# Chapter Select, [[S2E5 - God of War - Chains of Olympus]] Transcript This transcription was completed on March 4, 2026 with the application MacWhisper on macOS. This was done automatically, without human input during the transcription process. The transcription used the Parakeet v3 model. My hope is that by offering this transcription – however accurate it may be done by a machine learning/AI – will help you, the listener. I’d love to offer full, proper transcription some day, but that is not feasible at this time. Thank you for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy the show and that this document was helpful. Enjoy. --- Hello everybody and welcome to Chapter Select, a seasonal podcast where we bounce back and forth between a series of games exploring their evolution, design, and legacy. *00:00* I'm one of your hosts, Max Roberts, and I am joined, as always, by Logan Moore. *00:09* Hi, Logan. *00:14* Hello, Max. *00:16* How is it going? *00:17* It's going fine and dandy. *00:18* It's fine and dandy on this. *00:20* What is today? *00:22* Today's Monday. *00:23* Monday? *00:25* Afternoon. *00:25* This is not a normal time that we record, but *00:26* We found some time, fit it in. *00:30* It nearly being pitch black outside is also throwing me off because it feels like we're recording this at nine or ten at night. *00:32* It's very strange actually. *00:38* Yes, we I th I think this might be the first episode post time change. *00:40* Anyway, season two is all about God of War, and on this fine and dandy episode five, we are talking about *00:46* Chains of Olympus, the first PSP game in God of War. *00:54* It was developed by Ready at Dawn Studios, just like its inevitable sequel, for the PlayStation Portable. *00:59* It came out *01:06* March 4th, 2008, later re-released on PS3 with Ghost of Sparta, September 11th, 2011. *01:07* So a bit of a bigger gap there to come to HD home consoles. *01:15* It was directed by Rue Resoria. *01:21* I corrected the pronunciation from last time, or at least something that makes more sense to me now. *01:24* Um *01:30* We also have the producer Mark Turndorf coming back. *01:31* Combat was Philip Noel. *01:35* He was the lead gameplay programmer, so I I kind of that just seemed to make sense as far as the credits goes. *01:37* And music *01:44* our favorite God of War composer. *01:45* Oh gosh, now I feel the pressure to pronounce this Gerard. *01:48* Gerard. *01:52* Gerard Mariano. *01:53* He returns to compose the God of War. *01:56* Music. *01:59* A couple of like bonus-ish credits. *02:00* It was written by four people, including Rue Ruissoria, Mark Turndorf. *02:04* Cory Barlog helped write this one. *02:09* And then Marianne Krotchik. *02:12* I looked up how to pronounce it. *02:15* Hopefully that is correct. *02:17* She actually helped definitely Polish, I would imagine, right? *02:18* Yes, that is what Google kept saying. *02:22* So Yeah. *02:24* She helped actually write all of the God of War games and um *02:25* Actually, you see her name prominently in the God of War 3 opening credits. *02:31* I think she's the second one billed. *02:36* So um she helped write all of them except 2018, but she also helped write NAC 2. *02:38* I haven't played that game. *02:44* I own it. *02:46* Come on, everyone owns NAC and NAC too. *02:47* Um and the consultant once again, Eric Williams. *02:50* Kind of keeping this Corey Barlog and Eric William touch points. *02:54* through every major God of every God of War game. *02:58* Yeah, if anybody ever felt uh uncomfortable with him being the director of uh Ragnarok, if you're listening to this podcast and you see how *03:01* Frequently his name pops up. *03:08* I would imagine you've got to feel a little bit more comfortable seeing him in the director's chair for the next one. *03:10* He is yeah, he's touched everything, so *03:15* It's really good to see all these people here for the first portable. *03:18* Maybe this came out before betrayal. *03:23* I don't know. *03:25* The first PlayStation portable version of God of War. *03:26* It's Metacritic score, which you and I both had a reaction to, a whopping 91 out of 100. *03:30* What is this nonsense? *03:37* That's indicative of the biggest. *03:40* That's so this game came out in 2008. *03:42* How old was the PSP? *03:45* I think that was 2006, I believe, right? *03:47* Let's find out. *03:50* I will d uh I got it right here. *03:51* Because I would imagine the reason this is so high is because this would have been one of the first really big games to come to PSP that kind of *03:54* resembles its console counterpart and people would have been like, wow, it's like I'm playing a PlayStation 2 game on a handheld. *04:02* I would I would agree with that train of *04:08* Thought uh the PSP came out in North America in March twenty-fourth of two thousand five. *04:10* So this was three years into the launch um here in the States. *04:15* It I do agree with that sentiment though, that this was very much God of War on in your hands. *04:20* And I think that's why the score is so high. *04:28* What I don't understand is why Ghost of Sparta was sitting at an eighty three, because Ghost of Sparta is clearly a better game than When did Ghost of Sparta come out uh once again? *04:30* 2010. *04:39* November 2010, which is uh not even six months after God of War Three. *04:40* Yeah. *04:46* Okay. *04:47* That's probably what it was then. *04:48* Everybody had seen three, and then you go and pick up Ghost of Spartan. *04:49* It's like this is kind of *04:53* This feels like a downgrade. *04:54* I just played God of War Three a couple months ago and this is taking a huge step back. *04:55* Or maybe not a step back, but um *05:00* Probably pales in comparison in some aspects. *05:03* So it's just thanks to like the way that we record and do this show, I mean we both came in saying that this was the best *05:06* Or Ghost of Sparta was arguably the best looking God of War game that we've played so far. *05:14* And you know, we both were really positive on it. *05:19* And, you know, being able to kind of play these PSP games specifically out of order just makes me go. *05:23* Appreciate Ghost of Sparta way, way more because these I think the jump in quality between chains and ghost is actually quite astounding. *05:29* Yeah, and I mean w we can get into our initial impressions and histories and stuff, I guess, off that, but yeah. *05:40* This is actually one I've played before, and I did play it on PSP back in the day. *05:47* Okay. *05:51* And I remember thinking it was solid. *05:51* Um It was actually the first one I had played too because I was not allowed to play the ones on consoles, but a friend had this and he lent it to me and it's like I'll just play this in my bedroom and hide on my handheld and my parents won't know what I'm playing. *05:54* Uh so it was the first God of War game I played in that sense, if I remember correctly. *06:09* And yeah, I liked it at the time. *06:13* Revisiting it here though *06:15* This is the most I think I I texted you and just I think the word I used was bland. *06:17* I have no harsh feelings about this game either way. *06:22* I don't think it is *06:27* terrible, like in some senses like I did with Ascension, but I also don't think it excels in any way whatsoever. *06:29* It is the most middle-of-the-road God of War game I think we have played up until this point. *06:37* Um *06:42* Interesting. *06:43* Even more so than like the original God of War. *06:44* The original God of War I straight up said like didn't age well and I didn't think it was very good by today's standards *06:46* I don't even think this game is awful, except for the final boss in some is definitely very bad. *06:51* Uh there are bad aspects of this game, but m more so *06:58* It just it t it absolutely feels like the first God of War game on a portable platform. *07:02* Yep, that's what this is. *07:08* Um *07:11* And I and I have more thoughts about like the story and gameplay, all all that stuff as as we'll get into that. *07:12* But um yeah, in a general sense, just very *07:17* Yep, this is God of War. *07:20* It's it definitely is God of War. *07:23* My my experience with this game was my best friend at *07:25* I guess when this was 2008-ish, maybe I'd come back to visit or something. *07:32* Anyway, I was visiting a friend and he had *07:36* the Chains of Olympus PSP, which is the one that you thought of last week, the all red PSP, and he showed