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"My vengeance... ends now."
Kratos, from the main menu when starting a new game

God of War III is the third installment in the God of War series and final (chronological) installment of the Greek era of games, released for the PlayStation 3 in 2010.

Picking up right where the previous game left off, it details Kratos and the Titans' assault on Olympus. After killing Poseidon, Kratos is betrayed by Gaia and tossed into the underworld, but escapes and begins to climb Mount Olympus, killing all who stand in his path — Hades, Helios, Hercules, Cronos, Hephaestus, Hera — and learning that Pandora's Box still exists, now deep in the Labyrinth and guarded by an eternal fire which can only be snuffed out if Pandora herself immolates herself on it. This proves troubling, because as Kratos escorts Pandora through the dungeon, he quite possibly begins to think of her as a daughter. Kratos wants to kill Zeus, but he also wants his family back. Which one will he choose?

The game got an enhanced rerelease in Summer of 2015 for the PlayStation 4. It would be followed by a Soft Reboot of the series and the start of the Norse Saga with God of War (PS4).

God of War III contains examples of the following tropes (Beware of unmarked spoilers):


  • Actor Allusion: Kevin Sorbo shows up, once again voicing Hercules.
  • Adaptational Villainy: In this game, Hercules, rather than the legendary hero most fiction depicts him as, is shown as arrogant and jealous of Kratos' accomplishments, as well as Zeus' apparent Parental Favoritism for the Spartan. Though it was implied that he might still be the legendary hero... if it wasn't for Envy from Pandora's Box cursing him.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Zeus. It's revealed in the ending that he wasn't actually evil, he was just consumed by the evils of Pandora's Box, which came out when Kratos opened it. That being said, there are plenty of hints throughout the series and in actual mythology to suggest he was already a Jerkass God even before his infection and it merely worsened his character, making this likely a Downplayed Trope.
  • All for Nothing:
    • The previous game ended with Kratos freeing the Titans, with them storming Olympus. And then they get their asses kicked easily by the gods, to the extent that by the time Kratos catches up with them, all but two of them have died.
    • Kratos goes searching for Pandora, to undo the Olympus Flame, and in the process lays waste to all Olympus. And then it turns out what he was looking for was inside him all along.
  • And I Must Scream: The Head of Helios is implied to still be alive, as it screams when you activate it.
  • An Arm and a Leg:
    • A Bolt of Divine Retribution from Zeus blasts Gaia's left hand almost clean off, leaving it hanging by a mass of root-like tendons. Kratos later severs the hand completely.
    • Kratos kills Hermes by chopping both of his legs off.
  • Anti-Villain: For the most part, the gods, while definitely of the jerkass variety, are doing all they can to defend themselves from Kratos, who is the aggressor in the whole situation. In particular, Hades has several legitimate grievances with Kratos and Hephaestus only wants to protect his daughter.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Athena's Heroic Sacrifice to save Zeus has turned her into a transparent, angel-like figure. She actually name drops this trope when Kratos demands to know why she's suddenly cool with him killing Zeus.
  • Art Shift: The flashbacks in-game are done in a heavily stylized and trippy art style in the fashion of classic Greek pottery artwork.
  • Artifact Title: There is no god of war during the game; Ares is long dead, Kratos was cast down (and loses his godly powers a short while into the game), and despite his ambitions, Hercules doesn't get the title either.
  • Badass Boast: Kratos gets a heck of an impressive one to Zeus at the beginning;
    The hands of death could not defeat me. The sisters of Fate could not hold me. And you will not see the end of this day. I will have my revenge!
  • Bad Black Barf: A big thick black cloud of something escapes from Zeus' mouth before Kratos begins his Extreme Mêlée Revenge. It seems to have been the Fear inside of Pandora's Box, as he seems to come to his senses in that brief moment.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Heavily Downplayed. Athena succeeds in manipulating Kratos to slay the other Gods so she can rule over Olympus alone. However, she loses the power of Hope, as Kratos releases it to mankind instead of returning it to her, much to her annoyance.
  • Bag of Spilling: Kratos loses much of his magic and powers, along with the Blades of Athena, after falling into the River Styx and being attacked by the souls within.
