Credit to Bard Ov Asgard for the metal cover of Blood Upon The Snow kzread.info/dash/bejne/eZmHmJmRoL3VirA.htmlsi=3AHJuqUEeW1ypdzK Add credit to the Unversed Cast for the Ragnarok episode I appeared on. (Taken without permission) kzread.info/dash/bejne/X5qdxo9-ctKYm7g.htmlsi=QYyofKxmU3vde1q2

@nitram9823

7 ай бұрын

Thanks for that recommendation👍🏼 He deserves like 100x more subscribers, just amazing covers! 🤘

@hamizanyunos1502

7 ай бұрын

How do you feel about Fat Brett videos on God of War?

@etabiansosin

5 ай бұрын

KZreadr FatBrett made some great videos surrounding Norse Characters, Freya and other characters from the Norse God of War Games. You should give them a watch and maybe you can make a video expressing your thoughts on those videos that FatBrett made.

People need to learn that a game doesn’t have to be perfect to be enjoyable. A lot of people think that a game is flawless simply because they like it, but it’s ok to like a game whether it’s perfect or not

@leviticusprime4904

7 ай бұрын

I enjoy plenty of films, games and shows, that I know aren’t perfect, but I still like them, simply because i like engaging with them.

@REvoLverj98

7 ай бұрын

This has been common sense with Palliser99

@LoneStoneMaalik

7 ай бұрын

Ye, Skyrim is very flawed, but people still play it till this day.

@JuanPablo-su6vw

7 ай бұрын

I must the biggest fan of Homefront the revolution

@minamounir2323

7 ай бұрын

Hardly anything in this universe can be considered Perfect and that's fine. There are also Objective flaws and Subjective Flaws.

A year already ? Damn Time flies by and i agree that its still a extremely good game but not a masterpiece

@quandaledingle9735

7 ай бұрын

What games do you think deserve that title

@Dr.Oofers

7 ай бұрын

@@quandaledingle9735I guess… nothing. A masterpiece could be something that has no flaws; maybe it could be something that stands the rest of time; maybe it could be something that sparked a new era or revolutionized an idea. Regardless, what matters is if a game is enjoyable. Doesn’t have to be a “masterpiece” to be enjoyable.

@quandaledingle9735

7 ай бұрын

@@Dr.Oofers this seems ai generated, but anyways why is that word even a thing then? Surely it has a purpose. Oh wait, it does. I just searched it up and you should too. And by it’s literal definition I’m 100% sure god of war ragnarok is a masterpiece

@deadking8224

4 ай бұрын

@@Dr.Oofers A masterpiece doesn't have to be perfect. The word is not synonymous with "flawless"

@deadking8224

4 ай бұрын

@@quandaledingle9735 The Witcher 3

A game doesn’t need to be a masterpiece, it just needs to be enjoyable

@aaronatkinson177

7 ай бұрын

Well said 👏 👌

@leonardfabian8942

7 ай бұрын

Too bad gow fails at both.😊

@Toatekaha

7 ай бұрын

@@leonardfabian8942what are you smoking? Can I have some?🥺

@Vaggie-Fallen-Angel

7 ай бұрын

Based and True.

@CiderVG

7 ай бұрын

And Pokemon ScVi horrifically fails at both

Great video, but one point I disagree on is how quickly Freya changes her opinion on Kratos. She has him travel to Vanaheim to free her from her curse, and throughout the journey, they talk about family and their struggles. Kratos even talks about killing his wife and daughter. Freya feels sorry for him and even a bit apologetic, as she now knows he understands her pain. At the end of the mission, after she frees herself from Odin's curse, she admits that she can't forgive him, but she also can't kill him either. I think that writers did a fantastic job on that character arc, making it believable and real.

@HishamA.N_Comicbroe

7 ай бұрын

True. Even at the end she really hasn't forgiven him for it. Tho the shippers definitely do ignore it.

@martinc8965

6 ай бұрын

Is it my idea or do people always forget about the Svartalheim tunnel section in the mission to create the spear? In that part she is technically confessing that she is using Kratos for her personal benefit, that the "I forgive you" thing is a 50/50 where in part she understands Kratos and wants to have an alliance with him and on the other hand she knows that Kratos is a very useful card that she could take advantage of in her deck for her objective, which is basically to kill Odin, and what It's even more curious that after that, when you finish the mission and get on the train, Freya mentions that a disagreement of opinions will not be enough to end this alliance, and shortly after the girl leaves the house when she realizes that Kratos is no longer going to follow the plan to kill Heimdall, something that would obviously screw up Odin, I don't know, those actions, at least to me, show that if Kratos doesn't agree with her personal interests, then he simply leaves it aside. because he is no longer useful to her, but not in such a bad way, because she partly respects him, both him and Atreus.

