God Of War

The first one is easily the weakest for boss fights, while the third is definitely the strongest - not just for the series, but probably among the top 5 for any game ever. Just coming for the boss fights alone, its an amazing game.

I never understood why people complained about Kratos being unlikeable. I thought it was obvious that the creators wanted him to be the nastiest angriest most unlikeable asshole this side of hell, which is why the redemption subplot in III pissed me the fuck off.

The fandom is opretty unanimous in that the ending was a real mistake. I personally think that the game should make use of DLC to offer some of the original creators ideas for endings, a la alternate endings in DVD's.

Yeah, I remember the IGN review ranting about how 3 made it not fun to root for Kratos anymore, because he wasn't as "likeable". You just woke up to that, did you? Idiots.

I didn't see the time travel stuff in 2 to be very plot-holey. A combination of rubber-band history and history can be changed — no worse than the general episode of Doctor Who.

Speaking of Boss Fights: 3 had the best all around, but its final fight sucked. I gather there was an extra stage with Gaia that didn't quite make it to the final act. Shame.

Since Kratos pulled Gaia from the past into the future she didn't exist when he was killed by Zeus and wouldn't have been able to revive him. Hence, the entire second game didn't actually happen.

Also, in GOW 3 Gaia says Kratos was always just her pawn, even though(thanks to time travel) she only just met him.

Also I don't watch Doctor Who(though I've been meaning to get started), but just because it does something doesn't mean whatever it did is suddenly okay.

@ the IGN thing.

Indigo, the boss fights in III are terrible. They're all unimaginative Giant Monster fights, even the Gods, making battlefield choreography difficult at best. Stuns don't happen, and their life bars are huge.

What game were you playing?

^^Considering Gaia has been the narrator since the series began, that probably means she's been watching him for a while.

He pulled her from a time before he even existed.

But she's also a Titan. What's to stop her from having a memory or conciousness that exists in multiple timelines? She has time shifting abilities herself, and she's the physical avatar of the Earth — whereever the Earth is, there's Gaia.

edited 4th Feb '11 10:38:25 PM by Nicknacks

Gaia seemed to know and remember Kratos when he meet her in the past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuHjGs9bxEo

'Cept she dies.

I guess the fates could have told her, but you'd think they'd try to avoid a timeline in which they die.

edited 5th Feb '11 5:21:12 AM by JotunofBoredom

She's not perfect!

"Oh hey, I die in the future. Maybe I should avoid that by not pissing Kratos off by calling him a tool, or finishing him after he's weakened by the final boss fight....NAH"

edited 5th Feb '11 6:12:59 AM by JotunofBoredom

@Roland: Sure, all generic giant monsters. Aside from Hermes. And Hercules. And pre-One-Winged Angel Hades (that's a lotta H's.) And Zeus. And the Chimera...

The Chimera is a boss now?

Well, a Mini-Boss, but it still counts.

I'll give you Zeus.

Hermes is a joke, and he's supposed to be. Hercules is still pretty damn big. Hades even more so.

Honestly, none of the boss fights in God Of War really hold a candle to some of the better Devil May Cry or Bayonetta boss fights, both of which do every aspect of spectacle fighter gameplay better without having to rely on buckets of blood or a contemptible hero out to effectively destroy the world in a fit of childish pique.

Hercules is big, but he's still humanly possible. If you're complaining about the blood and gore, why the hell are you playing God Of War in the first place? The franchise sells itself on gore. If you don't like gory games that's fine, but don't buy a game that prides itself on "strong bloody violence" and complain when it's overly gory.. That's like buying a Mario game and complaining about having to jump too much.

And what, Bayonetta didn't have a plethora of giant boss monsters and a contemptible hero? (Oh wait, she's a sexy woman while Kratos is an ugly man, so anything bad she does is excusable.)

edited 5th Feb '11 2:38:07 PM by Vox

Is Bayonetta contemptible? Wasn't she fighting first to protect herself from waves of heavenly assassins with no idea why they're attacking her, then to stop the world from being obliterated and replaced? I mean, she might not be a saint, but she's nothing like Kratos.

Maybe so, but people tend to ignore her casual sadism purely because she's sexy. At least most Kratos fans like him because he's an utter prick with no redeeming features.

[...]but people tend to ignore her casual sadism purely because she's sexy.

...Weren't people doing the same thing to Kratos because he was manly? I'm not really seeing the difference here.

I wouldn't have said so; rather they think he's cool, but at the same time an irredeemable monster, and at least he (and everyone else) accepts this, rather than try to whitewash his deeds. It's a fine line, to be sure. Maybe it's just refreshing to have a protagonist of such unparalleled assholishness that makes people accept him.

EDIT: Found the quote I was looking for. Much as I dislike Yahtzee, I think he said it best:

"In a medium saturated with generic dark-haired, clear-skinned, hypocritically violent, self-righteous white boys assigned the role of hero by virtue of being the handsomest guy in the plot (usually voiced by Nolan North) it's nice to play the admittedly ugly, hate-ridden fuck with no heroic qualities and who crushes people's skulls against jagged rocks as a form of greeting."

edited 5th Feb '11 7:34:23 PM by Vox

"Maybe so, but people tend to ignore her casual sadism purely because she's sexy."

Or they don't care, because the game itself doesn't care.

Don't get me wrong, I had issues with Bayonetta's presentation. But she does have heroic qualities; she may be a sadistic bitch, but her sadism doesn't nearly equal Kratos punching Hercules' face off or using an innocent woman to hold open a gear and leaving her to be ground to hamburger meat.

Sorry, no, Bayonetta is an Antihero, but she's nowhere near as simply evil as Kratos is.

Also, call me unusual, but no, for me it's not refreshing to play the ugly hate-ridden monster. It's just horrible.

My problem is that God Of War 's undeserved popularity has every other action game trying to copy it and assuming sadism=badass. Hell, even Bayonetta, with its truly bad-taste Torture Attacks.

edited 5th Feb '11 11:54:27 PM by Roland

As opposed to Whiny unlikeable douche = badass. Further away Hack and Slashes move from Dante the better. Unresponsive controls, cheap deaths, some of the worst fake difficulty I've ever seen - I honestly cannot fathom where the people who say Devil May Cry or Bayonetta is better than God of War are coming from.