  • Bait-and-Switch: At the game's end, it appears that Kratos is about to strike Athena down with the Blade of Olympus. Instead, he turns the blade on himself to give the godless world the hope inside him.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Zeus is still the overall main antagonist and target of Kratos' vengeance, but there's also Gaia who wishes to overthrow Olympus for the Titans, and Athena who appears to be an ally to Kratos but is ultimately using him for her own ends.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Heavy emphasis on bitter to the point of being a downer; Kratos' need for vengeance has slain all of the gods, and the world lays in ruins and total chaos as a result. However, Kratos realizes the error of his ways and released the power of hope for mankind's use, and as shown in The Stinger, the sun, which has been blocked out since Helios' death, is finally beginning to peek through the clouds again, implying that the world will recover (which it does).
  • Blade Brake: After being blasted off of Olympus by Zeus, Kratos tries to stop his fall by sinking the Blade of Olympus into Gaia's back. It works for a moment or two, but he still ends up falling into the River Styx.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: The series was already plenty bloody and gory but, thanks to the jump from the Playstation 2 to Playstation 3, this game ramps it up to eleven. The studio actually said some screenshots are so violent, they cannot be released on gaming news websites without being censored. They have an independent engine in place to animate enemies being ripped to pieces and having their organs fall out. Some highlights include Kratos gutting centaurs and Cronos, causing their guts to spill out, and brutally tearing a cyclops' eye out of its head with his bare hands.
  • Boss in Mook Clothing: The centaurs. They almost never flinch, love interrupting your combos while you fight smaller mooks (because they always come with smaller mooks), have a crapton of health, and the QTE when they grab you requires super-human reflexes to win. The finishing move on them is one of the squickiest of the game, but you won't mind. Chimeras are a similar case, although they are arguably easier to deal with.
  • Boss Remix: In the third installment, the final boss battle with Zeus has this song that contains sections from Zeus' Wrath Divine from the first God Of War and The Isle Of Creation from God of War II. Both remixed themes appeared in final boss battles of their respective games.
  • Breaking Speech: Hermes deconstructs Kratos in the path of the Caverns and he can only listen. Before his death, Hermes gives another one to Kratos, and later on, it's revealed that it registered on Kratos; something Zeus had use of during his mind attack on the K-man.
  • The Brute: Hades relies more on hitting Kratos with his chain blade things than the magic or minions of the other gods, and his second form relies on NASTY physical attacks.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Hermes decides to take the time to taunt Kratos about how he killed his family, knowing full well that Kratos is known to kill out of spite and is on the warpath against the Olympians. It ends badly for him, to say the least.
  • The Burlesque of Venus: When Aphrodite makes her appearance, she is spread out upon her bed, being "serviced" by her hand-maidens, her bed designed to look superficially like a giant clam.
  • Call-Back:
    • Helios remembers Kratos saving him in God of War: Chains of Olympus.
    • Kronos has been banished to the Pits of Tartarus after Kratos got into the temple of Pandora back in the first game.
    • Cyclops Enforcers return from the very first game after a long absence from the series.
    • Athena once more tells Kratos at the end of the game to repay her for everything that transpired from the first two main games. Kratos' response remains the same as the previous entry.
      Athena: You owe me this, Spartan!
      Kratos: I owe you nothing.
  • Central Theme: Hope Springs Eternal. Pandora espouses her belief in hope to the more cynical Kratos, and, in the end, it is the power of hope that came from Pandora's Box that allows Kratos to defeat Zeus, and which he ultimately decides to release for mankind by impaling himself on the Blade of Olympus.
  • Chain Lightning: The Nemesis Whip is a visual pun on this; it's yet another chain-weapon for Kratos, and it produces chain lightning.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The Great Chain appears at the beginning, when Kratos is thrown off of Gaia. It comes into play before the final boss, as Kratos uses it to pull Pandora all the way up to the peak of Olympus.
    • The Three Judges appear early on, holding the Great Chain. They become the last obstacle in Kratos' quest to take Pandora to the Flame of Olympus, as he must shatter the Onyx crystals embedded on the statues while fighting hordes of enemies in order to proceed.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Kratos has lost most of the weapons he gained in II, while still retaining the Sword of Olympus and the Golden Fleece.
  • Classical Chimera: The Chimera appears, as a reoccurring mini-boss. They switch between bipedal and quadrupedal gaits, with the goat being the dominant and final phase of the fight.
  • Combat Commentator: A drunken Hera provides a commentary to Kratos's fight with Hercules, starting with an almost-motherly "Now you boys play nice!"
  • Continuity Nod: Among the voices Kratos hears inside his own mind are the Boat Captain and the Fates from the previous game. You can also find a message from the Boat Captain in the underworld.