@MalosiAudios

5 ай бұрын

It's always the shippers fr XD@@HishamA.N_Comicbroe

@YungCountertop

5 ай бұрын

There was nothing realistic about that. You don't go from murderous rampage to extremely friendly wanting the man who killed your son to be the new GOW. It didn't fit her character which has been established as stubborn and extremely protective over her son. She then switched to agreeing he needed to DIE, which was insane.

@amadeusk525

5 ай бұрын

The Vanaheim section is what turned me off completely from the game. It was so incredibly robotic, "kill some enemies, climb while Freya and Kratos talk and Kratos makes Freya less angry, walk a bit, repeat" and then after doing that 3 times, boom, boss fight and the conflict is resolved. I couldn't believe THAT'S what they decided to do with her character, it's such a step down from 2018's unbelievably natural dialogue and character progression

If this game was split into two games, that of course means the second game would need some kind of final boss of its own, and I feel that Heimdall would have been a great fit, since a big portion of the game is centered around gaining the ability to defeat him. They would probably have to make some adjustments to the story such as having the fight take place a bit later and making it more grand and epic, but I'm sure they could have definitely pulled it off. Then you could have the Tyr/Odin reveal in the epilogue as normal, and finally end on a cliffhanger with Kratos officially declaring war, leading up to the hypothetical third game. Plus, both Heimdall and Baldur share similarities in that their deaths ultimately trigger the events of the next game. Baldur's death of course triggers Fimbulwinter, the premise of the second game, and Heimdall's death triggers Ragnarok, the premise of the third game. It would have been nicely poetic in a way. I also would include Atreus in the fight as well, as it would be genuinely satisfying to see him get some actual payback against Heimdall for all the torment he put him through.

@soralazammoa1770

7 ай бұрын

Man I would of loved for the game to have done what you just described

@Owen-sx4jj

7 ай бұрын

The game was too focused on tugging at emotions instead of building a grand story that surpasses the first in spectacle power scale and lore. Things like fimbulwinter and Ragnarok an epic boss fight with Thor in the end instead of the arena trash we got. They shouldn't have changed directors coz this is 2 different visions. Many characters wasted as well

@Hamppdur

5 ай бұрын

Definitely, this game really suffered from trying to cover too much in one game and, to me, the ragnarok section suffered the most. It felt so fast. Like, we’ve been leading up to this cataclysmic event to determine the control of the 9 realms and then, bam, we done in like 20 or 30 min. I have put over 500 hours into this game but man, the subsequent playthroughs really highlighted how this game covers sooooo much in comparison to gow2018.

@victory8928

Ай бұрын

Omg that would have been amazing and might have given them the time to actually expand on stuff. Heck then the third game would be you building up the army for the war gaining allies throughout the story with Sutr being one of the first you meet only to leave him alone maybe to go seek Sigmarin for help for both to well either decide to work together, change fate by having one sacrifice themself for the the other or just not joining and sharing the secret to Kratos and Atreus for Kratos to exploit. Asgard could have also been built up more to make it worth being the second half of the game as you go through the industry of the Aesir destroying their weapons and tools along the way to further weaken them while fighting some Aesir especially Thor a few times before defeating and turning them to our side or killing them.

On the topic of the 9 Realms seemingly not being populated: Midgard: apart from Raiders, who are "savage enough to survive" the Fimbulwinter, the rest of Midgardians have either died or were "rescued" by Odin - and you can see them in Asgard on multiple occasions; Svartalfheim: densely populated by Dwarves, but when you arrive there they all hide in their houses (so the number od buildings in Nidavellir is roughly how many Dwarves live in the city). You can hear some of them though when approaching the closed doors; Alfheim: since the Elves are in a constant state of war, the realm's population consists entirely of warriors. And all of them attack you on sight. Yes, we all hate Alfheim. Vanaheim: shortly after getting there for the 1st time you get a line from Freya about how the Vanir commonfolk went into hiding in the woods to survive the Aesir invasion; Asgard: after meeting Heimdall, you can see the inside of the walls of Asgard; so, again, the number of houses somewhat gives you an idea of how many people live there. You can see some of them while riding Gulltopr. Not talking about Jotunheim, Helheim, Niflheim and Muspelheim for obvious reasons.

