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Kratos: Now you are ready...
Atreus: For what?
Kratos: A new beginning...
Atreus: So I'm a man now, like you.
Kratos: No. We are not men. We are more than that. The responsibility is far greater. And you must be better than me. Understand?

God of War is a 2018 sequel to God of War III and the eighth installment in the God of War series, developed by SCE Santa Monica Studio for PlayStation 4, released on April 20, 2018. A port for Microsoft Windows was released on January 14, 2022.

Long ago, a Semi-Divine warrior named Kratos destroyed the pantheon of Ancient Greece in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after the gods took his wife and daughter. Centuries later, in a land far to the North, the now immortal Kratos tries to live quietly with his wife Faye and their young son named Atreus. However, after Faye dies, Kratos and Atreus must leave their home to fulfill Faye's last wish: to scatter her ashes from the top of the highest peak among the Nine Realms. This seemingly straightforward quest soon becomes much more complicated, especially since Kratos and Atreus have somehow run afoul of the Norse pantheon, who have sent a mysterious and nigh-invincible stranger to hunt the duo down. At the same time, Kratos, who has spent Atreus's life a cold and distant father, must learn to finally open himself up and forge a genuine bond with his son.

The game is a departure from the rest of the series in that it abandons the Stylish Action aspects of previous games, taking the action down a notch in favor of a more grounded and gritty Hack and Slash style of gameplay, reflected in that Kratos' main weapon is now the Leviathan Axe or that the camera never goes far from Kratos' shoulder. Moreover, the game features Atreus as an Assist Character and focuses on the strained-then-mended relationship between the two, as well as their self-discovery throughout the journey. He still fights legendary monsters and Norse Gods, though.

A sequel, God of War Ragnarök, was released on 9 November 2022 on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.

There was also a novelization by J.M Barlog.


God of War contains examples of:

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    A-C 
  • Abandoned Mine: The Völunder Mines. The miners left a long time ago, and the tunnels are now inhabited by draugr. There is also a mean-looking Soul Eater that Kratos can kill to fulfill a favor for Brok.
  • Abusive Parents: This is one of many themes that pops up regularly in the game, with even Kratos himself showing signs:
    • Kratos is a downplayed example at the beginning of the game—the below examples are much worse, but his insecurity has had very negative consequences. Kratos's deliberate efforts to hide his past as the Ghost of Sparta from Atreus have resulted in Kratos coming off as distant, abrasive, and impossible to please, which has obviously damaged the boy. As the game wears on, Kratos undergoes Character Development and learns to bond with Atreus.
    • There's a fierce thunderstorm at one point in the game that turns out to be the result of Thor beating his son, Modi, for his failures in tracking Kratos down.
    • Baldur's mother, Freya, is an unconventional example. She took his ability to feel anything in order to give him near-Complete Immortality without even asking him, and refused for a century to give it back to him no matter how much he begged, even though she could have at any time. Unlike Kratos, who realized he was wrong and changed, this was her smothering her son and wishing to protect him in a completely selfish manner, and even him attacking would not make her budge though after Atreus accidentally breaks the curse near the end, Freya does appear to realize the error of her ways and looks genuinely remorseful for what she put her son through.
    • Odin has traces of this. Odin tricked Hrungnir, here a mentally handicapped giant, into making a drunken fool of himself for the court of Asgard, but neglected to tell Thor. When Thor arrived, he slew the giant, only to be pinned under the corpse. The court just kept laughing.
    • It's even in the subquests. A spirit in Fafnir's storeroom was betrayed and murdered by his son. Tracking the son reveals that he hated his father for leaving him with his grandfather while he ran the family pirate crew, and strove to show his father up, hence the betrayal. The father is resentful, but still loves his son enough to not rat him out. When he learns his son regretted his actions and died fighting against the pirate crew when they rebelled to avenge his murder, the father moves on to the afterlife, at ease that his son is in Valhalla.
  • Adaptational Context Change: Several aspects of the myths are transcribed to the game in a different way:
    • In Norse mythology, Mimir loses his head after being beheaded by the Vanir due to them suspecting the Aesir had cheated in the exchange of hostages in the aftermath of the Aesir-Vanir war, being revived by Odin so he could continue to give him words of wisdom. In the game, Mimir is instead beheaded under his choice by Kratos and revived by Freya instead, both so he could help Kratos and Atreus on their journey and so he could escape from Odin's imprisonment and torture.
    • In myth, Baldr was blessed by his mother to never be harmed after she made every object vow to never hurt him, apart from the mistletoe. Knowing that vulnerability, Loki then made a spear or arrow out of mistletoe, and during a competition in which the gods were throwing several weapons at Baldr only to see them harmlessly bounce off, gave the mistletoe to Baldr's blind brother Hodr, who inadvertently killed him. In the game, Loki, that is, Atreus, doesn't make the mistletoe arrow nor knows that it was Baldur's only weakness, but ends up removing his invulnerability when Baldur's punch hits the head of the arrow.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • Fafnir, of the Völsunga saga, makes an appearance as a Dwarf-turned-Dragon whom Kratos and Atreus can free during the course of the game. The fact that he's a kin-slaying murderer whose greed caused him to transform into a dragon in the first place isn't brought up. The worst that is mentioned is Sindri describing him as an "aggressive collector" of magic artifacts. That said, Sindri also notes he hasn't seen him in a while and assumes he is dead, so there isn't so much added heroism as there is a lack of knowledge of any perceived evil.
    • The Aesir-Vanir War is alluded to by certain characters who make it seem like a one-sided affair. Yes, the Aesir attempted to kill Gullveig (Freyja), but in their defense, she was actively turning them against each other.
    • Jormungandr, the World-Serpent, who will end up poisoning the sky and water of Midgard at Ragnarok, thus killing all mankind, is a heroic figure in the story and even saves Kratos and Atreus on a few occasions. Then again, given that Atreus is Loki, the prophecy foretells the journey he and Kratos are on is the one that sets in motion the sequence of events that heralds Ragnarok and his own birth. There is a lot of ironic self-serving here.
    • Atreus, who turns out to be Loki, is an interesting example. What Loki was actually like is slippery—every mythological figure has varying depictions, and the attempts of early scholars of Norse mythology to make the stories neater and more Christian only muddled things more. Loki's atrocities and role in Ragnarok are well-known, but he was also depicted as an example of the Trickster God—mischievous, but heroic, and an ally of the Aesir. For the most part, Atreus is a kind, sympathetic boy, but does show a darker side as well. In any case, the event serving as Loki's Moral Event Horizon in the popular understanding—causing the death of Baldur by tricking Hodr into shooting him with mistletoe—is shown very differently here. Atreus takes a punch from a violently psychotic Baldur that was meant for Kratos, causing Baldur to accidentally stab himself with mistletoe tied to Atreus's quiver strap. Atreus may be subject to an in-universe Historical Villain Upgrade to explain the inconsistencies.
    • A number of Giants get a heroism upgrade to justify the Aesir being the bad guys. The etymology of Jötunn can be interpreted as anything from evil spirit to gluttonous to devourers, and in mythology, they were generally rapacious spirits of entropy and destruction that were harmful toward humans (though there were benign and neutral ones). The Aesir, though warlike and bloodthirsty, were ultimately protectors of humanity. Here, the Giants are a wise race of philosophers and artists who want to usher in a world "where gods grow good". Very few of them are seen in a negative light, and are often the victims of the conversely much crueler Aesir.
    • In the myths, Hrungnir and Odin get into a bet over whose horse is faster, which ends with Hrungnir chasing Odin to Asgard. The gods welcome him hospitably, but he soon becomes drunk and rowdy, making threats that he'll kill the Aesir and take their womanfolk back to Jotunheim. Thor is called to deal with him, resulting in Hrungnir's death, with some interpretations saying that they had an honorable duel. Here, Hrungnir is presented as a charming simpleton who Odin met one day wandering Midgard. Finding him amusing, harmless, and gullible, Odin invited him back to Asgard. He gets him drunk and goads him into all manner of boasts and antics, all for the amusement of the court. Drunk, Hrungnir makes the same threats he did in mythology, until Thor shows up, who takes one look at the drunken buffoon and strikes him dead.
    • Also, the story of Hrimthurs, which in myth isn't the name of a person but of a people, as it literally means 'Frost Giants'. In the myths, the giant who built Asgard's walls with the help of Svaðilfari did so because he wanted Freyja's hand in return for it. Here, he intentionally built the wall with structural weaknesses so that it can be destroyed at Ragnarok by the giants, thereby avenging his father's death at the hands of Thor, and seemingly tells this tidbit to Freyja before he gets killed by Thor.
    • Surtr, the Fire Giant destined to burn Asgard and engulf the world in flame, is painted in a very heroic light, and is even known as "Surtr the Brave". Although his part in Ragnarok remains unchanged (i.e., he will destroy Asgard, dying to Thor and Odin in the process), the world will be born anew from Asgard's destruction. Until then, he lives a lonely existence in Muspelheim, ever honing his blade, knowing that he is destined to die... all in service to a grand cycle that's bigger than himself. Mimir even describes him as "brave and generous" for embracing his purpose despite the patience and sacrifice it demands.
  • Adaptational Modesty: Virtually all entries set in the original trilogy's setting had several female designs be quite fetish-fueled, from clothing that left little to the imagination with lots of exposed bits to outright going topless. This rebirth for the series, on the other hand, has abandoned this aspect — sexuality and nudity aren't part of this new chapter for the franchise.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Many of the Aesir Gods are portrayed as more vicious and cruel than in mythology.
    • Baldur was regarded as the kindest and pure of all gods in the Norse pantheon. Here, he is a psychotic madman who wants to kill his mother for making him invulnerable and inadvertently taking away his senses (and she only did this for his own protection).
    • Odin himself gets hit with this pretty bad, as the emphasis on his more negative traits makes him worse than Zeus. The All-Father is shown as a controlling Evil Overlord that spies on every living being in the Nine Worlds, is willing to kill anyone he perceives as a threat to him (even if they aren't at the moment), including other gods such as Tyr, tortures others as a hobby, and has a knack for finding new ways to inflict pain on his victims (one of them being Mimir, who was a close friend of his in mythology whom he brought back to life after being beheaded by the Vanir). It's said that everything he does is to prevent Ragnarok, but his actions paint him in a self-serving light, out to preserve his own power.
    • The Aesir in general, though primarily gods of war and death in the original mythology, are portrayed as being far more brutish and savage than they were in the mythology. Odin's slaying of Ymir is treated similarly to Zeus overthrowing the Titans — i.e. an usurpation. According to the Poetic Edda, however, Odin only killed Ymir after he "became evil". Considering what the Titans eventually revealed themselves to be in the original trilogy, though, it's possible things aren't quite so black-and-white as we're led to believe with the Aesir and Jotnar.
  • Adaptation Expansion:
    • Alfheim doesn't receive a physical description in Norse sources, only being said to be the dwelling of the light elves, one of the abodes in the heavens, and the place Freyr rules over, given to him as a tooth-gift; it is also ambiguous if Álfheimr is one of the Nine Realms or a location inside of one of the others, as the place is mentioned alongside locations of Asgard traditionally not considered to be realms of their own, like Breidablik (Baldr's dwelling), Valaskjálf (one of Odin's halls) and Himinbjörg (Heimdall's home). In the game, Alfheim is a large explorable realm where both the light and dark elves live and have an eternal war for the Light since their leader Freyr retreated; the sequel also shows additional explorable areas and information about its History, with the Light being said to be older than Odin himself.
    • It's revealed here that Kratos was known as Fárbauti to the giants of Jötunheim. The actual Fárbauti of Norse myth is given little to no characterization beyond his role as the father of Loki, and may have in fact been nothing more than a flowery metaphor calling Loki the offspring of lightning (Fárbauti) hitting trees (Laufey), i.e. a wildfire.
    • The novelization of the game goes into much more detail as to just how Kratos made it to Midgard after the events of Greece, as well as how he survived his attempted suicide in III.
  • After the End: While it's not the full-blown Ragnarok yet, it's clear that once Kratos and Atreus leave their woods, something is very wrong with the realms. Nearly all of them are deserted, with the dead rising up in droves all over the place, and the two are told second-hand that the people who used to live in the area are either all dead or long since fled Midgard. Some of the Lore Scrolls found seem to hint this is because of a "plan" Odin is enacting on purpose.
  • All Just a Dream: This is how Kratos dismisses Atreus' vision of Thor appearing at their house after the end of the main game. Atreus seems pretty skeptical of this explanation.
  • All There in the Manual: It's revealed through the novelization just how Kratos managed to survive being impaled by the Blade of Olympus in the previous game: he realized he couldn't die by his own hand, and after trying to throw himself off a cliff, a gust of wind carried him back onto his own feet, as if some force of nature was preventing him from offing himself. So he decided to just travel to a distant land through ship.
  • All Trolls Are Different: Trolls are rare monsters that Kratos can encounter. They are tough enough to constitute a Boss Battle by themselves. They come in several colors, but all are as big as the cyclops, have tusks, and wield giant stone pillars imbued with magic which they can use in a limited fashion.
  • Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Invoked when Mimir tells the story of Thrym, listing three lessons for each of the characters in the story.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: In-Universe. To the gods and the humans, the death of the giants was necessary to ensure their survival in the long term and the humans worship the gods as their protectors. The dwarves, however, were friendly to both sides so they find the annihilation of one side to be detestable. They also see the abuse the gods give to their children as disgusting while the humans see it as tough love. Kratos, meanwhile, distrusts all gods and, thus, doesn't think humans should worship them; Kratos see them as practically slaves to the gods, not favored children. A lot of the people Kratos and Atreus run into are negative to the gods. Given that Atreus is actually Loki and his mother was a frost giant, this neatly sets up his long term conflict with the gods that will lead to Ragnarok.
  • And I Must Scream:
    • The Valkyries end up trapped in fleshy, mortal bodies, unable to stop the corruptive magic that made them feral creatures. And they are fully aware of what has happened to them.
    • Baldur has it bad. Thanks to Freya, he is incapable of physically feeling anything. Unfortunately, this also stripped him of his other senses such as taste and smell. It's no wonder he was so insane with hate towards her.
  • ...And That Little Boy Was Me: Decidedly not played for laughs. One of the Fables that Kratos tells Atreus while rowing is of a wild horse who "sought vengeance" on a stag that it had declared its enemy; making a deal with a hunter to be saddled and reined, the two rode together and brought the stag down, but the hunter refused to honor the deal and "made a slave" of the horse, who soon came to regret its brief, hollow victory. Although the intended morals are "revenge is pointless" and "deceitful men, especially ones that offer power, cannot be trusted", it's clear the allegory is about Kratos, whose hatred for the Barbarian King led him to beseech Ares and make a deal that cost him his freedom, family, and soul.
  • Angst? What Angst?: In-Universe, Atreus openly accuses Kratos of not even caring that Faye is dead. Kratos promptly shuts him up, informing him that he's grieving for her in his own way.
  • Annoying Arrows: In a scene that didn't make it into the final game, Atreus misses and shoots an arrow into Kratos' shoulder, who barely flinches and simply pulls it out and continues fighting the troll. He doesn't even bother to get angry at the child afterwards. Averted as the game continues: while Kratos does most of the heavy lifting, Atreus can kill enemies on his own and can later infuse his arrows with different magical properties. He can even break Kratos out of enemy grabs with them. In fact, his arrows are so potent that during a critical plot point when Atreus' pride about being a god and resentment toward Kratos reaches a head, he purposefully shoots Kratos with a shock arrow, stunning him long enough for Baldur to knock out and kidnap Atreus.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • Should players find difficulty figuring out how to beat a boss, the game will provide hints.
    • If you accidentally forget to pick up a unique item after a battle is over (like a Resource vital to upgrading the Leviathan Axe or Blades of Chaos), Brok and/or Sindri's shop has a "Lost Items" section where any uncollected items and/or resources from another area can be claimed at no cost.
    • While the Valkyrie Superbosses don't have this luxury, the majority of the main-story-related Bosses have mid-fight checkpoints. The Troll acting as Bridge Keeper in Helheim (Máttugr Helson) that Kratos has to fight to get its heart to heal a sick Atreus is a particularly glaring example — the final checkpoint is as late as the last couple of bars of his Health.
    • If Kratos knocks an enemy off a cliff, they instantly die. And their loot drop will magically appear on the cliff-side, so the player doesn't have to hold back for fear of losing their reward.
    • If the button-mashing prompts or the precision-based method of opening the Hidden Chambers becomes too tedious for you, they can both be switched to simplified versions in the gameplay options.
    • If the Valkyrie fight in the Hidden Chamber within the Mountain is started when first available, which is during the time that Atreus is immersed in arrogance over his newly-discovered godhood and has the random chance to ignore orders during combat including not using a Ressurection Stone when Kratos is downed, for the duration of this event in the above circumstances, he will act as he normally does.
    • After reaching the post-game, the location of every Valkyrie that hasn't been defeated is revealed so you don't have to guess where the undiscovered Hidden Chambers are.
    • If the Valkyrie Superboss in Ivaldi's Maze in Niflheim is defeated before the resistance meter for the Deadly Mists runs out, it will be automatically refilled after the fight.
    • If he didn't have it already, Kratos will automatically recall the Leviathan Axe before using a Mystic Gateway to fast travel.
    • Atreus will frequently call out the presence of interesting features in an area as well as look in their general direction, especially bonus objectives like Odin's ravens. Zig-zagged in terms of being anti-frustration, though, as it can in fact be very frustrating when he only looks generally in the direction of whatever he's talking about, and doesn't call out exactly what you should be trying to spot, whether a seal attached to a Nornir Chest or a hard-to-spot Raven.
    • At least on lower difficulties, if you die and restart from a checkpoint, you will revive with full health, even if you were next to dead when you started the encounter.
    • Outside of a few places where the getting to the boat is plot-relevant or moving the boat around is part of a puzzle, if you leave the boat on one beach/dock and end up working your way to another one, there will be a second boat there.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: Mimir tells the story of Surtr the Brave. Surtr is destined to die after burning Asgard with his flaming sword, so the new world can begin anew. Rather than try to defy destiny or change his fate, he tirelessly hones his blade so he won't fail.
    Mimir: Brave, generous Surtr, who knows he lives but to his doom. All because he chooses to serve a grand cycle, so much bigger than himself. To truly embrace your purpose, and the patience and sacrifice it demands, is to ensure your day will come.