me the game, the beginning of the game, and was like, look, there's some uh *07:40* There's some ladies over here after you beat this boss, you know, this classic. *07:50* I guess they happen very early in most of them though, honestly. *07:56* Like opening ten minutes of most of the games. *07:59* God of War II it's in the bath sequence when he gets *08:01* Blown through the roof. *08:03* God of War 1, it's uh right when you wake up on the boat after killing the Hydra. *08:05* This is right after you fight the *08:10* uh Persian guy, the Persian em the leader. *08:12* Mm-hmm. *08:15* And the reason that actually those three are similar not just in that regard, but in general, is because this game was actually originally pitched *08:16* Right after God of War launched by Ready at Dawn to Sony. *08:27* And then it wouldn't come out until um what is this? *08:31* In 2008. *08:36* So it actually took them a long time to figure this out. *08:37* Four or five years, yeah. *08:40* Yeah. *08:41* And God of War Two would beat it to market, uh, but God of War II would also tease Chains of Olympus. *08:41* But anyway, my friend had this game. *08:48* I saw it, it was cool, and then that was the third God of War game that I bought on my 17th birthday. *08:50* uh in the the story that I've told quite a few times now so far on the show. *08:56* But uh that was the other one that I bought. *09:01* And at the time I was like, cool, this is Kratos in my hand. *09:03* And now playing it, I think *09:07* Depending on the day you ask me, I think this goes toe to toe with Ascension as the worst one. *09:11* This I have a lot of um *09:16* It's definitely not great. *09:21* Yeah, I have a lot of issues with it. *09:22* But I do think it's I kind of want to use this, you know, that it was pitched right after God of War One kind of as a launching point to maybe talk about *09:23* Go into the gameplay of this game, but this feels more like a sequel to God of War 1. *09:33* Than God of War 2 does. *09:44* And I mean that in the way of like almost how you would look at an Ubisoft game where it's like, here's the here's Far Cry three and here's Far Cry four. *09:45* Or here's Assassin's Creed 2, here's Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. *09:54* And doesn't I understand the restrictions of the PSP. *09:58* You're trying to just translate the home console experience on the go. *10:02* So you're you're already tightened in. *10:05* But this feels so *10:07* Just like do everything God of War One did. *10:11* It's aimless. *10:13* It's just like fit it in your hands. *10:15* And you go and you look, it goes to Sparta. *10:17* And goes to Sparta's. *10:19* far more well developed and consistent. *10:21* It's more in line with God of War 2. *10:24* And um I thought that would be kind of a good spot to launch *10:26* into it and talk about the gameplay and stuff. *10:31* But what do you I mean, how do you feel about that? *10:32* This being more of a sequel *10:35* Yeah, I I I agree with you. *10:39* The scale is way toned down because there's even like larger like every environment in this game feels very, very small for the most part. *10:41* Um with a few *10:49* a few uh excuses in there, a few uh that wouldn't abide by that. *10:52* But yeah, um it feels very uh small in scale. *10:57* It the combat feels very resemblant of the first game *11:01* Um, even some of the abilities and powers that they throw in. *11:05* Um, like what is the magic this time around? *11:09* It's throwing the magic orb ball thing, which is probably one of the most basic *11:12* like just whatever magic abilities they've ever given you. *11:18* Uh what? *11:22* The the fire slam the fire slam thing. *11:23* Um *11:26* Can't remember what are the other two? *11:28* You know, I don't I didn't even write about the magic. *11:30* It's not even in my notes. *11:33* I just like I honestly really probably didn't even use it all. *11:34* Oh, yeah, it was the big fire thing. *11:37* It's all coming back to me. *11:40* The big fire bullet. *11:41* I like that one. *11:42* I like the fire bullet thing. *11:43* It's forgettable. *11:47* Yeah, I think that's the that's the thing, is lit like this whole game is *11:49* forgettable. *11:53* Um I I don't want to get too deep into the story because I know we'll touch on that in a second, but I think even I think this game's weakest aspect *11:54* is that even the first game, I I had issues when we went back to that, but I still found the I I know I complained about it in our first episode that I thought the story was not great and it didn't hold up and it was very much *12:02* Uh one of those games that did all the storytelling in the cutscenes and it was odd to go back to because of that. *12:15* But at least it had a story that made some sort of sense. *12:21* This game feels discombobulated. *12:25* Like it's *12:27* It it's very weird. *12:30* You start off fighting Persians and fighting a giant monster and then all of a sudden Kratos sees some shiny lights and he runs towards them and then all of a sudden his daughter's playing a flute and then uh he's uh the titans and it's like *12:31* I'm like, how are we getting from one thread to the y to another here? *12:43* I don't understand why this is happening. *12:47* There's no I think the I think the shiny I think him running towards shiny lights after the closing of the Persian section where you're fighting the Persians *12:49* is the most baffling part. *12:57* There's no sort of there's no real narrative thrust to this game at all. *12:58* It's just Kratos running around saying his classic *13:03* Kratoisms, the gods, blah blah blah. *13:06* Like he is he's just he's just shouting out his greatest hits at this point. *13:09* Um and it's so funny, it's not even how can he have greatest hits, you know. *13:13* This is chronologically the first one or no Ascension and First. *13:19* This is so it's actually between Ascension and One, allegedly it's set five years before the events of God of War One, which *13:22* I don't understand. *13:31* Um, I'll double check that. *13:32* But the game I think you're right. *13:34* We've talked about that before. *13:36* That sounds good. *13:37* It definitely just it is discombobulated. *13:38* It feels very cut. *13:40* And pasted together, not in the sense of computer copy and paste, but like let's cut this section, which is maybe the Persian section. *13:43* Hey, we made this level and it's a temple and let's *13:51* Somehow connected to this city that we designed. *13:53* How are we gonna get Kratos from this temple to these caves? *13:56* I know. *13:59* Let's put a Super Mario 64 painting in the temple. *14:00* And it just goes through it and you it just feels oh *14:03* Here you go. *14:08* And then the gameplay kind of just goes Here's the Kratos you know and love, and here's like a big cool Persian magic dark whatever and then *14:09* Go. *14:22* In the game, we both again plattened it. *14:22* So far our pace is pretty good. *14:25* We'll see how this fares here toward the end. *14:27* I'm not gonna well I've already I've already done 2018. *14:29* Three I've already committed to not doing. *14:32* So *14:34* It's actually not that bad. *14:36* Doesn't it require two playthroughs? *14:38* No, you can do it in one. *14:39* Oh no, why did you tell me this? *14:41* Um consider. *14:43* You know, so we played it on hard and the game I would say for two-thirds *14:46* Easy. *14:55* Easy breezy. *14:56* Then they're like, oh yeah, you're on hard mode. *14:57* Let's uh crank up the difficulty. *14:59* At the very end when you get into the pits of Tartarus. *15:02* It was it was completely the inverse of Ghost of Sparta for me in a lot of ways. *15:05* Ghost of Sparta got easier as it went because you're upgrading Kratos, getting more health, getting more magic, upgrading your chains, and blah blah blah blah blah *15:08* You get to the end of this game and it you're just everybody's hitting like a truck for some reason, and I don't know why. *15:16* It is I was so frustrated. *15:22* Um *15:26* It just didn't feel balanced. *15:27* It just there weren't as many. *15:29* Like they give you the block and you get the parry a little bit later. *15:34* So those aren't intertwined necessarily up front. *15:37* And it's just I don't there wasn't a good flow, and if you got caught in a an attack from an enemy, you would be punished, and like you said, they hit like a truck. *15:40* And you just would lose over