Honestly, Ragnarok is one of the few games where I think I would actually love a Director's Cut. More room to grow and time to repolish or tweak some things would do wonders. I agree with the video 100% though that the greater gaming landscape should be more accepting of games that are just great. So much is put into the GOTY discussion that we often lose sight of all the fun the runner ups gave us.

@enol1466

7 ай бұрын

If this comment is meant to say elden ring is a more quality game I have to disagree

@NigelMelanisticSmith

7 ай бұрын

@@enol1466 maybe you replied to the wrong comment lol, I haven't even played Elden Ring

@SICKHYPER

7 ай бұрын

@@NigelMelanisticSmithExactly The Ragnarök Fanboys Have Only 1 Explanation And That’s Your An Elden Ring Fan! Lol They Need To Come Up With Something Sensible.

@dylan6996

7 ай бұрын

​@@SICKHYPERI am an elden ring fan, I used to enjoy gow so much and was biased for it and I wanted ragnarok so bad to be what elden ring was to me but I was completely let down and I didn't enjoy the game at all I wanted more from it. Elden ring brought me back to gaming I thought I just didn't like video games anymore but no I just don't like the new era of video games and the paths they're taking, elden ring felt different and actually enjoyable to me vs ragnarok which felt like watching a movie that was kinda nice but too long and where the gameplay was too controlled or closed off to a very strict path. Being a fan of elden ring isnt what made me dislike this game so much since I disliked it way before playing elden ring but then I played elden ring and it reinforced the why I didn't like ragnarok because it was what I had hoped to get out of ragnarok

Enemies not flenching on GGOW is my only issue with the game otherwise it’s one of my favorites

The game isn't perfect, but I still love it unconditionally.

@eotikurac

7 ай бұрын

pathetic

@user-xx3wf5mr9o

6 ай бұрын

For what ? Dosn't make no sense

@XI-Daybreak

5 ай бұрын

@@user-xx3wf5mr9owhat about it specifically makes no sense

@reidbishop7965

5 ай бұрын

​@@user-xx3wf5mr9oCry harder 😢 😂

@asafakiva1619

5 ай бұрын

I'm with you Now I get the same opinion about this game as spiderman 2- it's not perfect and could've done several things otherwise, but that doesn't mean for a moment the game isn't good. It has many strengths

Ironwood is definitely that Sweet Baby Inc. writing rearing it's ugly head to meet that ESG score.

@alexlau2312

4 ай бұрын

I hate it to the core.

@Bxrry125

Ай бұрын

Yea ironwood isn’t fun. But keep in mind it’s only 45 minutes of 25 hours. Also ironwood was shorter than the atrocity of alfiem in 2018

@Bolbi145

20 күн бұрын

Yeah, they just shoe horned it in to shut up the Sony California people

"No amount of severed heads or women slept with will ever be as brave or as manly as admitting to your faults and doing better." LOUDER FOR THE ANDREW TATES AND SNEAKOS IN THE BACK

@LoveyoDance

5 ай бұрын

Thank you my manz was cooking

Your points about lack of nuance and maturity in video game discourse is spot on! I'm so glad you get it because it really is a concerning and increasing trend nowadays. It's always in extremes. Too high or too low. So many great moments go unspoken about games which ruins the growth and understanding of video games as a medium or even an artform. Ironically, sometimes, people who preach about modern games killing the industry are the ones who kill it, by blocking valuable and nuanced discourse. The video game discourse overall is still quite young, video essay trend on the internet hasn't really helped much to develop it apart from a few individuals. Once again thank you so much for mentioning about it because it's a much needed discussion.

If you deserve a reward you should get a reward. If you are the best at something and you win an award it's yours. This idea that you should be limited on the amount of rewards you get is a crazy take. (assuming all competition is fair) If you win you win that's it.

@theotherohlourdespadua1131

7 ай бұрын

Winning an award or more is great, winning ALL of the awards just raises plenty of questions...

@josephmarshall2295

7 ай бұрын

@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 again I'm not saying one game should win an award just because. I'm saying if all things are fair In competition if a game deserves to win an award give it that award, simple. I'm saying if it's deserved then it's deserved.

@theotherohlourdespadua1131

7 ай бұрын

​@@josephmarshall2295In general, what you said is true. In the context of the Video Game Awards? Not really convinced their methodology is impartial...

