody's name]] ''really loudly'' at least [[OnceAnEpisode Once a Game]].[[/labelnote]]

* JerkassWoobie:
** Kratos himself would've been a completely sympathetic character, had it not been for his sociopathic behavior.

* HilariousInHindsight:
** In the fourth game its decision to syncretise deities based on proto-Germanic hypotheses (such as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frijj%C5%8D Freyja-Frigg]] and Tyr taking deeds from Odin as a reference to his original TopGod status) is similar to what [[https://amazon.com/dp/B079SSP8X2 a novel that came out about a month before it]] did. [[spoiler:This same novel also features a Norse light deity as the main villain]].
** In the Japanese dub of the games, Kratos is voiced by Creator/TesshoGenda, who is also the voice of [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Kurama]], [[AnimalisticAbomination the Nine-tailed Fox]]. Kurama is the kind of monster Kratos ''would enjoy to kill'' before breakfast. And that without going into the point he also voiced Zeus in the Japanese dub of ''Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' and its sequel. Take a good guess ''which'' god Kratos wants to kill the most. He also voiced [[Manga/SaintSeiya Taurus Aldebaran]], one of the Gold Saints whose job is to [[spoiler:protect Athena. Take a good guess which goddess he kills]]...
** In a similar way, in both the Mexican Spanish and Japanese dubs of ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'', [[spoiler:Atreus' true identity turns to be Loki]]. This is especially relevant because [[spoiler:the voice actor of his father Kratos in their respective languages (Idzi Dutkiewicz and Creator/KentaMiyake respectively) voiced ComicBook/IronMan (Dutkiewicz) and ComicBook/{{Thor}} (Miyake)]] in their dubs of the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' and one of Iron Man and Thor's, (and by default, the Avengers themselves) enemies is [[spoiler:[[ComicBook/{{Thor}} Loki]]]]. This is especially more hilarious in the Japanese one because [[spoiler:Thor and Loki are ''brothers'']].
** In the games prior to the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 PS4]] game, Kratos was voiced by one Terrence C. "T.C." Carter. T.C. Carter also played Eugene from Film/FinalDestination2 where he's on Death's List for surviving a car pile that was meant to kill him. While ''Final Destination'' runs on the belief that [[YouCantFightFate it's impossible to avoid your fate]], guess what Kratos does throughout the entirety of the second game. In addition, T.C. Carson's character was KilledOffForReal in ''Final Destination 2''. In God of War, Kratos gets killed at least once per game and [[DeathIsCheap comes back to life]] every single time, not to mention that he also kills the ''God of Death'' himself in ''Ghost of Sparta''.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Kratos gets this a lot for his badassery.
** And again, this is probably how Greek mythologies want us to react to the story. They have an entirely different concept for heroism from ours in modern days.
** Zeus gets some of this since Kratos became so unlikable after the first game, and even though he was corrupted by the Evils from PandorasBox, and the actions he had under its influence were still not as bad what Kratos does, it's still made clear that not everything he'd done was because of that, such what he did to Prometheus and Kratos' mother.

* GuideDangIt: There are a number of points in the series where creative use of the terrain and/or Kratos's moveset is required in order to advance. While some hints are offered, for the most part players are expected to work out these puzzles on their own, which can lead to a great deal of frustration.

* GeniusBonus: The in-universe confusion over [[spoiler:Freya and Frigg]] being the same god when Atreus thought they were separate is pretty in-line with real world debate on if the two are the same, since [[spoiler:Freya]] isn't mentioned outside of Scandanavia, only [[spoiler:Frigg]], and the two gods have a lot of overlapping qualities. The one name being well-known while the other is not is explained by Mimir as [[spoiler:Odin trying to {{Unperson}} Freya so that a Vanir could not claim credit for her great deeds, and he did so by attributing them to the goddess "Frigg", which was just his pet name for Freya and not a real Aesir.]]