  • Cross Counter: Kratos and Hercules have one of these when Kratos steals the right Nemean Cestus. If Kratos wins the duel, he will steal the left Nemean Cestus. Zeus and Kratos has one of these in the end.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Helios' head is graphically ripped off by Kratos. It is neither quick nor painless. This example is one of many in this game.
  • Cruelty Is the Only Option: Not unusual for the series (to the point it probably should have it's own page), but this installment takes the cake with how Kratos takes what looks to be Poseidon's mistress/sex slave, and makes her hold open a massive heavy crank for a gate, which, after a few seconds of you passing through pulls her in and crushes her, you can go back and see her bloody remains, which now hold said gate half open due to her corpse making the crank stuck.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: The second Titanomachy was shaping up to be this as the modern Olympians proved more than a match for the Titans: Poseidon took out Epimethius and at least one more titan single-handed, Hades swiftly killed Oceanus, Helios had Perses well in hand, and Zeus easily blasted Gaia apart with one lightning bolt... in fact, the gods would have likely won the battle without a single casualty if not for the intervention of Kratos.
  • Death by Irony: In ancient Greece, worshipers of Hades would knock their heads on the ground so the god of the underworld would hear them. What does Kratos do to Hades immediately before stealing his soul?
  • Depth Perplexion: An entire puzzle is made out of this in Hera's Garden. When you activate a switch, a green filter appears on the screen, the camera zooms away and stairways that are only adjacent by perspective become connected for real. You will thus get at the top of the garden through completely disconnected platforms, without having to perform a single jump.
  • Disappointed in You: At the end of the third game, Athena says this to Kratos when he runs himself through with the Blade of Olympus, giving the power to the humans instead of her.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    • The hilariously suggestive sex QTE in III certainly counts. Though given where the half-circle-up is, it does rather suggest Kratos takes an unholy amount of time getting out of the practically nothing he's usually almost wearing.
    • Aphrodite complains to Kratos, "Do you know how long it's been since a real man came into my chamber?"
  • Due to the Dead: Despite being stated in-universe to be the most hated god on Olympus, Ares' body has been preserved in ice in a tomb.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome:
    • When Helios' plea for his life ends in vain, he out of nowhere screams "FEEL THE POWER OF THE SUN!!!" and shines so bright that nothing can be seen. Doesn't stop him from losing his head.
    • Kratos (apparently) kills himself, ruining Athena's plans and releasing the power of hope to mortals.
  • Enemy Posturing: During the battle with Hercules, you can attack him when he turns your back on you to start bragging to Hera.
  • Entitled Bastard: Despite having abandoned Kratos to fall into the River Styx after their initial attack on Zeus went badly, along with the fact that she flat-out told Kratos to his face that he was nothing more than a pawn of hers and the Titans and she had no more use for him, Gaia genuinely expects Kratos to help her up when she's later having trouble reclimbing Mount Olympus... only to be shocked when Kratos basically tells her to screw off before cutting off her hand, sending her falling to her (apparent) doom.
  • Epigraph: The game opens with a quote by Greek philosopher Plato: "The measure of a man is what he does with power".
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending: By the end of the game, all of Greece has been devastated, the Olympians and Titans were destroyed and most of the named cast has been killed off, with the exception of Aphrodite (whose survival is ambiguous), Athena (who is technically already dead) and Kratos (who is implied, and later confirmed to have survived).
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Evil might be a stretch but Kratos does not blame Hephaestus in any way; yes, he turned on him, but he was doing it to protect his child, rather than just being a monumental cunt like the rest of the Pantheon. Kratos even notes later than Hephaestus was being a good father - it just meant the two had to clash as their goals misaligned with one another. And while Kratos shows the cruelty and rage that made him so infamous that even the Norse pantheon eventually took notice, Kratos doesn't go for the kill unprovoked - every deity and titan that Kratos kills took either the first swing or betrayed him.
  • Evil All Along: The post-Final Boss reveals that Athena was playing Kratos throughout the game with the intent to take over Olympus when Zeus is gone.
  • Evil Gloating: Hercules' undoing. He actually manages to knock Kratos out, but he stops to boast to Hera. Kratos revives and takes this opportunity to steal the Nemean Cestus from him.
  • Extreme Mêlée Revenge: At the very end of the game, Kratos tosses aside his weapons and decides to just straight-up beat Zeus to death with his bare hands. It's a QTE event, and the player can carry on for as long as they please.
