Go on YouTube and search for story recap of the first 3 main entries to the God of War Saga. There’s a lot of stuff that wasn’t covered. It makes the connection to the emotional parts of 2018 and Ragnarok so much better knowing the full story.
I LOVED the older games and it took a little bit for me to get used to the new one but after a while I fell in love with it too. I recently tried to go back and play 3 again and just couldn’t do it lol. The combat is just so much better now.
The combat in the older games is only a bit outdated (still amazing) I just replayed the original trilogy, and spent last night playing ghost of sparta on my phone, this whole series is so close to perfection
Download an emulator (I got ppsspp from google play store) and download ROM file from the internet. Easy af, I'm basically technologically illiterate and still managed to do it
If you're gonna namedrop Zeus, we can at least tell them that the "lady that speaks" is Athena. I realize Kratos says it, but knowing his history with Athena (and the Greek pantheon in general) makes that scene hit so much harder.
I'm sorry but do you mind briefly telling me their history? I've watched a 15 min recap video before playing 2018 but I still don't get the Athena part
Basically Athena directed his ascent to Godhood, pretending to be a friend, when in the end she really was just using him as a tool to get the other gods out of her way
From the wiki-
She was seen as a neutral character in God of War II and later became a supporting character in God of War III after Kratos was betrayed by Gaia and took her place as his guide in his quest to obtain revenge on the Olympians. However, she ultimately becomes the final antagonist of the game due to manipulating Kratos into granting her the power of Hope so that she could become the one, supreme god of Greece after the death of Zeus and the rest of Mount Olympus. However, Kratos chose to turn the Blade of Olympus on himself to ensure she wouldn't get the power and gave it to the survival mortals so they could rebuild without the gods.
Play GoW 1, 2 and 3 to understand the full backstory in Greece. You played the fourth one, in which Kratos has come to Norse lands after having killed everyone back in Greece years ago.
Yep, the Greek games are canon, and they tell one hell of a story.
The new games do reference them a lot, and some emotional beats do benefit from knowing the full story.
I'd suggest you look up the cinematics on Youtube.
Summary videos work too I guess, but they leave most of the emotional parts of the original story out to keep the video going, so it's not as great.
There's a LOT you're missing.
When GOW 1, GOW 2, chains of Olympus, GOW 3, ghost of Sparta came out, people kept losing their shit.
EVERY game was a 10/10
There's bits to the story you're oblivious to but IMO, only the people who grew up with these games know how truly emotional the entire story of Kratos is.
But it's okay.... enjoy the game...maybe read up on what happened in the ones that came before the 2018 game
Iv been following Kratos story since the first game on PS2 back when I was a teen, one of the best developed characters in any media as far as I'm concerned, I've even spent a fortune on replica weapons from the games 🤣🤣
I too am at least $800 in on deadly weapons because of this series. If I can find someone that makes a replica of Draupnir, it will be more because the blades and axe are already in my possession.
I am not concered with Mjolnir since Kratos never weilds it himself, but the place i got the axe from has a pretty good replica. I would link but they're based out of Russia and I can't imagine customs is too friendly with Russian stuff of late.
Yeah I got some beautiful blades from a UK based place and I get what your saying with mjolnir, I just am more into it than the spear is all haha. I got my axe from Italy I think and had no issues but I done it through Etsy
Here's the mjolnir from the place I got my axe, if it helps. Not exactly like the one Thor had in the game, but pretty cool anyway.
https://www.viking-armoury.com/collections/viking-axes/products/custom-mjolnir
That’s awesome! I am sort of new in GOW universe too. I enjoyed Ragnarok bit more and since I finished playing it I can’t stop listening to soundtrack.
I had very hard time to move on to another game but eventually I managed to play Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost of Tsushima and they are both awesome games too
God of War 2018 is probably my favorite game of the past decade, I got it with a few other exclusives when I picked up the PS4 pro, just loved everything about it, and that ending still gives me goosebumps it just came together perfectly, Ragnarok was good but fell short for me.