* GeniusBonus: The in-universe confusion over [[spoiler:Freya and Frigg]] being the same god when Atreus thought they were separate is pretty in-line with real world debate on if the two are the same, since [[spoiler:Freya]] isn't mentioned outside of Scandanavia, only [[spoiler:Frigg]], and the two gods have a lot of overlapping qualities. The one name being well-known while the other is not is explained by Mimir as [[spoiler:Odin trying to {{Unperson}} Freya so that a Giant could not claim credit for her great deeds, and he did so by attributing them to the goddess "Frigg", which was just his pet name for Freya and not a real Aesir.]]

* [[AwesomeBosses/VideoGames Awesome Bosses]]: Okay, some of the boss fights are pretty god-damned awesome so [[AwesomeBosses/GodOfWarSeries 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.

Return to the main page [[VideoGame/GodOfWarSeries here]]

* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper: The tutorials pop-ups are very... thorough in their controls assistance. Made worse by their tendency to appear a significant period of time after the player already figured out whatever they're mentioning and the inability to skip past them for several seconds.
* AntiClimaxBoss: Medusa herself is the very first Gorgon enemy Kratos fights, but she is no stronger than [[DegradedBoss any of the generic Gorgon enemies met later on]]. The only difference is that she's pink.
* BreatherLevel: Pandora's Temple alternates between "maddeningly difficult" and "relaxingly easy"; the former describes most of the area's obstacle runs, the latter, most of the puzzles.
* CompleteMonster: In the {{novelization}} by Matthew Stover and Robert E. Vardeman:
** [[WarGod Ares]] is an insane, sadistic deity who kickstarts the entire plot with his ambition. Turning the warrior [[Characters/GodOfWarSeriesKratos Kratos]] into his corrupted weapon, Ares uses Kratos to pave a path of blood and death across Greece, killing untold thousands in horrific massacres before tricking Kratos into murdering his own family to destroy the last of his humanity. After Kratos betrays him and allies with Athena, Ares--who enjoys spending his free time killing hundreds of humans at a time for fun--wages war on the city of Athens, [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals killing entire forest populations]] on his way to destroy Athens. Setting Athens aflame as he sends his hordes to kill everyone inside the city, [[WouldHurtAChild children included]], Ares personally slaughters countless fleeing civilians before being confronted by a vengeful Kratos, who Ares proceeds to MindRape with images of his dead family. Upon obtaining Pandora's Box, Ares boasts his plans to use it on Olympus itself, hoping to kill his father Zeus and sister Athena before subjugating all of existence under his mad boot.
** {{Medusa}} is [[AdaptationalVillainy far worse than her video game counterpart]]. The queen of the Gorgons who is supplying Ares with Gorgon forces to help with his slaughter of Athens, Medusa keeps tortured slaves under her thrall, many of whom she blinds and has [[SexSlave sex with]]. Medusa's vile nature is fully revealed as it is seen she regularly has her servants cook [[EatsBabies human infants for her to devour as a meal]], and when a disgusted Kratos tries to kill her for this crime that [[EvenEvilHasStandards horrifies even him]], Medusa ends up murdering one of her own slaves in a blind anger.
* FirstInstallmentWins: Story wise, the first game is best remembered, [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory by fans that care about the plot]], with the later games being divisive.
* ItWasHisSled: Kratos having accidentally killed his family was a big revelation halfway through the first game. It's become common knowledge and other games, even prequels, outright spoil that incident in the opening.
* MoralEventHorizon: Ares crossed it when he tricked Kratos into killing his family, all because he wanted Kratos to be a perfect warrior.
* MostAnnoyingSound: "What are you doing? Athens crumbles as you waste time!"
* ThatOneBoss: The final fight against the eponymous God of War is a nightmare on any difficulty other than medium, plus it's a two-parter with an extremely difficult War of the Clones wedged in between. Pure evil.
** The War of the Clones part deserves elaboration. You're fighting a BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind against Kratos doppelgangers who are trying to kill your wife and daughter. You can restore their health by hugging them to transfer your health to them, but that leaves you vulnerable to attacks which will also damage your family. At any given time, there are ''seven'' clones on-screen, and they respawn a LOT. If you get hit by any one of them, it breaks your combo. If you get grappled or knocked down even once, it wastes precious seconds, during which the clones quickly slaughter your family. Even on normal difficulty its easy to lose this fight if you're not paying attention to Kratos' family's health bar. On [[HarderThanHard God]] mode it's nearly impossible.
* ThatOneLevel:
** Hades is a rare ThatOneLevel that's ''actually'' [[BonusLevelOfHell Hell]]. There's very little combat, and Kratos has to carefully tiptoe across long, rotating beams with blades. Getting hit by said blades [[OneHitKill will send Kratos straight into a]] {{Bottomless Pit|s}}. And once you manage to make it across those, there's the same thing, vertically. It's not quite as bad, since getting hit by the blades doesn't instantly kill you, but it does send you all the way back down to the bottom. The extras disc for ''God of War II'' reveals that the Hades level was the only one that wasn't play tested, hence the difficulty.
** Some people find every obstacle course and puzzle sequence in the game to be an irritating sequence. They worked fine and all, but they were damn hard/annoying. Especially outrunning those spike walls, and dragging that cage up the mountain.
*** The worst was where you had to move a box along a floor in a certain time limit, or else spikes would come out of the floor and instantly kill you. Even some players declare this level even harder than the above Hades sections.
** The confrontation with three Cyclopses early in the Athens Town Square map. On easier difficulties it's merely annoying, but on Hard and Very Hard, it becomes ridiculously frustrating and unfair, unlike the rest of the game which is hard but fair.
** The "final" final boss fight is a nightmare. You are stripped of your weapons and magic and given a thoroughly useless one which appends unnecessary flourishes to everything, whilst fighting a boss who hits fast and hits hard.