  • Eyeball-Plucking Birds: The teaser trailer "Fear Nothing" begins with a raven scavenging the corpse of an unnamed human. Just before Kratos drives the bird off, it plucks out the remaining eyeball and eats it whole.
  • Eye Scream:
    • After defeating Poseidon, Kratos gouges out his eyes with his thumbs.
    • The QTE to finish off a cyclops is Kratos tearing said cyclops' eye clean out of its socket with his bare hands.
    • Perse tries attacking Kratos, who jams the Olympus Blade into his eye in response.
  • Facial Horror: Hercules ends up getting his face caved in as a result of Kratos beating him to death with the Nemean Cestus.
  • Failed a Spot Check: In their final battle, Zeus and Kratos are so busy fighting each other they don't notice a very pissed off Gaia showing up until she's right on top of them.
  • Fanservice Extra: Poseidon's princess and Aphrodite's servants are extremely attractive women in skimpy clothing designed to show off most of their skin and leave their breasts exposed. The former is only used as a completely gratuitous Kick the Dog moment by Kratos because he needs to go through a door, the latter two only provides fanservice to the viewer.
  • Fingore: In III, Kratos rips one of Kronos's fingernails off during the fight with him. The sheer crudeness of it makes even the toughest gamers cringe and shiver, but compared to what Kratos does to Kronos later on in the fight, that is pretty tame.
  • First-Person Dying Perspective: The player experiences each of the blows of the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that Kratos gives to Poseidon from Poseidon's own point of view. In an incomplete variation, the fight ends with Kratos jamming his thumbs into Poseidon's eyes and blinding him, turning the screen black, before finishing him off with a Neck Snap shown from a third-person camera angle.
  • Foreshadowing: When Kratos first asks Hephaestus about the Flame of Olympus, his facial expression completely shifts on a dime, and sharp eyes will notice his eye twitches slightly as he responds with his own question as to why the Spartan wishes to know about it. He vaguely states Kratos will find the Flame if he can escape the Underworld, which does in fact happen. This conversation clues him in on the threat Kratos poses to Pandora, which is why he's so unhelpful for the rest of the game until his attempted Uriah Gambit.
  • Gaia's Lament: Because of Kratos' actions, the world is flooded and all plant life is dying out. Once Gaia returns, she is infuriated that her world has decayed and declares that she now has a reason to kill him completely on purpose.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Icarus' Wings alternate between Cutscene Incompetence and Cutscene Power to the Max in III. At the beginning of the game, Kratos doesn't think about using them before falling into the Styx. But in several cutscenes afterwards he uses them to actually fly, while you can only glide in gameplay. You do get a couple of actual flying segments though, once by using a powerful updraft, and again by skydiving down the same tunnel.
  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: The majority of Kratos' encounter with Hermes is simply chasing him down; since he's the speedy messenger of the gods, he delights in dashing about making fun of him. Once Kratos manages to knock the wind out of him he barely puts up a fight to speak of—chasing him down was the real contest.
  • Gorgeous Gorgon: This game introduces the Gorgon Serpents, which are more human-looking and conventionally attractive than their counterparts.
  • The Great Flood: Poseidon's death early on in the game unleashes this on Greece, causing the water levels to suddenly rise dramatically and swallow up the lowlands.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: In this game, Kratos can use the small mooks as battering rams.
  • Götterdämmerung: By the end of the game, Kratos has slain all of the Olympians (except Aphrodite, whose fate is left up in the air, and Artemis, apparently forgotten from the first game).
  • Hate Plague: The Reveal is that the Olympians Took a Level in Jerkass after the first game as a direct result of Kratos opening Pandora's box, as said action released the evils inside to infect them, turning them into a bunch of hateful and paranoid tyrants.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard: Hades' soul is ripped out by his own claws, Hercules is beaten to death with his own weapons (the Nemean Cestus), and Hephaestus is impaled on his own anvil.
  • Immediate Sequel: The game picks up exactly where God of War II left off.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
    • Kratos impales Hephaestus with the god's own anvil when the latter tries to murder him in a desperate attempt to prevent him from going after Pandora, although Kratos actually bares no prejudice against Hephaestus at all, admitting later that he was just being a father protecting his daughter.
    • Kratos (seemingly) defeats Zeus in the final battle by pinning him against Gaia's heart and stabbing through him with the Blade of Olympus, killing him and Gaia at the same time.
