# Chapter Select, [[S2E7 - God of War (2018)]] 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* And for this season two *00:09* Sort of finale. *00:12* We're talking about God of War 2018, God of War 4, God of War PS4, whatever you want to call it. *00:14* I'm one of your hosts, Max Roberts, and I am joined as always. *00:21* By Logan Moore. *00:24* Hello, Logan. *00:25* Hello. *00:26* In a couple weeks we can call it God of War PC as well. *00:26* I I guess. *00:29* We can especially since it'll be the only one on PC, so we could refer to it as that and it would make sense. *00:30* It's the second God of War game to not be on a so dedicated Sony console. *00:37* It's up there with God of War betrayal. *00:42* Mm-hmm. *00:44* Finally getting a I feel like we I don't know if we've actually mentioned betrayal. *00:46* I feel like we've definitely mentioned betrayal a couple times on on the podcast throughout the course of this season. *00:49* So God of War, which that's all I'm gonna call it from here on out. *00:54* I'm tired of typing. *00:57* I've been typing 2018 at the back half of it for months now. *00:58* God of War developed by Sony Santa Monica Studio for the PlayStation 4 slash PS4 Pro. *01:02* at the time. *01:10* It came out april twentieth, twenty eighteen, and has a impending PC release date like we talked about, january fourteenth, twenty twenty two, which is, if you're listening to this live, when it comes out, it's next Friday. *01:11* Logan, you you have it, correct? *01:25* Yeah, I do actually have God of War on PC right now. *01:27* I'm reviewing it *01:31* That's all I can say about that. *01:32* The time this goes up. *01:34* So if you want to read my review, it'll be live. *01:36* I forget what the date is actually. *01:40* It'll be live. *01:42* We'll we'll attach it in the show notes once it does go up, but you can keep an eye on comicbook. *01:43* com if you want to see it once it goes live. *01:48* So bookmark that website. *01:50* Will do. *01:52* It was directed by Corey Barlog, who you may recall we've talked about quite a bit this season in general, but he directed God of War II. *01:53* He's the first *02:02* and currently only director to ever direct two God of War titles, although he's had his fingers on pretty much every game except Ascension, which he returned post Ascension, actually, in August of twenty thirteen. *02:03* So *02:17* The game was produced by Yumi Yang and Kenneth T. *02:18* Roy. *02:21* They were the directors of product development. *02:22* And then there's a bunch of producers underneath them, but kind of those two people were at the top. *02:25* Some of the other just producers that at least Wikipedia lists was help me. *02:30* Brian Westergaard *02:35* Elizabeth Dom Juan, Sean Lulin, and Llewellyn, I think. *02:38* Llewellyn, Chad Cox and Eric Fong. *02:44* So those are some of the producers, at least Wikipedia mentions *02:48* Combat, which is big in this game. *02:51* Uh the design director was Derek Daniels, and then Jason McDonald was the gameplay design lead, and he's been doing combat and God of War since God of War 2. *02:54* He was the lead on Ascension. *03:02* He's I mean he's the combat guy, basically for God of War. *03:05* And then the music for the first time. *03:09* Goodbye, Gerard. *03:13* Yeah. *03:15* It's br uh it's Bear McCreary. *03:16* I almost said Brian. *03:18* It's Bear McCreary did the music for God of War here. *03:19* The game got a 94 out of 100 on Metacritic, which ties the first game. *03:23* So now we've come full circle. *03:29* 94 to 94. *03:31* I wonder what the PC scores will be like. *03:33* In in in all earnestness, I'm I'm curious. *03:35* Obviously the game is still the game, so what is PC gonna bring to the *03:38* the table. *03:41* I will guess lower. *03:42* I this that's not off of me having played it, because at the time we're recording this, I have actually not played it on PC yet. *03:43* I've merely I've merely downloaded it to my Steam library. *03:49* Yeah. *03:53* Uh I feel like the PC ports of the PlayStation games have been like hi a little bit like they've been ironing out the kinks with those, I feel like, as they go. *03:53* I feel like Horizon was a little bit rough when it came out and so was Yeah. *04:01* Days Gone I feel like was a little bit better, but people still had some *04:04* complaints with it when it first arrived. *04:08* And Death Stranding. *04:09* This one claims to have some robust keyboard and controller support. *04:11* You could theoretically pla I mean you can, it's not theoretical. *04:14* You could play God of War with an Xbox controller if you vr so wanted to *04:17* I am actually a thousand percent going to do that. *04:21* It's gonna be really weird to you know it's just weird to think about that. *04:24* But so it's coming to PCM soon, but the PS4 Metacritic scores ninety-four out of a hundred *04:27* And when they announced the PC port, they also announced the lifetime sales up through August of 21, which is 19. *04:34* 5 million copies. *04:41* It's the best-selling PlayStation exclusive period. *04:43* I mean, if you had asked me, I would have said Spider-Man. *04:48* Simply because of the name and cloud of Spider-Man. *04:52* But it is God of War. *04:54* I think Uncharted Uncharted Four is really, really good. *04:55* Uncharted Four was *04:58* The previous one. *05:00* So you know, uncharted it's b big. *05:06* To put that in a little bit of context, I did a little bit of you know table math. *05:09* Um if you take current PS4 console sales *05:14* that's about roughly seventeen percent of PS4 console owners out of a hundred and fifteen million owned God of War. *05:18* And this is all before the PC port of the game. *05:26* So it's huge. *05:29* This game is big, big, big. *05:30* And I think, you know, this is where it leads us to our experiences and our histories with this this particular game. *05:33* You may have uh you may have heard at the end of the last episode. *05:42* I played a little bit from our millennial gaming speak days. *05:47* Where we theorize based off of rumors floating around, like, oh, I wonder what God War Four will be like. *05:50* And then in E three two thousand sixteen it was revealed *05:56* And we also talked about it then. *06:01* I kind of thought it would be fun to play a little clip for you all. *06:02* You can explore these little areas that are big and you can, you know, find things and do maybe a side quest or I doubt God of War has a side quest system. *06:09* I hope it does. *06:19* I really hope it does. *06:20* Yeah, which is why exactly why I want it. *06:23* Because I don't think though I don't think the God of War games are very good. *06:25* I really don't. *06:28* Logan, do you think God of War games are mindless? *06:34* I mean they kind of are. *06:37* I feel like any action I mean, I would say *06:38* The things I would say in order for a game to not be mindless was that it would be that it needs to have a lot of like writing and constant narrative in front of your face. *06:43* I'd say half the God of War games, I would say, are somewhat mindless by that barometer. *06:51* I'd say three and uh two, probably *06:57* Are you are a little bit more engaging? *07:02* One an ascension, I would say you really don't have to pay too much attention to. *07:04* Same with the handheld games, but yeah. *07:08* I was uh I I I've talked about it on the show, but I was not the biggest God of War fan back when we did our old show. *07:12* Um and even now, like we've done this whole series now, and I would not say *07:19* That it's one of my favorite franchises ever? *07:24* I I like this game specifically. *07:27* If we're gonna if we're gonna go into our own histories *07:30* Yeah. *07:33* Uh uh now, which I know is coming up on our notes here. *07:33* No, yeah, we're in it. *07:37* That that that clip there *07:40* As you can clearly tell, I was not the biggest God of War fan until this game came out and it totally made me do a 180 on the series as a whole. *07:42* And that's still very much how I feel. *07:49* Like when I think about God of War, the things that I love about this series *07:51* I'd say eighty to ninety percent of the things that I really like about the series are all associated with this game in particular. *07:56* And there are th and we've gone back obviously now and I I I think *08:04* Uh some of those previous games are actually quite good, especially uh like Ghost of Sparta is the one that remains like a surprise for me out of uh the ones that we have played over the course of this season. *08:08* But yeah, I I I I am a God of War 2018 fan, first and foremost, and then all the other games are *08:19* It's the uh very far like if I was the right if I was if if if God of War 2018 is way up here my hand is very high to the ceiling. *08:27* for audio listeners, then I would start ranking the other ones like much much lower. *08:35* Like there's a v massive gap in my mind between this game and all the others. *08:40* Yeah. *08:44* It and in that at that time I'm out there defending God of War if the the whole clip has me saying God of War 2 is great and it's a good idea. *08:45* for a long time, which I I think you've talked about quite a bit over the course of this season, like waiting at midnight to get Ascension and all this other stuff. *08:54* You know, we all have you know, we all make mistakes, you know. *09:02* Midnight launch for God of War Ascension was probably one of them *09:05* But I do love the God of War series, but there's no question in my mind, no doubt, that 2018 is the the best one of the bunch. *09:08* And one of the best games ever made. *09:17* It's gonna so I was gonna ask you that while we're I mean, just talking like this has been on my short list of favorite games ever, or greatest games of all time for the longest time. *09:19* You texted me when we were both playing through this and you said, I think this is one of the best games ever. *09:29* Well, I remember I remember in 2018 we were at Dual Shockers at the time together and we were doing our game of the year list. *09:35* Yours was either God of War or League of Legends. *09:44* I honestly do not remember. *09:47* It was it was a thousand percent God of War. *09:48* Yeah. *09:50* Okay, I I know League was always up there, just calm down. *09:50* Um so it was God of War, but I chose that year Spider-Man *09:53* And it wasn't a it wasn't like a red dead, you know uh which I was shouting like Red Dead's amazing. *09:57* Or God of War wasn't a great game. *10:06* It was just I had more fun playing Spider-Man. *10:08* And that was kind of my philosophy at the time for Game of the Year. *10:10* I have if I could retroactively go back, it's God of War hands down. *10:13* This is one of *10:16* This was 2018's game of the year. *10:17* This is one of the best games ever made. *10:19* It's incredible. *10:21* I I think this is the best game of last gen, like *10:23* hands down, like if I was to say a game of the generation or something like that, I think this is the best game of the last generation of consoles. *10:26* Uh and it's also my favorite. *10:35* Like this is probably a top three to five favorite game of all time for me. *10:37* Uh I would I would agree with the *10:42* The top three to five and I could see, yeah, I could be persuaded of, you know, the last generation. *10:44* And I think a big part of that in and what we'll get to is how they reinvent. *10:51* God of War, that's a huge part, but they keep the legacy intact. *10:57* Specifically our experiences with the game *11:00* I was actually quite fortunate enough to work on the wiki guide for IGN with this. *11:05* So I was on a team with Brendan Graeber and Casey DeFrias working on this game. *11:10* I did a lot of the side quest stuff like Fafnir's Dragon, those quests. *11:14* Um doing all that stuff was really kind of my wheelhouse for that game. *11:19* And I was able to get the game two weeks early, which *11:24* You know, one of the few times that I get games before you. *11:29* And when Ragnarok comes around, I'm sure that it the the tables will have turned. *11:35* You know, all things *11:40* staying the same, all things being equal here. *11:42* So I got the game two weeks early and I I still I was at an art show when I got the email that said, you know, here's your code, go, you can download it. *11:44* And I went *11:53* We gotta wrap up the start trip. *11:54* We gotta go. *11:56* So you know you gotta go home and download 40, 50 gigs. *11:57* So I downloaded through the night and then I woke up early the next day. *12:00* I still had a dog at the time. *12:04* And I thought, I'll go. *12:05* Out in the living room, the dog will stay in the bedroom and I can play in peace. *12:07* This did not happen. *12:11* So I had a before *12:12* Before I chopped the tree down, the dog was whining, and so I had to go let the dog out. *12:15* And then the dog laid on the couch while I started the game. *12:19* It was not the most ideal scenario, but *12:23* And then the rest of the time I really