and over and over. *15:53* And it wasn't fun until the point where you'd have to figure out a way, not necessarily to cheese it, but *15:56* You know, you'd have to find a very safe way to play back into the corner so no one can get behind you and square, square, triangle your way through or use your magic and stuff. *16:02* It just I think this one had the least uh *16:11* The least thought out combat encounters too. *16:15* They just kind of throw everything at you. *16:18* It's just a combat room, like Yes. *16:20* Like more so than any other God of War. *16:23* The only other God of War that I can think think rivals this is in twenty eighteen when there is literally just a room you are stuck in for like ten minutes. *16:26* Do you remember that part towards the end of the game? *16:34* And all these creatures just keep *16:36* Po pouring in out of these uh doors. *16:37* You'll remember. *16:40* Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. *16:41* I do remember. *16:41* But it's literally just a room and you're just fighting stuff. *16:42* A lot of encounters feel like that in this game. *16:45* Where there's just enemies showing up and you're just in a very small play space and you gotta fight 'em. *16:48* And Ghost of Sparta was like that to a degree, but I think the way that they mixed up like which enemies they were throwing at you was a little interesting. *16:53* The w the final hour of this game is *17:00* Awful. *17:03* It's really, really awful. *17:03* Like you go into this, you get out of Tartars, you fight Charon, which is fine. *17:05* That's a like a decent boss fight. *17:10* It's kind of cool. *17:11* I was gonna say that's the only good boss fight. *17:12* fight because there's only four. *17:13* It's the Persian King who you fight ten minutes into the game, who's the just a basic boss fight to open a game. *17:15* The basilisk. *17:20* Uh, which is the whatever giant lizard thing. *17:22* Typical giant monster that you fight over mul multiple locales, which I feel like they've done in multiple God War games. *17:26* K Chiron, who's the only kind of interesting one, and then Persephone who's god *17:32* freaking god off what we could go. *17:37* We will specifically touch on Persephone here in a minute. *17:38* But yes, his fight's fine. *17:41* It's it's a decent, it's interesting. *17:43* It's got some interesting mechanics and they tease you with it. *17:44* Which is actually a really cool moment where yeah, they put you in the fight and they intentionally kill you. *17:47* Like you cannot win there, as far as I know. *17:53* So they *17:55* Kratos can go visit Hades for the fourth time in the series or whatever. *17:55* He was cool though, because he goes to the Pits of Tartarus, which you only really get to go to a couple of times with Atlas. *18:00* in God of War II. *18:07* It's just funny because every almost in every single game he's like, oh I gotta go to Hades or some sort of he gets killed in nearly every game. *18:09* It's pretty it's really funny. *18:17* They so they tease it and so then you have to climb out to fight him again. *18:18* So that's actually a really that's a good example of them not using like a painting to teleport you. *18:22* There's a good flow. *18:27* to get back to that fight. *18:29* And you get I forget what power you get in Tartarus or something. *18:30* I think you get the gauntlet. *18:33* The gauntlet. *18:35* Yeah. *18:35* The Zeus glove. *18:36* And then you go out and you fight him again and then you you win and that's fun. *18:37* But then they put you in Persephone Tower. *18:41* Which is literally just combat rooms connected with very little health in between. *18:43* Um you just go, you fight. *18:51* Climb up the tower. *18:53* Maybe it's three, four floors of this. *18:54* Maybe a total of six to eight rooms. *18:56* I was I was just gonna say you texted you texted me and were complaining a lot about this. *19:00* And *19:05* It was difficult and I had trouble with it, but I feel like I got through it way easier than you did. *19:06* Um I wanna I wanna ask you something. *19:13* Were you using the blades or were you using the gauntlet? *19:16* I was using the blades primarily. *19:19* I learned a good a couple good cheese strategies for some of the *19:21* This is probably what I did not for some of the enemies. *19:25* Specifically the were the Minotaurs giving you a hard time? *19:28* Yes. *19:32* So you can jump in the air and spam L1 square and you can do the spin thing. *19:33* And you can do it about three times in a row in in the air, and the Minotaurs have no way no real way they can still hit you, but most of their moves that they might be using against you are directed to your character when they would be on the ground. *19:39* So they can't hit you really as long as you're in the air. *19:53* So you just kinda have to keep jumping and spamming the spin. *19:56* Which is really stupid, but *19:59* It worked. *20:01* It never feels good in an action game when your best course of action, even on the tougher difficulties, is to cheese it like that. *20:02* But I'm glad you figured something out because I had very little health. *20:09* It was maybe like a 2-3 hit *20:12* Run and it was like hi. *20:14* That wasn't that's another thing about this game. *20:19* It was really *20:21* I don't know if this happened for you. *20:22* So in all the other games, if you died and then you revived, you respawn with full health and not necessarily I don't think full magic, but they would give you full health at least. *20:23* To take on the encounter. *20:31* This game did not do that. *20:32* So it was very punishing in that regard. *20:33* However, there were times where I would die and I would respawn and I'd all of a sudden have a lot more health than I did before. *20:35* And I'm like, wait. *20:43* I've not been respawn I've been respawning this whole game with the amount of health I had when I started this encounter, but sometimes I would respawn and it would give me more. *20:45* Was that *20:53* There's a dental. *20:54* Was that just a worked-in system to help you out a little bit? *20:55* They were tracking deaths and encounters, and then they would give you a bump because that happened to me. *20:58* We'll use this to segue into Persephone ourself. *21:04* That happened to me specifically in the fields of Elysium *21:06* That one part of the stairs before you get to the safe spot to go fight her, they bring a gauntlet in. *21:11* And I had *21:17* a fraction of health going into that fight and I was like, this is miserable. *21:19* And after dying who knows how many times, I mean actually have the footage, I could count it, I guess. *21:23* Was that the part that you said reminded you of Ascension? *21:29* Y uh yeah, well that and the tower. *21:32* They're kinda together in that way of just like get me through this *21:34* And finally, after so many deaths, I did spawn with more health and was actually able to pull it off. *21:40* It wasn't and then I fired your head against the wall for another however *21:44* Much longer. *21:50* For yeah, about three more play sessions. *21:51* So let's let's talk about Persephone. *21:54* Logan, they they committed the sin that you've brought up to me before. *21:57* They made it a trophy *22:01* They that's how like that's how that's how like in the know they were that this is gonna piss people off. *22:03* Is that they made a whole trophy dedicated to watching the cutscene before the final boss *22:11* More than three times, which is that's probably one of the top three dumbest trophies I've ever heard of in my life. *22:16* W a quick tangent, because so this game has some really good trophies. *22:24* Like meta-level of just funny good trophies, like the beamwalking one or um Oh yeah. *22:28* Like there's some really funny trophies in this game, but then there's also that garbage, which is we know you're gonna this is gonna happen to you, so we're just gonna make it a trophy. *22:35* To explain the beam walking one to people who may not look this up, the beam walking one is you get a trophy for walking across all of the beams in the game. *22:46* There's one beam in the game. *22:53* So you get it after clearing the first beam you come across because it's the only one. *22:55* Which is really funny. *23:00* Yeah, it is it's very funny. *23:02* They're I'm looking at the trophies now. *23:05* But yeah, they give you a trophy they give you a trophy for watching this