  • Arc Words:
    • Kratos' advice to Atreus whenever the boy fails or is on the verge of despair is always some variation of "Be better". This is as much instructions to the boy as it is a reminder to himself that he mustn't be the man whose fury made him a Villain Protagonist. Becomes even more poignant when he says it to Baldur - another god whose justified anger at a parental figure has spiraled into an uncontrollable blind rage - as he snaps his neck before he can do anymore harm.
    • Several lore markers speak of a prophesied time "until gods grow good". The earliest instance seems to use the phrase sarcastically, in a similar fashion to "when pigs fly". However, its appearance in Jotunheim hints at something more meaningful.
  • Artificial Brilliance: The game's enemies, especially on the stronger difficulty settings, are mercilessly effective at co-ordinating their attacks in order to exploit the game's complete lack of Mercy Invincibility in order to stun-lock you and beat you to a bloody pulp in short order.
  • Artificial Insolence: There's a section where Atreus and Kratos have a falling-out. Until they reconcile, Atreus won't obey your commands in combat, attacking on his own initiative instead.
  • Artistic License: The Jotun shrine that Kratos finds in Helheim has symbols at each of the corners: an Egyptian wadjet, the Greek letter Omega, a Japanese mitsudomoe, and a Celtic triskele, all of which are identified as meaning "war", which they really don't.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Static runes shown on in-game objects are mostly accurate. However, whenever a new location is entered, runes will appear and fade into Latin letters showing the place name, and these are nonsense. They're individual runes fading into individual letters as opposed to whole words fading into whole words, so there's no way the "translation" would make sense. For instance, the runes shown for Dauthamunni actually spell out "lthrjbiotwog gthhfrllngu".
  • Assist Character: Atreus aids Kratos in combat. He can attack enemies and stun them, opening them up for Kratos to attack. He can also be commanded to shoot arrows and use summoning magic. Although he can be endangered by enemies, this is pretty rare, and he's ultimately much more of a benefit than a liability.
  • Awkward Father-Son Bonding Activity: The entire game can be construed as this for Kratos and Atreus.
  • Badass and Child Duo: Kratos and Atreus. On their journey, they take down draugr, trolls, cannibalistic reavers, ogres, dragons, Valkyries, and to top it off, a virtually immortal god.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Anyone with passing knowledge of Norse Mythology (Or at least watched/read Marvel) would guess Thor is near during the trek to Jortenheim gate during a thunderstorm. Turns out He was probably there, since Modi is seen hunched over after getting beaten by him. However we still get to see Thor at the last scene of the game.
  • Barrier Change Boss: The Final Boss switches his vulnerabilities during his third phase. When he turns blue, you can only damage him with the Leviathan Axe, but when he turns red, he becomes immune to attacks with the Leviathan Axe.
  • Bash Brothers: Magni and Modi, the Sons of Thor. They constantly bicker and argue as one might expect of siblings, but they make a dangerous duo with their own Combination Attack, the Snowblind.
  • Behemoth Battle: Near the end of the main campaign Jörmungandr takes on the reanimated Thamur, albeit briefly.
  • Behind the Black: Used In-Universe to explain to an increasingly incredulous Kratos how Sindri (and, by extension, Brok) keep getting to places before himself and Atreus. According to Sindri, dwarves have the ability to step into the "place between the realms" that beings within the Nine Realms cannot perceive, effectively rendering them invisible. Sindri demonstrates it by vanishing from view as the camera goes behind Atreus's back, being visible on one side of him and then invisible on the other before his hand extends from offscreen to offer Atreus an apple. By Sindri's admission the ability doesn't work on dragons.
  • Bilingual Bonus:
    • The Old Norse rune answers to many puzzles are almost identical to their modern Scandinavian counterparts. Also, a Funny Background Event that will likely pass non-Scandinavian ears is Brok referring to his Beast of Burden as "digr bikkja, dumbr bak-rauf" which roughly translates to "big bitch, stupid ass".
    • In an easily missable moment near the very end of the game, examining the jotun mural with Photo Mode will show that Kratos is identified as Fárbauti in runes.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Kratos and Atreus have managed to mend their strained bond, complete their quest to scatter Faye's ashes, and return home. But along the way, they are forced to kill Baldur to defend Freya, only for her to vow revenge on them for her son's death. As if this wasn't bad enough, the Norse Gods now have their sights on them, as shown by a vision of Thor confronting them in the near future. The jötnar are, seemingly all dead, Fimbulvinter has started and Kratos cannot have the peace he so wanted. To top it all off, the murals of Jotunheim imply that Kratos is destined to die in Atreus's arms, presumably setting the scene for Ragnarok to occur.
  • Blackout Basement: At one point, Kratos and Atreus must return through a pitch-black tunnel in Alfheim, and the only source of light is the dim lantern Kratos has.
  • Black-and-White Morality: Atreus would like to believe that there are strictly "good gods" and "bad gods", but both Kratos and Mimir try to help the young man gain a wider perspective on the complex morality at play in the setting. It also gets a little disturbing when Atreus decides that godhood means the concerns of "lesser beings" are beneath him in a very Nietzschean turn.
  • Big Brother Is Watching: Odin has eyes and ears everywhere through his ravens. One side mission titled "The Eyes of Odin" has Kratos dispatching all of Odin's winged spies.
  • Blunt "Yes": Kratos' usual style of response, but is most prominent at the conclusion of the Heart of an Ancient labour:
    Sindri: Whoah! You killed an Ancient?
    Kratos: Yes.
    Sindri: Was it... difficult?
    Kratos: Yes.
    Sindri: Is that all you're gonna give me?
    Kratos: Yes.
  • Bonus Dungeon: There are two in the game. Muspelheim, a realm that is nothing but volcanos where you face a series of fights with special conditions (such as killing a certain amount of enemies within a circle in the arena or else kill many enemies without being hit once) culminating in a battle with a Valkyrie. The second is Nifelheim, a realm filled with a poisonous fog that is a dungeon that is semi-randomized every time you enter, where you kill enemies and open chests to gain materials that will let you craft powerful armor that will let you stay in the dungeon for longer. There is also another valkyrie to be fought here.
  • Book Ends:
    • Near the beginning of the game, Kratos fights the Stranger. It ends with Kratos breaking his neck. Near the end of the game, Kratos fights the Stranger again, now having been revealed to be the god Baldur. It ends with Kratos breaking his neck, this time for good.
    • Another from the above: the journey to spread Faye's ashes is forced by the arrival of The Stranger arriving at the house ( via his dragon, causing a loud ruckus), prompting Kratos to meet him at the front door and quickly learn that he's a god. At the very end of the game after their journey has concluded, Atreus has a vision of Thor arriving at the house (via thunderstorm, causing a loud rucket), prompting Kratos to meet him at the front door and quickly learn that he's a god. In both examples, they're relatives of Odin: Baldur and Thor.
    • A smaller, but still poignant moment is very early in the game while hunting a deer: Atreus offers his knife to Kratos, who says "finish what you started" and gives some slight help so Atreus can kill the deer. Seeing his son shaken by his first kill, Kratos moves to put his hand on Atreus' shoulder, but backs out. After the two reach their goal, Atreus offers the bag holding of Faye's ashes to Kratos, who says that "we do it together." After they two finish their goal, the camera pans back from the ashes to reveal Kratos finally having his arm around Atreus' shoulders.
  • Boring, but Practical: Unarmed combat. Though it has a skill tree, unarmed combat lacks the gear upgrades of the other combat styles. Its big upside is that it deals loads of Stun damage, allowing for grapples that are lethal to lesser enemies and do massive damage to elites (and occasionally give Kratos the opportunity to instakill elites by throwing them over cliffs or into pools of lava). The 3 seconds or so spent in a kill animation render Kratos invulnerable, but continue to tick down debuffs like poison and blind. Atreus' Light Arrows will cover for Kratos, keeping the stun bar full. Finally, the player can get a talisman very early in the game that causes every grapple to restore a small amount of health.
  • Bragging Rights Reward:
    • The only way to get the final upgrade for the Leviathan Axe is to clear some of the game's most difficult combat challenges, including beating some of the Valkyries. Same goes for the Blades of Chaos with the Heart of Muspelheim. Sigrun, Queen of the Valkyries, drops some pretty good loot as well, including her helmet that can be sold for tons of money and an axe pommel that massively increases the distance you can throw the axe. By the time you beat her, you've probably got nothing left to do. You're certainly good enough to clear the final boss without needing anything she could provide.
    • The reward for beating the game's Give Me God of War mode are two shield skins that give no stat bonuses or abilities, and you barely get to see them in-game anyway.
    • Beating Give Me God of War mode in New Game Plus not only unlocks the skins, but two optional armors for Atreus. The armors are a particular example of this trope, as the player will have likely already bought Atreus' ultimate armor, rendering the unlocks pointless.
  • Brawler Lock: Both the Stranger and Kratos become locked into one; their physical strength is so equally matched that their struggle starts shattering the ground around them, eventually creating a sizeable rift in the earth between them.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: One of Brok's bits of dialogue has him complaining, "If I'd wanted Aesir business I'd have set up outside a brothel. Or a fighting pit. Or a fighting brothel!"
  • Break Out the Museum Piece: When Atreus becomes ill and Freya asks Kratos to bring her the heart of Helheim's Gatekeeper to cure him, she warns him that Hel is deathly cold, that no magic in the Nine Realms can make a blaze there, and that the ice magic of the Leviathan Axe would not avail him against the cold denizens of Hel. Kratos grimly realizes that he must unearth his past and returns home, retrieving the Blades of Chaos hidden beneath the floorboards. The Blades, having been forged in the depths of Hades and infused with magic outside the Nine Realms, nicely fit his needs.
    • To twist the knife of cruelty, the only weapons that he can wield to venture into Helheim and save his dying son—the only family he has left—are the same blades that he murdered his daughter and first wife with, centuries ago in Greece.
  • Break the Haughty: Kratos's second visit to Helheim causes this to happen to Atreus, who has become very much like his father with the thought that he's a god. After getting his ass kicked by Baldur, shooting Kratos in a blind rage, and causing them both to be trapped in Hel, Kratos gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that lets Atreus know in no uncertain terms that he is the reason they're stuck in Hel, that his attitude will not be tolerated, and that he will do what Kratos says from now on, without question. This, plus visions that the place shows Atreus of him murdering Modi in cold blood, finally manages to snap Atreus out of his smugness.
  • Brick Joke: Whenever rowing the boat through the Lake of Nine, Atreus will ask Kratos to tell him a story. Kratos tells extremely laconic versions of Aesop's Fables, with Atreus complaining that he's terrible at telling stories. In the finale, Kratos gives a long and relatively heartfelt description of the man who was Atreus' namesake, with Atreus simply responding, "Wow. You actually told a good story."
  • Brought Down to Badass: At the start of the game Kratos has clearly been out of the god-killing business for a while and no longer seems to have access to his full range of Olympian powers. Despite this he is still formidable enough to take down a giant troll and hold his own against the stranger (Baldur) in their first fight.
  • Burning with Anger: Kratos' Spartan Rage, best shown during his first fight with the Stranger, whereupon nearby tree roots burst into flame when he enters it. Atreus, who happens to have anger management issues, appears to enter a Spartan Rage-like state when he gets really angry (but it quickly overwhelms him). Like father, like son.
  • Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: Faye has asked Kratos and Atreus to scatter her ashes on the highest mountain among the nine realms, which is the ultimate goal of the game.
  • Call-Back: If there was any doubt that this is the same Kratos, there is a wealth of references to his previous life throughout the game.
    • When the duo comes across a relic referring to the Norns, Kratos asks who are they and Atreus says they are the fates. Kratos replies that they can't be good, obviously referring to the Sisters of Fate in II.
    • Once you obtain the Blades of Chaos, Kratos uses them just like he did in the original trilogy, with lots of long swipes and circular motions. He even has several of his classic moves under different names, including the Plume of Prometheus.
      • When the Blades ignite for the first time, Kratos is holding them in the exact same pose from the cover art of the original game.
    • Just before Kratos kills Baldur for the last time, he repeats "the cycle ends here", the same words that Zeus told him before killing him in II. He refers to the Cycle of Revenge of children killing parents and wanted to prevent Baldur from murdering his mother Freya.
    • One of the treasure maps you can find is named "The Ship Captain's Key", referencing the ill-fated captain who kept running into Kratos in the older games. The map's description even says he was swallowed by the Hydra, which happened in the original God of War.
    • When the Witch of the Woods asks if Kratos knows about the Realm of the Dead, he replies he isn't familiar "with this one" (referencing his previous visits to the Underworld in previous games).
    • Near the end of the game, Kratos once again jumps into the void in a similar manner to how he jumped off the Suicide Bluffs in the first game in an attempt to kill himself. This time, however, he does it because it's the path forward, and there's Atreus and Mimir who come along as well.
    • Also near the end of the game, Kratos once again has to travel into the belly of a gigantic monster, this time being the World Serpent. Luckily, this time the monster isn't trying to kill him.
    • The way Kratos kills the Dragon is similar to how he defeated the Hydra in the first game, impaling the monster with a giant crystal just like how he impaled the Hydra's head on the ship's mast.
    • Once again, Kratos decapitates a mythical being in order to use their head as a tool. In this case, however, it's at Mimir's request and he is revived as a travel companion for the duo rather than being kept as an object to be used.
  • The Call Knows Where You Live: A Stranger knocks at Kratos' home, looking for a fight, which he gets after much provoking. Afterwards, Kratos realizes that Atreus is in danger and they immediately begin their quest to scatter Faye's ashes.
    • Actually subverted. The Call was actually looking for a Giant, but didn't realize that was his deceased wife, but his comments made it sound like he was talking about Kratos.
  • Came Back Wrong: Mimir implies that at best he's reanimated, and is still very much dead. The fact that this unpleasant state of being undead is preferable to the torture he endured under Odin speaks volumes. If Kratos tries to visit Freya's house in the post-game, Atreus wonders if Freya will revive Baldur with the same magic she used on Mimir, who muses that being undead is so unpleasant that she would never subject her son to that fate.
  • The Cameo:
    • Athena appears before Kratos to give him a Hannibal Lecture when he regains his Blades of Chaos.
    • Zeus appears as a hallucination to Kratos when he visits Helheim.
  • Canon Character All Along: Atreus is revealed at the end of the game to be Loki from Norse Mythology. This also makes his mother Faye the giant Laufey, and Kratos the "cruel striker" Fárbauti.
  • Cannot Self Terminate: The Valkyries. They can only be freed once their mortal bodies have been killed but they are so blinded by rage and the corruption their mortal bodies have caused them that you must fight them to free them.
  • Casting Gag:
  • Character Development: Kratos is not the same bloodthirsty one-man Spartan army he was in the original games. As Word of God puts it, "we are done telling the story of the Hulk. Now we want to tell the story of Bruce Banner." This is best demonstrated with how he tries to warn his son that killing a god has consequences, in contrast with the old Kratos, who didn't give a damn about such matters. Right at the beginning of the game, when he is angered by his son's impatience and inability to listen when Atreus fires his arrow at a deer despite Kratos telling him to hold, Kratos starts his typical shouting when he scolds him, complete with classic God of War chorus building in the background, but once he realizes what's happening, he actually makes an effort to calm himself by breathing in deeply, and finishes his scolding message in a calmer tone, with the chorus disappearing as he does so — a far cry from his hair-trigger unstoppable rage past.
    Kratos: What are you doing?! Now its guard is up! Only fire... [Breathes deeply to calm down] Only fire... when I tell you to fire.
  • Charged Attack:
    • The Executioner's Cleave is a maneuveur the player can pull off by holding the heavy attack button while holding the Leviathan Axe. Doing so will cause Kratos to stand still and swing down his axe with enough force to one-shot most Mooks by decapitating or dismembering them.
    • The heavy throw with the Leviathan Axe damages and freezes its target more the longer Kratos preps the throw.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • When the Stranger first comes to Kratos' house, Kratos orders Atreus to hide in a hidden room underneath the floorboards. Atreus protests that Kratos usually never wants him to go down there, and a cloth bundle is briefly visible. Later in the game, Kratos retrieves the bundle, which contains the Blades of Chaos that he's hidden from his son.
    • Early in the game, Kratos and Atreus navigate an abandoned tunnel once used by the Giants. Kratos expresses confusion at the tunnel's cramped dimensions, and Atreus has to clarify that many Giants were not literally gigantic. Certainly explains how Kratos never knew that Faye and Atreus are Giants.
    • In the same tunnels, Atreus figures out how a floating lantern works by lighting a fire and letting the warm air levitate the lantern away. Kratos uses a similar trick with a ship's sail to make a makeshift airship in Helheim.
    • When Kratos is trapped in the Light of Alfheim, he sees two places he and Atreus will later go: the boat in Helheim and the mountain in Jotanheim.
    • Sindri's mistletoe arrows, which inadvertently allow Atreus to remove Baldur's invulnerability. More directly, at one point in the game, Atreus' quiver strap breaks and Kratos performs a temporary repair with an arrowhead; Freya destroys the mistletoe arrows but doesn't notice the arrowhead, which is what ends up stabbing Baldur.
  • Chest Monster: There are two situations in which Kratos opens a chest and is suddenly attacked by a Hel-Walker inside, once in the Mountain and another in Konunsgard. Considering Hel-Walkers are undead and the chests are actually caskets, those enemies presumably got reanimated still inside their tombs.
  • Clingy MacGuffin: The Blades of Chaos are this for Kratos. Kratos has tried to get rid of them many times, but they always find their way back to him one way or another. Even tossing them into the ocean didn't work for long. This is why he has settled on keeping them hidden under his house. Like the ashes of his family grafted to his skin and the burn marks on his arms from the Blades' chains, the Blades themselves are a permanent reminder of his bloody past that he can never truly erase.
  • Collection Sidequest:
    • Each major area in the game has a group of four to eight artifacts sprinkled throughout that Kratos can collect for some money and 100% completion. Most are fairly flavorful, like the mystical masks near the Witch's house or the cups that once belonged to the giants in the mountain.
    • There are over 50 of Odin's Ravens stationary throughout the world that serve no purpose but to be killed by Kratos in order to gain 100% completion (plus some experience for killing them all). It does continue a trend of sidequest dedicated to finding and "collecting" means of Sinister Surveillance from games like Batman: Arkham City and inFAMOUS: Second Son.
  • Combat Sadomasochist: Baldur, from the moment his curse to feel nothing breaks, begins to enjoy feeling pain.
  • Coming of Age Story: The journey to fulfill Faye's last wish serves as one for Atreus.