just played at my desk on my tiny TV, uh r recording and writing and and doing guide work and worked on that for all that time. *12:26* So that was kind of my first go-around with God of War 2018. *12:36* I played about half of it again. *12:42* With my wife Abby. *12:45* She was watching the story, but then we just kind of dropped off. *12:47* She wasn't super engaged like she was in The Last of Us or other games. *12:50* So she's never finished it. *12:55* I don't know. *12:57* I tried. *12:58* And so I st we stopped at the Dragon or shortly after the Dragon. *12:59* So you know, I never platted the game back in the day. *13:06* I never finished all the quest. *13:10* When I do guides I usually just do the work I'm assigned and then I'm drained, I dip out. *13:12* So I never properly finished it. *13:17* Yeah, that makes sense more than now that I think like I was always s shocked that you never platted this. *13:19* And then when I think about it retroactively *13:24* It's totally because it was a work assignment. *13:26* Like there have been games that I've wanted to go back and clean up trophies for, and I just never do because it's like a work thing for I I associate it with work. *13:28* For some reason. *13:36* There's just like a mental. *13:37* And I had that with this game for a long time. *13:38* I you know, even replaying it with Abby, my goal wasn't to plat it. *13:41* It was *13:45* Just do the story. *13:46* And I wasn't doing a ton of the side quest or collectibles. *13:47* I wasn't worried about any of that. *13:49* This time around I was, because I platted the other other games. *13:51* It's like I can't not plat God of War *13:56* Now. *14:00* So I did go in with the I looked up, there were no miscible trophies, and I went, alright, I can play the game and clean up stuff at the end. *14:00* And and I did. *14:08* And you were actually you were we were together when I finally beat the Queen Valkyrie and platted the game. *14:09* So that was a very exciting moment. *14:15* What about you, my friend? *14:17* So yeah, I played this one when it came out. *14:20* I literally took the day off of work to play this, so I went and got it. *14:23* I actually think *14:28* This might be the last game I got at midnight? *14:31* For any sort of release. *14:34* So you bought it physically? *14:36* I did buy it physically. *14:37* I I'm sure that's probably wrong. *14:39* There's probably some other game I went and got at some point one late Oh, like I yeah, I got Death Stranding at one point one night. *14:41* Um *14:48* But yeah, I went and I got this at midnight or nine o'clock or whatever the heck it was with GameStop. *14:49* Uh took the day off from work to play it back when I had a not *14:55* dumb job associated with video games. *15:01* This was back when I was working in an engineering company. *15:04* So I used a real big boy PTO day off to play this game. *15:07* Uh did nothing but play it all day. *15:12* Woke up the next day on Saturday, did nothing but play it until it was beaten. *15:15* And that's *15:19* About it. *15:21* Uh this time around I did not do that. *15:22* I still played it pretty quickly. *15:24* I'd say I play uh took about a week. *15:25* uh to play it this time. *15:28* Sounds good. *15:30* In a couple good chunks of time though, is how I played it. *15:31* So yeah, uh first time I played it though, I immediately was done with it and has uh been waiting on what is now Ragnarok for the longest time. *15:36* Um I don't think there's anything *15:46* Didn't you am I remembering this right, but didn't you buy your TV for this game? *15:49* Kind of. *15:57* Like this was when I bought my TV. *15:57* I think I had bought my TV like six months prior. *15:59* So when I was thinking about games that were coming up. *16:02* That I was like excited very excited to play. *16:06* This was definitely one of them. *16:08* Uh so this was Yeah, one of the first games I really played. *16:11* I *16:15* really played on my 4K TV that I could think of that was like a hot new release and I had a PlayStation 4 Pro and I was like, okay, this is this is gonna look great. *16:15* This will this will look awesome. *16:22* And it did. *16:24* It's still the game still looks great. *16:24* I mean I played it on PS5 this time, as did you *16:25* Um looks very good. *16:28* It was a very weird thing coming this game being like, alright, another God of War game. *16:32* Let's sit down and play this. *16:36* Oh *16:37* Oh yeah, this game's not that old like all the other ones are. *16:38* Uh that's kind of strange. *16:41* Um So yeah, the g the game I don't think it uh resolution-wise, did you think it looked *16:43* Okay. *16:55* You have to *16:55* What's the context to how I played it again? *16:57* I played it on a a twenty-one inch T V P monitor. *16:59* Yeah. *17:03* I was now playing it on a *17:03* 55 inch 4K OLED at 4K 60s. *17:06* So like the upgrade was big to me. *17:09* Um it I think it looks great. *17:12* They do it's a checkerboarded 4K *17:15* On PS5, well it was on PS4 Pro as well, but to get the 4K60, it's a it's a checkerboard of 4K. *17:17* The PC release is confirmed to have four native 4K, so okay. *17:23* The bad thing about that is I don't have a 4K monitor. *17:28* So So time to take the tower downstairs, buddy. *17:31* I don't know *17:35* I don't know about I probably will not be doing that, but I guess I could. *17:36* But do I want to? *17:43* No, I don't. *17:44* Bring the TV upstairs. *17:46* Uh carrying on the tradition really quick, uh your first trophy was obviously April 20th of 2018, and you got the platinum on May 6th. *17:48* So it took you just about two weeks to plat the game. *17:57* I remember when I platted it too, I believe. *18:01* Wasn't it like three or four AM? *18:03* The trophy says five in the afternoon, so But I don't know where that's a localized *18:05* Yeah, or even when it would have synced, because like yeah P PS five sinks immediately, but PS4 you weren't syncing right away, so *18:11* Cause I thought I popped I thought I stayed up very late and I was like, I will not go to bed until the Valkyrie has died. *18:19* I I do understand that feeling now, and we we will talk about her. *18:26* But before we get into gameplay, I'm actually saving gameplay for the end. *18:31* We have I I feel like we need to talk about the story first. *18:36* Which is weird for a God of War game because really the story maybe outside of like two Ghosts of Sparta and three. *18:42* I think those are the most narratively heavy *18:49* of that Greek bunch. *18:52* And that's not a lot of weight, you know. *18:53* It's like lightweight story. *18:55* This is obviously pivotal. *18:58* I recall when the game was revealed, a lot of initial online reactions or jokes was, oh wow, they've Last of Us the God of War. *19:00* Look, Kratos and a boy, like *19:10* going across the Norse realms. *19:13* It it's hard not to deny that, especially considering what PlayStation was doing at the time and last of his part two was already announced. *19:16* It was you know, it was just kind of the thing at the time. *19:24* But this is so much obviously more than that. *19:27* And so we've pivoted from Greek to Norse. *19:30* He's actually got a child that he's actually a father to. *19:36* There's a lot to dig into here. *19:40* Where do you where do you want to start? *19:43* Um I think the place to start is just Kratos in general, because he's still very much the same character. *19:46* And that's the best the the best thing about this game, in a general sense, and you've said this before. *19:55* Um *20:03* is that they did not reboot it and throw out everything that came before, which they probably could have. *20:03* They could have just been like, okay, we're gonna make Kratos the main sort of *20:09* catalyst for this war that we're gonna have develop in the Norse realm, but he's a totally different character and more it basically he's just gonna be a conduit for the player once again to *20:13* rain down havoc upon the Norse pantheon and have that be it. *20:24* And I feel like if that would have been the direction we would have been like, okay, that's fine. *20:28* That's understandable. *20:31* You can't just have this man *20:33* going from realm to realm and trying to kill all these gods. *20:34* But no, they did not do that at all. *20:37* Um but in the process they made Kratosyn actually *20:40* interesting character. *20:44* I would still say even though we played the other six games in this franchise, I would not say Kratos was a great character that I really enjoyed whatsoever until this game. *20:45* This game *20:57* This game retroactively I think makes him a more interesting character in those other games. *20:59* If this game never came about, I don't think I think anything positively about Kratos from the previous six games we've played. *21:04* It's like a, you know, rising tide lifts all ships, but this is like a retroactive tide that's lifting the ships of the previous game. *21:12* This game has retroactively added more *21:20* Like, cause there's so many callbacks in this game to to the previous games. *21:24* Like that was the cool thing this time is that I was picking up on *21:29* Small little lines here and there and I was understanding what he was talking about. *21:33* Uh one of the ones that stuck out to me most I think is pretty early on. *21:37* Atreus says something about how the fates have determined something has to happen, and Kratos just says the fates don't know anything or something like that. *21:42* And it's like, oh, he totally *21:50* He he he totally uh is referencing God of War 2 or when uh or when uh Freya makes him go to hell. *21:52* And he says, uh, the realm of the dead, and she says, Have you been there? *22:01* And he says, not this one. *22:04* Yeah, there's so many and it's not *22:06* It's not in a fan servicey way either. *22:09* It's in a rich, d meaningful way. *22:12* There's even kind of building off Atreus and the Fates. *22:15* There's a line later once you have Mimir who adds so much texture. *22:18* uh to this world, both for the player and for them. *22:23* Yeah. *22:26* There's a line where there's specific thoughts on Amir too, by the way. *22:26* Yeah. *22:29* There's these this texture he's talking about *22:30* Uh him and Atreus are talking about, you know, fates and predetermined and like Ragnarok and it's all written and stuff, that sort of story. *22:33* I don't remember the specific one. *22:40* And Kratos says along the lines of, you know, there's nothing that is written that can't be unwritten. *22:42* And Mimir says, well, maybe you and Odin actually agree on something. *22:48* And it's just *22:52* It's so good. *22:54* They give you such insight to Kratos in that, but I also don't think that it's stuff that would be lost necessarily. *22:55* Maybe the the richness of it could be, but *23:04* the the core context isn't lost on someone who's never played a God of 4 game. *23:08* And I have to think a bulk of that nineteen and a half million t haven't played *23:12* A God of War game or all of them? *23:18* Or you just don't pick up on it. *23:20* Like I had played most of the God of War games before I had played this one. *23:22* And there was a lot of things I didn't notice the first time around. *23:26* Just because I had not played *23:29* The other six right before it. *23:31* And I and to to be fair, I did play one through three right before. *23:33* That was the last time I had played those games. *23:38* I played them right before *23:40* This came out. *23:42* And so those the core three were fresh in my mind. *23:43* So I'm I was picking up those things then. *23:46* The only fan servicey thing, and it's the perfect fan servicey thing, was the uh the boat captain treasure. *23:49* There's the note specifically calls out like I've left the Greek realm, I have the key. *23:56* I don't remember that. *24:03* Uh it's I didn't find it. *24:05* Is it a side quest? *24:07* It's one of the treasures. *24:08* So when you platted the game, you saw it. *24:09* Yeah. *24:11* But *24:12* You likely did not do it this time around. *24:12* Yeah, to to shed that's actually something I meant to mention previously, but to shed some insight onto how I played it this time around, it was totally just a story run through and then I was done. *24:14* Uh and that's not because I don't think the st side quests are good or anything like that. *24:24* It's just time consuming and the You weren't getting trophies this time. *24:28* Yeah, partially. *24:33* Well, you know, when you play it on PC you'll get achievements. *24:36* So it's it's the best I think it's one of the best decisions they made with this game was keeping Kratos the same. *24:39* F both, you know, physically, he still has a scar on his stomach from when he stabbed himself or when Zeus stabbed him, however you want to portray that one. *24:45* And it lets the dynamic *24:54* I mean the whole the really the s the the story of the game is that people can change. *24:58* It's Corey's own story because