** {{Medusa}} is [[AdaptationalVillainy far worse than her video game counterpart]]. The queen of the Gorgons who is supplying Ares with Gorgon forces to help with his slaughter of Athens, Medusa [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil keeps tortured slaves under her thrall]], many of whom she blinds and has [[SexSlave sex with]]. Medusa's vile nature is fully revealed as it is seen she regularly has her servants cook [[EatsBabies human infants for her to devour as a meal]], and when a disgusted Kratos tries to kill her for this crime that [[EvenEvilHasStandards horrifies even him]], Medusa ends up murdering one of her own slaves in a blind anger.

* CompleteMonster: In the {{novelization}} by Matthew Stover and Robert E. Vardeman, [[WarGod Ares]] is an insane, sadistic deity who kickstarts the entire plot with his ambition. Turning the warrior [[Characters/GodOfWarSeriesKratos Kratos]] into his corrupted weapon, Ares uses Kratos to pave a path of blood and death across Greece, killing untold thousands in horrific massacres before tricking Kratos into murdering his own family to destroy the last of his humanity. After Kratos betrays him and allies with Athena, Ares--who enjoys spending his free time killing hundreds of humans at a time for fun--wages war on the city of Athens, [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals killing entire forest populations]] on his way to destroy Athens. Setting Athens aflame as he sends his hordes to kill everyone inside the city, [[WouldHurtAChild children included]], Ares personally slaughters countless fleeing civilians before being confronted by a vengeful Kratos, who Ares proceeds to MindRape with images of his dead family. Upon obtaining Pandora's Box, Ares boasts his plans to use it on Olympus itself, hoping to kill his father Zeus and sister Athena before subjugating all of existence under his mad boot.

** Hades is a rare ThatOneLevel that's ''actually'' [[BonusLevelOfHell Hell]].
*** There's very little combat, and Kratos has to carefully tiptoe across long, rotating beams with blades. Getting hit by said blades [[OneHitKill will send Kratos straight into a]] {{Bottomless Pit|s}}. And once you manage to make it across those, there's the same thing, vertically. It's not quite as bad, since getting hit by the blades doesn't instantly kill you, but it does send you all the way back down to the bottom. This level wasn't actually tested before the game was shipped.
*** Hades felt like {{Filler}} and raised some serious FridgeLogic issues regarding Kratos' suicide.
*** The extras disc for ''God of War II'' reveal that the Hades level was the only one that wasn't play tested, hence the difficulty.

*** The above was lampshaded in the Collection edition with the achievement: "Kickboxer"