I guess it depends on your definition of the word masterpiece. A game that made me cry, feel a ton of feels and have epic gameplay for hours on end is a rare thing now days. Sure there were some let downs but overall i would still clasify it as a masterpiece :)

@justinknutsson9135

7 ай бұрын

Completely agree! Only game that´s ever made me cry, gotta count for something I quess!

@awakenow7147

6 ай бұрын

Just as long as you don't make that claim objectively, or try to cram it down other peoples' throats. I love Final Fantasy VII, and Nier Automata. But unlike the rest of those fanbases, I'm not going to make any "masterpiece" claims about those games, because I know its highly subjective.

@champion1772

5 ай бұрын

Wrong as he said just because you liked it doesn’t mean it’s a master piece

@jkratosgear3038

5 ай бұрын

No

The biggest disappointment for me is not seeing through the rift and no Artemis to hunt down Kratos

@buckyhurdle4776

7 ай бұрын

Do you realize that you're basically asking for the game to explain the meaning of life itself?

@GoReachPastElevation

7 ай бұрын

@@buckyhurdle4776Tell me! What happens next?!?

@Vkiller711

5 ай бұрын

@@buckyhurdle4776they shouldn’t have made it so important then. Quite frankly the story of ragnarok was the weakest point, gameplay goes hard though

I remember being turned off from GOW 2018, because I heard everybody call it a movie game. I just took what other people said at face value and didn't decide for myself. Then I later played the game and really enjoyed it.

@PointlesslyNecessaryConvos

7 ай бұрын

It’s funny because I had the opposite experience. I heard the game was a 10/10 so I tried it out. It’s a very good game and really technically impressive but I really didn’t have a good time with it and I don’t really know why. Just didn’t click with me I guess, glad others love it though!

@johnpantag472

Ай бұрын

​@@PointlesslyNecessaryConvosjust say you have no taste.

Yeah I agree. While I do think that the Norse saga did not need to be a trilogy, my mind has changed knowing the fact the only Norse gods we fought were 3 of them While there are PLENTY of Norse gods who would have been perfect bosses (kinda like Forsetti). So yes, the game has a pacing issue and if the pacing were to be done differently, then we would have gotten that cut story mission where we recruit Sinmara. Regardless, God Of War RAGNARÖK was awesome. Flawed, but awesome non the less.

@martinc8965

6 ай бұрын

6 gods* Atreus, Freya, Thor, Heimdall, Odin and Gná (Mimir at the end tells you to your face that Gná, despite having a Valkyrie design, is a Vanir goddess)

@mrfilmreviewcriticman4110

6 ай бұрын

Yeah I think we should have had more varied boss fights instead of the same 6 random animals that are just boring. Also I think GOW 2018 had much better gameplay for combat the bosses were better and weren’t just HP tanks like ragnarok where everything has too much health for no reason and just makes combat 10x less enjoyable

@martinc8965

5 ай бұрын

@@mrfilmreviewcriticman4110 What are you saying? Literally in Ragnarok that problem of recycling bosses was reduced considerably, as well as the life bars, the fights last the typical of a boss fight, between 5 or 6 minutes, it's just your nostalgia hitting harder than usual, it's like the complaint of runic attacks, which in theory in Ragnarok do less damage. Or maybe it's just my experience... even though I always played it on the highest difficulty.

@LiterallyMe459

5 ай бұрын

@@mrfilmreviewcriticman4110 by bosses you mean the 163 trolls?

I'm totally in agreement that Ragnarök should've been split into two games, cutting off at around the Tyr/Odin reveal. However, I have my own idea for how it'd ideally go. Odin would still be the final boss, but you'd instead battle him directly after he kills Brok and he attempts to make off with the mask. The fight starts off outside Sindri's home, and as the phases progress, the battle gets taken all over the roots of Yggdrasil as both sides get more and more desperate to win, in a battle so intense that it shakes the very roots of the world tree and makes all of the realms tremble. It'd provide a very strong spectacle as well as give us a taste of just how dangerous Odin is when he's forced to get his hands dirty. In the end, Kratos would prevent Odin from taking the mask, but Odin manages to kidnap Atreus and teleport back to Asgard to use as leverage. The ending would give Kratos a lot to think about, dealing with his failure to keep Atreus safe but remaining resolute in his quest to bring him back, as well as preparing for Ragnarök. In the hypothetical third game, we'd be assembling allies for the battle. Kratos and Freya have further bonded by this point (to what extent, who can say). But intermixed with the adventures on Kratos' side of things, we'd also get perspective changes to Atreus every now and again, living as a prisoner in Asgard and trying to cope with his own failures, blaming himself for everything that's happened. Odin, meanwhile, fully realizing that he's instigated the very thing he's been trying so hard to avoid, has become increasingly paranoid and neurotic, forcefully silencing any questioning or disapproval of his actions and motives through vicious punishment or death, as well as laying out abuse on Atreus and blaming him for the way things are now. His appearance may even become more haggard and disheveled as a result of his slipping sanity. Atreus would be able to tap into his "Loki" persona and use his wits and cunning to escape Asgard, eventually reuniting with Kratos. From there, the stage would be set for the final battle. I'm happy about the ending with DID get, but I'll concede that the third act feels like a chunk of a different game was just grafted onto an already finished product. It's like someone gave you a five-star full course meal for dinner and randomly hands you a slice of pizza to finish it all off. Yeah, it's good. But somehow it lessens the overall experience in a way that's kinda hard to articulate.