cutscene that you cannot skip. *23:06* Before the final boss. *23:11* And fortunately, it's not that long. *23:12* It's like a 30-second cutscene, I would say, roughly. *23:16* But it still gets very annoying because it gets you out of your rhythm. *23:19* Witness the end *23:23* Yeah, they give you a trophy for watching that three times. *23:25* So you're gonna get it automatically, probably if you play on hard mode and get your face caked in. *23:28* Because Persephone can kill you in about *23:34* five hits if she wants to. *23:37* If you don't depending on how much health you have, yeah. *23:38* It's it at most five. *23:41* She is the the rock attack that she has knocks out probably what, a good fourth of your health, I would say? *23:43* Yeah. *23:49* It is *23:50* She is uh she really only has maybe three main attacks in that first phase. *23:51* A rock kick and then two different kind of like dash swipes. *23:56* One kind of swings across and then one's more of a close range. *23:59* It's just all about avoiding the rock. *24:02* That's avoiding the key to the whole fight. *24:04* And you gotta stay close to her. *24:07* So, I mean we're gonna get into talking about how terrible this fight is, but for me, you had a lot of trouble with it, and you were texting me about it and you said it was terrible *24:09* And I had trouble with it too, like don't get me wrong, it was kicking my face in for a good minute. *24:17* But I did beat it after about 15 to 20 minutes of trying. *24:21* And the the way I learned how was you just have to keep *24:25* You have to make sure that you stay close to her. *24:28* Because if you stay close to her, she won't proc her rock move. *24:30* And then that's the one that's the that's the one you need to look out for. *24:33* That's the one you need to make sure she is not. *24:36* I found I found her swipes and punches were worse. *24:38* Well you can block those. *24:41* Yeah, I was just apparently not very good at blocking them because there was *24:44* There's some really close timing. *24:48* There's some really close timing on those. *24:50* I was by no means good at it either, but the rock is the one that does the most damage. *24:52* So I could *24:56* You could take hits of the other ones and be a little bit okay. *24:57* The rock thing is the one you need to look out for. *25:00* So I realized the best way to stay close to her is to get the fist out. *25:03* And to spam the like charge move, the L one and s L one plus square butt one uh attack where he like launches himself forward *25:06* because that allows you to close the distance between her quickly and it's an attack rather than a roll. *25:14* You're talking about the gauntlets now. *25:19* Yes, the gauntlet, which is basic That is what changed the fight for me. *25:21* Yes. *25:24* The gauntlet is how you have to beat that fight. *25:24* Especially on hard I would imagine. *25:27* It is I didn't like the gauntlet at first. *25:29* I will say I will say it's one of the better side items they've given you up until this point because I found it useful in certain situations. *25:33* Like a lot of the other *25:41* items that we have come across in these games. *25:42* Um even most recently with Ghost of Sparta with the shield and the spear, the Spartan arms. *25:45* I didn't use it because I didn't feel like it had any sort of *25:51* Great use other than chucking the spears. *25:54* That was about the only good thing I used it for. *25:57* I felt like this actually the thing I liked about this was *25:59* I there was an actual trade-off. *26:03* It was like, do I want to do AoE style attacks that do decent damage with the chains, or do I want to do heavy damage *26:05* that's largely for a single target with the gauntlet. *26:13* And I felt like that was a good trade-off and I felt like the game actually encouraged you to play in two different ways depending on which one you had. *26:16* Because previously, I think the reason we haven't really switched off the chains is because the chains always f *26:22* have that area of attack or area of effect where you can kind of flail them around and deal damage to a lot of enemies at once and also they have a higher or not necessarily a higher but they have a considerable level of attack power to them as well *26:28* Um the gauntlet definitely outdamages the chains by a good amount. *26:41* Um and yeah, I I I I feel like *26:47* Of all the things with the gameplay, that's the one thing I will say Chains of Olympus does very well. *26:50* And maybe uh three does that as well with the fists the Hercules fists that I know are in the game, which we'll find out in the next episode. *26:55* Um *27:04* But yeah. *27:05* I it's funny. *27:06* It's it's really funny. *27:07* I wrote as soon as I got the gauntlet, I first of all didn't remember that this was even in the game, so I clearly forgot that from the past, but I *27:08* I did the tutorial with it, kind of punched around, and at the time I was still leveling up the chains, like so I wasn't at that point in my playthrough of leveling up magic and other items and stuff. *27:17* I I focused chains first and then do the rest later. *27:29* And so I wrote, quote, gauntlet is lame secondary, lame in practice, cool in premise, end quote. *27:32* And I didn't really touch it. *27:41* I didn't think it felt *27:42* good until I had leveled it up, which I didn't I did toward the end of the game. *27:44* Yeah, same. *27:48* And I didn't think about it in those *27:49* Trials in the tower. *27:53* Uh it didn't occur to me until I had to look up some uh I looked up uh on PlayStation trophies how they were beating Persephone and they were using the gauntlet and I was like, oh *27:54* Let me switch to that. *28:04* Became a total powerhouse and changed the fight for me. *28:06* And then it became the item I used the most in the challenge of Hades. *28:09* That's that's what I was gonna say. *28:12* So I didn't really use it in the Tower of Persephone all that much, but once I beat Persephone with it, I started to realize, hey, this thing actually has some decent uses. *28:14* And then when I went and did the challenge of the gods or titans or whatever the heck it is in this game, um then I started to use it more and I found value in it. *28:22* Um especially with *28:31* Um again that L1 square attack with it is very good because it closes gaps and it's an offensive attack. *28:33* Because previously I feel like closing the gap I rely on dodge rolling. *28:42* Um but this is just nope blast forward or blast in a direction that you're trying to go towards and you're dealing damage. *28:46* Um it was good to dispatch of the uh gorgons in the uh *28:52* uh challenge I found even though I got stuck I mean quick aside on the challenge I died on that fifth challenge *28:58* Too many times? *29:07* Probably five or six times. *29:09* And it was like three in the morning when I was trying to play this. *29:10* And I just was-I was like, this is it. *29:12* This is the only trophy I have left. *29:14* I want to get this platinum, just go to bed. *29:15* I will not have to think about this game anymore. *29:17* Or not think about I mean obviously we're talking about it here, but I'll be done with it. *29:19* I can move on. *29:22* Um and I kept dying, dude. *29:24* I was getting so mad. *29:26* I was like screaming at my TV and it was like 3:30 in the morning. *29:28* Um, because I kept getting fr I it just just bad luck. *29:31* I kept getting frozen solid and then one of those soldiers would come in and kill me and I was like, Are you kidding me? *29:34* Um and that fifth challenge is so that fifth fifth challenge is so long. *29:40* It's like twelve minutes long or something like that of enemies. *29:44* It's very it's it's very lengthy. *29:48* It's not hard, but it's just lengthy. *29:50* I did I kept doing this jump and slam attack with the gauntlet, which gives you a little AoE and it stuns everybody. *29:53* That's what I kept using. *29:59* But *30:00* It's it's just uh m like the rest of these other parts of the games, the gameplay is just inconsistent to a certain degree. *30:02* It's too it feels patched together. *30:11* And doesn't feel fleshed out, even like the block. *30:13* The game you start out, you just have the standard God of War block. *30:16* And then *30:20* But it's not as strong, but then you get the sun shield, which kind of amps it up, but then you you get the parry later. *30:21* Like you don't get