  • Composite Character:
    • Freya is conflated with Frigga, Odin's wife and mother of Baldur. This is appropriate since many scholars believe the two to be a Decomposite Character. Mimir mentions in an incidental conversation that Frigg was a pet name Odin gave Freya when they were wed, and eventually used it as a sort of fictional identity to give credit to Freya's more notable achievements, implying that the confusion exists In-Universe.
    • Kratos has taken traits from characters from Nordic legend as well, specifically Fárbauti (due to being the father of Loki) and Hodr (being Baldur's slayer).
    • Chief Developer Cory Barlog has also gone on record to state that the primary inspiration for Kratos' persona in God Of War (2018) is William Munny, played by Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. Stated by Eastwood to be an Older and Wiser "Man With No Name" from the Dollars Trilogy of Spaghetti Western directed Sergio Leone, Munny (like Kratos) is also an elderly Retired Monster spurred into action by the death of his wife, returning to a life of murder that he tried to leave behind for One Last Job, to build a better life for his child.
    • The Sons of Ivaldi, the unnamed dwarven brothers who made Sif's golden hair, Freyr's boat Skiðblaðnir and Odin's spear Gungnir in the Prose Edda, are said in lore markers to be Mótsognir and Andvari, two dwarves who were part of other different myths.
  • Contrived Coincidence: As a reward for saving Sindri from a Dragon, the dwarf decides to bestow a quiver of mistletoe arrows to Atreus as a gift for him. This begs the question as to why he would make a normally impractical mistletoe arrow in the first place, particularly with The Reveal that the mistletoe coincidentally turns out to be the one weakness that can remove Baldur's immortality; the only reason given in-game is that dwarves, particularly Brok and Sindri, just love crafting weapons, armor and other things using elaborate and unlikely raw materials.
  • Contractual Boss Immunity: Most lone bosses don't take stun damage, so they can't be quickly killed by finishers that Kratos can use to one-shot normal enemies.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Kratos and Atreus wander the realm of Muspellheim and climb the slopes of an active volcano, with no worse effects than Atreus (and Mimir's head) remarking about how hot it is. Technically, they should be catching on fire, being only inches away from actual flowing lava.
  • Conveniently Precise Translation: Several puns throughout the game only work in English. For example, the lore marker that tells you about Muspelheim says "The Gauntlet of Surtur". Atreus thinks this refers to a glove, while Kratos (correctly) interprets it as a series of challenges. Except that "gauntlet" meaning glove comes from Old French, while "gauntlet" meaning challenge comes from Modern Swedish.
  • Cool Gate: The Bifrost. It's attached to the World Tree and uses it as a connection between realms, putting down roots that serve as a bridge.
  • Cosmetic Award: The game's Give Me God of War difficulty is borderline impossible for the first couple of hours and still an incredible challenge even after that. You don't get anything for completing it besides two shield skins which you'll barely ever see in gameplay.
  • "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Freya learned that Baldur was destined to die 'a needless death' when he was born, and so cast spells upon him to render him invulnerable to all harm. This unfortunately came with the side-effect of taking away most of his senses as well, rendering him unable to feel even basic pleasures, and steadily driving him mad from sensory deprivation, and increasingly vengeful against his mother. When his invulnerability is removed accidentally via a broken mistletoe arrow when he attacks Kratos and Atreus for the final time, despite having what he's long desired at last, he still proceeds with attacking them to get to Freya and take Revenge on her for his suffering. Even when Kratos finally beats him down and has him at his mercy, he pointedly lets Baldur go with a warning to leave and cease his assault on them, only for Baldur to resume trying to strangle Freya shortly afterwards, forcing a solemn Kratos to give him a Neck Snap to stop him for good, fulfilling his prophecied death.
  • Crapsack World: Even though Midgard is in a much better shape than what Greece was left at the end of God of War III, it's hardly any better than what it used to be before that either. For starters, it's a Grim Up North land and slowly getting worse, first flooded by a Desolation, then subjected to increasingly bad winters, and finally being overrun by undead. The few humans encountered are cannibals, and Kratos assumes the ones that aren't won't be friendly either. The Aesir are just as bad as the Olympians and are implied to have been corrupted somehow, with Odin going drunk with power and reducing the Nine Worlds to ruin and doing everything in his power to prevent others from overthrowing him. Even Alfheim, the most gorgeous location visited by the leads, is consumed by war between the light elves and the dark elves, though Mimir later points out that this is normal, with control of the Light going back and forth all the time. Kratos and Atreus ultimately just prevented one of the flips from completing, nothing more.
  • Crossover Cosmology: Kratos is a Greek god who traveled to the land of Norse mythology. Mimir is also strongly implied to be the Puck of Celtic mythology featured in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Mesoamerican, Egyptian, Celtic and Japanese civilizations are also implied to have had contact with the Norse pantheon.
  • Cutscene Boss: Subverted in the first fight against the Ogre in the Foothills. At first, Kratos and Atreus seem to kill the Ogre in a cutscene and a group of Mooks show up to fight, but then the Ogre gets back up.
  • Cutscene Drop: Boss fights will move Kratos to wherever they need him to be if a cutscene is going to start mid-battle. The game does its best to hide this by zooming in on the characters as they're in the middle of moving, but if you're completely on the opposite side of the map, it can be easy to tell that Kratos somehow slid a couple of yards to the right while body-slamming a Norse god.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: There are technically no cutscenes because the game is The Oner, but during scripted fight segments in which the player does not have control, Kratos shows the ability to casually destroy scenery and leap dozens of feet, feats that would be very convenient to have in normal gameplay.
  • Cycle of Revenge: A theme of the game is trying to defy this. Kratos, though he doesn't trust the gods, just wants to live his new life in peace with his son. Meanwhile, his enemies are fixated on vengeance, despite Kratos telling them that Vengeance Feels Empty. Just before he kills Baldur, Kratos echoes Zeus when he says "the cycle ends here." However, it doesn't take, because Freya vows revenge on Kratos and Atreus for killing Baldur.
    D-H 
  • Dark Secret: Kratos' destruction of Greece and murder of his father Zeus have become his dark secret, a shame he wishes to hide from Atreus. He finally reveals his crimes to his son (while still remaining vague), but Atreus isn't that shocked.
  • Deader than Dead: The fate of anyone killed by a Soul Eater. No Valhalla, no Helheim, no afterlife at all.
  • Dead All Along: Kratos and Atreus follow a path to Jötunheim and expect to see some Frost Giants on the way. Unfortunately, they are all dead because of Odin's machinations.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The summoned creature Ratatoskr, a squirrel who can find health and rage crystals for Kratos, will make some kind of snarky or insulting comment every time he's summoned.
  • Degraded Boss: After Svartaljofurr is defeated, the game introduces the Dark Elf Lord enemy type, which fights with the exact same moveset but can show up in swarms of two or three.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance:
    • Kratos' Spartan ways clash heavily with his kindhearted son, who is a Friend to All Living Things. This leads to them butting heads more than once.
    • While exploring Helheim, Mimir explains to Kratos that everyone who dies a dishonorable death goes to Helheim instead of Valhalla. When Kratos assumes this means criminals, Mimir clarifies that it includes everyone who doesn't die in glorious battle, including those who die of old age or sickness. Kratos is briefly taken aback when he hears that dying of old age is considered dishonorable by Norse standards. Mind that's what it was like even in the legends, where the storyteller wasn't going out of his way to portray them as extreme Jerkass Gods like the God of War series does.
      • This is doubly notable because Kratos is operating off Spartan values, in which the elderly are honored for the skill they needed to survive so long: "Beware of an Old Man in a profession where Men die Young."
  • Descriptiveville: Thamur's corpse gots its new name after Thor killed the titular giant. The corpse landed on a Vanir-worshipping village and Thamur's dying breath killed the remaining survivors. The place is now a snow-covered wasteland filled with monsters feeding on the preserved corpse of Thamur and the dead villagers.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • Atreus has a large number of unique lines depending on what a player does, even some off-the-wall behavior. For instance, if the player has Kratos attack while there are no enemies present (for example, if you're trying out new moves), Atreus may ask "Are you... exercising?"
    • Early on in the story, Kratos has to throw his axe into the Lake of Nine in a cut-scene right after a boat ride from the Witch's cave. Normally, when entering a boat, Kratos never recalls the axe, but when he enters the boat this time, he will recall the axe if he does not have it.
    • Normally, Mimir is present whenever Kratos and Atreus fight the Valkyries. However, since you can enter Muspelheim before reviving Mimir (Albiet vastly under equipped), it's possible to fight the Valkyrie Gondul before reviving Mimir, and if so, there's different dialogue between the two. Kratos also gives his own responses to Atreus' complaints as they move up the mountain.
    • Speaking of the valkyries, if you defeat all of them before you finish lighting all the braziers — which gives you an item that reduces damage taken from valkyries — Atreus will remark that Kratos really could have used that earlier.
    • During your second trip to Helheim you will see Baldur standing near a low wall. Try throwing your axe or a boulder at him and the cursor will disappear, preventing you from damaging him. It's pretty much impossible to ambush him just in case you were trying to see how clever you are.
    • In the post-game, if the players visit Freya's cabin, they'll have a dialog about what she'll be up to now.
      • Oddly enough, if the players return to Freya's cabin after Tyr's vault, there's no explanation why Freya won't reapply her protection rune.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": After their first visit to Helheim, Mimir recognizes Kratos as the infamous Ghost of Sparta. Kratos promptly orders Mimir not to call him that.
  • Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Kratos rather understandably has an instinctual hatred of all gods, claiming that there are no "good" ones and that they aren't worthy of worship. This behavior negatively colors his early experiences with Freya.
  • Don't Make Me Destroy You: When the Stranger comes knocking on his door, Kratos simply warns him to leave, insisting that the Stranger does not want this fight. The Stranger not only refuses to leave, but starts actively provoking and punching him; Kratos gives in, pulls off a Punch Catch, and lays him out flat.
    Kratos: I warned you. You would not listen.
  • Double Meaning: The Stranger is introduced banging on Kratos' door claiming to know who, and more importantly, what he is. He later adds that he expected Kratos to be bigger, how he is "a long way from home" and thinking that Kratos' people were "better and more enlightened", leading to the idea that he's a man from Kratos' past, or at least, knew of him. It turns out that he had no idea Kratos is a Greek god, and was under the assumption that Kratos was a Giant.
  • Double-Meaning Title: 'God of War' still refers to Kratos himself, but it's more of an Artifact Title now that he isn't really the god of anything in the unfamiliar Norse lands. The other person with this title is Tyr, who is referred to by Mimir as the God of War, but one who fought for peace, and much of the game's story and lore in the latter part revolves around his legacy.
  • Downer Beginning: The game opens with Kratos preparing for his wife's funeral.
  • Dramatic Downstage Turn: During Kratos's first conversation with Mimir, when Mimir tries to persuade him to tell Atreus the truth about his heritage, he turns away from Mimir to hide his expression. As the camera was looking past Kratos toward Mimir, this means that Kratos turns toward the camera, allowing the audience a clear look at his face.
  • Dramatic Irony: Kratos spends much of his new life up both trying to raise Atreus to be a truly good person, even outright pleading with Atreus to be a better god than him, when the truth of Atreus' heritage is revealed. With The Reveal indicating that Atreus' true name is Loki, Kratos is pretty much raising the herald of the end of the world, Atreus being fated to bring about the end of the Norse gods.
  • The Dreaded: Kratos, to no one's surprise. While no one in Midgard knows him, the Norse Gods certainly do. Or so it seems. While in Joutunheim, Kratos realizes Baldur thought he was a Giant, not a god from Greece. However, Mimir figures out who Kratos is and reacts in shock that he's been dangling from the hip of "the bloody Ghost of Sparta" — the god who single-handedly brought down an entire pantheon.
  • Due to the Dead: The game begins with Kratos and Atreus building a funeral pyre for Kratos' late wife. The primary plot of the game is the two following her last request: to scatter her ashes on the highest mountain in the Nine Realms.
  • Early Game Hell: Not too horrible an example on "Balanced Experience" difficulty aside from a few encounters, but it's played very straight on "Challenge" and "God of War". To start, you have much less options and a much weaker weapon that would outscale everything in the lower difficulties near the end of the journey. Not only that, because all of the stats are still very low, a small horde of dragurs can seem borderline impossible to deal with without resorting to cheesing. And the worst part is that the axe you start with is specialized for individual targets. It's not until about halfway/two thirds of the way through the game that you unlock the Blades of Chaos which are more designed for crowd control.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: With Ragnarok, it's eventually established that the Aesir generally speak in informal American accents, which is already displayed here with Freya and the Stranger. This makes it a bit weird to hear Magni and Modi speak in vague English accents considering their father, stepmother, and half-sister don't speak this way at all.
  • Elevator Action Sequence: Two of them.
    • In the Mountain, several draugr attack Kratos and Atreus as the pulley-style lift works its way upward. After the first time, Atreus asks if they should expect more, to which Kratos replies "definitely." And then a dragon attacks them.
    • When Atreus and Kratos visit the village Thamur has crushed, they use a sand bowl to levitate a large stone plate up to their next objective. The action sequence is spiced up because enemies keep harassing them, preventing Atreus from continually writing the rune keeping the stone whole and floating, forcing Kratos to dispatch them quickly.
  • Elaborate Equals Effective: As you progress you use materials gathered to upgrade your equipment using Brok and Sindri, as you upgrade your weapons go from ordinary and dull looking, to Engraved, gold-fringed and highly decorated.
  • Elemental Zombie: Two examples: the draugr, which are fire zombies, and Helwalkers, which are ice zombies. Draugr can lob molten rock or fireballs as an attack, and some unleash a fiery explosion when their heads are stomped on, meanwhile Helwalkers use things like ice swords and ice shields in combat. Consequently, the draugr are weak against the Leviathan Axe's ice powers and the Helwalkers are weak against The Blades of Chaos' fire powers.
  • Empathic Environment: The weather around the Lake of Nine is usually quite pleasant. But when Atreus falls ill, the sky grows dark and ominous and it begins to rain.
  • The Ending Changes Everything: The way the Stranger phrases his words during his first fight with Kratos, it seems he knows who the Spartan is and where he's from. But when Kratos and Atreus find the murals in Jotunheim showing that the giants predicted the entire story, Kratos realizes Baldur had no clue who he is; he assumed Kratos was a giant because he was sent to find Faye and didn't know she was already dead.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: The Stranger assumes that Kratos is a Giant hiding from Asgard, but the way he says it makes Kratos think Baldur knows that Kratos is a Greek god in exile, even though Baldur has literally no idea about that.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Atreus's early screw-up where he scares the deer they're hunting away. True to form, Kratos grabs the bow away from his son, screaming in his face...before composing himself and firmly reprimanding Atreus, telling him "Do not be sorry. Be better." Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new and (trying to be) improved Kratos.
    • It's cemented later when the Stranger shows up at Kratos' house. The Stranger is seemingly just a harmless, belligerent drunk who challenges Kratos to a fight and constantly insults him. He even throws a few hard but ultimately impotent punches at Kratos, but instead of just ending him then and there, he tanks several of the punches while telling him to back off. When he finally does retaliate, it's with a non-fatal punch across the front yard. He even helps the Stranger back to his feet. It's only when the Stranger punches him into the air that Kratos finally cuts loose and starts acting like the Ghost of Sparta we all know and love.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: As Kratos and Atreus scale up Thamur's frozen corpse, we get this exchange...
    Atreus: Why are we going up when what we need is all the way down there?
    Kratos: Think.
    Atreus: Well...the chisel tip is under thick layers of ice, so melting it won't work.
    Kratos: Correct.
    Atreus: And there weren't any Shatter Crystals nearby for me to shoot, so that's not an option.
    Kratos: Correct.
    Atreus: That just leaves smashing the ice. But we'd need something ridiculously heavy to - Ohhh. I get it now.
    Kratos: Good.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Implied. When Mimir realizes that Kratos is the infamous Ghost of Sparta, he off-handedly says that from what he'd heard about it, the Greek Pantheon "had it coming." While this could just be Mimir's own opinion, one interpretation is that even the Aesir gods didn't like the Greek Gods.
  • Evil Is Deathly Cold: Like the bottom of Dante's Inferno, Helheim tortures the unworthy dead with the most extreme cold in all the realms. Hel's cold is so antithetical to life that even the gods could not survive long in the realm. Indeed, Kratos looks exhausted after beating the bridge keeper on his first trip, but does better on the second trip since he can start a pair of fires, and is unaffected on subsequent trips.
  • Evolving Weapon: The Leviathan Axe, Talos Bow, and the Blades of Chaos start out looking dull, chipped and iron-like and deal low damage. As the Dwarves upgrade them they start glowing, having runes and gold decorations putting on them, dealing more damage and unlocking more skills on their skill trees.
  • Exact Words: Faye's dying wish was for Kratos and Atreus to scatter her ashes from the top of the highest mountain in all the realms. As they find out from Mimir, she never meant the highest mountain in Midgard.
    • When Kratos descends to Helheim, trying to find the heart of a troll to be able to save the ailing Atraeus, his way is blocked by obstacles that must be burned, but Helheim is a realm of otherworldly cold, and "no magic in all the Nine Realms can create a blaze", according to Freya. Hey, you know what place is not one of the Nine Realms? OLYMPUS. Cue Kratos going back to his cabin, opening the cellar hidden beneath the cabin and retrieving the Blades of Chaos. THE GOD OF WAR RETURNS!
  • Excalibur in the Rust: The Blades of Chaos look worn and rusty after centuries of disuse. The moment Kratos wields them again, however, they light up with their trademark flames and are immediately shown to be as deadly as ever, and with a little bit of help from Brok and Sindri, their old Greek lettering is replaced with Norse runes.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: The Stranger says upon meeting Kratos that he expected someone bigger, despite Kratos already being much taller and bulkier than the rather petite Stranger. We learn in the end that the Stranger initially believed Kratos to be a Giant, which might explain why Kratos's size didn't impress him. Also possibly a meta-allusion to the fact that the shift to a more realistic art style has left Kratos more than a foot shorter than he was in the Greek era of the series.
  • Exposed to the Elements: All over the place, considering that there's snow on the ground through most of Midgard. About half of Kratos' armor options leave his chest and arms mostly exposed. Freya is barefoot, even when walking through snow. Baldur doesn't wear a shirt at any point in the game.
  • Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: The Realm Between Realms can be used by characters to tread on the branches of Yggdrasil to access specific points in the realms. It's also why you can find the dwarves in the strangest spots, despite Kratos allegedly taking the "only way" to a given location.
  • Family Man: This game shows us a re-married Kratos in the lands of the North with his son, and again, after the death of his wife, his main goals are to fulfill his wife's last wishes and to teach Atreus to be a better person both generally and as a warrior.