@RussianAssassin100

5 ай бұрын

Love it!

@victory8928

Ай бұрын

If they do fight in the roots I would love it if Odin almost kills Kratos only for the lindwyrms to rip him a new one and summon enemies to attack Odin mostly as some retribution for that whole mess

Honestly, really appreciate you making this video. It’s nice to hear someone talk about a game being great despite its flaws, and talking about how a game can still be good even with flaws. You don’t hear that kind of thing from many people. Like you said yourself, you usually either hear pure positivity, or pure negativity more often than not, so it’s nice to hear someone talk about both the positives and the negatives. It’s also nice hearing you talk about things not being perfect not meaning they’re bad. Perfection is a subjective topic, and there’s always gonna be someone who thinks something isn’t “perfect” because it doesn’t fit their idea of what the term means. Just because something isn’t “perfect” doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed, or that it’s bad. And hey, even if you think something is “perfect” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be open to other people’s opinions, within reason of course. Anyways, really enjoyed the video. Also just wanted to say I loved that bit you did with sonic frontiers and players choice. As a fan of the game, it was absolutely hilarious watching all that shit go down before the game awards and it makes me so glad I left the community long ago and just enjoy the games without having to deal with the crazy fans.

They need to improve the quality of the writing with the Egyptian saga onwards. Imagine the Egyptian gods with animal appearances dropping curse words and modern day language like the Norse pantheon. Greek GOW games had great writing.

@E_Sunbro

7 ай бұрын

Couldn’t agree more.

@IAmTheEagleHTM

7 ай бұрын

Yeah, Thor saying "dumbass" felt off, not even MCU Thor did that

@Sub_2_SKARGUT_on_Odysee

7 ай бұрын

​@@IAmTheEagleHTMthat's what you get for hiring Twitter muppets fresh from college

@My6119

7 ай бұрын

To be fair, profanity fits viking gods

@MotherFucker1984

7 ай бұрын

​@@My6119 I don't think profanity is the problem

The only problems I have with the game is that some of the non-human boss fights don't feel that interesting and feel unimaginative and repetitive (e.g. the dragons, the giant wolves), the way the giant wolf and dragon attack you feel very derpy and awkward, also the way tyr was used in the game felt kinda disappointing or like the writers were trolling us cos the real tyr was alive the whole time and just chilling out in a cell doing yoga. Also faye felt like a very bland character and I didn't really feel the chemistry between her and kratos and when you consider how much they talked about faye in GOW 4, it felt kinda anticlimactic to only have her in a few flashbacks. Angrboda felt kinda bland too cos she didn't even seem that upset about basically having no family left & we barely knew anything about her outside of her relationship with grandmother which didn't even feel that fleshed out (which could've been helped by some giants flashbacks). I have a strong suspicion that the writers changed the idea they had for the story halfway through development, cos a lot of the stuff they set up in the previous game felt like it got sidelined or glossed over, e.g. the jormungandr time travel plot thread, the helheim Eagle plot thread, how Surtr was teased by Mimir in GOW 4 but only appeared in this game for a few minutes and cos there were no flashbacks with the giants every reference to them felt shallow and one dimensional. Also the boss fight with angrbodas grandmother Gryla was terrible. The thor boss fights tho were great in my opinion. Also the elves felt underused in this game and the previous cos we still barely knew anything about the elf war and had no reason to care about the elves, and almost the all the elves in the previous game and this one didn't talk or spoke a completely different language or we didn't know anything about apart from the 2 elves working for freyas brother.

2018 story and pace was way better. The Valkerey fights were way better than the Berserker.