the parry when you get the block. *30:27* And so *30:30* That just feels inconsistent. *30:31* The gauntlet doesn't feel great to start out with, but it's super powerful if you max it out by the end. *30:32* But they don't really *30:38* incentivize you beyond look you can put orbs into it and you may be like I was pouring it into the blades or some other magic spell or something. *30:40* the difficulty spikes, at least in hard mode. *30:50* Who knows what it's like in normal or um even very hard later when you unlock it at the end of the game. *30:52* There's the spikes toward the end are just *30:59* extremely frustrating. *31:02* There was there was one other thing really quick about the gameplay at least that I liked from this game. *31:04* that the enemies, certain enemies, felt way bigger than they normally do. *31:11* Like the Minotaurs and the Cyclops. *31:16* Like they towered over Kratos. *31:19* And in the other games, they feel more just like a little bit bigger than Kratos. *31:22* And he's a big dude. *31:28* He's, you know, six, seven feet, however tall. *31:29* Like Kratos is a big *31:31* Big dude. *31:33* Yeah. *31:34* But you know, he could wrap his arm around a Minotaur and like stab it in the face. *31:34* In this game, the Minotaur is towering over and I kinda like that. *31:39* I liked how they played with the scale of *31:43* traditional enemies in this sense. *31:47* I They even did some things a little differently, like with the Morpheus enemies, they kinda had this cool look to them. *31:49* And the those gorgons were scream. *31:54* They would scream, I guess they were sirens maybe. *31:56* instead of s freezing you. *31:59* So they they mixed it up a little bit, but it's just it's too inconsistent. *32:00* It fluctuates too much in far in quality. *32:05* Yeah, I agree. *32:08* It's um *32:09* Yeah, I it's it's just the most I think with this one it it is the one that tries the least too. *32:11* I think that's why we're now five games into this series, so um *32:18* We're obviously playing these in an interesting order, and I think this is an instance where the order we've played these games in has uh not lended itself well to this being one we've pla we're playing in the back half of this season. *32:23* Because it is the least *32:35* It's it's just trying to be God of War on a portable platform. *32:37* So it's just trying to hit those check those boxes in a very basic sense. *32:41* Even Ascension, I feel like, was trying to do some different things, and those things didn't work, but they try to mix up certain aspects of the combat. *32:46* This one is very much just *32:55* Very very basic outside of the the one thing I said with uh with the gauntlet, which I feel like was one of the key standouts. *32:58* Um *33:06* With this. *33:07* But yeah, other otherwise it's a total there's not much to write home about with this on a gameplay front. *33:08* It just feels like it's uh *33:14* going through the motions, just trying to trying to do that God of War experience on a mobile platform or a portable platform. *33:17* Different from m difference between mobile and portable, although not really, but the words mean totally different things. *33:24* 'Cause that's *33:30* video games for you. *33:31* Mobile would be God of War betrayal. *33:33* Because I might trick you into playing that game. *33:35* On uh a razor phone. *33:38* Speaking of just taking the God of War experience and putting it on a portable, let's quickly quickly talk about the music. *33:41* Because guess what? *33:47* It's God of War! *33:48* Thank you, Gerard, for your uh continued work. *33:52* I mean I wonder if Gerard gets uh I wonder if he gets royalties for all these games. *33:54* I I don't I don't want to understand *33:59* I don't want to underscore his or under undersell his work, but it is very much it feels like more so than normal, they absolutely recycled a lot of the previous themes from the previous games in this one. *34:01* Um I want *34:14* I've been thinking about this because again, this is the discussion we have every week. *34:15* It's probably not all that exciting. *34:19* It will probably change with 2018 as well. *34:21* And so *34:26* I mean, my plan, my my thought process is on God of War 3, so our next episode, I want to talk about why the God of War music works before we get to the change with Bear McCreary. *34:27* Okay. *34:41* Um so we can do a large scale conversation on just the all the music music. *34:41* These themes in God of War, you know, in the God of War games, are good. *34:48* There are good themes in combat music. *34:53* And it it is strong. *34:55* But five games in a row I'm really like it's gotta war music in your hands. *34:57* It's great. *35:04* In that sense, um, that's why I was so excited for the horns last week, or not last week, but the last episode with Ghost of Sparta. *35:05* It was changing it up a bit. *35:14* And this again fits into that formula of *35:15* Hey, we're putting God of War on the handheld, so here's God of War music and powered by the UMD, but the PSP, it's a disc, so it sounds really good. *35:19* Super loud, by the way. *35:29* I I booted up my PSP and turned it up all the way. *35:30* Super loud. *35:33* Impressive little speakers on that thing. *35:34* So well because you had to watch movies on it. *35:36* Yes. *35:39* And listen to music. *35:40* It had MP that thing was *35:41* My first MP3 player was my PSP. *35:44* Yeah. *35:47* I used to pull that out at school quick tangent aside, talking about the PSP, because we won't be able to do this anymore. *35:48* Back in the day at school, because we grew up in the era of iPods and MP3 players and zooms and stuff, when people started letting us listen to that stuff, I assume like your teachers at school and stuff, like eventually it was like, okay, you guys can listen to music or whatever if you want to while you're working. *35:56* I would whip out my PSP. *36:10* And I was like, I'm not playing games. *36:11* I just have music on this and I would have to explain this to people. *36:13* And that was the first device that I had. *36:17* Uh I remember I downloaded uh *36:20* Like j a couple Foo Fighters albums to it. *36:23* I had some Jimi Hendrix music on it. *36:26* Uh I think I had some Rush on there as well that I would listen to. *36:28* Yeah. *36:33* Also my background screen on my PSP. *36:33* You remember the original like test footage or the original image of uh *36:36* This is really gonna date us. *36:43* The original image of what's his name? *36:45* Um *36:49* Uh Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. *36:50* Do you remember the original image that rev r released for him in the clown makeup? *36:52* It's like the first image of him that hit the internet looking in like *36:57* The Joker, like in the Joker makeup. *37:01* That was like my background on my PSP for ever. *37:03* Probably still is if I dug it out. *37:08* So I don't know. *37:10* I don't actually think I still have my PSP. *37:11* But if I did *37:13* That would be the background on it. *37:14* It was always Heath Ledger is the Joker. *37:16* Wow. *37:20* Very so if you were a kid today, if you were a kid today and you had a PSP, would it be Joaquin Phoenix? *37:21* No, I don't think something far dumber. *37:27* Like my current wallpaper on my desktop computer is Persona 4 Golden. *37:33* Because sure. *37:38* I mean that's a good that's a good game though. *37:40* My PC backgrounds are always anime. *37:42* I don't know why. *37:44* I don't know what that says about me *37:44* Probably something. *37:46* Someone else will figure that out though. *37:47* Let's talk about the visuals, the graphics here. *37:49* Speaking of wallpapers, sure. *37:54* This game is a whole lot of brown and gray with hints of red. *37:56* This game's got no flavor, no style. *38:03* Yeah. *38:07* It is wild. *38:09* I don't have much I don't yeah. *38:11* It's wild how much better Ghost of Sparta looks. *38:13* Like what happened? *38:16* What changed? *38:17* Yeah, I don't know. *38:19* It just felt very I guess *38:20* I will say this, this is the first game. *38:22* Well, no, this isn't the first game, because God of War 2 would have been out by this point. *38:26* And we would have already seen Atlas as well by this point. *38:31* Yes. *38:34* Where and Atlas had said, we'll talk about this, but you know, Atlas says in God of War II. *38:35* You know, we know He recalls the end events of this