when he had left Santa Monica, he was *25:04* Not married, he could have been dating, who knows? *25:10* He was a single guy, went off to go work with um *25:12* The Mad Max guy. *25:17* I'm blanking on his name. *25:18* Crystal Dynamics? *25:19* No, the the Mad Max director guy. *25:21* Oh, Romero? *25:24* Or is it is that his name? *25:25* No, George Romero. *25:27* Yeah, I don't know. *25:28* It's now I have to look this up. *25:29* Now it's gonna bug me. *25:31* Um why do I think Romero? *25:32* Because I uh George Miller. *25:34* George Miller *25:36* I I I had the first word, George, in my head, and then I went to Romero, who's uh Doom. *25:40* No, I went to uh Night of the Living Dead. *25:46* Oh. *25:49* Zombies. *25:50* So he uh you know went out, and by the time he came back in August of 2013, he was married and he had a son. *25:51* Hilo, who you can see prominently in the documentary Raising Kratos. *25:58* And it's this whole I Corey's own life is a huge inspirational thrust for reshaping Kratos. *26:03* And it's hard, it's hard not to like look at that and compare it and think of it as the kind of what really pushes it over. *26:12* Because this game is people can change. *26:22* I think there's a lot of things we could talk about with the story of this too. *26:27* There's a lot of moments in this game, so I I don't want us to try to break down all of them. *26:32* But the best thing about *26:37* what you're saying, uh or about the about the through line theme of like people can change is that the biggest pr the biggest issue with the game, and th I think this is true for normal people too, is that people can change, but the people who have the most trouble *26:39* with changing our or the most the people who have the most trouble with forgiving themselves and moving past who they were before is the person themselves who is trying to change. *26:54* And so by all accounts we follow a Kratos throughout this game that we as the player know is *27:02* very different by just from how we see him behaving from the first moments of this game, even though he still gets angry and he's still pretty stern. *27:06* Like he he is very much the same Kratos as before, just toned down and much more reserved and not *27:14* yelling left and right. *27:21* But we know he's drastically different compared to where we last saw him. *27:23* Uh, but he still can't let go of what he was previously. *27:26* And this game is just as much about him trying to come to grips with *27:30* what he was before and moving past that. *27:35* Maybe not moving pat not maybe not moving past it, but coming to grips with this is my past and I don't have to be that anymore. *27:37* And that's what he tells Atreus near the end. *27:45* And it's that's kind of interesting because the end of God of War 3, him roaming through the darkness, is him forgiving himself and getting hope, which eventually, you know, leads to this. *27:47* But he d he thinks change comes from not *27:59* Telling the truth or controlling the truth? *28:08* He thinks his change comes from not uh making apparent what he was before, which is why he's a big mistakes. *28:11* Or or I just I just think he wants the the whole reason I think he ends up in the Norse realm is because it's a place where no one's gonna know who he is. *28:19* He can go live in the middle of nowhere away from everybody, and he doesn't have to be who he was before because *28:26* There's literally no one around him who's gonna remind him of that other than himself. *28:32* But it's very much a s this story is very much him having to come to grips with it personally about who he is *28:37* Uh and he and he's very and he's very uh he's very paranoid about that too. *28:44* You see that from the first minutes of the game when Baldur shows up their house and what is the immediate knee-jerk reaction he thinks. *28:51* I I don't know how they found me, but they found me. *28:58* Like he is so freaked out that I mean I mean that would be the natural inclination. *29:01* Because we know what Kratos is. *29:08* But really *29:10* We all have no idea he's really looking for the Giants. *29:12* But but even however however much longer the uh later this is *29:16* uh after the Greek games. *29:20* We don't really know. *29:21* I think we've talked about it before, but like fan theories and people have tried to piece together things that this is like hundreds or thousands of years potentially after he destroys the Greek pantheon. *29:22* We're not really sure. *29:31* But even all those years later, he is still freaked out that outsiders such as Baldur showing up and knocking on his door is gonna know who he is and is gonna *29:32* Like he he's gonna get served or his his sins from the past out. *29:42* Yeah, well not only his secret, but his sins from the past are gonna come due and he's gonna get punished for it. *29:47* Um he's still very very paranoid about that. *29:52* To the point that he doesn't even want to tell those closest to him, such as his wife or he doesn't want to tell it. *29:56* Fain knows. *30:03* Fain knows, but he also said I don't know. *30:04* I *30:07* He this is uh we could get into the very the weeds of some of the story beats of this game. *30:08* He says that she knew my true nature. *30:13* He says she knew his true nature, but he also acknowledges *30:16* that he is he keeps he kept things from her. *30:19* Because he says at the end when they find out she's a giant, he says, huh, looks like I wasn't the only parent with secrets. *30:22* Which to me says that he did keep some things hidden. *30:27* To me, that's just saying that both parents kept secrets from Atreus. *30:30* Well, he he didn't even know she was a giant. *30:34* So that means *30:37* That that was hidden from him, which to m for him to say apparently she wasn't the only one I I wasn't the only one to have secrets means that he hid some things from her in turn. *30:38* That's how I viewed that. *30:46* It could be both it could be what you're saying as well. *30:47* Yeah. *30:50* But yeah, you know, there's there's some nuance and texture there that we could be dug into. *30:50* But you know, Mimir also knows who *30:55* Cratosis. *30:57* Well, so he's got he's got a good idea. *30:58* He says that at one point too. *31:01* Like, oh I thought you I thought you were Greek *31:02* Well no what he he said, Athena, dead giveaway. *31:05* Yeah. *31:09* Yeah he said I thought you were Greek before, but Athena, that's a dead giveaway. *31:09* Yeah, that was such a good moment. *31:12* Anyway, to kind of drain this back in, let's *31:14* You know, they talked about Atreus at all and how he's kind of the catalyst for all of this. *31:21* I don't know if you were gonna take the conversation in a different direction. *31:25* But I feel like it's important to mention Atreus here because he is Atreus is very important. *31:28* I think the thing I continue to be very happy about with Atreus' inclusion is that I genuinely love Atreus as a character, and he's not just this annoying *31:36* Braddy Child or something. *31:45* I feel like that was the main worry people had going back to 2018. *31:47* Like, oh, is this kid gonna actually be good? *31:50* Is it gonna get annoying? *31:53* No, he's *31:54* A trace is great. *31:55* I I I love his whole arc in this game. *31:56* Even that including them two hours where he's kind of a brat. *31:59* But it i and e even my like sigh of frustration thinking about those two hours where he is a brat, it I think that just s speaks to how strong this *32:03* plays out narratively. *32:15* He they both go through an arc and change. *32:17* It's in the documentary, Corey says, you know, Kratos *32:19* teaches Atreus how to be a god and Atreus teaches Kratos how to be a human. *32:24* And I think that's kind of just like the, you know, the nugget or like the you know big idea for this game. *32:30* But they do there is a true bond for them throughout the whole game. *32:36* And it's a relationship that grows and develops over the course of these 30, 40 hours if you're playing, you know, 100% here. *32:41* Every single uh obviously narrative point, side quest, combat encounter does something, boat trip does something *32:50* to develop their relationship of father and son. *33:02* And they use that to also teach us the player about the world around them and push the story forward. *33:06* Yeah, that's what I was gonna say too. *33:12* And that is why I was gonna say Mamir is such an important character. *33:13* Because Mamir is basically a conduit to just *33:18* dump lore and history of this world on you, which typically is the worst thing you can do as a writer is to just give *33:21* Lei, I'm just gonna explain everything about this like that that sort of thing in media like when a villain explains their large plane it's like why is this guy just explaining this out of nowhere? *33:30* Like usually those things don't make sense *33:41* Mamir is a good character because he is basically just a lore dump on the player to explain everything that is happening in this world, but it he does so in a way that doesn't feel *33:44* awkward or cumbersome. *33:57* Uh well, I I'll say the only there's one awkward bit, but most of the storytelling takes place while you're in the boat. *33:59* Which the only thing you can do in the boat is row. *34:07* So it's a perfect time to do it. *34:10* Uh but the awkward bit is usually you get to your destination before he finishes the story. *34:13* And you either have to sit there and wait for it to finish, or you get out and interrupt a story. *34:19* And it's a shame to interrupt the stories because Mamir *34:24* and the actor whose name I should have written down, but their performance is so good and engaging. *34:27* It's that story around a campfire type *34:33* acting that really draws you into these stories about the giants and Odin and Thor and things like that. *34:37* And really *34:43* Santa Monica, I think, takes advantage of the fact that Norse mythology in general is not wa definitely not as widely known as Greek or Egyptian, for sure. *34:45* you know, really I would th I think it's safe to say that the masses what they know about Norse mythology is Thor is a muscular dude that wields a hammer, and Odin is his dad, and Loki is his mischievous brother. *34:59* And where do you think those people learn about that? *35:13* From the Thor comics. *35:16* Which now arguably is just the MCU. *35:18* Like when people think Thor, they think Chris Hemsworth. *35:20* I feel like the thing I think I feel like the most yeah, those three things as guards where they live, I feel like is another key thing that people know. *35:23* That's super known. *35:31* That's about it? *35:33* Yeah. *35:34* So they use that as a way to manipulate the players into not knowing who these Norse characters are, like Balder. *35:34* They use the stranger, or even knowing the fact that Balder *35:44* is weak to mistletoe, which is a huge thing in Norse mythology. *35:48* I read before we played the game, I read um it's called Norse mythology by Neil Gaiman. *35:53* Great book. *36:00* It's like ten Norse stories told with some modern in modern English uh but true enough to their own. *36:00* source material, which itself is scattered and not fully well assembled. *36:10* Yes. *36:16* It's it's a great read. *36:17* But if you had known Norse mythology like we know Greek mythology *36:18* You would immediately know once you figured out who that was, or even in the first fight, you could have figured it out because he feels nothing. *36:23* No pain he comes back. *36:32* I will say I don't think we know Greek mythology that well, honestly. *36:33* I feel like we just know more characters from the Greek pantheon, if that makes sense. *36:37* Well, maybe I'm speaking for myself. *36:42* I did read a lot of books that took from Greek mythology or played with those characters. *36:44* Hey man, that's good stuff. *36:50* Yeah, Percy Jackson. *36:52* I do feel like there do more Greek gods that are more widely known for sure. *36:54* Like but I I would say like some of the story, through line stories, I don't know if people are is aware of. *36:58* But yeah. *37:05* It's definitely I would think it's safe to say it's more popular. *37:06* But they use that uh to their advantage. *37:09* And it works out great, and it's fun to learn new things, I think. *37:11* And so it's well it's fun to learn from Mamir too because *37:14* You learn that this is a very different Norse realm than the one you're used to hearing in popular media. *37:19* Like *37:26* Thor is the hero character, not in this world. *37:26* And we we you the the the best thing about Mimir is that moving into Ragnarok *37:30* I feel like I have clear ideas of who all these characters are, and they're not in this game at all. *37:35* You never see Odin or Thor. *37:42* You kinda see Thor, but not really. *37:45* You see Thor's hip. *37:47* You see Thor's hammer. *37:49* You see Mjolnir. *37:50* But that's about it. *37:52* Yeah, but but outside of that, I *37:52* I