    • Kratos stabs himself with the Blade of Olympus to prevent Athena from claiming the power of Hope stored inside him, though the post-credits cutscene heavily imply that he has survived.
  • Ironic Echo: When their initial attack on Zeus goes badly and leaves them clinging to the side of Mount Olympus, Gaia refuses to help Kratos, telling him he was nothing but a pawn of the Titans and she has no further use for him, declaring "This is our war, not yours," and leaving Kratos to plummet into the River Styx. When Kratos later gets out of the Underworld and comes across Gaia struggling to reclimb Olympus, the latter legitimately expects Kratos to help her despite her betrayal. Instead, Kratos throws Gaia's words back in her face before severing her hand and sending her plummeting to her apparent demise.
    • When starting a new game, Kratos says "My vengeance... ends here", teasing that he's about to complete his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. At the end of the game, we return to this scene after he has already accomplished this when he killed all of the gods. He realizes the damage he caused and sacrifices himself to give the world hope.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: The gods address Pandora, an Artificial Human, as "it" or "thing."
  • It's Personal: Hades has a vendetta against Kratos for killing his wife, his niece and his brother. Can you blame him?
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: At the very end of the game, Kratos goes through this when Zeus inflicts a Mind Rape on him, traveling through his psyche with aid from the spirit of Pandora and managing to finally forgive himself of his past sins, allowing him to unlock the power of Hope and defeat Zeus once and for all.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • While on his way through Olympus, Kratos winds up in Poseidon's personal quarters, kidnaps his mistress and forces her to prop a door open. She begs him not to leave her behind, but he just ignores her as she is crushed under the lever's weight.
    • Aphrodite refers to her husband Hephaestus as "worthless" and cheats on him without a hint of remorse.
    • Zeus forces Daedalus to build the new labyrinth for him, with the promise that he will bring back Icarus if he does. Once Daedalus is finished, Zeus ties him up in such a way that if the labyrinth is ever finished, Daedalus will be ripped to pieces. And as Kratos, you the player have to do this.
  • Lightning Lash: The Nemesis Whip is a whip-like weapon consisting of two sets of three blades connected by a series of chains. It also charges Kratos' melee attacks with electricity, allowing him to electrocute his foes and activate certain machines.
  • Meaningful Echo: Early in the game, Pandora says that she trusts Kratos, who replies with a blunt "you shouldn't". At the end, Athena tells Kratos that she trusts him to do the right thing, to which Kratos responds "you shouldn't", in a more sorrowful tone. In both cases, Kratos is right; he initially plans to use Pandora as an instrument of his revenge on Zeus (although he later changes his mind, it doesn't amount to much), and the Spartan betrays Athena by impaling himself on the Blade of Olympus, releasing the power of hope into the world rather than surrendering it to Athena.
  • Mind Rape: Zeus inflicts this on Kratos, trapping him in an illusion that forces him to relive all the horrible deeds he is guilty of, hoping to drive him insane and kill him once and for all.
  • Mini-Boss: Centaurs return for this game as towering, armor-covered behemoths wielding a flail-spear combo weapon and commanding the hordes of Olympian Legionnairs in battle, as well as being rare and incredibly tough compared to the other enemies. The Chimarae may count as well, given the fact that you must "finish" them three times and their rarity and thoughness.
  • Mook Maker: During the fight with Cronos, various skeletons pop out of his flesh to attack Kratos, along with an undead Cyclops that was apparently lurking inside his left shoulder.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: The end of the game has Kratos, after having taken his revenge on Olympus, see how the world has been devastated by his actions, and how much of his grief was his own fault.
  • Natural Disaster Cascade: The deaths of each of the gods unleashes a different natural disaster upon the world, often based on the god's element — The Great Flood, storm-clouds which seemingly bring The Night That Never Ends, all plant life withering and dying. By the game's end, after Kratos has killed most of the gods including Zeus, Greece is an unrecognizable, flooded, thunderstorm-skied and tornado-plagued waste, although it's indicated humanity will still survive. The sequel implies the effects were limited to Greece.
  • Mythology Gag: Hades' orginal design from the first game can be seen as a wall carving in a side area in his realm.
  • Neck Snap: Kratos finishes Poseidon off by snapping his neck. He later does the same to Hera when she insultingly calls Pandora a "little whore" in front of him.