game. *38:40* Yeah. *38:43* Um, I was gonna say like if this is the first one where we see certain aspects like that, then that would stand out, but that's not even true. *38:44* Um *38:51* Yeah, I don't have a lot to say about the visuals. *38:52* Again, it just feels like it tries to check the God of War boxes. *38:54* Like, oh, we got a city in this one part. *38:58* We've got a. *39:01* We've got a temple that you can run around. *39:02* We've got a Haiti underground area. *39:04* We've got um and then we've got a final level that's just rooms. *39:08* The end. *39:13* Yeah, it just it's not that great. *39:14* I will say, um, you know, in the PS3 port, which we both play just through different means *39:17* It still looks and runs nice. *39:24* You know, everything's scaled up pretty nice. *39:26* I did notice some of the textures were not as great as they were in Ghost of Sparta. *39:28* I wrote down that I thought the blades of chaos looked like concrete triangles. *39:33* Like I didn't think the blades actually looked all that good up their the texture of their surface. *39:37* So that was a bit of a bummer. *39:41* But, you know, it definitely feels like a first outing to get God of War. *39:43* And again, it just retroactively makes me appreciate Ghost of Sparta way more and makes me more baffled why that *39:47* you know, scored less on like a Metacritic or something. *39:54* Ghost of Sparter clearly is the better portable iteration here. *39:57* And then uh because I'm me, I also booted the game up in 3D and on uh the PSTV and my PSP. *40:03* You know, I figured this time I'd actually use the hardware. *40:11* The 3D looks just like the last one. *40:14* It keeps a nice solid frame rate to my eye and uh adds that kind of 3DS level of depth. *40:17* It's neat. *40:23* I, you know, if I ever go *40:24* When I go back and play Ghost of Sparta someday, I don't know about Chains of Olympus, but when I go back and play Ghost of Sparta, I wouldn't mind trying it out, you know, playing at least a chunk of it in 3D. *40:27* And then the uh the PSP version is impressive for the hardware. *40:36* And I think that does a lot of carrying for this game. *40:41* It carries it pretty far, but it does look good, uh both in the hand and on the TV. *40:44* scaled up or at its native resolution and stuff. *40:50* It's nice. *40:52* So Yeah, it's just it's a really strange game to go back to. *40:53* Like probably *40:57* the strangest, honestly, of all of them that we've done. *40:59* Uh just because you really have to put yourself in the mind frame of what people would have *41:04* expected or wanted from a portable console at this point 13 years ago. *41:09* And by all accounts, like it would have been totally I mean again, I played this game pretty close to when it launched back then. *41:15* Um *41:22* And I thought it was cool. *41:23* Um I I I I will say I didn't have any like grand takeaways from it back then either. *41:25* In fact, my biggest takeaway was once I beat, I was like, oh, this is over? *41:30* The game is very short. *41:33* Uh even on uh uh hard we'd be in had a roughly five hour. *41:35* I think being like four and a half to five hours, yeah. *41:41* So it's it's a quick one. *41:43* I appreciated that for this show, to be honest with you, because I have a lot of other personal or I guess uh professional I don't know. *41:46* I've got a lot of other things going on. *41:54* You have a job that you need to get going on. *41:56* I got a job that involves other things with video games sometimes. *41:57* So yeah, it's uh it's it's it was nice that this one was somewhat short, but yeah. *42:01* And you know, I think part of why it feels so short, uh, is because this story is a mess. *42:06* Yes. *42:12* Why is Calliope in this? *42:13* Like, why is Mortice in this? *42:15* The thing I don't understand about *42:19* W why is yeah, Atlas just shows up at the end, she's like, ha ha, I gotcha. *42:22* Atlas is tearing down all the gods and Olympus, ha ha ha and I'm like, he's just like punching the underside of the earth or something. *42:26* I don't know what he's doing. *42:34* Um the Calliope stuff I don't understand and I feel like that's a huge key part of this game *42:37* It makes Ascension a little bit more interesting though, I will say, because Ascension focuses more on him being distracted by the return of his wife with um *42:45* The what are they? *42:55* The Furies. *42:56* Yeah, with the Furies. *42:57* Like they try to pretend that they're his wife, but they don't ever really there's not too many uh *42:58* references or illusions related to his daughter and that. *43:04* There's a couple, but it's primarily focused on his wife. *43:06* This is all about his daughter *43:09* I w I wouldn't even say it's all about her because she doesn't show up until over halfway through the game. *43:12* But he starts hearing, well, all of a sudden you just get like halfway into the game and it's like Kratos heard. *43:17* A music. *43:23* Music that he recognized, but he could not tell where it was what it was from. *43:23* And then like you get further on and it's Kratos re remembered, it was his daughter, but it's like what? *43:27* Like *43:33* But it doesn't really explain it's just Persephone trying to like No, it's not even she's not using Calliope per se. *43:34* Calliope is *43:43* There, like an Elysium. *43:45* I guess she's using him her as bait, I suppose, to like stop the one thing it's So this is the thing that's confusing ca so it is actually her, but because they're in like *43:47* the dead world place like it's just straight up her? *43:57* It's her. *44:01* It see I assumed it was like I thought it was like an illusion for something like but that but I guess her and Elysium *44:03* Yeah, I guess that makes sense because of how the Greek world is set up. *44:09* Why wouldn't he take his daughter with him? *44:13* Like just be like, all right, come on, let's get out of here. *44:15* I've I've I've run out of Hades like four times. *44:17* You can do it this time with me as well. *44:20* Let's go. *44:22* Yeah. *44:23* It feels it feels like they the almost like the classic like bravado tough guy but also arm a dad *44:24* Kind of thing of like trying to sell this. *44:33* They really I think they want you to feel like Kratos is a loving father who misses his daughter and would do anything for her. *44:35* And he almost does. *44:42* He almost lets the whole world burn. *44:43* So he could be with her until he realizes that if he does that, she'll die too. *44:45* And so he he makes the hard sacrifice *44:49* to push her away, literally. *44:53* Like them he doesn't talk to her. *44:56* He doesn't try to be a father or anything. *44:58* He literally just you mash the circle button. *45:01* No, but first you gotta wait a minute *45:04* Well yeah, you gotta get the trophy. *45:06* You gotta wait a minute and get the trophy. *45:08* And then you you literally shove her away with no explanation, and then you have to in front of your daughter murder *45:10* innocent souls in Elysium to gain back your ghost of Sparta like godhood. *45:18* This *45:25* Yep. *45:26* Maybe at the time in 2008, that was just like, yep, that's typical like crater, but in I mean, it's just in the hindsight of what we know. *45:27* Like this is awful. *45:40* This is terrible. *45:42* This makes I lost all my powers. *45:43* Let me kill people. *45:45* This is what I feel like *45:47* How I feel about Kratos right now, I think, is what you kind of have said here and there throughout this season. *45:49* Like Kratos is a terrible guy. *45:54* This is Kratos. *45:57* This is Kratos being a terrible guy and a terrible father. *45:58* Not because he didn't sacrifice her or like he actually ended up saving her life in this moment instead of murdering her like he does. *46:02* But he is *46:09* He's like looks mad and he pushes her away and goes, I'm gonna kill people. *46:11* And it is just so disconnected for me. *46:15* Not *46:18* N'entirely because of what he becomes for Atreus, but just in general. *46:19* Like this is a bad, bad moment. *46:23* Well it's it's even stranger when you get when you then think about like what God of War centers around and it's like Kratos can't forget his misdeeds and killing his daughter and it's like, bro, like you had a chance to kind of un I mean he really *46:27* I don't know. *46:41* The end of events of this game, it's basically like everybody's gonna die unless Kratos