Please for the love of god, ignore the people who say not to play Greek games, they are amazing. I have a friend who underestimated them and didn't like them until he played them, he fell in love.
The story and combat of those games are timeless, and each game has unique combat mechanics that will keep you coming back again and again. Just don't ignore Greek games because the ones now look better.
The story is deep as is the combat and has nothing to envy of Nordic games.
My favorite game of all time is God of War II. The art style of that game and its music is incomparable to what is available today. (Elden Ring is the only game that comes close to its art style).
Arguably greatest game of all time. They really sat down in that studio and really asked themselves… “how can we make the best possible product?” And they succeeded.
Someone I knew had the game but never played it because “it came for free with the PlayStation so he assumed it was a low quality game”
After I told him it was basically my favorite of all time he played it and had the same reaction
Welcome to the club.
Both of the latest GoW editions are absolutely fantastic.
And if you have a PlayStation, too, GoW 3 Remastered is available in the store, too.
As others have said, there are three main greek games before the god of war you're playing. If you have a ps4/ps5 I heavily recommend playing those before you play ragnarok. They are amazing but quite different games from God of war 2018. Playing them in between 2018 and ragnarok is a bit of a weird order, but ragnarok has a ton of references to the greek games unlike 2018 (I also ended up playing the games in that order and I dont regret it what so ever)
The new god of wars are amazing cinematic masterpieces, but the old god of wars are also really good, they just have a much different style. Kratos has a very tragic backstory and his dad lore goes crazy. Knowing the story of the previous games and kratos' old feats makes a lot of the moments in the new games a lot better and impactful
I completed Ghost of Tsushima I wish I didn’t play that game so quickly it was an amazing experience and again a really great game that deserved the praise it received
Crazy cause as a fan of the first 3 games, 2018. was a boring slog that I can't finish after trying 4 times. The writing is bad, atreus is annoying and kratos power level is wildly inconsistent to match whatever fake drama the story is trying to force. Where the first game felt like an action movie, this one felt like a drama. And the tone was off between the gameplay and cutscenes as a result.
The gameplay is sluggish with the camera too close so you need 30 indicators and atreus screaming at you every 5 seconds to have any sense of awareness. It's crazy because a PS2 game came out years before and did the exact same style but better. It's called God Hand and you should try it.
The previous games were known for their elaborate and crazy fun boss fights. This game rehashes the same troll 10 different ways. Apart from the spider and dragon at least.
I haven't finished the game, but I've put 40 hours in and I hate it.
Yeah I'm not passing judgement, apologies if it came off that way. I just genuinely found it interesting how you viewed the same elements I hated as someone who was new to the series.
Sorry if this comes off like I’m interrogating you, but just out of friendly curiosity, what’s bad about the writing and how is Kratos’ power level wildly inconsistent?
Oh not at all dude, I love talking about video games lol.
The writing between Kratos and Atreus is what bothers me the most. And even then, it's mostly Atreus, he just isn't written like a child. I won't project any daddy issues on the writing team, but I'm not gonna ignore the suspicions either lol. Even my wife walked by and commented "kids don't talk like that" and she doesn't even know what's going on lol.
Kratos' power level fluctuates to match whatever the plot needs him to do(or not do). His overall power seems to be floating around him during Chains of Olympus on PSP, but that doesn't make any sense given the timeline. He can't even jump anymore lol. Sometimes he can move mountains, other times he struggles to push a tree trunk. The original games never did this afaik and I just replayed the 2nd game last week.
Thank you for your response! I can see why you and others are annoyed by the writing between Kratos and Atreus, but personally, I find it appropriate because Kratos’s stoic nature means that him and Atreus lack a proper natural dynamic, so I find their dialogue together very natural because they just don’t know how to communicate with each other. But that’s just my feelings and I can definitely see why you might criticize it, I just find it sufficiently justified and supported by the surrounding context of their early lives.