  • Never My Fault: Gaia, upon seeing the world falling apart as a result of the gods' deaths, confronts Kratos and blames him for it, saying that "her world bleeds because of him." However, she was the mastermind behind the titan insurrection against the Olympians, and the one who started it all by resurrecting Kratos after he was killed by Zeus at the start of the second game.
  • The Night That Never Ends: The death of Helios causes black clouds to blot out the sun and throw Greece into eternal darkness. It's implied this in turn contributes to Hera's plants dying later on.
  • Nominal Hero: Kratos does many, many genuinely evil things throughout this game, including the brutal slaughter of innocent people (at least to the extent that they did not wrong him) as they beg for their lives. This includes burning a man to death for an item he's holding, and kidnapping a pleading naked woman and using her to prop a door open as she screams for mercy. She is then gruesomely crushed to death by said door
  • Not Hyperbole: Kratos really should have listened when Poseidon said "The death of Olympus means the death of us all;" Killing Poseidon triggers a tidal wave that floods most of Greece, and it's all downhill from there with each Olympian's death.
  • Not Worth Killing: Kratos initially views Hermes and Hera as such, dismissing Hermes as "a fly from the ass of Zeus" and simply pushing Hera aside when she tries to pick a fight with them. Unfortunately for them, they end up pushing Kratos' Berserk Button and getting themselves killed anyway.
  • Off with His Head!: Kratos kills Helios by ripping his head off with his bare hands. It's still alive but is only seen screaming afterward.
  • One-Winged Angel:
    • Poseidon enters his war form, which is a colossal simulacrum of himself connected to his Hippocampus and made of seawater, electricity and rocks. Slightly subverted in that Poseidon himself physically resides inside the colossus and the whole thing turns back into inanimate matter when he's forcibly removed by Kratos.
    • After being deprived of the Claws and dragged into the Styx, Hades sheds his helmet and appears as a towering giant, exposing his deformed face and gashed cranium.
    • During the final battle against Zeus, he manifests as a copy of himself made of sheer darkness which tries to infect Kratos with Fear as a last resort.
  • Pink Is Erotic: Aphrodite makes her first physical appearance in Olympus. She has a high sex drive and is found having sex with her handmaidens as both Greece and Olympus are falling apart because of Kratos. Aphrodite's Chamber has a pink and purple color scheme to reflect her title as the goddess of sex.
  • Prophecy Twist: Just as Chronos had killed his father Uranos, and as Zeus had killed his father Chronos, it was prophecized that Zeus would be killed by his own child (and presumedly succeeded as the ruler of gods). Zeus' actions throughout the second and third game are all meant to prevent Kratos from fulfilling that prophecy. There is however an additional Genius Bonus that is easy to miss. In some versions of the myth of the birth of Athena, Zeus devours her pregnant mother because she was prophecized to give birth to a child more powerful than its father and he remembered the prophecy about his own end. When Athena later sprang from a hole in his head, the issue was apparently forgotten and she joined the pantheon of gods. By the end of the game it turns out that Athena had been planning everything from the very start (as befits a goddess of knowledge and strategy) to get Zeus killed and become the new ruler of the gods instead. Which would make her also qualify for the prophecy, except that Kratos prevented her from ursuping Zeus power.
  • Reforged Blade: As the Blades of Athena were ruined by the River Styx when Kratos fell in, Athena remakes them into the Blades of Exile.
  • Refuge in Audacity: After defeating Helios, Kratos tears off his still-living head and uses it for a flashlight. It even screams every time you take it out.
  • Regret Eating Me: Near the end of the fight with him, Cronos attempts to finish Kratos off by eating him whole. Kratos just cuts his way out of Cronos' gut with the Blade of Olympus. Ironically, before doing so, Cronos tells Kratos that "eating you will be more unpleasant for me"; he had no idea how right he was.
  • Retcon: The opening has a longer version of Zeus' speech from God of War II, but his tone is slightly more aggressive than it was there.
  • Room Full of Crazy: Daedelus' workshop, filled with notes revealing he worked on the labyrinth for years, during which his obsession with getting his son back got worse and worse.
  • Sacred Flames: The Flame of Olympus, originally the lock for Pandora's Box, and the source of Zeus' godly might.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: In the myths, Hera was dedicated to making Hercules' life miserable. She was the one who imposed the Twelve Labors on him as penance for killing his family (which was also her fault). Here, he's her champion against Kratos.
  • Scary Scorpions: Kratos runs afoul of some in the labyrinth, including the giant mommy scorpion, which has somehow eaten the Boreas Icestorm.