  • Fantastic Racism: When the Stranger comes to Kratos' house, he makes it clear that he doesn't think very highly of the Greeks, who are "supposed to be so enlightened. So much better than us. So much smarter." Or not. In reality, he thought Kratos was one of the giants, who considered themselves better than Odin and the Aesir, both for their power of prophecy and desire to not take part in his petty wars. Later, the Witch of the Woods says that the Norse Gods "don't take kindly to outsiders".
  • Feel No Pain: The Stranger at the start of the game, which is the last and most obvious hint that he is Baldur.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: Heroic and villainous examples;
    • Heroic: Kratos is the "fighter" because he relies on his combat skills on the quest. Atreus is the "thief" because of his archery skills, adeptness at avoiding traps, and mastery of puzzles. Finally, Mimir is the "mage" because he is the group's expert on all things mythological and magical and gives the party the lore necessary to overcome the supernatural obstacles on their quest.
    • Villainous: The Stranger is the "thief" due to his tracking abilities. Magni is the "fighter" because of his love of combat and his strength. Finally, Modi is the "mage" because he relies more on his electrokinesis than his abilities in physical combat.
  • Finishing Move: Building up an enemy's stun meter to full lets Kratos pull off a finisher, which instantly kills weak enemies and lets Kratos do a lot of uninterrupted damage to strong enemies like Revenants or Trolls. Finishers are generally quite brutal, ranging from Kratos splitting a Helewalker in half with his bare hands, ripping a Wulver's mouth open, or forcing an axe through a troll's mouth.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: The three elemental damage types of the game are Burn, Frost, and Shock. Each also inflicts a status condition of the same name: Burn causes gradual damage, Frost slows the target's movements and attacks, and Shock stuns them for a short time.
  • Flashback with the Other Darrin: In Helheim, Kratos sees and hears visions of his final confrontation with Zeus in God of War III. Kratos is voiced by Christopher Judge in these visions, briefly channeling the rage-monster Kratos was when he was played by Terrence C. Carson. Played with regarding Zeus; he's voiced by Corey Burton just as he was in the original version of the scene, but they don't simply use recordings of Burton's old dialogue — Zeus's delivery is completely different. Where he was furious and irrational in the original scene, he sounds much more reasonable in these visions, suggesting Kratos's memory is playing tricks on him to make him feel more guilty than he actually was.
  • Fog of Doom: Niflheim is cursed with a poisonous mist that limits the amount of time Kratos and son can spend there.
  • Foregone Conclusion: No matter how actively Kratos tries to reign Atreus's darkest impulses in, the fact that his child is in fact Loki determines that Atreus will bring Ragnarok, along with the not-so-subtle implication from one of the paintings that Kratos's death in front of Atreus will be what sends him off the deep end.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • There are several hints as to the Stranger's true identity early on: his rugged good looks, fair skin, a way with words through his Hannibal Lectures, and an inability to feel pain are all attributes closely associated his true identity: Baldur.
    • Multiple hints point towards Atreus's identity as Loki, giant, shapeshifter, god of stories, kin of the world serpent, father of wolves, and bringer of Ragnarok. When Atreus reads the language on the entrance to a Giant colony, Atreus mentions his mother taught him the language. The World Serpent mentions that Atreus seems familiar. Atreus is associated multiple times with wolves, with his first armor being a wolfskin, his first summon being a wolf, and asking if he can turn into animals, like a wolf, upon learning that he is a god. Atreus also tells multiple stories throughout the game, and admonishes Kratos multiple times for being so terrible at telling them. There is also the fact that he was the one to remove Baldur's curse, albeit not intentionally like in the myths.
    • The Witch of the Woods's horrified reaction to Atreus' new arrows. What are they made of? Mistletoe. On a related note, at the start of the game, Atreus can be seen collecting flowers for his mother's funeral pyre. The first time we see him, he has a sprig of mistletoe in his hands.
    • In the scene where the Witch of the Woods is introduced, she's angry with Atreus for shooting a boar who is actually her shapeshifting friend in disguise, and she says she "will not let him die". Freya won't let Baldur die either, whether he wants to or not, and when Atreus ends up being involved in his death too at the end of the game, she's even more furious.
    • One of Kratos's stories was about a man who went to prison as a ruthless thief and only his mother, who showed him only love, would come to see him. What happens when he gets out? He goes up to her and bites off her ear. The moral is that loving someone is fine, but you must discipline them as well. Come the reveal about Baldur and his mother, it's clear why he's as psychotic as he is.
    • The main quest icon for The Journey is a handprint- the same one found on Faye's trees that she requested be cut down in the opening sequence. While this makes sense as a quest icon, the true meaning of it comes into play once the true objective is revealed- the Giant's Fingers in Jotunheim, which looks awfully similar to the handprint.
    • A minor case, compared to the above spoilers, but the fact that the Leviathan Axe was forged by Brok and Sindri. Summon to Hand was something of a Signature Spell for weapons forged by those two, including both Mjolnir and Odin's spear, Gungnir. Each weapon they forged also had properties unique to only that weapon, including the Leviathan Axe's ice powers.
    • What's the first statue Kratos and Atreus see upon entering the Lake of Nine? Thor. Who's the last god they see in the spoiler, foreshadowing the sequel? Yep...
    • When the Stranger comes pounding on the door, Kratos orders Atreus to hide under the floor, but Atreus protests that Kratos told him never to go down there. After he lets Atreus out, when he closes the floor again, the camera very briefly lingers on something wrapped in cloth slightly sticking out. Much later in the game, we see that that "something wrapped in cloth" was Kratos's Blades of Chaos that he had hidden there for years, clearly ashamed of them yet unwilling or unable to completely discard them.
  • Forever War: According to Mimir, the civil war between the Light and Dark Elves of Alfheim had resulted in control of the Light of Alfheim changing over two hundred times. And that was before Odin stuck him into a tree a century ago and he lost the ability to keep track. After all this time, Mimir doubts that either side knows what they'd do with themselves if the war ever ended.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Kratos throws Baldur into the canyon, following Baldur with the free-movement camera shows him Flipping the Bird as he plummets.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Atreus, at times. While he learns to kill and defend himself under Kratos' tutelage, he is more sentimental than his father, which is noted upon by several characters. He is more inclined to help those in need, pleading with Kratos to spare the time to help, and empathizes with the feelings of animals. This is temporarily abandoned after he learns of his divinity, which goes straight to his head as he becomes more rash and insensitive. It takes him a while, with Kratos and Mimir reprimanding him the whole way and a sobering encounter with Baldur, for him to calm down.
  • Gameplay Ally Immortality: Downplayed Trope. Atreus doesn't have a health bar and normal enemy attacks can only stun him for a couple of seconds. If they land an extremely rare grapple attack on him which holds him still for a minute without the player hitting the enemy once, Atreus will be stunned for longer. This practically never happens, so most players will play the entire game without Atreus ever being at risk of being disabled, averting many criticisms of Escort Missions in much the same way The Last of Us did.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • During the periods in the game where Atreus is unhappy with Kratos, the game stops using the battle quotes where he shows concern for Kratos. Taken a step further when Atreus gets arrogant after learning he's a god, during which he completely stops responding to the player's orders in battle (usually because he's too busy charging the enemies head-on), on rare occasions will even refuse to use a resurrection stone (which bypasses the button prompt and goes straight back to the last checkpoint), and will respond to out-of-battle ordersnote  with a dismissive "Whatever." After Atreus belittles Sindri, Sindri acts coldly toward the duo, especially Atreus himself, until he reunites with Brok and forgives Atreus.
    • Also happens to a lesser extent during "The Sickness". When Atreus falls ill, the journal entries that describe the current objective, normally written by Atreus, are quite clearly written by Kratos.
    • After Kratos retrieves the Blades of Chaos, the large group of Hel-Walkers that attacks him have lower health than normal, with the massacre that follows showing both Kratos's determination to save his son's life, and how easily the Blades will cut through the frost and chill of Hel like a hot knife through butter.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation:
    • As mentioned in Healing Factor, Kratos has the ability to heal his wounds just by focusing for a couple of seconds. This ability isn't available for the player.
    • The New Game Plus gives you all the equipment and items from your previous playthrough. However, since the game scripts you into returning to your house once Atreus falls ill, Kratos must return home to retrieve his Blades of Chaos, despite already having them in the new playthrough.
    • The game assumes that the player will visit many locations as soon as they become available, even if the player wishes to wait until later to do so. When visiting Veithurgard before Konunsgard, Kratos and Atreus will discuss what happened to the people, which is answered in the latter, even if you've already visited that place. During your first visit to Konunsgard Atreus will comment on how much bigger Konunsgard is than Veithurgard, even if you've never visited it before. The game also assumes that you will have visited Niflheim and Muspelheim, as even if you never have, Atreus will comment on them during the fight at the Jotunheim tower near the end of the game. Likewise, even if you've visited the Valkyrie's Council before, Atreus will still ask what it is after you defeat your second Valkyrie.
    • Another New Game Plus exclusive one. At one point in the game, Brok and Sindri need you to get them some Skap Slag in order to forge a key. However, Skap Slag is an extremely rare and valuable material that Brok hasn't seen in an incredibly long time. And while this certainly holds true in a normal playthrough, in New Game Plus, Kratos will be finding heaps of Skap Slag everywhere in order to fuel the upgrade economy (of which Skap Slag is an incredibly important part).
  • Gargle Blaster: Near the end of the game, Kratos comes across a jug of wine from the isle of Lemnos (near his old homeland of Sparta) and decides to share a drink with his son. Atreus states that it smells of rotten eggs and can barely stomach it, but Kratos downs it in a single chug and gives an uncharacteristic "Ahhh!"
  • Generation Xerox: A common theme for the gods, and Kratos in particular, who is trying to avoid the cycle repeating itself with Atreus.
    Atreus: Is this what it is to be a god? Is this how it always ends? Sons killing their mothers? Their fathers?
    Kratos: No. We will be the gods we choose to be. Not those who have been. Who I was is not who you will be.
  • The Ghost: Odin's deeds and their consequences are scattered across the game world. Yet more of them are discussed by Mimir and the story cabinets. He doesn't appear until the sequel.
  • Ghost Realm: When Kratos and Atreus finally arrive at Jotunheim, they discover that all the giants have long since died and their bodies are scattered across the landscape, leaving Atreus (who is part Giant) and the World Serpent as the last of their race.
  • A God I Am Not: Kratos would certainly prefer this to be the case. He moved to Midgard specifically to avoid his Divinity and would much prefer to live as a normal person. However he is forced to once again embrace his Divine nature when he realizes it's hurting Atreus not understanding his God status. He does however admit that he did a terrible job as a God and is determined to teach his son to be a better God than he was.
  • A God Is You: Your Player Character Kratos is still the eponymous God of War, and fights various supernatural monsters with superhuman strength and magical artifacts, though the centuries of chaos from his Roaring Rampage of Revenge in the previous games have caused Kratos to be more reflective about being a God with the power to shape the world.
    Kratos: We are not men. We are more than that. The responsibility is far greater.
  • Godzilla Threshold: When Atreus falls ill, and the only way to cure him is in Helheim, Kratos is informed that no magic in the Nine Realms will help him against the cold or resident undead. With no other options, Kratos returns home to dig up a past he swore would stay buried: the Blades of Chaos. It is clearly hard for him, and on his way he is tortured by visions of Athena, who mocks his attempts to become a better person. Kratos acknowledges that he will always be a monster, but his love for Atreus outweighs his shame.
  • Good Counterpart: The Leviathan Axe. Brok and Sindri forged Mjolnir which Thor used to slay countless Giants. They felt guilty enough about the carnage that they forged the Leviathan Axe, a weapon with similar properties as Mjolnir such as Summon to Hand, and gifted it to Faye, one of the last Giants.
  • Good Wings, Evil Wings: Dark Elves, appearing as enemies from Alfheim onward, have insectoid wings.
  • Glass Cannon: The "Zeus" set of armors unlocked with New Game Plus all have the trait "Glass Ballista", which dramatically increases the amount of damage Kratos deals. The downside is that it makes it so just about any enemy of an equal level can kill you in one or two hits.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: When Mimir is decapitated, the camera pans down just as the blow strikes home, so all the player sees is a splatter of blood and then Mimir's head dropping to the ground.
  • The Great Serpent: Taking place in Norse mythology, one of the creatures Kratos and his son encounters is the World Serpent, Jormungand. He is decidedly less antagonistic here then normally portrayed.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: The All-Father Odin himself. He was at war with the Vanir, the Giants, and sent his minions to dispatch Kratos and Atreus, but he is never confronted or seen during the story. He is also the one behind the Stranger, who is revealed to be none other than Baldur.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Many of the stun grabs Kratos can perform on enemies involves throwing them or slamming them around, which can damage other nearby enemies.
  • Grim Up North: While Midgard certainly looks breath-taking, it's still a very harsh and hostile environment. Monsters are everywhere, and draugr (undead warriors that refuse to hear the Valkyries' call) are just the least dangerous of them. Meanwhile, the few humans encountered by the leads turns out to be cannibals. The Norse underworld of Hel is a completely frozen wasteland.
  • Guide Dang It!: There's a unique axe handle that increases all of Kratos' stats while adding a shockwave to the end of his light attack combo. The only way to get it is by looking in a certain sequence of directions at the top of Muspelheim's tower, which the game never tells you. The only way to figure this out would be translating the runes on a map that comes with the Collector's Edition of the game.note 
  • Hammerspace: Whenever Kratos has to use anything on his person that isn't a weapon or Mimir's head, the game uses very specific angles so that we can't see from where Kratos pulls an item, as his body blocks his hand while he procures it.
  • Hammy Villain, Serious Hero: By the time of the game, Kratos has become significantly Older and Wiser over the course of his new life in Midgard, introducing players to a more stoic and subdued Ghost of Sparta. In stark contrast, the Stranger/Baldur is a clearly unhinged and violent madman who frequently hurls out taunts during battle.
  • Hand Wave: Sindri and Brok have the ability to walk between dimensions to essentially turn invisible. It's how they manage to get around the map without you seeing them and without being attacked by all the undead and monsters roaming around. However, before you learn this, Kratos and Atreus have to save Sindri from a dragon that is trying to kill him. When he tells them later about their ability to turn invisible, he notes that apparently dragons are the one thing it doesn't work on.
  • Harder Than Hard: "Give Me God of War" difficulty. The game is not kidding when it invokes this during a new game startup.
  • Healing Factor: In cutscenes Kratos recovers from major injuries such as being impaled simply by focusing. The Stranger also appears to have this, being totally immortal and invulnerable, Baldur doesn't seem to need to focus. Atreus seems to have it as well, as he's stabbed, but is no worse for wear only minutes later.
  • The Heavy: Baldur menaces and battles Kratos more than anyone else throughout the game, but he's only a lackey for Odin. Odin himself doesn't even appear, leaving Baldur to do all the villainous heavy lifting.
  • Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: All Kratos and Atreus want to do is hold a funeral for their wife/mother, but the gods keep showing up and trying to make life difficult for them for totally unrelated reasons.
  • Heroic BSoD: Atreus experiences one early in the game when he is forced to kill a cannibal in self-defense. At this point, he understood killing animals for food, or monsters like draugr and trolls for survival, but he becomes very shaken and teary-eyed when killing a human.
  • Heroic Neutral: Kratos and Atreus aren't interested in the goings-on between the Aesir and Vanir, the problem Odin has with the giants (or basically anyone else), or whatever the Stranger wants. Kratos and Atreus just want to get to the highest peak in all of the Nine Realms to spread the ashes of Faye, the wife of Kratos and the mother of Atreus. They're doing this not out of opposition to the gods, but because it was a last request from Faye. The two protagonists only take part in the conflict between the Norse gods because the gods force their hand. Had the Stranger and Odin left them alone, Kratos and Atreus would simply not have gotten involved.
  • Hey, You!:
    • Kratos rarely calls Atreus by his name, most often calling him "boy" and infrequently "son." Once Mimir's severed head joins the "team", Kratos only ever refers to him as "Head".
    • Kratos himself is only referred to by his name a few times by Mimir and Freya. Mimir also realizes that he's the Ghost of Sparta.
  • Hint System: Each loading screen has a little piece of advice on Kratos' moves or controls. You generally only see these when you die.
  • His Own Worst Enemy: By the Norse era, it becomes apparent that while Kratos hates all gods, he hates none as much as himself for his Jumping Off the Slippery Slope Never My Fault complex and role in the Cycle of Revenge. He even admits, when pressed, that he is a monster. In a sense, his own past is the Arc Villain of the game.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: An Implied Trope with regards to Kratos and Loki, who seem destined to be viewed as bringers of Ragnarok and pitiless killers in spite of the fact that they're just trying to bring an end to the Cycle of Revenge.
  • History Repeats: The "children-killing-their-parents" cycle from the previous games (Kronos killing Ouraunos, Zeus defeating Kronos, Kratos killing Zeus) is alluded to late in the game when it's revealed that Baldur wants to kill his mother Freya for granting him invulnerability, which had the unintentional side-effect of removing all his senses other than sight and hearing. Kratos tries to stop him from killing her, partly because Freya was a genuinely nice and loving parent trying to protect her child (if in a very misguided manner) who doesn't deserve death, and because he sees a lot of his younger self in Baldur. At first, he tries reasoning with him, saying that Vengeance Feels Empty since killing Zeus did not give him peace and it came at the cost of destroying his land, but Baldur doesn't listen, leading to a fight ensuing between them that ends with Kratos being forced to put him down to stop him for once and for all, saying that "the cycle ends here" and they must be better than this. When Atreus finally learns about his father's past, he thinks that he is fated to walk the same path as well, but Kratos assures him that they will avoid that. However, the Jotun mural at the end shows Kratos dying in Atreus' arms, implying the cycle will continue.
    I-P 
  • An Ice Person: Kratos' new battle axe is able to freeze enemies on impact. He and Atreus also encounter enemies who use ice attacks on their journey.
  • Head Crushing: One of Kratos' new finishing moves that he can use against Draugr and Hel-Walkers is grabbing their feet and throwing their heads to the ground before stamping them to a pulp, producing a lovely spray of orange or blue blood.