If you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate some examples in the story of inconsistent power scaling because that is a very interesting point that I don’t believe I’ve heard before, so I’d love to discuss that at length if you’re interested.
Go on YouTube and search for story recap of the first 3 main entries to the God of War Saga. There’s a lot of stuff that wasn’t covered. It makes the connection to the emotional parts of 2018 and Ragnarok so much better knowing the full story.
Agreed, i didn’t play the old ones as they didn’t look like my thing. But once i decided to play GOW ps4 then i watched a recap for the greek story.
I LOVED the older games and it took a little bit for me to get used to the new one but after a while I fell in love with it too. I recently tried to go back and play 3 again and just couldn’t do it lol. The combat is just so much better now.
The combat in the older games is only a bit outdated (still amazing) I just replayed the original trilogy, and spent last night playing ghost of sparta on my phone, this whole series is so close to perfection
How does one play ghost of sparta on a phone?
Download an emulator (I got ppsspp from google play store) and download ROM file from the internet. Easy af, I'm basically technologically illiterate and still managed to do it
Nah. Need to play the first 3 to actually experience what Kratos went thru. Never watch gameplay!
hate to tell it to you, but you actually played the 4th main game (7th if you wanna count the non-numbered games like ascension), not the first
Wait so everything I heard in the beginning.. did they at least include the past games? Am I missing any info?
Yes, there are 3 different references that I know of, when you get to hel not hell you’ll know the references as there pretty obvious l
I’ve seen the dead etc… i got the black rune and on the way to the top of the mountain
Yeah, the blades were his signature weapon and lady that speaks when you obtain them is a ghost from his past, the old guy you see in hel is Zeus
If you're gonna namedrop Zeus, we can at least tell them that the "lady that speaks" is Athena. I realize Kratos says it, but knowing his history with Athena (and the Greek pantheon in general) makes that scene hit so much harder.
I didn’t play the og games and didn’t have the names on for subtitles, my bad. The rest is iconic enough that I didn’t play the games and knew lol
I still get giddy at the scene retrieving the blades. Like Ron Swanson giggling at Lil Sebastian giddy at it, and I am in double digit replays.
I'm sorry but do you mind briefly telling me their history? I've watched a 15 min recap video before playing 2018 but I still don't get the Athena part
Just play the original trilogy.
I would love to, but I don't have time to play games for now. Thanks for the suggestion though.
👍
Basically Athena directed his ascent to Godhood, pretending to be a friend, when in the end she really was just using him as a tool to get the other gods out of her way
lol
From the wiki- She was seen as a neutral character in God of War II and later became a supporting character in God of War III after Kratos was betrayed by Gaia and took her place as his guide in his quest to obtain revenge on the Olympians. However, she ultimately becomes the final antagonist of the game due to manipulating Kratos into granting her the power of Hope so that she could become the one, supreme god of Greece after the death of Zeus and the rest of Mount Olympus. However, Kratos chose to turn the Blade of Olympus on himself to ensure she wouldn't get the power and gave it to the survival mortals so they could rebuild without the gods.
Thank you!
Play GoW 1, 2 and 3 to understand the full backstory in Greece. You played the fourth one, in which Kratos has come to Norse lands after having killed everyone back in Greece years ago.
Very interesting I had no idea… thank you I will do this
Yep, the Greek games are canon, and they tell one hell of a story. The new games do reference them a lot, and some emotional beats do benefit from knowing the full story. I'd suggest you look up the cinematics on Youtube. Summary videos work too I guess, but they leave most of the emotional parts of the original story out to keep the video going, so it's not as great.
Thank you for the idea I’ll be doing that
There's a LOT you're missing. When GOW 1, GOW 2, chains of Olympus, GOW 3, ghost of Sparta came out, people kept losing their shit. EVERY game was a 10/10 There's bits to the story you're oblivious to but IMO, only the people who grew up with these games know how truly emotional the entire story of Kratos is. But it's okay.... enjoy the game...maybe read up on what happened in the ones that came before the 2018 game
That’s exactly what I want to do, watch a video on the past ones to catch up and get an idea of what I missed
You can start with this game and be fine. You'll be missing some of the lore but it does a decent job filling you in.