stops Persephone and Atlas. *46:43* So he kind of feels like he has to. *46:49* Yeah. *46:51* At the same time, like what he does to that to do that is pretty uh it comes across as like he has no remorse in doing so. *46:52* Um yeah. *47:01* So it's a little strange. *47:02* Yeah, that's that's like a big character moment for Kratos. *47:04* I think they totally just burned in this game. *47:08* And that they I obviously f *47:10* Majorly overcorrect in 2018, but I also think they try to fix it in three, if you remember that plot um with Pandora and stuff. *47:14* Or a little bit, yeah, I do. *47:23* Sort of. *47:24* Yeah, they I think they do *47:25* Um there yeah, I mean just the one more thing I want to say about that, um, is yeah, he's he's he's always really terrible in these game *47:29* on multiple levels. *47:37* Not only is he doing really terrible like large-scale, large scope things that affect a lot of people, namely in God of War 3 when he just kind of kills everybody. *47:38* Um, which we'll get to. *47:47* But he has like no direct uh he's not directly trying to kill people, I guess, in that situation. *47:49* It's just a byproduct of what he does that leads to that. *47:54* But even then, in situations like this *47:58* He just kinda goes full tilt and yeah, all right, I I g I gotta kill these people, sure. *48:01* All right, come here, let me tear you in half. *48:06* Like, he's *48:07* He's he's not good at all. *48:09* It's yeah, it's weak. *48:13* The *48:16* I mean there's more than just Kratos and Calliope in this game. *48:18* And I feel like we get some character whiplash, and a lot of it is like beyond is the shallowest of shallows here. *48:21* a Persian invasion to kick off the game, so there's a Persian king character. *48:29* Then all of a sudden uh the sun disappears and Morpheus is mentioned. *48:34* Morpheus feels like Decoy Octopus, except not cool. *48:39* Because they talk about him, you never see him, you never interact with him, you never stop him, except when you put Helios back up in the sky *48:43* Then, you know, Helios uh he falls and you've gotta go save him. *48:51* So then you like go to his temple and find his sister. *48:57* For whatever reason he's got like a statue of her naked in his temple, but it's his sister. *49:01* Feels very weird and Greek, I guess. *49:06* And then *49:09* You go to Tartarus, and there's the Titans and Cairon. *49:11* Oh look, Atlas is missing. *49:15* How'd he go? *49:16* Oh guess what? *49:18* Persephone was behind it the whole time. *49:19* Do you know how many times they mentioned Persephone before this? *49:22* Once in a collectible note you can pick up off the ground. *49:25* She just shows up and it's I'm the final boss. *49:28* Fight me. *49:30* I'm the I'm behind this all. *49:31* I'm I'm disenfranchised with my husband. *49:33* Time to kill everything. *49:36* Yeah. *49:39* It's it's just so cramp it's just packed with nothing. *49:40* It's just fluff. *49:45* Like Greek fluff. *49:47* Like ooh, who would be cool? *49:48* Morpheus. *49:49* What is this what is Morphe what does Morpheus have to do? *49:51* Why is Morpheus working with Persephone? *49:54* Where did that connection come in? *49:56* Is he even working with her? *49:58* Is this just a chance he saw when the sun disappeared? *49:59* Who took the sun out of the sky? *50:01* Was that Alice? *50:03* How did he do that? *50:04* It just felt super weak, like and whiplashy. *50:05* Yeah. *50:10* Ugh. *50:11* Yeah, this plot is pretty bad. *50:12* Yeah, this is if if Cory was ever not gonna have his name attached to one of them, this would be the one. *50:16* Like before we're like, wow Cory's worked on the story in all of them, at least in some capacity. *50:22* This is one where it's like, Cory, why'd you why'd you let this happen? *50:27* Uh also I didn't mention it at the top because I didn't write it in the notes up there, but in my personal notes, uh Jaffy also helped with the game. *50:31* He would have still been around at that point, I guess, wouldn't he? *50:39* Yeah, he was credited in the in the game's credits. *50:41* So *50:43* I definitely it it um you know it was a a lot of people worked on the story for this one and it just it almost feels like that. *50:44* Like yeah, maybe this person had that idea and this person had that idea. *50:52* How do we push this forward? *50:56* I don't know. *50:57* My other big issue with the story in this game was, I mean, the way it was literally told. *50:58* As in the narrator would say something like, And Kratos knew this was a sign from the gods. *51:07* And then the camera would go to Kratos and he would go, What sign from the gods is this? *51:14* Yes. *51:19* Yes. *51:19* The whole game is just like, and Kratos did this, and then Kratos would say or do that thing right after. *51:20* It was like It was telling and then doing the thing. *51:26* Like that was just *51:30* Oh, that was painful. *51:32* Yeah, I I noticed that a couple times too. *51:34* I'm glad you took a note of it because uh they do it multiple times as well. *51:36* It's not the only they there it's not just a one-off instance. *51:41* Where something like that happens. *51:45* It it happens, yeah, quite a bit. *51:46* Um it's the worst use of the typically I like Gaia as the sort of narrator or storyteller of these games, but yeah, it's not done *51:49* to good effect in in this one. *51:57* Similar like I said before, like when he hears a flu he hears the flute and it's like, Kratos heard the flute, but he didn't know what it was. *52:01* And then he's like, what is that sound? *52:08* That flu or or later what it's like, and then he remembered what it was, and he goes, Calliope. *52:10* Yes. *52:16* It's so bad. *52:18* There was one one part of the narrative structure I liked. *52:21* One. *52:26* Um and mostly just because it was weird to see. *52:27* Which was Kratos actively serving the gods, and in his like military prime, like this is when Kratos would have been full swing serving the gods. *52:30* despite everything that happened in Ascension five years prior, he's like gun-ho about serving them to wipe away his debt, so to speak. *52:42* But it's it's Kratos serving and in his military prime *52:50* That was interesting to see. *52:55* It was kind of cool. *52:56* We never we I think this is really the only game we really get to see that. *52:57* Um because they don't dwell on it in Ascension and obviously everything from God of War One *53:01* later, chronologically speaking, has nothing to do with that as well. *53:07* And so it's it's interesting to see that play out. *53:11* I think *53:17* I think what's uh I think the thing that's upsetting to me about this game, this and Ascension, is I think there are interesting stories they could have told with Kratos prior to God of War 1. *53:18* And the weakest two entries in this entire series are the two before God of War 1. *53:31* I think there they could have done, I think there was a lot of storytelling possibilities that they really kind of let fall flat on its face. *53:37* Um *53:44* Like Ghost of Sparta I think is good. *53:44* I think that is largely a solid game. *53:47* And I I think if there were stories that they told that were of that quality, like I wouldn't say Ghost of Sparta is like one of the best *53:48* stories in a video game or anything like that, but it was very solid and they were doing different things and um this in Ascension even Ascension I feel like had some decent idea like with the Furies and stuff like that. *53:56* That game's problem was just *54:08* How it was told was very poor. *54:10* But um was also disjointed. *54:13* It was very chopped up. *54:15* I feel like whenever they come into these games *54:17* I I I I've never made a God of War game, spoiler alert. *54:19* But I feel like whenever they would have w made these back in the day, I I'm gonna guess a few people grouped up and they're like, alright. *54:23* Who from Greek lore do we want to include this time around? *54:29* We've already done this, this, this, this, and this. *54:32* What big name characters are are still out there that we want to fold into this game? *54:34* And then they would probably start rolling from there. *54:39* Okay, how can we make a story out of using Chiron? *54:42* Or how can we use the Furies in a story or things like that? *54:45* Or even remember God of War II was in development at the same time, and so those were being developed in Sony Santa