know a lot of very well detailed things about the major players in this world moving forward. *37:56* And I know a lot of key details about like the histories of some of these characters as well that are in this world. *38:01* And that's all an achievement to Sony Sandamakma's writing. *38:07* Like the the one thing I would praise about this game from start to finish is that the writing is just so good. *38:11* There is I cannot think of *38:17* Any bad lines or awkward awkward lines in this? *38:20* I I I I think I pointed out the one thing that a lot of people take Onus with, which is Atreus' whole outburst. *38:24* about halfway through the game when he learns that he's a god. *38:31* I know a lot of people don't like how his character develops from that point onward. *38:34* I think that makes sense though. *38:37* If somebody came through that door right now and told me I was an immortal god, I think I it would change how I feel when I then go to the grocery store and I see a bunch of oh, get a load of these lowly peasants. *38:39* I'm the god here. *38:49* Like you could chase. *38:50* Boy. *38:53* Yeah, he's like a ten-year-old kid. *38:53* So if you tell a ten-year-old kid that it's gonna really be amped up. *38:55* Uh especially when he knows that his dad is like *38:59* I think the biggest thing about that too is that he pieces together these things about his dad in that moment. *39:03* It's not it's not just that he is taught it's not just that he is *39:09* cocky and being mean to people because of his own power. *39:13* Like I'm a god, I can kick your butt or whatever. *39:16* No, it's because he now understands why his dad is so strong and why his dad is able to do the things that his dad does. *39:18* So he's really *39:26* Uh trying to he's tr he's really running his mouth uh with the hope that his dad'll cash those checks with his axe later on. *39:27* Uh *39:35* Because he because he doesn't he doesn't really understand why his dad just has this super strength or whatever. *39:36* Like ear early on he's like, Oh my dad's always been strong or whatever. *39:43* Like he but he doesn't understand why. *39:46* So yeah. *39:48* Anyway. *39:49* Story wise, I don't know where we want to go from here. *39:51* We've touched on a whole lot of things. *39:53* There's a lot of other things too. *39:55* I mean there's *39:57* I guess the one other thing I I would like to say about this game, though, really quickly, and I think one of the biggest achievements about the story is that they do some fantastic storytelling here. *39:58* And there are really no characters in this. *40:09* Like, the amount of characters in this game you can almost count on one hand. *40:12* It is bald it is it is Baldur Atreus Kratos, Mimir. *40:16* Freya. *40:21* And then you can you can throw Modi in what's his brother's name? *40:23* Magni. *40:27* Yeah, you can throw Modi and Magni in there and then the dwarves, uh Brock and Sindri. *40:27* That's about it. *40:33* And and Modi and Magni really aren't in it to really even count as characters, I would say. *40:33* It is really the dwarves, Kratos Atreus, Mamir, Freya Baldur *40:39* That's the cast of the game. *40:43* And then I I would count Thor and Odin because they are just discussed so prominently. *40:45* They are. *40:50* They are for sure. *40:51* And Thor's can literally be seen in the statues and and even even Odin's Ravens where you knock him out, but you know *40:53* Odin. *41:02* Can you think of another game where a player uh or a character has such a large impact on the storytelling that is not ever in the game? *41:02* Like I can't think of an instance like that. *41:09* No, it's pretty *41:11* It's pretty rare. *41:12* Like they do a lot of really heavy lifting in this script and in this story with the very minimal minimal players actively being involved with what's going on. *41:13* It's a quantity quality thing, and every character is there to serve the purpose of pushing Kratos and Atreus forward and developing their relationship and leading them through change. *41:23* Every single one of them. *41:35* There's a video I I watched it before this. *41:36* You I said that you've watched it before, but there's a lot of it. *41:39* I'm pretty sure I've watched it. *41:42* Untangling God of War. *41:43* It's by Good Blood. *41:45* Um I think the guy's name is Jarrett. *41:46* He I just watched it before, but he talks about this and how each character has a family a broken family dynamic or relationship. *41:49* that those elements are used to help push Kratos and Atreus through their own change in relationship. *41:59* You know, Brock and Sindri's brother kind of fracturnous, Freya and Baldur, Odin and Thor, Magney and Modi with their father Thor. *42:07* It's this whole each relationship is used *42:17* To help reflect back on Kratos and Atreus. *42:20* And it's it's a really great video. *42:23* I highly recommend it. *42:25* So it's *42:26* It's just one of those games where everything is layered, everything is there for a purpose and a reason, and it comes together in a rich tapestry. *42:29* That when you're done with the game, you just you have nothing left to say but wow. *42:36* And *42:41* There's really a lot, and I wish we could go on forever. *42:42* We really could I mean we really could. *42:45* I feel like we have to draw a line at some point with some of this stuff. *42:47* Yeah. *42:50* There's there are a lot of things we could say, and I want *42:51* to try and keep this a little bit tighter. *42:54* So I wanna kind of move on to the the looming topic over this whole season. *42:56* The music. *43:05* We actually probably have some very nice things to say about the music this time. *43:07* Or not not nice things. *43:11* We've said nice things in the past. *43:12* But I think we'll have more naturally to say about this one. *43:14* Yeah, I I've talked I I've talked about I think I mentioned it in a previous episode. *43:17* But my favorite thing about this score and the reason that I like it so much more *43:22* Is that I feel like it has such a diversity of instruments that are involved here. *43:27* It's not just your standard orchestral score. *43:32* Uh there are some more unique instruments that are core to this *43:36* scores uh the music in this score than a lot of the previous soundtracks in this game series. *43:41* And I think just from a *43:47* I mean that just makes the the soundtrack more diverse, but there's I don't know, there's a there's like a looming like *43:49* darkness to this score. *43:58* Which I really, really like. *44:00* Like even the main theme of the game sounds just foreboding and I wouldn't say evil or anything like that. *44:02* It just sounds ominous. *44:09* Like something is *44:11* Happening. *44:13* And that's one of the first lines from the game that I actually really love is that like actually I did mention that before, but *44:14* One of my favorite lines in this game is right away when they chop down the tree and they say something feels different, Kratos says, Yeah, don't don't try to think about it too much. *44:21* Which is an awesome line because it's referring to one that *44:29* Obviously we know what it actually did was chopping down the tree and all that stuff and how that affected the world around them, but it's also a message to the player, like, yeah, we know we changed *44:33* how this game works and the how this game plays and it's not a top-down action game anymore and it's a third person action game. *44:43* Try not to try not to dwell on that too much though. *44:50* Anyway, uh back to the music, sorry. *44:53* Um *44:56* Yeah, I I I think I I I think this is one of my favorite modern scores in a game. *44:57* Uh I just think Bear McCreary's work in this game is uh *45:04* It just matches God of W really well too in in in all the ways, whether it be just the main themes with with Kratos and Atreus or the different character themes that come up throughout the course of the game. *45:10* Um some of the fighting themes. *45:21* I think the Magni and Modi fight that I'm thinking of. *45:22* I I really like the fight music during that battle. *45:25* Um *45:28* It knows how to it knows how to get really big for the huge moments, but it also knows how to dial it back as well, uh, which is something I really can't think of specifically with the previous God of War soundtracks. *45:30* Like *45:44* Mainly because I don't feel like the previous God of War games really had like quieter moments. *45:44* Um But this game does, and those moments are really paired quite greatly by the soundtrack. *45:50* Th that was one of the things I kind of wrote down was this soundtrack has room to breathe and a chance to have subtlety. *45:58* There's there's touches. *46:06* And sometimes the game's just quiet. *46:07* There's no music at all. *46:09* It's just sounds of nature and the environment you're in. *46:10* The there's room for everything to kind of have space instead of just a bombastic *46:13* Bah bah brah type sound. *46:18* You know and it it fits what they were going for here. *46:21* It it's all lined up quite well. *46:24* I think *46:28* back to the reveal in twenty sixteen. *46:29* That was the orchestra came in and opened kind of the show. *46:33* And then when I was watching the documentary again, I was reminded that the the orchestra was scoring the gameplay live. *46:39* Like there were mm *46:46* It was all it's there's an emphasis of the music this time around and it just comes in and matches *46:48* wonderfully. *46:57* There's even the the choir, which they went to like Iceland to get the choir there to sing in, you know, as close of a native tongue as possible. *46:57* And it's *47:09* So that, you know, that's just the level of authenticity that really only big budget could get. *47:09* But it ties back to the roots of God of War as well. *47:15* It it respects the lineage it's come from. *47:19* by having a similar style at certain parts, the choir and some really big moving bombastic sounds of especially in combat. *47:22* But there is a cadence and rhythm here *47:32* that, you know, mirrors the plot and what you're doing quite quite well. *47:36* It doesn't overwhelm you. *47:41* Yeah, I I think uh I in this in the same way that I always said that I didn't *47:43* overly love the previous soundtracks too. *47:51* The one thing I always said that it did well was kind of match the Greek atmosphere or what you would think of with like, oh, what would Greek music sound like? *47:53* It it it kinda it *48:00* It did a good job of at least matching that sort of time period in that sort of region. *48:01* And this does the same thing f with the Scandinavian vibe with *48:05* uh the Norse realm as well. *48:09* Like that's that's why I mentioned before the diversity of instruments that are used in the score is one of the big things for me because it's that it's that diversity of music. *48:11* And and then you mentioned the like the *48:19* the chanting and stuff like that. *48:22* I I feel like that all really really well matches uh what I think of in my head of this *48:23* This a region of the world. *48:30* I don't know. *48:32* At least from my westernized American view of it. *48:33* I've never been to I've never been to this part of the world. *48:37* I don't know what it's actually like, but *48:39* If you were to ask me what music would sound like from this region, I'd say, Yeah, it sounds like that based on everything that I've been told. *48:41* At least from this uh m you know, pre you know, mythological perspective. *48:47* It definitely mirrors it quite well. *48:53* Yes. *48:54* It's one of the best. *48:55* It's you know Sony d actually really crushed it as far as soundtracks go for a lot of their exclusives in the PS4 gen and this is no exception. *48:57* I'm excited to see where they take these themes in Ragnarok. *49:05* and push that forward because you we could see that in the Greek games, like where they would take the themes and push them or not. *49:09* And so I'm excited to see Bear McCreary's second go at this *49:16* soundtrack in this world and these themes. *49:20* Because you have to imagine, you know, Faye's theme has to be in Ragnarok. *49:23* Like these these moments and themes are gonna come and evolve. *49:29* How is Freya's *49:32* different, you know. *49:34* I want to hear that Thor music. *49:35* Yeah. *49:37* Where does this all come in? *49:37* So I'm very excited for the future of it and I love how they've kicked you know how they've started this particular one off. *49:39* Let's bounce into the world itself, this Lake of Nine, these nine realms of *49:48* the Norse world. *49:57* Midgard. *49:58* Technically what is it? *49:59* Six? *50:00* I think you can go to six. *50:02* Six seven. *50:04* There's Alfheim, Niflheim, Musfelheim, Midgard, Hell. *50:05* And Jodenheim for a hot second. *50:11* So six, yeah. *50:13* Out of the nine. *50:14* And Ragnarok is supposed to have all nine. *50:15* So we'll we'll see how that goes in uh in the future there. *50:18* But this world *50:23* It's not open world. *50:26* I I would lean it in the wide linear. *50:29* I always compared it to Ocarina of Time. *50:32* I said when I first played this in 2018, I said this feels like modern Ocarina of Time to me in some ways. *50:37* Because it is kind of open. *50:43* You can run wherever you want, but there are destinations in the middle. *50:44* Yeah. *50:48* Yeah. *50:48* But there are set destinations you are traveling to. *50:49* It's not just you're running around and jumping off buildings as Kratos or something like that. *50:51* No, you're you're traveling to different points of the map, but you are not a little bit more. *50:57* Would would Wind Waker be a better *51:01* Wind Waker be a better Zelda game to compare too much too much water. *51:03* Oh, too much water. *51:07* Pokemon's got too much water. *51:09* This I *51:11* I hate to use this term to compare it, mostly because it's lazy. *51:14* Dark Souls? *51:21* No. *51:22* Stop. *51:23* Not that bad. *51:23* Uh well, maybe not bad. *51:24* But it is it does have a Metroidvania style design in the items where certain items *51:26* G open access and you're like, uh, I got these I got this, I can uh go here, I can do that. *51:35* Oh, Atreus' bow now sheets electricity. *51:40* I know where I can blow things up. *51:42* This is why I like this game. *51:45* It's more of a z it's it's more akin to Zelda, I think. *51:47* More more so than Metroid, because Zelda has those elements as well. *51:51* Same same exact style, yes. *51:54* Yeah, and *51:56* Coming off of a 20 I think the reason why this game clicked so much with me a couple of years ago is because it it did feel like a modernized Zelda in a lot of ways. *51:57* Um and that's a very *52:06* easy way to just write off a lot of what the game does. *52:08* Sure. *52:12* But but it it it gave me those sort of vibes that I was looking for from a modernized *52:12* Zelda game that Breath of the Wild didn't necessarily do the previous year, and I I don't want to get into a compare contrast between the two, but it it felt like we had been it feels like we have not played a game like this *52:17* in this sort of way. *52:29* Like you mentioned, Metroidvania style games are games where you collect different items that open up different paths and routes and stuff like that. *52:30* Like that's a pretty common thing. *52:37* But I don't feel like we've seen it done in this sort of setting in quite some time. *52:39* Unless you can think of anything else. *52:43* Not not off the top of my dome, but this I think it also pr *52:46* It mirrors the narrative as well because when you get to the Lake of Nine the first time, obviously the world serpent, like everything is surface level, and then it's one level down and it opens up and it spreads a little bit more. *52:52* There's some side quests that tie in. *53:02* to the story and their relationship and then it lowers more and then you go to the frozen giant and you learn even more and then it go drops all the way to the bottom and then you have full reign of Midgard and then the other realms as well. *53:04* And it is, as you learn more and as their relationship deepens, so does your ability to explore all of these realms. *53:19* It's it's truly um *53:28* It's really smart design from just an opening up a player to. *53:30* It's not like to compare it a little bit to Breath of the Wild, you know, they start you out on the Great Plateau, which is kind of a sample platter of everything. *53:35* uh what that game would have to offer. *53:43* And then they let you out and guide you to certain places, but you know, you could go anywhere and do anything in that game. *53:46* This is let's ease you into Norse in Midgard and let's and then now here you go, have the whole thing. *53:52* And so I really enjoy it. *53:59* I think the realms they chose *54:01* Midgard, Alfheim, and Hell all feel fully realized? *54:06* Hell, maybe not s I mean, i it's kind of the bridge here between *54:12* the other three, which would be Nieflheim, Moosfullheim, and Jotunheim. *54:17* I would say it felt fully realized more from a *54:22* Nair. *54:26* Stor yeah, storytelling. *54:27* Because they tease there's a lot of stuff they tease in hell too. *54:28* Like that big Valkyrie bird thing. *54:31* I want to fight that. *54:33* Um Yeah, that we didn't even talk about how like *54:34* with the storytelling stuff, how all the Greek stuff kind of directly comes back into play with with that part of the game, which we don't necessarily have to talk about too much, but it's so those are fully realized. *54:38* But Nifelheim *54:49* That's the brown foggy uh randomly generated mr triangle or diamond that you go through. *54:51* And then Musfilheim is just a combat arena up a volcano. *55:01* And then Jotunheim is literally a narrative walk up a mountain and then you you don't go back. *55:05* I don't even know if you can go. *55:10* I don't think post-game. *55:11* Yeah. *55:13* It's so *55:14* I'm hoping in the future that those are fleshed out more and that you could do more in them. *55:15* That would be great. *55:21* If not, I'm a little bummed. *55:23* Just because it does make the game feel smaller, especially when you're chasing the platinum in a little bit of the post-game. *55:25* But Midgard *55:32* And Alfheim, that is the bulk of the game, and I like it. *55:34* And then Hell is a bit more puzzly. *55:39* There's *55:43* It's good. *55:45* Well like what do you think? *55:45* I like the tease as well of the other realms that we three that we can't go to. *55:46* It just, you know, you want to go to the one you actually know the name of, Asgard. *55:51* You want to go to Asgard. *55:56* I no, I I love that you can't. *55:57* I think that's a good idea. *55:59* No, that's that's great, but it's it's so smart to take the one thing that people do know and not give it to them. *56:00* Because I remember the first time I played this game, I when I could start to see the end of the story *56:07* coming about, I was like, wait, we're really not gonna go to Asgard in this game? *56:13* And like at the time it was such a surprising thing because you've you just assumed that that would happen at some point in uh in this game *56:18* And I love that they don't. *56:25* Yeah, you you assume that these certain gods are gonna show up and they never do. *56:28* Um *56:33* And that's great because I feel I feel like that stuff keeps, as we said before, it keeps the story focused on Kratos and Atreus, and it really lays the groundwork for them. *56:34* Okay, now we can go do that stuff in the next game. *56:43* But Kratos and Atreus are much stronger characters. *56:45* Like, it's it's funny because the things I am looking forward to in the next game are more now about how Kratos and Atreus and everybody else are gonna develop as characters. *56:49* Less so coming into this one the first time, I was like, oh man, I hope I fight Thor as Kratos. *56:57* I hope I fight Odidin's Kratos. *57:03* Like those were the things I wanted coming into this game. *57:05* And now it's totally flipped. *57:08* And I think that's an old God of War mentality. *57:10* Yeah. *57:13* What what were we all thinking when we went into God of War Three? *57:13* Oh, I want to kill Zeus. *57:16* I want to kill Hades. *57:17* I want to kill Poseidon. *57:18* I want to kill them all. *57:19* And I think *57:21* They intentionally stripped us of that and then built up a better, stronger, healthier desire to see this relationship grow. *57:22* It's *57:31* It's just the character stuff I'm most excited for. *57:32* Yeah, it's a good thing. *57:34* Which is very strange. *57:35* Yeah, for God of War. *57:37* It's great. *57:38* As far as how the world is structured in a general sense, though, I do really *57:39* It feels large, but not so large that it's ever like impossible to travel around or anything like that. *57:43* Um I guess the one the the thing that I like is *57:52* That you start walking towards the mountain early on, and then you can slowly continue to see yourself like getting closer and closer and closer to it *57:55* uh and you feel like you're making progress towards it. *58:02* And that I feel like the mountain, at least in Midgard, always kind of centers where you're at in that world. *58:05* They use it as such a centerpiece, uh, landmark wise early on that I I I always kind of *58:10* find myself in proximity in the larger game world to how closer I am to the mountain if I can see it. *58:17* I don't know if that's the same way for you. *58:22* But I'm saying is it really makes this world feel interconnected and more fleshed out *58:24* Um and you feel like you know all these different areas of the game. *58:29* Like even when you get on top of the mountain later on and you're kind of surveying everything beneath you, you're like, oh I know that spot, I know where that's at too, and I know where that's at. *58:32* Like it feels like a vast world *58:39* But not so vast that you don't know all these places that you're traveling around because they take time to show you around all of these different areas. *58:42* Yeah. *58:49* It's a it's a knowable world. *58:50* It's not *58:52* It's not even like a Witcher 3 where Like 'cause a lot of I mean again we yeah, we said this is not a a normal open world game in the way that you would *58:53* think of it but a lot of open world games like I can't think I I don't I can't tell you anything about them really like I can't tell you like anything about the game worlds themselves like I don't have it mapped out in my head like I feel like I know every area in this game *59:02* For the most part. *59:16* It is that that's why I keep calling it wide linear. *59:17* It is there's room to explore, but you there is a direction to go. *59:20* And they they funnel you down. *59:25* It's *59:27* You know, it's like the Madagascar part in Uncharted Four or the Seattle part in Last of Us Part Two. *59:28* And I'm using those two naughty dog examples specifically, but *59:35* It is a wide open space that hasn't they're funneling you a certain way or certain paths, but there's room to explore. *59:39* Now God of War is an evolution like the next step of that where there is more to do. *59:45* and smaller contained areas and zones and richer exploration than those two games have to offer. *59:51* And it's it's super smart and well done and I love it. *59:57* I did feel like this world felt smaller this time around, but that's because I was familiar with it already going into it. *01:00:01* Like I knew where everything was going and how big the scope was. *01:00:08* And I think that melt made it feel even more. *01:00:12* knowable and like the platinum ultimately more attainable. *01:00:15* So it's a, you know, I really like this space and I'm curious to see how they *01:00:19* Expand upon it because back to Zelda briefly before we pivot, like look at Majora's Mask, which took Ocarina of Times *01:00:25* assets and engine and built a sequel rather quickly. *01:00:33* This is a similar concept of taking the same worlds, adding a three new realms, possibly expanding on things we already know *01:00:38* Clearly, Midgard is shaken up by everything being frozen in winter, so like there's a setting change, but the physical spaces the same. *01:00:47* Like Midgard, you could go to a new space in Midgard, but Midgard's still gonna be *01:00:55* Mid-gard, you know? *01:01:00* Yeah. *01:01:01* And I'm curious to see how they do that, how they expand upon the world we know and how they add to the parts that we don't know. *01:01:02* So *01:01:10* It's gonna be fun to see how that goes. *01:01:11* Not to get too in the weeds, but uh it looks like Fimble Winner, I think that's what it's called. *01:01:12* That's gonna totally change. *01:01:17* Just how you get around Midgard specifically. *01:01:19* I don't know how that'll that how that'll affect the other realms as well. *01:01:21* But uh change in climate seems to be the main answer to your question there, at least in *01:01:25* regards to I'm just meant more physical space, locations, like things to do. *01:01:31* So before we sink our teeth into the other real big element of the gameplay, I want to talk about the visuals. *01:01:37* Obviously *01:01:44* This is like the biggest leap from PS2. *01:01:46* You know, for God of War, this is the biggest one, and so there's a lot to to kind of talk about. *01:01:49* I kind of talked on it a little bit previously about how it looked just on our *01:01:54* TVs and all that jazz, I think. *01:01:59* So at least from a visuals and performance standpoint, game good. *01:02:00* Still good. *01:02:05* It's been yeah, 4K60 is an absolute dream. *01:02:06* I've been almost four years and this game still looks like it came out yesterday, honestly. *01:02:09* Like I I don't really know what else they could do to make it look drastically better. *01:02:12* I mean, it's a miracle it runs on a base PS4. *01:02:17* Yeah. *01:02:21* It's gonna be an even bigger miracle that Ragnarok runs on a base PS4. *01:02:22* It's actually one of