@Tekkenandgaming

7 ай бұрын

Everything was better

It lived up to the hype. That's all it needed to do

Really good video. I love this game and you managed to express what I think about it. It's true some parts aren't on par with the rest, mainly the ending as you said, but it still is a really good game that I enjoyed thoroughly. Kratos' evolution is well made and I loved to see it unfold throughout these 2 games. I don't know what'll become of him but god I want to play the next game quick

Ending a story is very difficult and, for me, that's the problem with Ragnarok. Few days ago I explain to a friend why I don't like this game very much and I just keep in memory those "flaws"(In my opinion, of course) and now watching your video I could remeber some of great moments this game have. And I agree with you about the third act. For me it's very rushed and the wasted plot of the mask was very disapointing. Agreeing with you again, 3 games would work very much. And, for me, Thor should die after Brokk in a moment of pure rage from Kratos... And that's for my personal desire: You should play with Mjolnir...

15:55 I’d honestly split the Iron wood section into 2-3 separate visits so the attraction and dynamic between Atreus and Angraboda has time to develop and stew in the background between several hour long gaps of gameplay. Instead of several events happening back to back all in one visit. I just replayed it last week and the section feels like it has a few different stopping points that were all smushed together into one long event.

@victory8928

Ай бұрын

I honestly thought it was gonna be a repeat visit thing which scared me cause I didn’t want to spend another several hours at a time back there. But yes if it was more split it would have been better.

I personally agree with everything you said in this video, mainly about how it could've been split into 3 games to flesh out the story more and how things could've been done differently (looking at YOU Ironwood 😮‍💨). To me, nothing will top the original game in terms of it's story because we're immediately put in control of this badass warrior whom we know nothing about and gradually learn more about who he is and why everyone was so afraid of him and follow him all the way down his path of revenge. However, GOW 2018 absolutely blew me away with it's story and still does today. Seeing just how much Kratos has changed since the old games truly was a sight to behold. Not only that but seeing him actually get the chance at being the father he never got to be was an emotional rollercoaster full of ups, downs, twists and feels. Been a die hard fan of these games since childhood and will continue to be well into the future

Gow 2018 set the bar for expectations for Gow R. Unfortunately it did not meet them from what was implied

I was also hit really hard by Fenrir’s death. I lost my dog just a month prior to the game’s release, and it was still fresh on my mind

Definitely not a masterpiece but dang is it still incredibly great. The team who works on these games just make such incredible works of art

@AgentPrine

7 ай бұрын

It was the 2nd biggest candidate in GOTY, almost won game of the year when there were so many good games released at that time. Your saying its not a masterpeice, okay tell me what is a masterpeice and how it is created, GOWR got beautiful and phenomenal storywriting, character development, open world, side quests, characters, details, graphics, dialogues AND A HELLA DAMN LENGTHY game. IGN gave it a 10 by 10 and so did other major review channels.

@AgentPrine

7 ай бұрын

The only thing which is not a masterpiece is your opinion which 99.21 of the human population disagrees with

@MotherFucker1984

7 ай бұрын

​@@AgentPrine chill is just a game

@finger3306

7 ай бұрын

​@@AgentPrinedude chill out. It's my personal favourite game of all time but that doesn't mean it's everyone's, everyone is entitled to an opinion. Don't be a dick :)

@extraordinarygamer937

7 ай бұрын

agreed@@finger3306

I genuinely loved your take on what ragnarök could’ve been. Having the finale being split between 2 games kinda like GOW 2 & 3. I very much agree.

It helps when you remain objective during a first viewing/reading/playthrough, etc. Odin's identity was entirely possible to see, but that's just for a minority of people, like me. People with the eye for detail with writing. Too many details pointed in the direction of Tyr's identity being Odin for it to be a coincidence, and became outright guaranteed for me as time went on. We never see Tyr and Odin together, for starters. One of Odin's ravens was watching the door to Tyr's cell. Tyr always kept to his closet, and that made less sense as time went on, as did his pacifism. Nobody can be a pure pacifist in this setting and still be alive, not without heavy accomodations to their lifestyle to accomodate it, and so on. Tyr was ultra-sus by mid-game.