  • Highly Visible Password: The sandbowl puzzles center around finding the solution to a riddle. The solution is always written down somewhere in the same room.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Zig-Zagged. The first phase against the stranger is beatable but is disproportionately harder than the other bosses around the start of the game. If you lose all your health it transitions into him and Kratos punching each other more before the second phase. If you bring him to his last 2 bars of HP, same thing.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Kratos and Atreus don't carry bags with them (other than a quiver and the bag where Kratos keeps Faye's ashes), yet they have no problem carrying dozens of armor sets, crafting materials, and the treasures they find on their journey. Kratos's weapons, on the other hand, are always clearly visible on his model when not in use. Lampshaded by Sindri sometimes when you sell him stuff:
    Sindri: Where do you even keep those?
  • Hypocritical Humor: On subsequent playthroughs, many examples manifest. A noteworthy moment is Atreus' reaction to Mimir's story about Thor's parentage. "So Thor is half God and half Giant? Weird." Which is, of course, exactly the case with this character.
  • Ignorance Is Bliss: Averted. Atreus's sickness stems from him being unaware of his godly lineage, so he would benefit from knowing it. When Kratos tells him, this gets played straight hard. First it gets to his head, and later he sees all the downsides to god-hood. Kratos straight up tells him he wished to spare Atreus the knowledge.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: The Reavers are a cannibal group met very early in the game who attempt to eat Kratos and Atreus.
  • Insubstantial Ingredients: Dwarves, like in the myths, are capable of using abstract qualities as materials to forge magical artifacts.
  • Implacable Man: The Big Bad is a mysterious man known as the Stranger, who possesses monstrous superhuman strength, can move at blinding speed, and manages to tank Kratos' direct blows. And Kratos is someone who killed Hercules and Zeus in the previous game by punching them to death. It's actually Baldur, similarly a son of divinity and blessed with near-Complete Immortality.
  • Improbable Infant Survival: Averted. While enemies can't directly attack Atreus, if left unchecked, they can grab and eventually kill him, resulting in a Game Over.
  • Inconvenient Summons: Ratatoskr often throws complaints and insults whenever he's summoned to find items.
  • Indy Ploy: Kratos pulls off a few of these when the pair have to get somewhere in a hurry. Later, during their escape from Helheim, Atreus gets into the act.
    Mimir: That was your plan? You're both cracked!
  • Ink-Suit Actor: The Stranger is clearly modeled after his voice actor, Jeremy Davies, and has a lot in common with Davies's character Dickie Bennett from Justified in particular.
  • Interface Screw: When Kratos is trapped in a cleft of rock and the Stranger threatens to see who Kratos is hiding (i.e., Atreus). You can see the rage bar filling up as the Stranger talks, until Kratos smashes his way free and proceeds to pummel him.
  • Interface Spoiler: An arguable bug, since the rest of the dialogue around this section deliberately avoids this: when entering the Witch of the Woods' Cave, she occasionally says goodbye. Her subtitled name for this one line, instead of titling her as the Witch, instead says Freya.
    • A straighter example would be your climb through the mountain after Alfheim. Kratos and Atreus treat it like the end of their trip, as once they reach the top, they'll be able to scatter Faye's ashes and go home. However, the player comes across multiple things they cannot access such as a sealed door and thorns that cannot be dealt with, both of which make it clear this isn't going to be the ending. And it isn't, at the top, they learn that the true "highest point in the realms" is in Jotunheim, which is currently inaccessible, leading to another leg of the journey to find a way to access it.
    • Players may notice that D-Pad right and down sheath/draw the Leviathan Axe and quick turn, respectively, but left and up don't do anything. Despite this, other functions like Spartan Rage and Runic Attacks require button combinations because everything but those two D-Pad directions are taken. It becomes especially suspicious once Atreus gets Shock Arrows, and Up is used to switch between Light and Shock Arrows. It's eventually revealed that Left has been left open for drawing and sheathing the Blades of Chaos from the original games.
  • Ironic Echo:
    • When he's being bratty, Atreus will spit back Kratos's frequent line about needing to "focus."
    • "The cycle ends here", spoken by Kratos to Baldur before killing him to stop his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, was first spoken by Zeus before he killed Kratos for similar reasons.
  • I Wished You Were Dead: Kratos gets a vision showing Atreus speaking to his mother's corpse, asking "Why couldn't he have died instead of you?", showing the distance between father and son. However, he retracts the statement immediately afterwards.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: Atreus generally refers to the people, animals, spirits, etc. that the pair meet as "he" or "she". Kratos, much more detached and hard-hearted, calls almost everyone and everything "it", except for the Witch and the two dwarves.
  • It's All About Me: Kratos doesn't care about helping others unless doing so somehow aids his own goals. Between that and his otherwise stern nature, at times it gives Atreus the impression that his father only cares about him because he's literate in runes and Kratos isn't.
  • Jawbreaker: Exaggerated with Kratos' Finishing Move on the werewolf enemies. Kratos rips the werewolf's jaw off, then keeps ripping through its skin until he's torn off flesh down to the creature's stomach.
  • Jerkass Gods: While not seen as much as the Greek gods, the Norse pantheon isn't much better than they were. Odin is a Control Freak that loves to spy on everyone in the Nine Worlds and tortures his former allies as a hobby, Thor and his sons are abusive brutes, Freya, who - though exceptionally nice to Atreus - is incredibly selfish and is willing to put her own happiness ahead of everyone else, including her son and worst of all is Baldur, a psychotic savage who wants to murder his own mother (although that's not entirely his fault). The only exception is Mimir, who becomes a steadfast ally to Kratos after being tormented by Odin for so long.
  • Jerkass Has a Point:
    • Baldur is this towards Freya. While Freya only meant well with her protective spell, Baldur is correct about how much harm she actually caused him.
    • During the period of the game immediately after Atreus has learned of his godly heritage and has become a jerk, he gets fed up with Sindri's complaining about his brother Brok and calls the dwarf out on it, telling the dwarf to either make up with his brother or not, but either way stop whining about it, calling it "the little problems of little people". Sindri is very clearly hurt by these words and becomes cold towards Atreus afterwards. However, the next time he's seen in story progression, he's arriving to make up with his brother, implying that he gave Atreus's words serious consideration. Even Brok agrees, saying it's what Sindri needed to hear.
  • Jump Scare: Twice — and only twice in the entire game — there's a Hel-Walker hidden in a large chest that will jump out and attack Kratos when he opens it, acting as a sort of reference to the classic Chest Monster.
  • Just Before the End: The Post-Game occurs at the very start of Fimbulwinter, known in Norse Mythology as the three-year period of non-stop harsh winter which serves as the harbinger of Ragnarok.
  • Kaiju: The World Serpent is the most obvious example, but the Dragons, "Hræsvelg" the giant Bird in Helheim and 'Chaurli' The tortoise also count.
  • Kick the Dog: Mimir is full of stories of the Norse gods doing this, mainly via Odin and Thor. Towards the end of the game Baldur also commits one when he beats up Jormungandr, who has nearly always been polite and fully willing to help the heroes when he's not just lingering around the Lake of Nine, to get him to spit Kratos and Atreus out, setting the stage for the final battle.
  • Last of His Kind: The Giants are all gone, with the World Serpent being possibly the last one remaining. It's revealed that Faye was a Giantess herself and her son Atreus is therefore half-Giant.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: The game spoils a number of plot points from the earlier games, including that Kratos is the son of Zeus and that he kills Zeus at the end of God of War III. Also, obviously, Kratos's survival, which was a major debate after the end of III', was effortlessly resolved during the trailer itself.
  • Lighter and Softer:
    • The Greek mythology games were, from start to finish, the story of Kratos' Roaring Rampage of Revenge that didn't end until he had killed everything. This game, on the other hand, revolves around Kratos and his son going on a journey to spread the ashes of Kratos' wife/Atreus' mother per her last request. Kratos is avoiding the Norse Gods instead of picking a fight, he instructs Atreus to not kill as an indulgence, and there are even side-quests to help out spirits trapped in Midgard.
    • The gore this time around is primarily limited to the various monsters encountered, with any humans or gods killed onscreen showing little if any bloodshed.
    • In every game up to this point, Kratos obtained some poor creature's severed head as a piece of equipment. Rather than swinging around Medusa or Helios this time around, he gets Mimir, who's friendly, wise, and humorous despite being, you know, a severed head.
  • Like Father, Like Son: Even though Atreus was closer to his mother than to Kratos, he certainly inherited several traits from his father (such as his occasional rage in combat) and begins exhibiting his more negative traits after learning of his divine heritage and being declared a warrior by his father, where he becomes more arrogant and detached from others, believing himself superior. Kratos strongly disapproves of this because he doesn't want Atreus to follow in his footsteps. At the end of the game, it's revealed that Atreus is destined to bring about Ragnarok, the same way his father was the Marked Warrior that brought Olympus' downfall.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • In the reveal trailer, Kratos tells Atreus that he's ready for a new beginning. It's indeed the beginning of a new cycle.
    • The opening boat conversation between Kratos and Atreus has the latter asking the former if he's felt something is different. Kratos tells him that everything is different, but follows with "do not dwell on it". It's the beginning of the game, and the presentation and gameplay are already very different from previous installments in the series.
    • When Kratos knocks the Stranger down for trying to goad him into a fight, the camera puts itself behind Kratos, who looks back at the camera and growls "You would not listen." It's definitely Kratos disapproving the Stranger's desire for a fight; but with the Spartan being framed in shadow (making him look a bit like his Greek-era self) and looking back at the camera, he might also be him referring to the player wanting to fight a godly boss.
    • After finally defeating the tough Superboss Sigrun, Atreus comments that his fingers are sore and Kratos responds that what he did was no small feat and that he should be proud. The duo's comments could just as easily apply to the player for this accomplishment as it would to the father and son for surviving and triumphing over one of their greatest challenges.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Muspelheim, the land of the Fire Giants, is a realm covered in lava and volcanic rock that is empty except for fire monsters that Kratos can battle. Mimir relays that it used to be more of this trope at the dawn of time; at present, Muspelheim has cooled enough to still be hot, but not lethally hot to the point of anyone spontaneously combusting just by entering the realm.
  • Lost Language: The World Serpent speaks a language that no one else in the game speaks except Mimir, the wisest man alive. Mimir says the language has become a lost language because everyone else who speaks the language—mostly the Giants, but their allies as well—has been systematically murdered by Odin and his sons.
  • The Lost Lenore: Kratos constantly thinks back to his dead wife Faye, and how she would have treated Atreus in his shoes.
  • Lost in Transmission: The Witch of the Woods is teleported away while she's giving Kratos advice about how to acquire the Light of Alfheim, getting cut off in the middle of a sentence that begins, "But be very careful not to—"
  • Magikarp Power: Atreus' arrows start out being rather pathetic, doing only a pittance of damage. However, after his damage has been increased and he learns to use magical arrows, he starts putting out pretty impressive damage. The lightning arrows in particular can put out a lot of hurt in a large radius once you've upgraded the chain lightning feature.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: When Kratos is set on fire by an enemy, Atreus may point this out in a panicked tone, prompting Kratos to calmly state that "it will pass" and chide Atreus to focus on the fight.
  • Mangst: As a Spartan, Kratos has his own way of mourning for his loved ones. At one point, this causes friction with his son, who mistakes his lack of visible grief for Faye's passing as indifference.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Was Kratos really haunted by Athena in that one scene, or was it simply his guilt manifesting as the sister he killed? Notably, Mimir didn't see Athena at all.
    Mimir: Well, I'm pretty sure you weren't talking to me back there. ... And for the record, I'd already guessed you were Greek. "Athena"? Dead giveaway.
  • Meaningful Echo: Throughout the game, Kratos responds to many of Atreus' curious, childlike questions with an annoyed "I do not know". During the credits, when Atreus starts wondering how much Faye had foreseen and what it all means, Kratos says "I...do not know", this time sounding genuinely uncertain.
  • Mêlée à Trois: The final boss battle has this kind of setup between Kratos and Atreus, Baldur, and Freya. Kratos and Atreus and eventually Jörmungandr are trying to stop Baldur from killing Freya, and Freya's trying to stop them from killing Baldur by trapping all parties in vines before escalating into reanimating a Giant's corpse. Needless to say, it gets very chaotic very fast.
  • Mercy Invincibility: Averted. Fortunately, this goes both ways and allows you to unleash a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown when you've got some attacks you can chain together; unfortunately, the enemies are masters of stun-locking Kratos.
  • Meteor-Summoning Attack: Kratos' ultimate Runic Attack that doesn't do Frost Damage is Meteor Slam. He slams his weapons against the ground and small meteors pummel every spot within a radius around Kratos for the next fix or six seconds. Unlike most Runic Attacks, you can only create it with materials not found in the main game, meaning the player has to put special effort to unlock this powerful attack.
  • Mobile Maze: The main setting of Niflheim is a cursed maze created by a mad dwarf king to change its arrangement and security every time someone leaves it so that no one can betray his secrets and steal his treasure. In practice, this makes Niflheim a semi-randomly generated dungeon with different enemies, puzzles, and treasures every time the player come through, making it great for Level Grinding.
  • Monster Arena: The optional realm Muspelheim is barren except for the trials of Surtr, which are basically just waves of enemies that you have to beat with special conditions. You either have to beat them without getting hit, or in a certain amount of time, or while staying within a small outlined area, or a bunch of other things. Beating each trial unlocks a new one and the ability to replay the old one, for a total of five plus a randomly generated sixth one you can only get after beating the Superboss and replaying some of the older trials.
  • Monstrous Scenery: The landscape of Hel is dominated by a Titan-sized eagle perching on the tip of the highest tower of the City of the Dead. Neither the main cast nor any secondary character describes it, let alone interact with it and call it by name (although it's implied it's a shapeshifting Giant from Norse myth known as Hraesvelgr, i.e. "the corpse swallower").
  • Mook Chivalry: Defied. Enemies will rarely wait to attack you one at a time, preferring to instead smother you with constant aggression to keep you on your toes. Crowd control and spacing plays a big part in the combat of the game as a result, with most runic attacks having some form of AOE to help get enemies off of you. You even have an indicator that lights up when if enemy behind you is about to strike. You're taught this very early, just to reinforce how relentless the enemies you face will be. This gets turned up to eleven in the higher difficulty modes.
  • Minimalist Cast: The Nine Realms are surprisingly empty. There's Kratos, Atreus, Freya, Brok and Sindri, Baldur, Jormungandr, Magni and Modi, and Mimir. In total, there's approximately eleven people that are shown onscreen and have plot relevance. The majority of locations you can visit are completely devoid of (living) inhabitants. (According to some dialogue, everyone who's not an adventurer, a warrior, or a murdering bandit is either dead or has fled because of the various disasters.)
  • Missing Mom: Atreus' mother Faye is a Posthumous Character.
  • Mr. Exposition: Mimir is a head full of exposition hanging from Kratos's belt.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Pun not intended, but on a meta level, an early concept idea for Kratos was as a warrior with a baby strapped to his back. Add in the fact that Atreus occasionally piggybacks on him when climbing up walls and it's come full circle.
    • Atreus talks about the Fates at one point. Kratos responds that Fates can be fickle. He would know.
    • Also in a gag toward actual Norse Mythology, Loki (in this case Atreus) ends up accidentally stabbing Baldur with a mistletoe dagger when he is punched by him, leading directly to his death by negating his immortality.
  • Nay-Theist: After all these years, Kratos' opinion of deities hasn't improved one bit. Early in the game, when he and Atreus come upon a bucket-bearing sacrifice to Odin, he dismisses it as foolishness since "humans should not pray to monsters".
  • New Game Plus: Added later on in a patch. It lets players carry all the gear and upgrades they've collected into a new playthrough (including the Blades of Chaos) and introduces brand new gear as well as a new Perfect rarity.
  • New Weapon Target Range The Blades of Chaos so prominently used in the previous games are excellent against hordes of targets and offer excellent crowd control, even if their damage is weaker than the Leviathan Axe... and it just so happens that a horde of weak enemies has amassed outside Kratos' home in the time he took to re-equip himself.
  • Never My Fault: Freya never actually admits that she was wrong for placing the curse on Baldur that ultimately turned him into a Psychotic murderer, nor is she willing to undo the spell no matter the suffering it causes Balder or the people he tries to kill, including Kratos and Atreus.
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • The official trailer showed a part where Kratos is knocked several feet into the air by a troll before crashing to the ground. In the game proper, the one landing that hit on Kratos is actually the Stranger.
    • The same trailer also suggested that Atreus could understand the World Serpent's language, as Kratos asks him what it's saying and Atreus responds "He wants to help us!" In the actual game, Atreus' respond to Kratos asking what it's saying is "I don't know!", and they eventually get the help of Mimir to speak with him.
  • Niceness Denial: Kratos and Atreus are passing through the mines on their journey, when they find a dragon called Hraezlyr attacking their new associate Sindri. At Atreus' encouragement, the normally self-interested Kratos decides to fight the dragon and kill it. Afterwards, Sindri is ecstatic:
    Sindri: But-but-but- nobody's killed a dragon for hundreds of years... not since the Grand Culling of the Wyrms! And unless I'm mistaken, you did all that... for me!
    Kratos: You are mistaken. The dragon was simply in our path... nothing more.
    Sindri: (laughs) You deny it all you want, but you saved me! And that... deserves compensation. (he gifts the heroes by transferring the Shock and Awe properties of Hraezlyr's Breath Weapon to Atreus' bow)
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
    • When an enemy's stun meter is full, Kratos can grab a hold of it and deliver one, sometimes with player interaction.
    • A few moments of Kratos's fights with Baldur have Kratos simply pummeling a prone and helpless Baldur.
  • No Man of Woman Born: Freya informs Kratos that "no magic in all the Nine Realms" can kindle a fire in Helheim... as it happens, Kratos has access to magic fire from outside the Nine Realms, in the form of the Blades of Chaos.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Giants in Norse Mythology aren't necessarily large. In fact, a number of them were shapeshifters, and could easily pass as human. Invoked when Kratos and Atreus are ascending the Mountain, and the former comments that some of the passageways seem far too small for giants. Atreus explains that the "Giants", more accurately called "Jötnar", are a people moreso than a descriptor of their size... though in the case of some Jötnar, "giant" also means giant.
  • Not His Blood: When Atreus blocks Baldur's punch to protect Kratos, Kratos initially panics at the sight of blood on his son...but the blood is actually Baldur's, who had just stabbed himself on Atreus's mistletoe quiver strap and removed his own invulnerability.
  • Nothing but Skulls: Boy howdy but there are piles of dead bodies and bones everywhere to show what a Crapsack World you're exploring.
  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging: During the Fafnir's Horde sidequest chain, Atreus keeps going on about how horrible it was that one reaver murdered his own father and how awful patricide is, totally unaware that his father has killed his own father, both his uncles, and just about everyone else on that side of his family tree for good measure. And his mom too, although that one was a Mercy Kill.