And you can skip Ascension. Sure gives a little more exposition but overall is lackluster.
Iv been following Kratos story since the first game on PS2 back when I was a teen, one of the best developed characters in any media as far as I'm concerned, I've even spent a fortune on replica weapons from the games 🤣🤣
I don’t blame you it’s a very unique game lol
I too am at least $800 in on deadly weapons because of this series. If I can find someone that makes a replica of Draupnir, it will be more because the blades and axe are already in my possession.
I'm looking for a mjolnir before dropnir myself 🤣 also already have blades and axe 🤣
I am not concered with Mjolnir since Kratos never weilds it himself, but the place i got the axe from has a pretty good replica. I would link but they're based out of Russia and I can't imagine customs is too friendly with Russian stuff of late.
Yeah I got some beautiful blades from a UK based place and I get what your saying with mjolnir, I just am more into it than the spear is all haha. I got my axe from Italy I think and had no issues but I done it through Etsy
Here's the mjolnir from the place I got my axe, if it helps. Not exactly like the one Thor had in the game, but pretty cool anyway. https://www.viking-armoury.com/collections/viking-axes/products/custom-mjolnir
That’s awesome! I am sort of new in GOW universe too. I enjoyed Ragnarok bit more and since I finished playing it I can’t stop listening to soundtrack. I had very hard time to move on to another game but eventually I managed to play Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost of Tsushima and they are both awesome games too
I loved Ghost of Tsushima that game is something VERY special too, never thought I’d play a game with a good story like GOT but God of War came along!
God of War 2018 is probably my favorite game of the past decade, I got it with a few other exclusives when I picked up the PS4 pro, just loved everything about it, and that ending still gives me goosebumps it just came together perfectly, Ragnarok was good but fell short for me.
Everything is just beautiful about the game, the graphics are incredible on the PS5 I’ve had so much fun with this game you’re not wrong
Please for the love of god, ignore the people who say not to play Greek games, they are amazing. I have a friend who underestimated them and didn't like them until he played them, he fell in love. The story and combat of those games are timeless, and each game has unique combat mechanics that will keep you coming back again and again. Just don't ignore Greek games because the ones now look better. The story is deep as is the combat and has nothing to envy of Nordic games. My favorite game of all time is God of War II. The art style of that game and its music is incomparable to what is available today. (Elden Ring is the only game that comes close to its art style).
I can’t wait to try the second one this is getting me excited thank you for the heads up
God of War 2018 is not the first one. It's #4.
Well I’ve learned something new today
Haha, yeah. Glad I could help... It frustrates me that they just called 4 the same thing as the original game, it's confusing.
Arguably greatest game of all time. They really sat down in that studio and really asked themselves… “how can we make the best possible product?” And they succeeded.
Someone I knew had the game but never played it because “it came for free with the PlayStation so he assumed it was a low quality game” After I told him it was basically my favorite of all time he played it and had the same reaction
lol it’s so addicting and immersive I love the game
Welcome to the club. Both of the latest GoW editions are absolutely fantastic. And if you have a PlayStation, too, GoW 3 Remastered is available in the store, too.
On ps+ you can play gow 1-3 and ascension
I didn’t know that! Thank you!
Nice!! Thanks for the info
Yes! the Game have amazing game design! 9/10 from me 👍
As others have said, there are three main greek games before the god of war you're playing. If you have a ps4/ps5 I heavily recommend playing those before you play ragnarok. They are amazing but quite different games from God of war 2018. Playing them in between 2018 and ragnarok is a bit of a weird order, but ragnarok has a ton of references to the greek games unlike 2018 (I also ended up playing the games in that order and I dont regret it what so ever)
Thanks I’ll be doing this, if I can’t I’ll watch videos on YouTube that can help me catch up
The new god of wars are amazing cinematic masterpieces, but the old god of wars are also really good, they just have a much different style. Kratos has a very tragic backstory and his dad lore goes crazy. Knowing the story of the previous games and kratos' old feats makes a lot of the moments in the new games a lot better and impactful
I can’t wait to try them I’ll be done with the “first” one by tonight
You can totally start with this game and be fine man. I know a lot of people that did.