They didn’t want a third game so bad they rushed tf outta this

@victory8928

Ай бұрын

Yeah Balrog admitted as much. Dude looked at his work and went “Nah I am not spending 10 more years on this as director” like fair enough but at the same time at that point and especially since they really didn’t care about respecting GoW 2018’s story (Faye being a major point of this) and the retreading of Gow 4’s themes

@PrinxeGaming_

Ай бұрын

@@victory8928 yeah it’s beautiful and wonderful game but it’s lackluster

Probably the biggest dissappintment for me. Loki sucked character wise; hell almost all his sections aren't good at all from what I saw. So much Norse mythology was barely used and Surtr was completely wasted character wise. Says a lot that Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha game with an okay story at best and bad at worst, did Surtr leagues better and the whole Muspell mythology way better and more creatively than GoWRagnarok.

Thank you for giving a different perspective on things Kris P Bacon, because I tried playing the previous God of War game before Ragnarok: but then angrily put it down due to not looking beyond Yahtzee Croshaw's opinion, and then didn't even try God of War Ragnarok for that very reason. But watching your video here has helped prove how wrong I was for doing so, so thank you😄💖

My deepest condolences for the loss of your cat. *virtual hugs* 🤗

So you do know that angrboda is Loki's wife in Norse lore, right?

@TBP

7 ай бұрын

And yet you could write a book on all the liberties they took with Norse mythology otherwise.

@chrisjacobsen7265

7 ай бұрын

@@TBP no but I doubt Loki getting with thor's daughter would go over well in the family

@dx3217

7 ай бұрын

@@chrisjacobsen7265 *remembers last game were both her brothers were killed by kratos and one by atreus.* I agree... its partialy wierd

@maxiql9565

7 ай бұрын

👈😲 look at the norse lore loooooook 👈👈👈👈👈😲😲😲😲😲 still sucks

Imagine if Odin got the mask, put in on, changed into The Mask and pulled Kartos' and Atreus' pants over their heads 😂 Jokes aside, you made an interesting point about lack of people in the realms. I remember noticing that when playing 2018 while going to Freya's place. I thought "this place is so colourful and pretty, but it seems like all the humans died without a trace or got draugrfied... That being said, I think it's down to the design of the world that is so full of climbing contraptions, temples, bridges, secret areas with chests that devs couldn't realy put in a farm or a town anywhere and make it believable without remaking the game levels drastically. Despite that, Midgard could use some civilians. And I forgot where that dwarf town is located, but I think at first you see dwarfs hiding away and never showing up again🤷‍♂️

One of the biggest setbacks ive seen for this game is the companion backseating, the atreus sections being incredibly long and uneventful, and the walk and talk story twlling moments being more like multi hour podcasts that youll have to sit in a boat forever to hear the whole thing.

So wiki lore says Thrud is like 14 to 16 which is close to age appropriate. I completely agree on who should have been Atreus love interest since him and Agrnbota just seem like elementary school kids being forced to like one another. But i do feel Ironwood was necessary since it showed Atreus how to be Loki and harness his powers. How the giants work as a society and their history. Atreus also shows Agrnbota how everything's not written in stone. However, the walking sim part was definitely unnecessary they could have cut those parts in half or just left it to you picking in two areas.

your idea of kratos getting near death against odin and atreus taking over and then kratos taking over was literally what happened in the spiderman 2 venom.boss..And people hated it. lol

The only issue with the Mask part was Directly reintroducing Athena and the Higher Plane of Existence earlier. Atreus darker aspects going unexplored is a big issue. I would have kept both romantic options open

I think your standard of what makes something a masterpiece is far too high. Masterpieces aren't supposed to be a rarity or anything like that, and calling all great games masterpieces doesn't somehow devalue the word. There are hundreds of thousands of games that are considered masterpieces, and there are more masterpieces being made every year in every entertainment industry. Masterpiece is not synonymous with perfection by any means. A masterpiece would be similar to a musician putting on a virtuoso performance, or writing a great song that affects the listener on a deeper level, whether that song is very complex (like Final Fantasy 7), or very simple (like Mario). By that standard, all of the mainline God Of War games are masterpieces in their own right because they are each special for their own reasons just like a great song that stands the test of time, and left it's mark on people. Also, the Resident Evil remakes, Alien Isolation, and both TLOU games are masterpieces as well, flaws and all. Basically, it would take nothing short of a top level team of devs (top level virtuoso's in game development) to create such games of that quality, and if those developers weren't recognized as virtuoso's before, they are now after the games release. It's all art, so part of the way we judge video games, and films are subjective, but it's pretty obvious when something is a masterpiece, and God of War Ragnarok fits that description, as do many other games.