Monica and Reddy at Dawn were in context. *54:49* So maybe that's like where the Atlas thing came. *54:58* And so it's like how Atlas into this because they mention Atlas and two, so like which chicken and egg, which one came first here? *55:00* Yeah. *55:09* And it just doesn't feel good. *55:10* And *55:12* That section of God of War 2 is probably the section of the game that feels the most off as well, I think. *55:13* Where it you it's just kind of a detour *55:19* You like you're there at the temple and then you fall off way down in the middle of the earth and then you shoot shoot back up and then okay, you took a quick quick a took a t quick tour to go see Atlas there and now I'm back. *55:21* Yeah, it's a very chunky and not in a great way. *55:36* So it's a bummer in that regard. *55:41* Before we wrap up, there was one more thing I wanted to touch on, at least mention here. *55:45* I thought this was an appropriate episode to talk about it. *55:49* There's one part of God of War that we really haven't talked about yet, five episodes into the season, and that is every God of War game. *55:53* has included some form of behind the scenes slash documentary content with it. *56:04* Every single one of them. *56:10* Sony Santa Monica for every game has included documentaries. *56:11* One, two. *56:14* 3, Ascension, 2018. *56:16* 2018 released a whole two and a half, two hour documentary about it. *56:18* They all they all have a documentary um chronicling the development of each of these games. *56:22* And *56:28* The PSP games, uh Ghost of Sparta had some behind-the-scenes clips and art and stuff, but it was famously paired with *56:29* the director's live panel that I've mentioned on previous episodes. *56:37* So that was in a similar vein and offered really great insight in stuff into God of War. *56:41* Chains of Olympus has this. *56:47* Um, and I don't think you watched them. *56:50* And it's okay if you didn't. *56:53* I did not. *56:54* I haven't watched any of them to be honest. *56:56* That's okay. *56:58* Uh everything shown in the Lost Levels video was cooler than what we saw in the game. *57:08* There was like this um *57:13* Hydra like what is I think it is called a Hydra, the thing that grows its multiple heads and when you kill one it splits and turns into two. *57:15* There was one of those. *57:22* Like a really cool looking fight with that. *57:24* There was they probably felt like they already used that in *57:26* It looked different though. *57:29* It looked kinda like a turtle. *57:30* It was weird. *57:32* Again, this is all pre-dev footage, so it looks a little chunky and funky. *57:33* But I don't know why that made me laugh so much. *57:38* Chunky and funky. *57:44* Anyway, it's talking about the Kong family now. *57:47* I guess *57:50* It just was interesting to see these lost pedendrel, and it seemed cooler than the game I had just played. *57:53* The other baffling thing though was the Inside Ready at Dawn video. *58:00* Which is literally two and a half fish minutes of just shots of everyone at their desk doing work and turning to the camera and making a face. *58:06* sticking their tongue out, making gestures with their hands, closing the door. *58:17* There is no dialogue. *58:22* No one says anything. *58:23* You don't actually see *58:25* Real development of the game, it is just a montage of everyone at the studio doing something silly at their desk. *58:26* And I'm *58:33* I mean, I shouldn't necessarily be surprised. *58:35* It's not like I went in expecting a lot from the documentary. *58:37* But I am bummed that this is like they didn't give us anything here. *58:40* And I'm a little bummed about that. *58:44* Yeah, I don't have a lot to say about that, I guess. *58:47* It yeah, I just I wanted to mention it because *58:52* When we do get to 2018, I at least I plan on rewatching the documentary and I'm you plan on making yourself sad again and questioning whether that game's existence is worth it? *58:57* Because you get to the end of the doc the whole thing's really fun to watch until you get to the end in the documentary. *59:08* People are like, oh, so did you think it was worth making this? *59:13* And they're everybody's like *59:16* I don't know. *59:17* I never I didn't s I haven't seen my kids in five years and you've got Shannon Stud still just like bawling her eyes out. *59:19* That's a that's a hard thing to watch. *59:28* It is hard and it's it's actually a very good documentary, but um you know I've watched all of them so far for this season of the show and *59:30* The God of War 2 stuff is like really tough. *59:39* There was a lot of pressure at that time. *59:42* And listening to the director's panel, hearing all of their journeys through this game and how tough it is to change hands between everyone. *59:44* There's some and I it's rare for a dev to be so forthcoming about the development. *59:54* Even the Ascension documentary stuff is fascinating because it was *01:00:02* all multiplayer focused. *01:00:06* Like they were trying to pivot this franchise and the studio to a certain degree and it it ended up flopping and just see that *01:00:07* work go into it at least made me appreciate the multiplayer effort a little bit more even if it's not my favorite thing, especially since it just doesn't fit with the series. *01:00:14* But I was definitely bummed that *01:00:24* Inside Ready Adonis just a bunch of silly faces. *01:00:27* So I wanted to mention it here before we definitely talk about the documentary later. *01:00:30* Wanted to say that. *01:00:35* But *01:00:37* Any parting thoughts with Chains of Olympus here and the PSP? *01:00:38* Um yeah, I mean I feel like we really talked a lot about I I really didn't think we would *01:00:43* Uh I said before we started that I didn't think we would get too deep into this one, honestly, because I didn't feel like there was much to say. *01:00:49* But yeah, I really feel like I we fleshed out a lot of my deeper feelings on this game. *01:00:55* Um *01:01:01* But like I said at the top, this is definitely the most just yeah, very bland, basic God of War game. *01:01:02* I'd say even of the whole series, because even Ascension at least does different things *01:01:10* Even though those things aren't good all the time. *01:01:16* It's at least like, alright, they're trying to mix this up. *01:01:18* They're trying to change how this functions *01:01:20* Uh this and God of War 1 to me are the ones that are just like, yep, that's God of War 1. *01:01:23* And the first one makes sense to be like that because it was the first one. *01:01:29* Uh *01:01:33* This one is just hey let's try to do that on the PlayStation Portable. *01:01:34* Do you think we can do that? *01:01:39* Okay, cool. *01:01:40* Um *01:01:42* So yeah, it's it's a God of War video game for sure. *01:01:43* It yeah, absolutely is. *01:01:48* I've yeah, depending on the day you ask me, it's this ascension at the bottom of my *01:01:51* tier list or what have you. *01:01:56* It's it's cool that they got it on the PlayStation Portable, but I am definitely happy that it paved the way for Ghost of Sparta and um *01:01:58* that game's development. *01:02:06* I, you know, how much of this really did influence three and beyond, I really can't say. *01:02:07* I can't imagine that much. *01:02:13* Uh but it is an interesting point for the series and uh definitely paved the way for one of the better games in the series. *01:02:15* So I'm happy that it existed for that. *01:02:21* But *01:02:24* I feel like that does it for God of War, Chains of Olympus, here on the PlayStation Portable. *01:02:24* Thank you so much for listening. *01:02:30* If you would like to follow Logan online, he's on Twitter at Moreman12 *01:02:32* And you can find his writing over at comicbook. *01:02:37* com. *01:02:40* If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, I'm at maxroberts143. *01:02:41* And you can find my writing over at maxfrequency. *01:02:45* net. *01:02:48* Uh and until next time, thanks for listening. *01:02:49* Bye bye. *01:02:52* Chapter Select is a max frequency production. *01:02:55* This episode was researched, produced, and edited by me, Max Roberts. *01:02:58* Season two is hosted by Logan Moore and myself. *01:03:02* And it's all about God of War. *01:03:06* For more on this season, go to chapterselect. *01:03:08* com forward slash season two. *01:03:11* To check out previous seasons, go to chapterselect. *01:03:13* com. *01:03:17*