  • Oddly Common Rarity: Unintentionally invoked in New Game +. In the standard game, it's a big deal that Sindri is able to come up with a small block of Skap Slag late in the game. This loses much of its gravitas in New Game + because you'll find Skap Slag in literally every chest you open in order to get the new upgrades and equipment.
  • Off the Rails: Kratos and Arteus' journey seems to be disrupting the prophesied progression of Norse mythology, especially Ragnarok. They kill Magni and Móði, who were both supposed to survive the calamity. Then they killed Baldur far earlier than expected, possibly kicking off Ragnarok earlier than expected.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When Kratos gets sucked into the Light of Alfheim, he's only gone for a few moments from his perspective. But when Atreus pulls him back out, he accuses him of disappearing for a "long, long time" and the camera pans up to reveal dozens of dead Dark Elves in piles nearby.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: No matter where Atreus is standing in relation to Kratos, as soon as you get into a boat or onto an elevator platform, Atreus will instantly join you, as if by magic.
  • Older and Wiser: Kratos is trying a lot harder to temper his trademark Unstoppable Rage and serves as a good, if stern, father to his son Atreus.
  • Once per Episode: This installment continues the franchise-long recurrence of Kratos somehow ending up in the land of the dead and having to fight his way out, though this time neither he nor Atreus have actually died.
  • The Oner: The game is presented as one long, uninterrupted camera shot, aside from a few flashes to white during the middle of the game and when stepping out of the Space Between Realms. Cutscenes start seamlessly after normal play, and flow back into gameplay after finishing smoothly. This naturally results in a lot of creative camerawork and character staging: Kratos or Atreus are often facing away from the other not just to signify their emotional distance, but also because it's one of the few ways to show both of their faces on-screen at the same time. The only cuts in the game happen at the very end: the beginning and end of Atreus' vision of Thor's attack, followed by the end credits.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: The first conversation between Kratos and The Stranger. At first, it seems as though The Stranger knows who Kratos is. Saying things like "Long way from home, aren't you?" (alluding to the fact that Kratos is from Greece) and "I thought your kind was supposed to be so enlightened" (alluding to Greece's reputation as a nation of philosophers and great thinkers). However, once it's revealed who The Stranger is and what he wants, his lines take on an entirely different meaning Baldur had no idea who he was talking to and thought that Kratos was a Jötnar, and was referring to Jötenheim, the homeland of the Jötnar, and the fact that the Jötnar were renowned for their wisdom. It also makes other remarks of his make more sense "I thought you'd be bigger" was referring to his misconception that Kratos was a Jötnar and him saying that Kratos "already knows." what he wants is a reference to the psychic powers that the Jötnar had.
  • One-Time Dungeon: The player can't return to explore most of Thamur's Corpse or Helheim beyond the bridge after completing those sections in the story. Many items and armors won't be available unless the player starts New Game Plus.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
    • The Witch of the Woods is exceptionally kind and friendly... except for one moment where she is horrified upon seeing Atreus' new arrows and immediately demands he hand them over so she can destroy them in her fireplace. Her jarring reaction shocks Atreus, who by this point really liked her. This is supposed to be a clue to players, since those were mistletoe arrows and they are the only one thing that could harm her son Baldur.
    • Atreus becomes much more abrasive once he finds out he's a god, going full-on Smug Super. Both Kratos and Mimir note this change in Atreus with open worry, especially after Atreus insults his friend Sindri.
  • Optional Boss: There are certain boss encounters that are entirely optional for players, such as the Valkyries.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Although they resemble classic Western Dragons, the Norse dragons have a few distinct features, their skull structures resemble ceratopsian dinosaurs, their "fire" breath have an electrical element and one of the dragons, Hræzlyr, lacks wings.
  • Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Sindri and Brok are dwarves that fit the traditional mold as short, bearded men that excel in smithing, but then Norse Mythology was the basis of the archetypal dwarf. Unlike most modern examples, however, they are also proficient in magic, which they use to step into the Realm Between Realms to avoid confrontation or set up shop in otherwise inaccessible locations. Brok is gruff like one would expect, but his skin is bluish-grey from handling raw silver (a real-life condition called argyria). Sindri, meanwhile, looks typically human in features and skin pigment but is a bit of a germaphobe.
  • Our Elves Are Different: Ljósálfar (light elves) and Svartálfar (dark elves) from Norse myths appear when Kratos and Atreus explore Alfheim. In contrast to the typical "humans but with pointy ears" portrayal, the Ljósálfr are depicted as floating angelic beings, while the Svartálfar are dark humanoids with insect wings. The Svartálfar are in fact invading the realm and are seen killing hapless civilians, but Kratos warns Atreus to not be too quick to think the Ljósálfar are entirely innocent in this affair, since they don't know anything about what started the conflict.
  • Our Giants Are Bigger: The Giants are an ancient race that opposed the Aesir and are all but extinct by the time the game starts. They are almost as big as, if not bigger than, the Titans from the original series! As in the original myths, they do have magical powers and can shapeshift to appear as normal humans...just like Atreus' mother does. The World Serpent is also a Giant as well, though one in the form of a snake instead of humanoid.
  • Our Gods Are Different: In the original Greek entries, the Greek Pantheon can shift their size and if they die, they'll either explode violently, or turn into flies that trigger a calamity that rages the cities in centuries to come. This entry however, the Norse Gods appear to be a different breed of Gods who are human-size (at least the on-screen ones), and the only supposed size shifters are the Giants. While Kratos warns Atreus killing a god bears horrible consequences, both Magni and Modi don't explode nor turn into flies after death, but instead dies like a human would, but their deaths would trigger Ragnarok with Baldr's death. Mimir does mention that every god is unique, so maybe that also applies to pantheons.
  • Our Ogres Are Hungrier: They look similar to a hairless gorilla, but have scaly arms and spines growing out of their backs.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Wulvers are enemies scattered throughout Midgard that possess great strength and speed which greatly resemble Werewolves (with the exception of spiky protrusions from their bodies) that are based in Celtic Mythology.
  • Outside-Context Problem: Kratos is a heroic version, due to being a God from a different realm, and subject to different rules.
    • Merely his presence throws the Norse world into turmoil, since Midgard is heavily bound by prophecy, and this prophecy does not include Kratos. As such, he is able to kill people who were scripted to survive Ragnarok. This is what causes Modi to freak out when Kratos kills Magni; it's not just that Kratos killed a God, not just that he killed his brother, it's that by all the rules of the Nine Realms, this should not be possible.
    • At the end of the game, it is implied that Kratos' actions have triggered the beginning of Ragnarok, a full century before it was supposed to happen.
    • Kratos' Frost Axe is useless in Helheim, the frozen realm of the dead, whose inhabitants are immune to ice damage and where no fire from all the Nine Realms can burn. His Blades of Chaos, however, are exempt from this rule.
  • Papa Wolf: Kratos towards Atreus, naturally. Though he has a very stern way of showing it, he does genuinely care for his son and is patient with him, considering he is debilitated by a sickness and living in a very harsh region surrounded by monsters and undead. It's best shown when the Stranger threatens to harm Atreus while he is hiding in their home; for likely the first time in centuries, Kratos explodes into a Spartan Rage to curbstomp his foe.
  • Parental Favoritism: A lot of in-game dialogue indicates that Magni was Thor's favourite child and that Thor had already chosen him as his successor. As shown by Magni's gear being respected by Sindri, how Thor always accredited glory to Magni alone and how he nearly beat Modi to death after blaming him for Magni's death.
  • Patricide: Going into Fafnir's Storeroom and going all the way to the end will have you find out that the leader of the raiders that looted the place was stabbed in the back by his own son. While the now-deceased leader had done the same to his own father, he didn't think his son was ready to lead. Cue a later quest where we find out that the killer was then murdered by his crew for doing the deed.
  • Physical God: Kratos is told he is still the God of War, and by this logic, Atreus has Divine Parentage.
    Atreus: So I'm a man now? Like you?
    Kratos: No. We are not men. We are more than that. The responsibility is far greater.
  • Pinned to the Wall: If a standard enemy is close to the wall, you can instantly kill them by charing up your axe throw and pin them straight to the wall. At higher difficulties (especially Give Me God of War), you can only perform this on enemies that are off the ground. Doing this thirty times is necessary to complete one of the labors in Atreus' journal, which nets you a bunch of experience points and a small percentage added to your tally for 100% completion.
  • Playable Epilogue: After the main story's end, you're free to continue exploring to collect any items or fight any enemies you may have missed, free of harassment from the local gods. You're encouraged to, in fact, with Atreus suggesting defeating all the Valkyries. Some new dialogue will also appear here and there, and the setting has noticeably changed since you can no longer contact Freya and snow is falling almost everywhere, symbolizing the onset of the Fimbulwinter preceding Ragnarok.
  • Plot-Irrelevant Villain: While the Stranger is nominally the Big Bad as the threat that menaces our heroes across the entire journey, the focus of this game is on the journey itself, with killing him being at best a secondary objective to showcasing Kratos and Atreus and their relationship. Ultimately, their final showdown has nothing to do with the heroes' quest or even the Stranger's mission, but to defend Freya, a friend and ally to the leads, from him.
  • Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Kratos and Atreus's relationship remains teetering on the edge throughout the game but there are two instances in the game where their relationship hits their all-time low.
    • In the first instance, Kratos goes into a beam of light and has visions of the past; Atreus pulls him back out, revealing that he spent hours fighting Dark Elves alone while Kratos was gone for only a couple of minutes from his perspective. Atreus spends the next section of the plot furious at Kratos for abandoning him, acting outright insubordinate at times, until Kratos explains what happened and (in his own way) apologizes.
    • Another far bigger one is during the third journey to the mountains where Atreus becomes Drunk with Power and lets his status as a god go to his head due to misinterpreting Kratos's revelation about him. Not helping is the fact that even when Atreus keeps egging for the whole truth, meanwhile belittling everyone he comes across, Kratos still refuses to tell him, which ends up making Atreus more resentful and uncontrollable culminating when he shoots his own father with shock arrows so he can fight Baldur himself. This episode lands the pair in Helheim, where Kratos reprimands Atreus and the latter eventually becomes remorseful of what he had become.
  • Poor Communication Kills:
    • Kratos's Fatal Flaw is no longer an inability to accept responsibility for his mistakes like in the original trilogy. Now, it's his inability to open up and explain things that causes problems for him and his son. Due to his hands-off distant parenting, Atreus has grown up thinking his father resents him for being weak. This has resulted in Atreus being both somewhat bitter towards Kratos while also being overly eager to prove that he's strong, hoping this will earn him his father's love. The reality is that Kratos is too afraid to get close to Atreus due to his past and wants to hide his nature as a god from him. This isn't just damaging their familial bond — it's actually killing Atreus. Because he is unaware of his godhood and thinks of himself as a mortal, the inherent contradiction in his nature is warring within him, manifesting as a life-threatening illness. This comes to a head after Kratos sadly claims that Atreus is cursed due to the divine blood he inherited from Kratos. Atreus ends up overhearing only part of what Kratos said, leading him to believe that Kratos thinks Atreus is a cursed weakling. This convinces Kratos to finally start opening up to his son. The first thing he does is reveal that he is a god, and even after this he keeps key tidbits away from Atreus that cause the boy to go Drunk with Power. Case in point, Kratos mentions that there are consequences to killing gods after Atreus kills Modi, and refuses to elaborate: predictably, Atreus blows him off and continues on his path down the slippery slope.
    • A great deal of the game would have turned out differently had The Stranger explicitly stated what he wanted and asked politely instead of saying "You know what I want" and threatening to kill Kratos to get it.
  • Portal Crossroad World: The Lake of Nine is a great lake on which is built the Bifrost, a magic bridge that can grant access to the nine realms.
  • Post-Victory Collapse:
    • After Kratos supposedly kills the Stranger for the first time, he spends a few seconds on the ground gasping for air before getting up and slowly walking back to the house.
    • A gentler example occurs in the denouement. After all their adventures, when the duo finally returns home, they immediately go to bed.
  • Posthumous Character: Faye, the wife of Kratos and mother of Atreus, is already on her funeral bier at the beginning of the game, but Kratos and Atreus talk about her a lot and her actions set the plot in motion.
  • Precision F-Strike: While the dialogue in the original trilogy was exempt of strong swearing, here some instances of "fuck" and "fucking" are present, particularly in Brok's dialogue.
  • Prehistoric Animal Analogue: The facial features of most of the dragons of the game resemble those of ceratopsian dinosaurs like Triceratops, possessing frills, beaks and, in Fafnir, Otr and Reginn's case, horns above their eyes.
  • Psychological Torment Zone: Beyond a certain point in Helheim, illusions of an individual's past begin to appear to torment them with their regrets. These cloud-based "illusions", however, are real objects in the world that anyone present can see, leading to awkwardness when Atreus witnesses Kratos killing Zeus. Father and son also get to learn of Baldur and Freya's falling out this way.
  • Punch Catch: After silently taking a couple punches from the Stranger, Kratos stops messing around and catches his fist and gives him the death glare of all death glares before beating him down.
  • Punny Name: The main currency in the game is "hacksilver". What's one of the ways you can earn it? Hack stuff (and people) up.
  • Purple Is Powerful: Enemies several levels above your own have purple health bars. Likewise, legendary gear, the strongest gear available in Midgard, is signified in the subscreen with a purple bar.
    R-Z 
  • Rash Promise: Kratos makes reference to the thoughtless promise he made to serve Ares. In his own words, the promise ended up costing Kratos his very soul and lead to Kratos' murder of his own father.
  • Railroading: One very specific instance that occurs in NG+. When you reach the top of the mountain for the first time and can hear voices in the distance, there is the direct way up the cliff in front of you covered by the frozen thorns and the more roundabout side path to climb. On your first playthrough, you have no way to destroy the thorns and so you must take the roundabout route, which allows you to eavesdrop on the conversation between Baldur and Mimir. On NG+ however, you have the Blades of Chaos already, which allows you to burn the thorns on your first playthrough. However, as this would affect the story if you climbed directly up to where they were before they left, the game outright refuses to let you climb the direct route, replacing the circle prompt with a lock. This is the only real example as every other unlockable ability (from Atreus's arrows to the energy chain thing) have to be reunlocked through the story again before they are useable.
  • Rated M for Manly: Reconstructed. While Kratos doesn't want to give into his Spartan Rage, the game makes it clear that there are perfectly legitimate times to pick up a weapon to fight with. In addition, the whole basis of the game is Kratos teaching his son how to be a man. If the previous games could be considered a Deconstruction of this trope, then the series as a whole could be seen as a Decon-Recon Switch of it.
  • Reality Has No Subtitles: Kratos can speak Norse, but Elven speech or Jörmungandr's language cannot be understood other than through a translator.
  • Recycled Title: The official title isn't God of War IV despite it taking place after III. It's just called God of War.
  • Red Herring: Tyr's temple has a variety of paths to other realms, such as Muspelheim, Niflheim, Alfheim, Helheim and Jotunheim. It also has selectable paths for Vanaheim, Asgard and Svartalfheim, even though none of them are visited at any point in the game due to being blocked off by Odin; they aren't even accessible in the postgame.
  • Retool: Fittingly, going along with the Recycled Title, the game also serves as a "Soft Reboot" of the series. While the past games are still in continuity, this game takes place centuries after the events of those games and changes the setting from Ancient Greece to Scandinavia. Similarly, the gameplay has also been tweaked from the fixed-camera, individual-room style of the past to an over-the-shoulder, free-roaming action game.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Tyr's temple has a lot of obstacles and trials one must overcome to unlock the path to Jötunheim. The final and most egregious one: the portal is only open on the mirrored underside of the temple, and one must flip the whole temple on an axle to access it.
  • Rewatch Bonus:
    • The first conversation between Kratos and the Stranger takes on a different light when you watch it knowing some of the information revealed later in the game. Namely, Baldur was likely looking for Faye/Laufey, a giant who would have known what he wanted, not Kratos, who had no idea. Also, the Stranger doesn't actually know who Kratos is and believes he's a giant from Jotunheim, rather than him insulting Kratos as a foreign god from Greece.
      The Stranger: Thought you'd be bigger. But you're definitely the one.
    • On a similar note, when the Stranger comes and Atreus is told to hide under the floorboards of the house, he mentions that Kratos told him to never go there. That's where the Blades of Chaos are stashed, wrapped up in red cloth, and Kratos didn't want Atreus to find them. There's also a brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it camera movement towards the spot where Kratos hid the Blades when they begin their journey.
    • It's not initially clear on first watch what the rumbling noise is just before The Stranger bashes on the front door of Kratos' house (particularly since the viewer never sees it and it's never addressed at all). After playing through the game, it's much more obvious that it's Baldur's dragon, which he uses to escape with Atreus after ambushing them at the top of The Mountain.
    • Despite speaking in the language of the Giants, it's possible to glean what the World Serpent says to Kratos since the words he uses are loosely similar to English.
      World Serpent: (I know you… Ghost of Sparta.) … (Find Mimir. He will help.)
    • Magni's death and Modi's horrified reaction seem like an average sight for long-time players, until the end of the game. The ending reveals that the Giants have made another tapestry based on their prophetic visions of Ragnarok. Modi wasn't just traumatised by the death of Magni, what Kratos did was unthinkable. He killed a demigod who was prophesied to survive the apocalypse. Magni's death should have been impossible, Modi has lost all of his confidence due to a prophecy failure and Odin wants Kratos because of his ability to kill a god and defy fate.
  • Ribcage Stomach: Jörmungandr's belly, which Kratos and Atreus visit late in the journey to retrieve Mimir's missing eye. A bit more justified than usual since a) Jörmungandr is an explicitly magical creature whose anatomy already makes about as much sense as a harpy's, and b) he is a titanic serpent, so his skeleton is essentially one massive rib cage that could conceivably show through his guts depending on the thickness of the surrounding musculature.
  • Robbing the Dead: One of the first things the player can do in the game is gathering items from coffins. Atreus is shocked that Kratos does such a thing.
    Atreus: Yech... What-?
    Kratos: He can no longer use it. We can.
  • Rock Monster: The Ancients, humanoid piles of rocks that are tough enough to warrant a Boss Battle. They are powered by a magical core at the center of their chests, which can shoot balls and beams of energy but is also their weak point.
  • RPG Elements: The game is mistaken as a full Action RPG by certain fans due to this; the game utilizes an experience point system used to level up runic attacks and learn new skills, with the individual level being based on the armor stats. Not to mention, Atreus acts as a second-party member with his own upgrades and armor different from Kratos' set.