  • Sequel Hook: When Gaia rails against Kratos and Zeus, the latter replies "Your pawn has failed you, Gaia. Perhaps you should have chosen the other one!". And while in Kratos' mind, a character never heard before can be heard addressing him as "brother". Played with, as it is actually a prequel hook for God of War: Ghost of Sparta.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: Subverted then played straight in the Hot Coffee Minigame: if Kratos initiates sex with Aphrodite, the camera pans not to an innocent room detail like a pot or a statue, but to Aphrodite's own half-naked concubines who proceed to peep and comment the action as they grow more and more aroused and amorous. If the minigame is succesfully completed, the camera pans back to the bed as we see the two women have sex on the floor.
  • Shout-Out: Early in the game, Kratos gains a power called "Army of Sparta," which summons a large phalanx of Spartans to drop in over Kratos and lash out with their spears. After being completely upgraded, the move even ends in a hail of arrows.
  • Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Kratos tries to shut down Pandora's talk of hope by showing her Daedalus' mangled body within the labyrinth. This doesn't do much to actually dissuade her.
  • Situational Sexuality: Because there aren't any men available, Aphrodite is sleeping with her slave maidens. Then Kratos arrives and she pushes them away so that she could have an Optional Sexual Encounter with Kratos.
  • So Last Season: On meeting Athena, she replaces Kratos' old blades with all new ones, given the old ones were tainted by the River Styx when he fell in.
  • The Stinger: After the credits, we see the spot where Kratos apparently killed himself; his body is missing, with a blood trail leading over the cliff's edge, implying that he may have survived. He did.
  • Titanomachy, Round Two: We get to see the war in full action — and neither side wins. Gaia blurts out that she was planning to discard Kratos, who then decides to kill both sides while they're busy fighting one another.
  • Tornado Move: The Blades of Athena's magic spell, Divine Reckoning, creates a tornado around Kratos.
  • Torso with a View: Kratos is left with a gaping stab wound clear through his stomach after stabbing himself with the Blade of Olympus.
  • Uncertain Doom: Aphrodite is the only goddess not killed by Kratos during his rampage, yet her survival is ambiguous at the end due to Athena not accounting for her when saying she is the last remaining Olympian. Its possible she may have died when Gaia's corpse crushed Mount Olympus or Zeus' death unleashed complete chaos upon the world. Then again, each God's death had a plague associated with it. We simply can't say for certain that love/lust "died" to chaos in the same manner that the sun, sky, ocean, and afterlife did, nor that can we say that it survived, though by the 2018 game it's highly implied that all the other Greek Gods died as collateral damage.
  • Undead Counterpart: Kratos faces a unique undead variant of a cyclops sprouting out of Cronos' shoulder when fighting the latter.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In the cutscene where Pandora talks to Kratos about hope, she seems unfazed by the fact that Kratos is using a severed head as a lantern.
  • Uriah Gambit: Hephaestus pulls one on Kratos in the midgame; fearing for Pandora's life, he sends Kratos to Tartarus to get the Omphalos Stone. What he doesn't tell him is it's inside Cronos' gut, and that Cronos is not happy that Kratos killed Gaia.
  • Video Game Vista: The entrance to Tartarus, a seemingly-endless volcanic plain that reaches out into the distance. Kratos doesn't stay long, though, mostly because of Tartarus' most dangerous occupant, Cronos, trying to kill him.
  • Was It Really Worth It?: At the end, Kratos finally gets his revenge having killed everyone who ever wronged him...but by that point he realizes just how much of his misery was his own fault. He also finally notices the devastation he wrought upon the world during his campaign for vengeance and he's been changed enough to actually give a damn about it.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: By the end of the game, all the Gods are dead... except Aphrodite, who is last seen still fooling about with her handmaidens. There was originally going to be a scene where she tried killing Kratos herself, but that was removed.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: Hades inflicts this fate on a Titan during the opening battle, and tries it on Kratos during his boss battle, even uttering the trope name. Once Kratos claims the Claws of Hades, however, he uses them to inflict this fate on the weapons' original owner, killing him in the process.
  • Zerg Rush: Weaker enemies in this game can, when numberous enough, charge at Kratos in great numbers and dog-pile him, forcing him to enter a QTE to free himself.


Kratos: Face me, father. It is time to end this.
Zeus: Yes, my son! It is time!

Alternative Title(s): God Of War 3

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