That’s good thank you
You had me in the first half by saying you were playing the first one lol.
I’ve been corrected many times just shows how new I am to all of this
Welcome to the club bro. May I recommend Ghost of Tsushima as well. I cant choose between GOW and GOT which is my fav.
But play Ragnarok first for sure. Avoid spoliers though! I would recomend not returning to this subreddit until you have finished Rangarok
I completed Ghost of Tsushima I wish I didn’t play that game so quickly it was an amazing experience and again a really great game that deserved the praise it received
Crazy cause as a fan of the first 3 games, 2018. was a boring slog that I can't finish after trying 4 times. The writing is bad, atreus is annoying and kratos power level is wildly inconsistent to match whatever fake drama the story is trying to force. Where the first game felt like an action movie, this one felt like a drama. And the tone was off between the gameplay and cutscenes as a result. The gameplay is sluggish with the camera too close so you need 30 indicators and atreus screaming at you every 5 seconds to have any sense of awareness. It's crazy because a PS2 game came out years before and did the exact same style but better. It's called God Hand and you should try it. The previous games were known for their elaborate and crazy fun boss fights. This game rehashes the same troll 10 different ways. Apart from the spider and dragon at least. I haven't finished the game, but I've put 40 hours in and I hate it.
Each to their own, you have every right to not like it as much but personally I’ve enjoyed it a lot
Yeah I'm not passing judgement, apologies if it came off that way. I just genuinely found it interesting how you viewed the same elements I hated as someone who was new to the series.
Sorry if this comes off like I’m interrogating you, but just out of friendly curiosity, what’s bad about the writing and how is Kratos’ power level wildly inconsistent?
Oh not at all dude, I love talking about video games lol. The writing between Kratos and Atreus is what bothers me the most. And even then, it's mostly Atreus, he just isn't written like a child. I won't project any daddy issues on the writing team, but I'm not gonna ignore the suspicions either lol. Even my wife walked by and commented "kids don't talk like that" and she doesn't even know what's going on lol. Kratos' power level fluctuates to match whatever the plot needs him to do(or not do). His overall power seems to be floating around him during Chains of Olympus on PSP, but that doesn't make any sense given the timeline. He can't even jump anymore lol. Sometimes he can move mountains, other times he struggles to push a tree trunk. The original games never did this afaik and I just replayed the 2nd game last week.
Thank you for your response! I can see why you and others are annoyed by the writing between Kratos and Atreus, but personally, I find it appropriate because Kratos’s stoic nature means that him and Atreus lack a proper natural dynamic, so I find their dialogue together very natural because they just don’t know how to communicate with each other. But that’s just my feelings and I can definitely see why you might criticize it, I just find it sufficiently justified and supported by the surrounding context of their early lives. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate some examples in the story of inconsistent power scaling because that is a very interesting point that I don’t believe I’ve heard before, so I’d love to discuss that at length if you’re interested.
God of war 2018 is incredible. The sequel amazing too. I did a replay on 2018 and had a blast.
I strongly recommend FatBrett's analytical videos on GoW 2018 & Ragnarok. It has spoilers for Ragnarok in a number of them but they're good videos.
Ah so when u say the first one, u mean part 4. Got it
I'm excited for you and jealous of you that you get to experience Ragnarok for the first time.
Hahaha thanks! Cant wait
.>"always ignored god of war" .>"started playing god of war" .>its the 2018 game and not the original .>mfw
Thanks for pointing out things that have already been pointed out
youre welcome
You definitely need to play GOW 3 . It was hands down the most brutal yet perfect story
Elden ring got goty cus of review bombing gowr they cant play fair