  • Rule of Symbolism: The scene where Atreus briefly activates Spartan Rage before it knocks him out is used to show how Atreus could become like Kratos. In a more sinister form of symbolism, the frost giant murals show that Kratos will die in Atreus's arms, setting off everything he hoped to avoid with Atreus bringing Ragnarok.
  • Rummage Fail: After Kratos and Atreus rescue Sindri from a dragon, Sindri starts pulling weapon after weapon out of a Bag of Holding, looking for one that will make a suitable thank-you gift, and dismissing each. The last thing he pulls out before giving up and looking elsewhere is an entire fish.
  • Rust Proof Blood: Mótsognir left a blood trail that leads to his corpse. He presumably died centuries ago, so it is particularly absurd for the blood to even visible anymore, let alone still red.
  • Sadly Mythcharacterized: Par for the course for a God of War game, though the setting and story internally justify much of it. The barebones of it is that the Asgardian gods are presented as much more sinister and misanthropic than they were in surviving accounts of Norse mythology. For some more details, check out the character page.
  • Savage Wolves: Kratos and Atreus occasionally fight wolves on their journey, but Atreus points out that the ones that attack them are either starved or rabid.
  • Scars are Forever: Kratos still carries the scars of his previous life. His skin is still grafted with the ashes of his first family, his scar from being impaled on the Blade of Olympus is still visible, and when he unwraps his forearms at the end of the journey, so are the impressions of the chains from the Blades of Chaos. Seeing as the scars were inflicted by magical weapons, and the ashes are a curse, this is a justified example.
  • Scenery Porn: The game is rich in gorgeous mountainscapes with breathtaking views, and some realms like Alfheim give us some beautiful architecture to traverse.
  • Schmuck Bait: When Kratos travels between the realms on the branches of Yggdrasil, he can jump off the branches if he wants, despite being warned by everyone around him that it's a bad idea. What happens? He dies. The loading screen even gives you crap for it. Except when he and his son obtains a secret protective rune which allows them to land near the location of Jötunheim's hidden portal.
    Brok: And whatever do you, never, never, EVER, never, ever, ever, ever, ever throw yourself over the edge of the path... lest you want death.
  • Screw Destiny: Despite the various entries listed in You Can't Fight Fate below, it seems that a lot of Norse prophecies didn't account for the existence of a god outside their mythology, and Kratos manages to derail a lot of what they thought without even meaning to. Notably, Magni and Móði are both prophesied to survive the events of Ragnarok, which is still centuries away. Destiny didn't do much to help them there.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
    • When Freya gave birth to Baldur, the runes foretold that he would die a needless death. Desperate to save him, Freya made him nigh-immortal, with the side effect of removing his senses of touch and taste. The inability to feel anything, however, drove Baldur insane and ultimately makes him try to kill his own mother out of resentment, leading to Kratos killing him to save her, thus causing the very needless death Freya had tried to save him from.
    • Given the reveal that Kratos and Atreus are Farbauti and Loki, respectively, it becomes entirely possible that the prophesied Ragnarok might not have happened at all if the Aesir had just left them alone.
  • Sense Loss Sadness: The Stranger constantly gripes that he's unable to feel anything. The reason he sought Kratos out in the first place was hoping that, because Kratos doesn't use Norse magic, it would be different. It isn't. Baldur missed feeling things so much that when he's wounded by Atreus's mistletoe arrowhead, his combat dialogue has him begging to feel more pain.
  • Serial Escalation: Averted, despite the misleading publicity about Jörmungandr. Although Kratos pulls off some pretty impressive feats during the course of the game, his quest is quite the step down from the extermination of Olympus and all its gods. For instance, Trolls who are roughly the size of the Cyclops from the original games constitute a boss battle. Additionally, Kratos's main goal is more humble, as he simply wishes to scatter his wife's ashes in a very specific place instead of slaying powerful gods and creatures.
  • Sequel Hook: Several of them.
    • Freya vows to avenge Baldur's death and is left alive to make good on her threat.
    • In The Stinger, Atreus dreams of a time in the future when Thor will pay the two a visit.
    • Another minor hook is when Kratos thwarts the Dark Elf invasion on Alfheim, and the dying general ominously tells Kratos that he's making a big mistake.
    • A mural that predicted the whole game's story shows the eventual death of Kratos in the arms of a crying Atreus.
    • It is often discussed that Ragnarok is going to happen, it's just a matter of time, and a lot of characters, particularly Odin, are making preparations for that day. Come the end of the game, the death of Baldur, The Reveal that Atreus is Loki, and Fimbulwinter has started, make it clear that the countdown to Ragnarok has begun. But not merely that, the prophecies about it stated that Fimbulwinter wouldn't start for another hundred years — Kratos' killing of Baldur has kick-started the apocalypse a century early ahead of schedule.
    • A random conversation with Mimir has him telling Kratos that Freya came to ask where Odin is keeping her Valkyrie wings, implying that Kratos may end up fighting her in the next game.
    • The side-plot with Tyr shows that he had the power to visit far-off lands like Egypt, Japan, and Central America as well as Greece, and over the course of the game, Kratos and Atreus gain that power for themselves.
    • While Kratos is carrying Atreus to Freya's home, someone blows the horn calling the World Serpent. Mimir specifically calls attention to this. The developers have refused to answer any questions about who blew the horn or why.
  • "Shaggy Frog" Story: During the boat rides Kratos can tell stories to Atreus to pass the time. However, Kratos doesn't tell the full story. For example, when he retells the Tortoise and the Hare he leaves out the part where the hare overslept which allowed the tortoise to win the race. Saying the tortoise won the race through steadiness and discipline.
    Atreus: You... haven't told a lot of stories, have you.
  • Shock and Awe: Atreus shoots a lightning bolt out of his bow at one point during the troll battle. This ability was a gift from Sindri, who used a dragon's tooth to imbue his bow with electric magic.
  • Shoot the Dog: The death of Baldur in a nutshell. Kratos obviously doesn't want to kill him, but is forced to do this because Baldur is too crazed at this point and no one can reason with him, not even his mother.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The Shattered Gauntlet of Ages, a Magikarp Power glove, is a clear nod to the Infinity Gauntlet. It can even be given six enchantments with obvious counterparts in each of the Infinity Stones: Andvari's Soul (Soul), Asgard's Shard of Existence (Reality), Eye of the Outer Realm (Space), Ivaldi's Corrupted Mind (Mind), Muspelheim Eye of Power (Power), and Njord's Temporal Stone (Time).
    • Along the same lines, whenever Kratos thrashes a tatzelwurm to death, he uses an identical move to Hulk thrashing Loki in The Avengers. (Allowing for size, of course.)
      • And after a particular boss fight, Atreus remarks, "Puny troll."
    • Mimir is a one-eyed man tangled up in a tree, much like the true form of the "three-eyed crow" in A Song of Ice and Fire.
    • The Loot Lizard, a Unique Enemy found inside the mountain, is a reference to the Crystal Lizards from Dark Souls.
    • According to Cory Barlog, the opening scene of Kratos chopping down a tree and lugging it on his shoulders is a reference to the opening of Commando.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!:
    • When Kratos takes up the Blades of Chaos once again, Athena's ghost appears and tells him no matter what he does, he will always be a monster. He replies that this is true, but he is no longer her monster, before walking right through her as she disappears.
    • At the end of the game, Freya makes an implicit threat to tell Atreus about Kratos' history, in a way that will break father and son apart. Kratos immediately tells Atreus the truth of his history, no matter how much it hurts, to rob her of that weapon.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Brok is bold and abrasive, while Sindri is delicate and meek.
  • Sigil Spam: A subdued example, but right in front of the player the entire game; Kratos' axe hanger is in the shape of an Omega, his symbol as the God of War.
  • Signature Sound Effect: Odin's ravens have a different call than every other bird in the game, so hearing it is often the first clue that one needs to be looking for a green bird in the area.
  • A Simple Plan: The main plot of the game is Kratos and his son want to spread his wife's ashes at the highest peak in the realms. Seems like it would be pretty straight forward, right? Well...
  • Sir Swearsalot: Brok swears casually and frequently.
  • Skippable Boss: Brenna Daudi, the second troll, can be skipped by just leaving his area via the cave.
  • Sleep Paralysis Creature: Zig-Zagged with the Nightmares, floating eye-like enemies with tentacles that attack the player with poison and can possess enemies in-game to make them stronger. They cause nightmares and are inspired by Mares, demons in Germanic and Scandinavian folklore who sat on their victim's chest and caused sleep paralysis. While their appearance differs greatly from their more imp-like mythological counterparts, Atreus' bestiary in his diary suggests they were named after them, who better fit this trope:
    "They're named after an older creature, called a Mare, that sits on your chest while you sleep and feeds off your fear."
  • Small Role, Big Impact:
    • Sindri. If it weren't for him, Atreus would have never received his mistletoe arrows, one of which he used to hold together his quiver strap, which Baldur punches at the climax of the journey, breaking the spell over him and finally making him vulnerable.
    • Magni has the least characterisation of the cast and the aftermath of his death sets up the remaining drama in the game. Modi becomes vengeful, Magni's death reveals the prophecy has changed and Thor now has a personal vendetta against Kratos for killing his favourite son and successor.
  • Snow Means Death: In the final battle, the last thing Baldur sees before he finally dies is falling snow. This works on two levels, as the new snow is the beginning of Fimbulwinter, the end of which will begin Ragnarok.
  • Soft Reboot: While the events of the previous games explicitly still happened, the game takes place hundreds of years later, has a vastly different tone, heavily retools the gameplay, has a completely new cast aside from Kratos, and Kratos is now fighting the pantheon and creatures of Norse Mythology instead of those from Greek Mythology.
  • Spiteful Spit:
    • The Witch in the Woods (Freya) performs such a spit at Mimir's head when they see each-other again for the first time in centuries, and it's made very clear that there's a bad history between them although Freya's hatred seems to be one-sided.
    • In Helheim, the Stranger/Baldur spits and hisses "Coward!" at a past version of himself for not going through with killing their mother in revenge for the fate she sentenced them to.
  • Sticks to the Back: The Leviathan Axe is hung from a hook that all of Kratos' chest armors incorporate. The Blades of Chaos do this, looking all the more ridiculous for their lack of attachment right next to the axe.
  • Super Mode: Spartan Rage is a game mechanic where Kratos unleashes his rage and forgoes his weapons in exchange for pummeling enemies as fast as he can with his bare fists. Not only is he invulnerable while in this state, he also deals incredible damage that restores his health. Using this mode and using any attack in it gradually empties Kratos' his Rage meter, which can only be built back up by dealing lots of damage or finding Rage Stones to destroy.
  • Statuesque Stunner: The Witch is just slightly shorter than Kratos, who is officially 6'6", and is far taller than her son Baldur.
  • Stealth Pun: At the start of the game, after Atreus kills the deer, a troll appears and steals it, triggering the game's first boss battle. The Troll's name is Daudi Kaupmadr, which can also be read as "Dad, He Caught My Deer!"
  • The Stinger: After completing the main story, returning home and interacting with the bed will trigger one. Atreus has a vision that, in a few years, he and Kratos will be visited by Thor. Sure enough, one of the first details announced for the sequel was confirmation that he'd be the antagonist.
  • Story Difficulty Setting: The easiest difficulty setting is named "Give Me A Story".
  • Stumbling Upon the Lost Wizard: A sub-plot has Kratos and his son discover the secluded witch of the woods by sheer coincidence. She has a dark past mired with hatred for the Norse gods and she is cursed to remain in her forest and never return home. She is the Aesir goddess Freya, whose divinity naturally rubs the theophobic Kratos the wrong way.
  • Stylistic Suck: Kratos is not a talented storyteller, which Atreus gives him mild sass about. And when Kratos tells a good story at the end of the game (The reason why he gave his son the name Atreus), Atreus is amazed at it and is disappointed Mimir wasn't around to hear it.
  • Success as Revenge: One of Jötnar shrines tells about the Frost Giant Bergelmir, who alongside his spouse was the only surviving Giant from the blood inundation caused by the death of Ymir, the first Giant, in the hands of the Aesir gods. Mimir notices how Bergelmir could've sought vengeance against the Aesir for drowning his people in the blood of their ancestor, but he instead chose his revenge to be living on, having many children with his wife and thus ensuring that the Giants would continue to thrive instead of disappearing.
  • Summon to Hand: Kratos can call his axe back his hand after throwing it at enemies and objects. Beyond just hitting enemies from afar with the axe, this has a couple of uses:
    • There are plenty of puzzles that require Kratos to throw his axe into some machinery (whether it be a mechanism to open a door, push up a roof of spikes, or push a sawblade trap up and down), clog it up, and then summon it back to him when he needs that machinery to start operating again.
    • Kratos comes upon a sign that says "throw your weapon away" and he eagerly picks up the axe and throws it into a lake. He holds his hand out to summon the axe, but in a Subverted Trope, the axe fails to return. He doesn't have it until the World Serpent pops out of the lake and spits it back to Kratos.
    • As you upgrade the Leviathan Axe, you unlock the ability to throw it and summon it back in close quarter combat. The light version of this attack has Kratos throw the axe in a circle around him, while the heavy version just has him throw it forwards and call it back immediately.
    • One of the few times we see Kratos use this ability comes in the final boss fight. The second phase of that fight ends with Kratos throwing the axe into the boss hard enough to send it flying back into a wall and calling the axe back in a spurt of blood that only worsens the pain.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: When faced with the colossal zombie Thamur Atreus calls on the even-larger world serpent Jörmungandr for aid.
  • Superboss: All of the Valkyries you can come across during your journey are significantly stronger than normal bosses and it takes the best skills and equipment to beat them, but they have no impact on the main story and you are not required to kill them to proceed in the game.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • Kratos's diminished performance. Wordof God has stated Kratos has not gotten weaker at all, and Cory Balrog even states the current Kratos would win against his young self "without question". HOWEVER, he may have developed in terms of skill and possibly even in strength, but unlike before, where Kratos is The Unfettered who would not hesitate to use all his power to destroy his enemies, he has a son who he doesn't want to know about his past and godhood, and in order to avoid attention from the Norse Gods, he has to actively suppress his power as much as he could. The end result is a purposefully downgraded Kratos who relies much more on experience, finesse, and precision in his combat style rather than brutality and rage. And while it showcases how he's grown as a warrior, no matter how much battle prowess he has, it can't make up for the raw power he could have used to end things much sooner, subsequently causing him to struggle much more against groups of enemies and the Norse Gods.
    • Atreus is able to call forth his bloodlines Spartan Rage but he is already suffering from chronic illness due to thinking he is mortal when he actually has divine blood. So, of course, instead of us getting to see him pull off an impossible physical feat, involuntarily accessing godly power without preparation or awareness of it dials his illness up to 1000% and nearly kills him.
    • When Kratos and Atreus face the Norse Gods, Kratos is the only one out of the two who can effectively handle them. Atreus, after all, regardless of his considerable skill and decent physical prowess, is still a child with only a few years of experience and hasn't emotionally matured yet. He actually ends up being a burden to Kratos rather than a help, with Kratos having to focus on not only fighting Magni and Modi but also reigning in Atreus's anger from their taunts, and the second fight with Baldur has Kratos being stomped due to Atreus screwing up from Baldur's taunts and Atreus's anger. It's only after Atreus has matured and learned the hard way just being a god doesn't mean you can take on other gods that easily that he proves to be of any use in the final fight against Baldur, and even then the difference in Kratos soloing Baldur 3 times to Kratos working with Atreus to beat down Baldur after a hell of a fight is as clear as a day.
    • After a century of sensory deprivation forced on him against his will by her, even once the curse was lifted, Baldur is in no mood to forgive his mother Freya or attempt to reconcile with her, angrily snarling there is literally nothing she can do to make amends to him.
    • In the post-game, the ruined village by Thamur's corpse is no longer accessible; it was completely destroyed in the final battle, thanks to Freya using Thamur's corpse to battle Kratos.
    • Even though the act was done to save her, Freya is still grief stricken and vengeful towards Kratos for killing Baldur. It doesn't matter how long it's been or how strained the relationship was, Baldur was still her son and she was ready to let him kill her so he can move on with his life. As Kratos and Mimir point out to a confused Atreus, there's no greater pain than outliving your own child, and she would have died for him if that choice ever came forward. In the sequel, Freya is the very first enemy Kratos and Atreus fight.
    • The subplot involving a reaver spirit and his son gave a dose of reality about leadership through strength. The son killed his father because he believed it was his turn to lead the crew but the crew preferred his father as their leader and decided to betray the son for killing their captain.
  • Sword Beam: The Blessings of the Frost Runic Attack causes every swing of the Leviathan Axe to send a wide laser beam that does a ton of damage and frost status to whoever it hits. It only lasts a few seconds, though, and the beams dissipate after traveling a few feet.
  • Symbolic Weapon Discarding: After slaying the Greek pantheon, Kratos had attempted to get rid of the Blades of Chaos after finding that his quest for revenge felt empty. However, he soon learned that no matter what he tried, the blades always found a way of coming back to him, so he simply hid them under a floorboard in his house in Midgard. Later on in the story, his son Atreus falls ill, and the ingredient needed to create the potion to heal him can only be found in Helheim, a realm so cold that the magic of the Nine Realms won't work. Thus, Kratos is forced to dig up the Blades and use them again to save his son.
  • Tamer and Chaster: Unlike previous titles, this one does not include sex minigames. The developers felt that they had been a gimmick to bump the rating, and they certainly didn't fit the tone of this game, since Kratos is on a journey with his son to spread his wife's ashes.
  • Tell Me How You Fight: Previous games depicted Kratos as an animalistic berserker who was just as fluid with his chain-blades as he was brutal, but this one takes a slower, more methodical approach with a more subtle battle axe, reflecting, as many of the tropes here listed, his maturity and focus. Hell, he doesn't even jump in this game, let alone double-jump as he could in the original games.
  • Tempting Fate:
    • On their way to Jötunheim, Atreus says that nothing can stop them. Cue Hræzlyr, a gigantic dragon, doing exactly that.
    • Mimir outright namedrops this trope when Atreus says it again while they're inside the World Serpent. Cue Baldur.
    • At one point, Kratos, Atreus and Mimir are looking for an artifact they need to progress while trying to avoid being found by Magni and Modi. Mimir says that if they're quick they can find it and be gone before Magni and Modi know they're there; immediately, Magni stumbles upon them.