my big concerns, like just or not concerns, but frustration points with a lot of cross-gen game development. *01:02:26* But *01:02:33* On PS5 with the PS5 patch, and I'm sure on PC, uh, this game, you know, holds up really well. *01:02:34* When you put a lot of power behind it, they've they've kind of future-proof their design. *01:02:41* It's realistic, but still has an art direction. *01:02:45* This is not one of those realistic games like a Call of Duty or *01:02:50* Uh, you know, I'm trying to think of just real maybe even like days gone. *01:02:57* Sure, the freakers themselves have a design. *01:03:01* to them that's unique. *01:03:05* But this has a I wrote like a fantastical kind of design, an element like these enemies. *01:03:07* This world feels almost Lord of the Ringsy. *01:03:14* Where it's real, but there's fantasy. *01:03:17* And it fits and jives, and I think this will age. *01:03:20* Well, we're not super far removed from it, not like you know, God of War One on PS2. *01:03:23* Which I think still is a you know, it has a unique style and I think has aged fairly well for that game as well. *01:03:29* Um, at least the PS3 remaster did. *01:03:35* So *01:03:37* Um you know, I like the way this place looks and excited to see where they can push it. *01:03:38* Yeah, it looks like a normal landscape until you kinda turn your camera every now and then and you see a giant snake. *01:03:44* is uh got its tail sitting over a mountain. *01:03:51* And then you're like, wait a minute. *01:03:54* Uh and so yeah, I I agree with pretty much everything you just said. *01:03:56* Like it's stylized in such a way that it looks *01:04:00* grounded and like it could be realistic, uh, but there are always things that they throw in out of nowhere that you're like, oh, this is like a fantastical setting, whether it be *01:04:03* Freya's house being under a turtle or something like that or uh or the the world serpent's the big thing because you can't go to that central hub and not see the world serpent somewhere around there. *01:04:13* Nah, I love I love the world serpent boy. *01:04:25* But yeah, no, I I agree with every everything you said. *01:04:28* I I think the art direction in this game is *01:04:31* Fantastic. *01:04:33* I think all the other visual choices with the characters and how they look is great, including Kratos' beard. *01:04:34* That's a very good decision. *01:04:40* Um it looks even longer in Ragnarok, I think. *01:04:42* Uh *01:04:45* Give us the beard. *01:04:47* There's one more visual element we have to talk about, and that is the camera. *01:04:48* Yeah. *01:04:54* It's it is done as if it is a whole one-like a one-style, one-shot camera. *01:04:55* We never cut away from Kratos. *01:05:01* We cut away from Atreus, but we never leave Kratos. *01:05:03* Yeah, that's not true. *01:05:06* We do leave Kratos. *01:05:07* They do go to first person at one at that one point. *01:05:08* But we never leave Through Kratos' eyes. *01:05:12* Yeah, we never leave we never leave Kratos though. *01:05:14* Even then it's Kratos' perspective. *01:05:18* Like Kratos is never *01:05:20* Gone away from anything. *01:05:23* He's always the the focal point of the camera. *01:05:25* Yeah. *01:05:28* And I was thinking about this, and it's actually really *01:05:29* Kind of already a God of War thing. *01:05:34* In the other games, you never really leave Kratos. *01:05:37* Sometimes you cut away, like you'll see Kronos walking through the desert, like they did, typical movie-style cuts there. *01:05:40* And just told a story. *01:05:47* But on the whole, you really never do leave Kratos. *01:05:49* They would pull the camera out and zoom way out or zoom in and get up close and do all these sweeping camera movements and stuff. *01:05:53* So it actually kinda is a little bit of the God of War Legacy, which I didn't really think about before, but the movement of this camera is *01:06:01* So rich and engaging and really pulls you in. *01:06:12* I love it so much. *01:06:14* Yeah, it definitely enhances the storytelling. *01:06:16* The m um like *01:06:19* It I think in a general sense, uh this idea and just doing it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. *01:06:21* Like if other game developers were all of a sudden going to be like, that's a great idea, we'll do that in our game too. *01:06:28* I don't think this *01:06:33* a whole one-shot idea would work well unless you're doing it to serve the storytelling, which they are in this case. *01:06:34* And I feel like it makes you feel closer to the characters and it makes you kind of *01:06:41* sit with their emotions a bit longer too. *01:06:47* There are some uh things in this game that I noticed that are just quiet and you just kinda have to sit and watch the characters for a few moments, which is unlike a lot of other games that I can remember. *01:06:49* Um, a lot of those sections I'm thinking about specifically happen happen in in the whole twenty minutes or so when Kratos goes to get the blades for the first time. *01:07:00* He just kind of *01:07:09* You just kind of sit and you get to watch him the emotions that he's going through. *01:07:10* And that's something that I don't think a lot of other games would do. *01:07:13* And it's those moments that I think the one-shot camera uh really works well in this situation. *01:07:16* Um from a purely like technical standpoint, I think this time around when I played it, I was *01:07:23* A little less impressed with it. *01:07:31* Like when they when they did it the first time, or when the when I first played the game and I had played through, I was like, wow, this is incredible. *01:07:33* I can't believe they did this. *01:07:40* I really don't think it would be that hard to mimic this in other games, uh, just in a practical sense. *01:07:41* Like I said, it's more it's more about the feasibility of it. *01:07:48* It it's more about the question of, well, okay, why would you want to do this? *01:07:51* Yeah, it's *01:07:55* It's gotta be there from the beginning for sure. *01:07:56* It had to be it was designed for this game. *01:07:58* Like coming in that was a goal and they achieved it. *01:08:01* I'm *01:08:04* It you know, my film brain loves it. *01:08:06* There's um I'll put a link in the show notes, you know, there's uh every frame of painting thing on like the the Spielberg Warner. *01:08:08* I think it's Spielberg, but it's you know *01:08:15* this great cinem cinematography type technique that really does enhance and they use it for reveals and pans and pushes and just it just sucks you in the whole time and I'm I've *01:08:19* fallen in love with it even more this time around. *01:08:31* I'm curious if they're doing it in Ragnarok. *01:08:34* They've already said they are. *01:08:37* Oh. *01:08:39* They've already confirmed that they are. *01:08:39* So there's your there's your answer. *01:08:41* Very good. *01:08:43* Yay. *01:08:43* So I'm excited to see where they can push that to, but this it's one of the the best and unique things about this game visually. *01:08:44* So *01:08:53* And that, my friend, brings us to big boy gameplay. *01:08:54* And it's not a God of War game. *01:09:02* We've been talking about how mushy Kratos is. *01:09:05* Big softy over here. *01:09:07* Kratos ain't no softy. *01:09:09* Kratos ain't combat. *01:09:11* Kratos wielding that big boy axe. *01:09:12* Logan, you know, in the God of War 3 episode, we were like, dang, they made some pretty good weapons here. *01:09:16* Like they finally figured out stuff that I would want to use besides the Blades of Chaos. *01:09:23* except they're just different blades of chaos with different weight or powers to them. *01:09:27* They did what I've you know, if you had asked me before, I wouldn't have thought possible *01:09:33* They they replaced the blades of chaos. *01:09:41* And then they gave them back to us. *01:09:45* Yeah. *01:09:49* The Let's The Axe in this game is I mean *01:09:49* It's one of the best video game weapons ever. *01:09:54* Um I think a lot of that is because you can I think the big yeah, the big thing that dawned on me this time, the reason why I think it works is because you can chuck it. *01:09:57* I think if you couldn't chuck it *01:10:05* I I think a lot of the reasons why I like it fall away. *01:10:07* And it's not just because like throwing it in a general sense, I don't think *01:10:10* Does a whole lot and like I don't I don't y I don't just throw it rapidly one by one by one at people, but it's how it just *01:10:15* It's how it flows with everything. *01:10:23* Like without that, I don't think the comics. *01:10:25* Because you can call it back. *01:10:28* Yeah, yes. *01:10:30* Yeah. *01:10:31* The callback *01:10:32* feels so good. *01:10:33* There's momentum. *01:10:34* And you can lead into different combos with it when you call it back. *01:10:35* Um I I think that there is a sort of *01:10:40* flow with that weapon because you can throw it uh that the blades don't have because it's more of a single target target focused it er uh I guess item weapon *01:10:43* Same thing. *01:10:57* Um the blades are still better for large groups, and you can still de fight large groups of enemies with this. *01:10:58* There are plenty of abilities that allow you to do that. *01:11:04* But yeah, the way you can combo in the game with this thing and I lean on a couple combos in particular that I *01:11:07* Probably shouldn't have spammed too much to be honest. *01:11:14* I feel like that's always my downfall in these games is I find one or two good combos I like and then I just spam them so much. *01:11:17* But when you really break out of *01:11:24* your routine of doing that and especially once you fully unlock everything that this thing can do it's really baffling like *01:11:26* how much variation there is baked in with just the axe on its own. *01:11:34* And that's not even accounting for swapping back and forth between the blades and the axe, which the final boss fight really specifically encourages you to do. *01:11:38* Uh we literally have to. *01:11:47* I mean you have to in the final fight. *01:11:49* But it's something you should probably be doing throughout the second part portion of the game regardless. *01:11:51* It honor it like honors the legacy of the blades by having this light and heavy attack. *01:11:57* It feels really good on the shoulder buttons, specifically R1 and R2. *01:12:03* Yeah. *01:12:10* Uh to having the heavy pit attack be on the trigger, just and it being an axe, you know, you're kinda heaving it, you're chopping *01:12:10* That just feels right. *01:12:20* And I'll admit this time around I had trouble because we have just come off playing six God of War games. *01:12:21* And at first I was like square and triangle. *01:12:29* I was trying to use those the whole time *01:12:31* But once I got into the rhythm with this game this time around, R1 and R2 just feel really good. *01:12:33* And then you use L1 to aim and throw. *01:12:39* And you can call back. *01:12:42* It there's just a a cadence to it all that feels really great. *01:12:43* And then you add your runic attacks, which are kind of replacing *01:12:48* magic in a way. *01:12:53* I mean there's still magic to a degree, but it's replacing the the Poseidon AoE or shooting *01:12:55* Zeus lightning bolts, which actually Atreus does for you instead. *01:13:02* So I was gonna say tra Atreus, how he fits into with this too, which is just spam square, but spam square, so it *01:13:06* It makes Atreus useful in combat, and you ne you rarely, I think only once or twice, and that's including if you go for the Platinum Musfelheim. *01:13:14* Once or twice Atreus actually gets attacked by an enemy and you have to go defend him. *01:13:25* But the rest of the time he's just out there, he's kind of your magic in the game with arrows and then his own summons. *01:13:31* And so I think that was probably the right call as far as not making him a burden in combat and letting you be. *01:13:38* Kratos, the god of war, and just murder everybody. *01:13:46* But it it there is a solid it's a fantastic weapon. *01:13:50* They really *01:13:55* You know, it's one of the big bold things they had to do for this game was we're switching everything up, and he has a new weapon now, and you're gonna love it. *01:13:57* Well, let me say that my biggest takeaway this time around is that the chains are still awesome. *01:14:08* I like the chains so much more this time than last time. *01:14:14* That's not even to say I disliked them the last time. *01:14:17* But I was really taken aback by *01:14:20* How much I still love these in this game. *01:14:23* They're great. *01:14:25* And the thing that I love is that they are the same. *01:14:26* They are the same down to the combos that you do. *01:14:30* Yes. *01:14:33* And it's so good. *01:14:34* And I think that's why it stood out to me is because we just played those six other games where you primarily use them. *01:14:35* And then you come into this one, it's like, oh, the chains are here, they're back, but that's not really