    • When Kratos, Atreus and Mimir reach the lost Jötunheim Tower, Kratos asks Mimir what will happen next, and Mimir says that he doesn't know but after what they went through to get that far, "I'm sure we're past the worst of it." Immediately they're attacked by a horde of monsters, and Mimir retracts his statement.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Pretty much the last thing Freya says to Baldur before the final boss fight is "I know how you feel". Given that the protective spell/curse she placed on him rendered him incapable of feeling anything, it's understandable why that made him flip out.
  • That's No Moon: Jörmungandr at first appears to be a part of the landscape before he starts moving.
  • Thanatos Gambit: Faye is aware that her son will bring about the apocalypse, and also knows that her husband would never allow it. So she uses her burial requests as a means to ensure that the gods find Atreus, as well as leading Atreus and Kratos to discover her heritage. Faye tells Kratos to cut down specially marked trees, conveniently failing to tell him that those trees happen to be creating the magical barrier that is preventing the gods from finding them. Once Baldur shows up, Kratos has no choice but to start the journey. By having them scatter her ashes, they discover that her child is Loki, and Kratos learns that his death will ensure Ragnarok begins.
  • Thematic Sequel Logo Change: Instead of being gold in color like in the previous games, the logo is pale white instead. The new logo also includes Nordic runes, and has the Omega sign replaced with the world serpent Jörmungandr (his sections separated by Nordic runes), to symbolize that the game doesn't take place in Ancient Greece but in northern Scandinavia.
  • Timed Mission: Niflheim is covered by a cursed fog that will eventually kill Kratos if he stays too long it. The goal of the Niflheim sidequest is basically seeing how much loot you can get before you have to bail.
  • Time Is Dangerous: According to Mimir, the Vanir once used time-stopping magic with regularity until they realized stopping the sun and moon meant Skoll and Hati might catch up to them and devour them, which would start Ragnarok.
  • Time-Passage Beard: Kratos now sports a huge beard, showing that a lot of time has passed since the previous game, enough to start a new family.
  • Time Skip: After concluding their quest, Kratos and Atreus return to their home and sleep in their beds, with the next caption saying that "years later" passed during this time, and they are awoken by the arrival of Thor. This is revealed to be a vision had by Atreus.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Subverted to great effect when the Stranger first shows up. He taunts Kratos, picks a fight with him, refuses the opportunity to leave, and even hits Kratos. Right as you would expect Kratos to reduce him to a bloody pile of flesh and bones he uppercuts Kratos several dozen feet into the air and proceeds to give Kratos one hell of a fight.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: By this game, Kratos is a relatively calm, yet stern father to his son. He does still have his Spartan Rage, and does yell at him at times, but is actively trying to rein it in.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Atreus discovers at the end that he is not only half-Olympian, but his mother was a Giantess. He takes the revelation rather well, more mildly shocked and curious than anything.
  • Tough Love: Kratos can appear distant, harsh, and cold towards his son, but he genuinely wants to prepare Atreus to survive — as he explains, being a god like him means they will have a target painted on their backs until the end of their days.
  • Tranquil Fury: Kratos seems to be in this state during some points of the story. He's trying to conquer his demons and keep himself emotionally controlled, but a few times, the control slips. Especially notable compared to the previous games, where he ran on Unstoppable Rage.
  • Training from Hell: Because they are on their own in a harsh and unforgiving land, Kratos is pushing his son to be a self-sufficient hunter and (eventually) a capable warrior. At times, he can come off as very brusque and cold, but it's understandable because Kratos was raised as a Spartan.
  • Translation Convention: Played straight with regards to dialogue, but averted elsewhere. While Kratos can speak Norse, he cannot read or write it, so his son has to do the translating for him.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Needless to say, Atreus's development until the end of the game comes from tons of suffering. First, at the beginning of the journey, his mother dies, leaving him to travel with his estranged father. Just as things seem to be getting better between them, he comes into Magni and Modi, whose insults towards his mother leads to his illness nearly killing him. And then, after healing, he learns he is a God and becomes arrogant and callous... Only to swiftly be forced to realize just how far he still has to go before he can even be considered an equal partner to his exceedingly strong and experienced father after his recklessness ends in the gate to Jotunheim being destroyed and afterwards he and Kratos get stuck in Hel, all because he arrogantly tried to take on Baldur, one of the most powerful Aesirs who could match Kratos and make him really earn his win, and got stomped. Finally, he realizes just how much of a dick he was after Kratos makes it clear he's dishonoring his mother by acting like this, him and Mimir giving Atreus a stern and cold response that he has to listen when Atreus starts apologizing while still trying to make them see he can stand alongside them, seeing him killing Modi, and finally, Kratos in his monstrous days beating up his own grandfather. At the very least, all this both snaps him out of his arrogant god phase with the realization he was becoming an entirely unrecognizable person and makes him a much more humbler.
  • Treasure Room: Tyr's Vault, full of treasure (and more importantly gifts) from all the worlds, as Tyr traveled around the world and the nine realms, making friends who trusted him with many precious artifacts. It's also full of death traps and monsters.
  • Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Happens after a particularly bad argument between Kratos and Atreus when the latter begins asking too many questions about his past, such as where his Blades of Chaos came from and how he knows about the consequences of killing a god. Kratos refuses to answer, with Atreus becoming passive-aggressive in return. Only Mimir is able to react with embarrassment at the situation.
  • Undead Counterpart: Played With the Hel-Walkers; while they aren't the counterpart to any living type of enemy in specific, the second encounter with them happens after Kratos kills human bandits trying to eat him and Atreus. They return within seconds as undead, as a symptom of an unbalanced world.
  • Unstoppable Rage:
    • Kratos is trying to subvert this, both for himself and his son. Kratos is a patient yet stern father to Atreus, and is actively trying not to be as angry as he used to be.
    • When Atreus starts slashing at an already-dead beast while screaming in fury, Kratos stops him and tells him to rein it in. He doesn't want his son to end up like him.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Downplayed: How Kratos lived after stabbing himself with the Blade of Olympus and ending up in Midgard is never explained in detail, but the Healing Factor he displays in cutscenes suggests simply being impaled just isn't that big a deal to a god.
  • The Unreveal: Late in the game, a horn is heard on the outside and Mimir comments that someone just called the World Serpent. Following this, the final level of the lake of Nine is exposed because Jörmungandr again shifted his body. It's never revealed who that was and why, so presumably, it will be addressed in a sequel.
  • Unusable Enemy Equipment: Kratos never attempts to, nor does anyone tell him to, take Magni's lightning sword, despite it just lying in front of him.
  • Valkyries: The choosers of the slain are depicted as sinister winged humanoids that wield scythes in combat and are fought as mini-bosses. Turns out, they have been corrupted by Odin with arcane magic and they can only be released by fatally wounding their physical bodies so their spirits can escape.
  • Vengeance Feels Empty: Kratos tries to convince Baldur of this, drawing on his own experiences. Unfortunately, Baldur is too driven by his rage and hate to listen.
    Kratos: This path you walk- vengeance- you will find no peace at its end. I know.
    Baldur: You. I will deal with you later. But family first.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: Kratos can throw his axe at seagulls to make them explode in a shower of blood and feathers.
  • Void Between the Worlds: Magic doors can be opened to travel into the "realm between realms", which appears as part of the World Tree Yggdrasil. It is basically the game's fast travel system. It also becomes plot-relevant since Tyr has hidden the missing portal to Jötunheim here, out of Odin's reach.
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: Late in the game, the player has to retrieve a missing eye. When they ask Sindri about it, he starts gagging and ends up running off to the side to vomit. After he returns, Brok continues discussing the subject, which sets Sindri off again.
  • Warp Whistle: Bifrost gates are broken doorways that can be used to magically transport to Brok's Shop in the center of the Lake of Nine. Later in the game, Brok gives you the ability to travel through any Bifrost gate in the realm, allowing the player to fast travel to just about any general area they've been to.
  • Wham Line:
    • When Kratos and Atreus meet Mimir at the top of the mountain in Midgard, Atreus explains that Faye wanted them to scatter her ashes from the highest peak in all the realms. Mimir's response?
    Mimir: Oh, then you've come to the wrong place, little brother. The highest peak in all the realms is not here in Midgard. It's in Jotunheim, realm of the giants.
    • Atreus falls fatally ill partway through the game, and Kratos has to retrieve the cure in the Norse realm of the dead, Helheim. But he is then warned that his frost axe will be useless to the Hel-Walkers roaming the land, and therefore he'll need to find "something else." In response, he says:
    Kratos: Then I must return home. (looks down at his forearm and strokes the scars there left by the Blades of Chaos). Dig up a past I swore would stay buried.
    • During the ending, after learning that his mother was a Giant, which makes him half-Giant, Atreus drops this bombshell:
    Atreus: My name on the wall. The Giants called me... Loki?
  • Wham Shot: Well, for as much as a game that is The Oner can have one. Wham Pan, perhaps?
    • The original E3 trailer had a memorable one, since the trailer was shown without title or context. We see a Nordic child playing with his toys, his father calls him back... and Kratos walks out of the house, complete with a sting of his Leitmotif. The scene plays out entirely differently in the actual game, and is not an example.
    • The earliest (and most literal) would be The Stranger punching Kratos high into the air and over his own house, revealing that he too is a god and not some mortal drunkard trying to pick a fight for kicks.
    • On the way to recovering the magic chisel, Mimir recites to Atreus the story of Thamur, a giant who struck his son, then chased after him alone across Midgard to apologize, only to encounter Thor. Atreus asks what happens next, and Mimir simply tells him to wait. When you round a corner, you see Thamur's colossal corpse blocking the horizon, his own chisel impaled through his head behind the eyes.
      Atreus: Thor killed him...
    • While in Tyr's Vault, Kratos turns to spot a Greek vase depicting Kratos' bloody rampage from the previous games. While a painful reminder of Kratos' past, it reveals that Tyr went to Greece after Kratos departed it in God of War III and that the land was in good enough shape for someone to make a vase of him.
    • When Kratos gets in Freya's boat to retrieve the Blades of Chaos, he enters a dark tunnel and the camera gives a pan over his shoulder...revealing the specter of Athena giving him a condescending smirk as the boat continues its way downstream.
    • The missing Jotun Shrine mural in Odin's Helheim research reveals that not only has Tyr gone to Greece, but also Egypt, Japan and Mesoamerica, teasing them as future locales.
    • For those unfamiliar with the God of War series, when Kratos pulls out a red cloth with yellow Greek patterns on it, then unfolds it to reveal the Blades of Chaos.
    • After Baldur punches Atreus in the chest, Kratos says that he's bleeding. After regaining his breath, Atreus responds with "Not my blood!" and the camera pans to Baldur: the mistletoe arrowhead in Atreus' quiver strap was impaled into his bloody hand, and his tattoos glow as the invulnerability spell wears off.
    • At the end of the game, when the leads find a mural in Jotunheim revealing that their journey was predicted all along, Kratos sees a little picture covered by a sheet showing him dead in Atreus' arms as his son births the World Serpent.
    • Shortly after the above, the fate of the giants is confirmed when you get a clear view of the landscape: it's littered with the bodies of giants similar to Thamur's Corpse, confirming that they did not survive their exodus back to Jotunheim and that Atreus and the World Serpent are the only ones left.
    • When Kratos and Atreus return to their cabin at the end of the game and go to sleep, Atreus has a vision of a hooded man coming to the cabin during a thunderstorm. When Kratos demands to know who he is, the man reveals a VERY familiar-looking hammer crackling with lightning.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: With his last breath, the Dark Elf king tells Atreus and Kratos that they have made a terrible mistake. Atreus is troubled by the comment and wonders if they really did screw up by helping the Light Elves. This is never followed up on, and the Dark Elf/Light Elf squabble is never mentioned again once the pair leave Alfheim. Whether this is addressed in the sequel or is meant as a kind of final punctuation to Kratos' argument earlier that Atreus shouldn't judge the morality of a conflict without knowing the full story remains an open question.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: Kratos tells Atreus that to be an effective fighter, he has to shield himself from feeling remorse for making enemies suffer. When Kratos orders Atreus to kill a troll he has pinned down, Atreus hesitates when the troll starts begging for mercy.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The most visceral acts of violence in this entry are performed only against creatures that don't look fully human, in contrast to the original trilogy where anything and anyone was a potential target. For example, when Baldur loses his invulnerability, he only receives a few axe wounds and a snapped neck before death, which is quite tame in comparison to what Kratos has done to humans and humanoids before. There's also Mimir — when Kratos decapitates him so he can tag along and impart wisdom, there's a noticeable discretion shot in order not to show Kratos doing the deed, which is far tamer than Kratos ripping off Helios's head to use as a tool, which was shown in ''explicit'' detail.
  • Wild Wilderness: Kratos and Atreus live in the woods, and spend quite some time trying to survive by hunting and fighting the hostile wildlife.
  • Wind Is Green: Helheim is depicted as very windy and everything related to it is teal green. It's this realm where Brok upgrades your Blades of Chaos to store the (green) Winds of Hel temporarily for switch-related puzzles.
  • Womb Level: Kratos and Atreus sail into Jörmungandr's belly to retrieve one of the plot trinkets. Downplayed in that it's a very short section and no enemies are fought.
  • Would Hurt a Child: No one seems to have a problem with harming Atreus, despite the fact that he's Just a Kid. This is somewhat understandable with the mindless Draugr, but not so much with the Norse Gods, who seem bent on ruining the day of anyone they come across. Appropriately enough, this is the one thing that ensures Kratos will give in to his base instincts. Whether you are divine or mortal, if you value your life, do not touch that kid.
  • Written by the Winners: The "usual take" on Norse Mythology is present (like Atreus saying that the mother of Baldur is the goddess Frigg), but then Mimir explains that a lot of the stories have been modified by Odin and the Aesir to make themselves look good. For instance, "Frigg" is a fictitious character created by Odin out of a desire to attribute to his actual wife "Freya" all the latter's accomplishments so a Vanir wouldn't look too good.
  • Wrong Context Magic: When Atreus falls ill and Freya needs an ingredient found only in Helheim in order to cure him, Kratos is told that Helheim is a land of deathly cold where no magic from the Nine Realms can sustain a flame, and thus the frost axe that he's been relying on up to this point would be useless against the undead there. Out of options and desperate to save his son, Kratos is forced to unearth the Blades of Chaos which, due to being forged by Greek magic, are able to maintain their fire even in Helheim. Lampshaded by Brok, who immediately starts marvelling over the Blades of Chaos the first time he sees them.
    Brok: What? Hey! You reek of foreign magic. Sweet Nanna's nethers, what are those? I've never seen the like.
  • Year Inside, Hour Outside: The realms have different timescales, so time spent in one doesn't match up with time in another. This ends up working out to Kratos' favor when Atreus becomes critically ill and Kratos has enter Helheim, as hours in there are seconds in Midgard, so his little time to work with becomes more manageable.
  • Year Outside, Hour Inside: The realms have different timescales, so time spent in one doesn't match up with time in another.
    • While entering the light of Alfheim, only a few moments pass for Kratos. When Atreus pulls him out, Atreus complains that Kratos was gone for "a long, long time." Word of God says that it was over a day from the boy's point of view.
    • Later, after returning from Jotunheim, Mimir says the duo had been gone for days when they had only been gone for less than an hour.
  • You Are Not Ready: Kratos repeats this line to Atreus a lot, as he's still young and Kratos thinks that he won't be able to 1. face the dangers of the world on his own, and 2. handle the Awful Truth of Kratos' past crimes, nor the truth about their Divine Parentage. Part of Kratos' development during the game is to learn to trust a little more in Atreus while reigning in the latter's darker impulses.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: One of the major themes of the story. There is a lot of prophecy in the Nine Realms, and despite people's best attempts to avert fate, it always comes to pass. This being Norse Mythology, the prophecy most people are concerned about is Ragnarok. Odin seeks to find a way to avert it, gathering numerous prophecies and fates so he can eliminate eventual threats to his rule before they arise.
    • According to Mimir, Thor and Jörmungandr's battle during Ragnarok will be so intense that it breaks the World Tree, disrupting the weft of time and sending Jörmungandr back in time to before his own birth, allowing him to grow to his legendary size.
    • One prophecy is particularly important to the plot: When Baldur was born to Freya, she foresaw him dying needlessly, so she made him invulnerable to all things (with the exception of mistletoe). The blessing, or rather curse, left Baldur unable to feel or taste anything, so he grew to resent his mother. Even when the spell is finally broken at the climax of the game, he is too bitter to move on and tries to kill Freya, and Kratos kills him to protect her.
    • When Kratos and Atreus reach Jötunheim, they discover that their entire journey had been ordained and foreseen by the Giants, down to the last detail — and when Atreus scampers off, Kratos finds a mural depicting him possibly dying in Atreus' arms... an event that has yet to come.
    • When Kratos and Atreus return from Jötunheim, Mimir informs them that Fimbulwinter, a snow that will last for three years, has begun; at the end of it, Ragnarok will begin. However, it wasn't supposed to come about for another century or so. Only time will tell if the actual events will be different.
  • Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying: When Jormungandr wakes up, we see his eye-opening. Snakes don't have eyelids, though they do have a nictitating membrane in each eye. Jormungadr appears to have two in each of his eyes in addition to his eyelids.
  • World Tree: Yggdrasil is used by Kratos to travel the Nine Realms with the Bifrost.
  • You Killed My Father: What will send Atreus down the road to Ragnarok is the death of his father according to the murals in Jötunheim.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Kratos and Atreus make it to the highest peak in Midgard to spread Faye's ashes. Mimir reveals that the highest peak "in all the realms" is actually in the realm of Jotunheim, and that their journey is far from over.
  • You Should Have Died Instead: While he never says it to Kratos, a brief journey through the Light of Alfheim has Atreus telling his dead mother "It should have been him, not you."
  • Zombie Apocalypse: Downplayed, since the story isn't centered around it, but still present. The living dead infest the countryside, presenting a constant menace to Kratos and Atreus on their journey. According to the Witch of the Woods, every surviving human had to either hide or ran away from the region due to the plague of the dead, with the exception of a couple few reavers. This is because the Valkyries have been imprisoned in mortal vessels and locked away, preventing them from fulfilling their purpose as sorters of the dead.

Kratos: There are consequences to killing a god!
Atreus: Why? How do you know? How do you know?!

 
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Alternative Title(s): God Of War 2018

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Atreus Protects Kratos

Atreus eats a punch from Baldur meant for Kratos in a bid to protect his father and comes out bloody, much to Kratos' horror. But it turns out that said blood is actually Baldur's, after he impales his hand on the mistletoe arrowhead keeping Atreus' quiver together.

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