the main thing. *01:14:40* And then you use them again, it's like, oh, I know exactly what to do with these. *01:14:45* I've been using these for *01:14:48* The other six games I've played recently, and that was so cool to me. *01:14:49* And and I always knew that when I played it, played it previously, like, oh, there's some similar moves here that have. *01:14:53* I remember doing this. *01:14:58* Yeah, the moves are pretty much the exact same in a lot of ways. *01:15:00* And it's great. *01:15:04* It's so cool. *01:15:04* Obviously they add new things here and there, being able to, you know, throw it and *01:15:05* uh some of the runic abilities and things like that you have. *01:15:10* But yeah the the my big takeaway from the comment this time was just like whoa the chains are really good I I really like these as weapons still in this game. *01:15:12* One of Yeah, one of my notes was that they translate into full 3D beautifully. *01:15:21* Like it it just works. *01:15:27* And I don't know, on paper almost it it shouldn't work. *01:15:30* You know, you look at *01:15:34* God of War on PS2, you know, that combat works in 3D over here. *01:15:36* Like just my that doesn't compute in my brain. *01:15:42* It makes more sense for Kratos to be in Mortal Kombat. *01:15:44* Then it does necessarily translate the blades to 3D on paper to me. *01:15:48* But in action, it's flawless *01:15:52* Yeah, I mean I I didn't think we would see these b I mean when I I remember when this game was first coming out, I was like, they have to put the chains in there somehow. *01:15:55* But I didn't *01:16:03* And I was the opposite the exact way that they were implemented before basically. *01:16:10* Like they really didn't change that much. *01:16:15* Much. *01:16:17* And I don't know why that wasn't something in my head that I didn't think they could just do. *01:16:18* Yeah. *01:16:23* It's it's really wonderful to have them be in the game *01:16:25* And feel as good as they do. *01:16:30* It's just, it's like, wow. *01:16:32* They basically. *01:16:33* We've said all season long that like the Blades of Chaos are one of the most iconic weapons of video games. *01:16:35* And the fact that *01:16:41* they made another most iconic weapon in video games. *01:16:43* You know, that's a you know, they kinda had to one up themselves or at least meet expectations. *01:16:48* They really set the bar *01:16:54* 15 plus years ago. *01:16:56* Yeah. *01:16:58* So to do it again is quite a feat. *01:16:59* It's you know, bravo, bravo, because I love it so much. *01:17:03* It's so good. *01:17:07* The the puzzles the puzzles very light, like just *01:17:09* Spin a tile, find a letter. *01:17:19* I think I like that though, honestly. *01:17:21* It's I wrote that they're like little Rube Goldberg machines. *01:17:24* Like you *01:17:28* You're not necessarily pushing blocks or anything. *01:17:29* I I like how it centers I like how it centers around the weapons because that was the one thing about the previous games that I never thought they did well. *01:17:32* The puzzles were always just kind of their own thing and they never really involved the chains or um in some of the games you would get different one off abilities and like, oh, reflect this beam or something. *01:17:40* Like it would give you things like that. *01:17:53* That you would have to use every now and then. *01:17:55* Um the weapons in the sense of hit this switch or break this *01:17:56* Yeah, yeah, yeah. *01:18:03* Like this game no right from the get-go, and and the it's the thing they lean on the most, which is use the axe to freeze things in place. *01:18:03* Uh that's the most common type of puzzle they show you, but I still like that they are using the axe *01:18:10* In that way to solve problems, yes, that is good. *01:18:16* Yes. *01:18:20* The the only real puzzle puzzle, I think *01:18:21* is the like the tier temple stuff where you kind of have to like navigate an obstacle course and figure out that you have to flip the temple, but that's not even really *01:18:26* difficult per se. *01:18:40* It's just narratively you figure it out and then you go do it. *01:18:41* I'm Yep. *01:18:44* You know, God of War was never really all *01:18:46* its earliest incarnation is the most puzzle action platformer it ever was. *01:18:50* Maybe God of War II to a degree as well. *01:18:55* A little bit more puzzle stuff there, especially with the reflections like you were talking about. *01:18:57* I'm I would like a little bit more variety in the puzzles in the sequel. *01:19:03* And actually, that leads me to my other thing. *01:19:10* I wish there was more variety in *01:19:13* Executions, I guess you could say, and boss fights. *01:19:17* There are really only three *01:19:22* There are three narrative main fights. *01:19:25* There are nine Valkyrie fights, which are fairly similar, like on the whole. *01:19:28* And then *01:19:36* You have bigger enemies, the trolls, which are boss fights. *01:19:38* I'd say trolls are boss fights, but they're all identical *01:19:42* As far as what you have to do to fight them. *01:19:45* I d and the kills are the exact same. *01:19:48* They feel good. *01:19:51* They're great kills. *01:19:52* Every kill animation is satisfying. *01:19:53* But there's only one. *01:19:55* But there's only one for the trolls, there's only one for the ogres, there's only one for, you know, the lizard things. *01:19:57* Like I want a little bit more *01:20:03* variety in executing enemies. *01:20:06* And you know, God of War ha the previous games have a similar issue. *01:20:09* Like a Cyclops, you rip their eye out. *01:20:14* Uh *01:20:16* a s uh centaur you slice their gut open. *01:20:17* I just maybe more contextual would be a better way. *01:20:20* Like if I kill an enemy this way *01:20:24* I'm sure those animations are hard to come up with, but it's easy. *01:20:28* Yeah. *01:20:32* At least just give us a couple different ones for each weapon. *01:20:33* or something. *01:20:37* Yeah. *01:20:37* Like the blades, the axe, and then inevitably Thor's hammer. *01:20:38* When we get that, because I feel like that's a guarantee. *01:20:42* Like if you kill a d if you kill a troll with the blades of chaos, it's the same execution. *01:20:45* He but you just stick the blades in their giant pillar and crush their head. *01:20:50* So I just *01:20:55* I wish there was a bit more diversity there. *01:20:56* And I get this was big and pivotal. *01:20:58* It's changing everything. *01:21:00* It's a lot of hard work. *01:21:01* I'm not saying it's a- Probably takes six months to make one of those animations. *01:21:02* Yeah, I'm not saying this is easy at all. *01:21:05* I'm just I would like a bit more. *01:21:06* And maybe now that a lot of *01:21:08* Uh the groundwork has been laid for the sequel. *01:21:10* Maybe we can see that kind of diversity going forward. *01:21:13* Or more boss fights, because I would like more bosses. *01:21:16* I think the thing I would like to see is *01:21:21* Not as much puzzles? *01:21:23* I actually like that there wasn't a ton of puzzles in this game. *01:21:25* And going into a game that is literally called Ragnarok, I don't know if I would like to see more *01:21:27* cumbersome puzzles. *01:21:33* What I would like to see though is more puzzles when it comes to the combat and the gameplay. *01:21:34* Like I mentioned the final boss fight with Baldur being somewhat like that, where it's not really necessarily like something you have to *01:21:40* figure out. *01:21:47* It's just a little bit more. *01:21:48* He glows blue or red. *01:21:49* Like you know what you gotta switch to. *01:21:51* It is prompting you to do other things other than just spam different triggers. *01:21:53* Whether that be switching uh up Atreus' arrows more or switching up your uh the weapons you're using, I I think if the game couldn't use *01:21:58* encourage you to use all the weapons in your arsenal a little bit more. *01:22:06* This is something that Doom Eternal does really well that I like about Doom Eternal. *01:22:09* It forces you to kind of use every weapon in your arsenal in a certain way. *01:22:13* In almost every encounter. *01:22:19* Yeah, yeah, in almost every encounter. *01:22:21* And I think that's really good because it makes sure it's makes sure that you're using everything that you have on you and it makes every encounter also feel *01:22:23* Like it is uh pressing buttons. *01:22:31* It it feels like it's challenging you mentally rather than just your reaction time on your fingers or or something like that. *01:22:35* Or *01:22:40* tet testing how many different combos you may know to pull off. *01:22:41* Uh it's it's it's more engaging in that sense. *01:22:44* So that is what I would like to see, I guess, on a puzzle front is more combining the puzzle and the combat in that sort of way. *01:22:47* Um, and give Atreus some more things to do. *01:22:54* The one well the one the one thing I I don't think we need to talk about too much, but just in a general sense, what did you think of *01:22:57* Spartan Range Spartan Rage and just the fist fighting combat system as a whole? *01:23:03* I d treated it like I would treat Spartan Rage or Rage of the Titans or whatever in the previous games. *01:23:09* It was a *01:23:15* I'm either in a pinch and I really need to get out of this, or I just want to crush my enemies. *01:23:16* I didn't the the regular fist combat *01:23:22* not Spartan Rage, I liked because that triggered the stun meter. *01:23:27* So that was making me think a bit more of like, do I want to stun this or use Atreus to help stun and then rip this enemy apart? *01:23:30* But the Spartan Reach in particular just felt like Superman mode. *01:23:36* Like punch, punch, punch, punch, punch. *01:23:40* Get you out of there. *01:23:42* It was something I didn't use all that often outside of the final fight with the Queen Valkyrie. *01:23:43* So, you know, maybe something there too, but it just, you know, eh, fine. *01:23:50* Not it's I'm glad it's there. *01:23:58* It's definitely more of that lineage, but I *01:24:01* I wasn't, you know. *01:24:04* This almost kinda leads me into the m my other kind of big *01:24:07* complaint, I guess, with the game is the RPG element of it. *01:24:12* Swapping your armor, your runes, your stats, all this stuff. *01:24:19* It was a bit much. *01:24:26* I like that it's there, but I think it's too much. *01:24:28* It was there's too many things to worry about *01:24:31* Yeah, I think if they can narrow the focus of the system just a little bit in the next game, it's a because in a general sense I do like the RPG progression of *01:24:33* Oh, I just tore open a tear and these level seven enemies just poured out that whooped my butt and I can't beat them. *01:24:43* I will have to mark this on my map and come back later. *01:24:50* I like that *01:24:53* It is good. *01:24:54* But I I but yes, the means that t by which you level up is pretty *01:24:55* Uh I used the word cumbersome before about something else. *01:25:02* It's it's definitely cumbersome once again in in this way because there's just so many different things that you have to *01:25:05* take into account in so many different things that you have to You're constantly worried about is my chest armor enough? *01:25:10* My gauntlets? *01:25:17* Oh which which runes do I have attached to this? *01:25:18* Oh these have sockets *01:25:21* The thing that I kept debating is is it better for my overall strength to be really high, or should I want to boost my overall level or not my overall, just strength, but like I would slot in certain *01:25:24* weapons or uh or not weapons I would slot in sermer certain art uh armor items that would like increase my overall Kratos level *01:25:35* or something like that. *01:25:43* Yeah. *01:25:44* It would say, oh, your overall level will go up if you equip this item. *01:25:44* But it would look like it would take my stats down if I did. *01:25:47* And it's like, wait a minute, am I getting better or worse here? *01:25:51* Like what's the what's the deal? *01:25:54* Uh-huh. *01:25:56* So uh yeah, it's it's just kind of unclear in some ways because there's just so much going on. *01:25:57* Yeah, and there wasn't and they poured all of this into Kratos. *01:26:03* And then Atreus was fairly light and even the shield. *01:26:08* Yeah. *01:26:12* Really the shield had nothing. *01:26:13* Um just changed its aesthetics and then *01:26:15* you would upgrade it with hand-to-hand combat. *01:26:18* But by the time I was done with this game, I think I had almost a million in hack silver currency and over half a million experience points. *01:26:20* Like there was just nothing to pour all of this into. *01:26:29* Like *01:26:31* You reach your max fairly quickly and then there's nothing else to pursue or turn that into. *01:26:32* So some of the end game *01:26:38* Is just like what's the point of this? *01:26:41* And then also it's just very bloated mechanically speaking of well, what do I upgrade here or do I need to do this or do that? *01:26:43* And *01:26:51* I hope that gets streamlined a little bit more laser focused going forward, but it definitely feels like too much. *01:26:52* And they throw a lot at you up front. *01:27:00* And it's like, whoa, I gotta level up Kratos now. *01:27:02* Like, what is this? *01:27:06* Like before I just leveled up my weapons. *01:27:07* Like that. *01:27:08* Very simple, clear to the point. *01:27:09* This was the we're gonna let you upgrade everything. *01:27:12* I do genuinely like that though. *01:27:16* I just think there's it's a lot. *01:27:18* So much going on and they could do a bet they could streamline some of the those things together a bit. *01:27:20* uh to make it just I don't know more it just easier to know how you can build out your your character. *01:27:25* Yeah, because too often I felt like I was *01:27:34* I I wasn't building properly. *01:27:37* Yeah. *01:27:40* So yeah. *01:27:40* And uh as a personal note, I never chose any armor that was like full chest armor for Kratos because Kratos should never *01:27:42* b have like fully clothed armor on. *01:27:50* He is a man who runs around in a tunic shirtless. *01:27:53* Like he doesn't need armor. *01:27:56* So I never I never thought he looked good in any set of armor that like was a full chest piece. *01:27:57* So *01:28:03* I think some of them look okay. *01:28:04* The full chest piece ones, no, those look bad. *01:28:06* Yeah, those look bad. *01:28:08* It's those shoulder the shoulders are the ones like the three-quarter sleeve looking ones too. *01:28:09* I kinda like those. *01:28:14* If you know what I'm talking about. *01:28:15* Yeah. *01:28:18* I I pretty much had one armor the whole game and then when I got to end game I figured out I searched what the best armor was and went and got that. *01:28:18* So *01:28:26* Which thankfully was just a shoulder guard. *01:28:28* I was like, phew, at least my Kratos doesn't have to be ugly here for the endgame. *01:28:30* And we know that's the most important part of any game. *01:28:34* To kind of wrap it up, just want to like briefly touch on the legacy of this game, which you pointed out in the pre-show where you know we you and I were talking. *01:28:39* We kind of really did that with God of War 3 as kind of this end of the Greek era into the Norse era. *01:28:50* Yeah. *01:28:56* But and I think you even said here at the top of the show, this is the game *01:28:57* That turned you into a fan of God of War, and not that you're a fan of God of War the franchise so much as you are a fan of God of War on the PS4. *01:29:02* I think that's the legacy. *01:29:12* Yeah, I think this one definitely it's weird because it's the seventh game in the franchise that I feel like really opened it up to everybody else and brought them in. *01:29:15* I don't I don't I don't feel like uh *01:29:24* This was obviously like not a small series or anything before this game and it's not like people aren't informed of what this series was before. *01:29:27* I think that's why this *01:29:35* game is so popular because people know the broad strokes of God of War, the original God of War games is oh yeah, you play as a guy and you kill a bunch of gods and maybe not the best guy in the process of doing that. *01:29:36* So I think this story's the story of this game and its focus on *01:29:46* Change and I don't even want to say redemption because I don't think Kratos is redeeming himself necessarily. *01:29:51* He's more trying to I guess redemption more through his son. *01:29:57* Um *01:30:00* would be the big key thing on in this game is to make sure that his own legacy. *01:30:02* Yeah, to make sure that his son doesn't turn out the way that he did in so many ways and that he can undo this cycle of *01:30:06* fathers killing fathers and and such. *01:30:12* But um yeah, I I I don't know. *01:30:15* It it's hard to talk about this game's legacy because this game's legacy *01:30:19* This game's legacy is very much just its own, but it is very much also still tied to everything that came before it. *01:30:22* But I I think it finds a way to stand on its own and just be a great game that anybody can enjoy regardless of having experienced the *01:30:28* the other games in this series. *01:30:37* Um and that's the thing that stands out to me, yeah, the most with this with this game. *01:30:39* That's it's one of the things that makes it truly special. *01:30:45* Yeah. *01:30:49* I think the other thing, really quick, is this is the game that sort of *01:30:50* Saved feels extreme, but saved Santa Monica Studio. *01:30:59* Because Ascension was critically and commercially not as big of a success as the previous games. *01:31:04* They had spent 36 months in pre-production on a new IP that ended up getting canned. *01:31:12* They were in this period of transition and out of it came *01:31:20* This arguably one of the greatest games ever made, and certainly the most successful God of War game, clearly, not just by critical reception and sales. *01:31:25* But just pound for pound, it's the best God of War game for now. *01:31:36* You know, assuming they can surpass their own work here with Ragnarok. *01:31:41* And that's truly remarkable. *01:31:48* This was not an easy feat, and you know, this game *01:31:50* Saved Kratos, it saved Sony Santa Monica. *01:31:56* It made all of this relevant again. *01:31:59* It put the studio back on top. *01:32:02* It made Kratos a character people actually are invested in, beyond people like me who are just like, I love slicing up gods and Greek mythology. *01:32:06* And that wasn't easy and they crushed it. *01:32:17* I feel like it really solidified the pr PlayStation brand as a whole, too. *01:32:23* Like this game more than any other game I'd say of the past *01:32:27* five years of PlayStation, I feel like really has at least i in our current era of PlayStation, I feel like when people think of like why is PlayStation a good uh video game publisher at the moment, like they think immediately think of game. *01:32:31* Like this. *01:32:45* Uncharted as well as up there in the world. *01:32:47* I mean single player narrative driven games is Sony's one better. *01:32:49* Is what Sony's does. *01:32:53* And right now this is the game people think of. *01:32:54* Especially because Last of Us 2 is divisive and we haven't had uncharted in a while. *01:32:57* So this is like the the flagship game I feel like for what Sony has become in recent years *01:33:02* years. *01:33:08* There's a reason they're finally putting this out on PC after doing it with a couple other games. *01:33:09* Yeah. *01:33:14* There's a reason it's this one. *01:33:14* I want to ask one question because I know we're about to wrap up here. *01:33:16* He mentioned before about how this is one of the best games *01:33:20* that Sony Santa Monica or one of the best games ever, the best thing that Sony Santa Monica's ever done. *01:33:24* And he said the best God of War game so far. *01:33:28* Maybe they can outdo themselves next time. *01:33:31* Do you think *01:33:33* Ragnarok will be better than this. *01:33:36* I can hope. *01:33:38* I certainly hope. *01:33:39* I mean I hope so too. *01:33:40* Yeah. *01:33:42* I don't think it will be. *01:33:43* Because I think this game's tightness is its over its ul is its ultimate strength. *01:33:45* Like I think the narrow focus of this game is why it is so strong. *01:33:51* And we obviously don't know what Ragnarok has in store. *01:33:56* But based on the name alone and some of the things that are gonna have to happen in that game, it's gonna have to get pretty bonkers. *01:33:59* There are rumors out there that the game's story is gonna last 40 hours. *01:34:06* I don't know if I buy that yet. *01:34:10* I don't buy that *01:34:12* David Jaffe was David Jaffe was the one who said that. *01:34:14* He said he's heard that the game is being planned to be like 40 hours long. *01:34:16* So he can know. *01:34:19* The one thing, the difference I think. *01:34:22* Will be this game's place in just the series. *01:34:26* This was the the pivot, the transition game. *01:34:32* Yeah. *01:34:35* And it pulled it off so like Ragnarok. *01:34:36* Could could be 10 out of 10 top dog killer game. *01:34:39* Ragnarok's not as important. *01:34:43* It's in the same way. *01:34:45* It's not as important to the studio, the series, the company. *01:34:47* Everything the fans, I would say. *01:34:52* Yeah. *01:34:54* It is this game just changed *01:34:55* All of it. *01:35:00* And that you can't I you can't shake that or scrub it. *01:35:01* I think it is too important. *01:35:05* I think that is the part that would keep this game theoretically from *01:35:09* f as the top God of War game. *01:35:13* Context. *01:35:16* Surrounding context, I think, is what elevates it. *01:35:17* Yeah. *01:35:20* Yeah, I agree. *01:35:21* So that does it. *01:35:23* That's the season two finale. *01:35:24* Quotes around that. *01:35:27* We will eventually do a God of War Ragnarok episode. *01:35:28* Whenever that game comes out. *01:35:33* Um *01:35:35* We will just upload this into the feed and it'll be, you know, season two, episode eight. *01:35:35* We'll talk about it. *01:35:40* Assuming Logan can keep up his normal pace, he'll have the game beaten in two days. *01:35:41* I will be the slow poke. *01:35:46* So whenever that game does come out, hopefully on time in twenty twenty-two, hopefully. *01:35:47* Uh look forward to hearing our thoughts on that. *01:35:53* Not unlike our episode on The Last of Us Part Two. *01:35:56* Shortly after we played that game, we recorded that episode, so. *01:35:59* That will be fun. *01:36:02* You can follow Logan over on Twitter at Moreman12. *01:36:04* He writes for comicbook. *01:36:07* com and we'll be reviewing God of War on PC. *01:36:09* Which when that review goes live, I'll update the show notes and you can check that review out there. *01:36:12* You can follow myself on Twitter at Max Roberts143. *01:36:17* I write over at Max Frequency. *01:36:20* I don't write as often or as much as Logan does, but I do see you know some stuff every now and then. *01:36:23* You can follow the show on Twitter at chapter select. *01:36:29* and uh tweet at us there. *01:36:32* Any ideas you have for future seasons? *01:36:34* We already have season three planned. *01:36:37* That uh will be coming into the early *01:36:40* the front half of next year. *01:36:42* That was one thing I did want to touch on is yeah, follow us on Twitter at chapter select if you want to keep up with the season three of the show. *01:36:44* We're working on it. *01:36:51* Or well by working on it I mean we have it figured out and so we're gonna start doing it at some point. *01:36:52* I would say *01:36:58* It's the first half of twenty-two. *01:37:00* Yeah, rough outlines first half of twenty-two, I would say more springtime, I would say, to expect it. *01:37:02* Uh is the general outline we're looking for, so don't expect January or February or anything like that. *01:37:09* Come on. *01:37:14* We gotta play Horizon on time, you know, when it comes out. *01:37:15* So Yeah. *01:37:17* And Logan has other stuff he has to do, like work. *01:37:19* Yeah, we are working on season three though. *01:37:22* We're trying to figure everything out. *01:37:24* On our end, it'll be a much different series that we're gonna do next time. *01:37:25* It's gonna be fun *01:37:30* And you know, we have ideas for season four and stuff, but if you want to share your own ideas or just talk about God of War or Paper Mario, you can reach out to us on Twitter on all three of those accounts. *01:37:31* And with that, that's *01:37:44* season that's God of War. *01:37:45* We did it. *01:37:47* We we played all of God of War for like my bajillionth time and your second time in all honesty for for all of it. *01:37:47* Or first time. *01:37:55* You're free to play Metroid, Max. *01:37:56* Congratulations. *01:37:58* I am *01:37:59* Um it's a real quick aside for those not listening, Max has not played other games that have released over the course of this year until we finish this season. *01:37:59* So now he will play Metroid Dread, like he's been wanting to do for months. *01:38:07* I know, I'm so excited. *01:38:11* And then Pokemon, it's like other games came out. *01:38:12* My brain can only do one at a time. *01:38:15* So I'm very excited to dive into that. *01:38:17* Thank you all for listening and joining us for this season on God of War. *01:38:20* Really appreciate it. *01:38:25* I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day. *01:38:26* And until next season. *01:38:29* Catch you later. *01:38:32* Adios. *01:38:33* Bye everybody. *01:38:34* Chapter Select is a max frequency production. *01:38:37* This episode was research produced and edited by me, Max Roberts. *01:38:40* Season two is hosted by Logan Moore and myself *01:38:44* And it's all about God of War. *01:38:48* For more on this season, go to chapterselect. *01:38:50* com forward slash season two. *01:38:53* To check out previous seasons, go to chapterselect. *01:38:55* com. *01:38:59*