The story, presentation, voice acting, emotional depth, and design (both character and world) are the best I’ve seen in my 40 years as a gamer, by FAR. Recycling some enemies and gameplay is the game’s main flaw as far as I know

In my opinion the addition of the Valhalla DLC (which obviously came out after this video), makes this game a narrative masterpiece. The closure it provides for Kratos’ story and the way they addressed his past while providing a much better ending makes Kratos one of the best written characters in gaming ever.

Honestly this is the best review of the game ive seen, i agree, its not the best thing ever, but i still did really like this game, even if it wasnt the masterpiece i was expecting, and i think the future of the series is really bright for this series.

Hearing your idea of the final battle was absolutely brilliant. It truly makes you want to dream what would've happened had Cory Barlog decided to stick with the trilogy plan till the end.

It’s a good story arc, the game took like almost zero risks with gameplay however and the fighting system was pretty weak outmatched by Evil West which was a AA game at best, not AAA. The puzzles were pretty weak as well, not helped by that ‘the protagonist tells you the solution 60 seconds in because game must go oooonnn’ system.

@redninja3056

7 ай бұрын

I've played evil west and the gameplay isn't even close to ragnorak you end up doing the exact same combo multiple timed and there's not any depth the shooting is good tho

@briankaler6147

7 ай бұрын

@@redninja3056 for Ragnarok, basically I just cycled through each of the three weapons until whatever I was fighting died. In some cases being limited to 2 weapons in the event the enemy was fire/ice resistant or some such. Very limiting especially that it takes quite a while to even get the 3rd weapon. Evil west had so many weapons and routes I was spoiled for choice. Did I use repetitive combos? Yeah probably because both games have certain combos that are stupid good.

@Landotp

Ай бұрын

Yea Atreus telling us the puzzles was annoying The gameplay was awesome though imo

I feel called out here with that ending soapbox bit on opinions and let's plays vs. actually playing, because I'm ashamed to admit that I've done that very same thing more times in my 20s after college than I thought

I thought it was a masterpiece when I played it and it has declined in no way shape or form for me since.

Angrboda is Atreus' love interest because that's how it was in the folklore.

@victory8928

Ай бұрын

Yet they also killed Magni and Modi before Ragnarok. They also changed Jorm from being Loki’s son to being a snake given the soul of a giant. They also made the giants far more sympathetic in GoW compared to the folklore as well while separating them from the Aesir and Vanir when they were gods like the Aesir and Vanir or were on par with the gods. Fenrir and Garm were also separate beings in the folklore and Fenrir was imprisoned by Odin while garm was the guard dog of Helheim while Fenrir was busy shattering chains and being a good boi with tyr. They changed a lot of the story to fit Kratos while having him be the father of Loki.

5:01 "to Thor and Kratos, who were ultimately good but flawed parents" Did you forget how he parented Modi? Belittling him, and beating him almost to death because Kratos killed Magni...leading to Modi being in a position for a kid to kill him. He was a terrible father, but learned from his mistakes for Thrudd.

@Landotp

Ай бұрын

Thor probably was enraged that he ran away like a coward which isn’t what Vikings were supposed to do kinda like kratos was enraged and couldn’t think when he killed his own daughter He killed calliope just like Thor killed modi But now they’re both trying to be better we just got more kratos arc because he’s the main character

@Dlord1PlayStation

Ай бұрын

@Landotp Trying to be better is not the same as being a good father. Kratos was a good father to Atreus. Thor was a terrible father to Modi, and was a lackluster dad to Thrudd at best. I just can't call Thor a good dad when he caused his son's death from only one game ago.

@Landotp

Ай бұрын

@@Dlord1PlayStation yea that’s a good point I don’t think you can call him a “good” father but I think he was at least trying specially from what I saw at the end when he died he defied Odin, I think if Odin hadn’t killed him he would’ve started on the path to being a good father, and from the conversations we can hear with him and Sif I do really think he was trying, I’m just saying I see a lot of parallels between him and young kratos though Thor isn’t as enraged and vengeful, so because of that if he had lived he could’ve had had a journey similar to young kratos to old kratos

@Dlord1PlayStation

Ай бұрын

@@Landotp Yeah, I agree that Thor could have had a similar path to Kratos. I just disagreed with saying that he IS a good father, but he could have BECOME a good father with more time and was starting to move in the right direction.

@Landotp

Ай бұрын

@@Dlord1PlayStation yea fair enough

I think it nailed everything except for Ragnarök itself being rushed and not getting to visit Valhalla

The game has overall aged kinda bad for me due to the pacing mainly. However Kratos' arc & the combat just keep me coming back. EDIT: The DLC is peak tho wow

I agree with pretty much every one of your takes. Your description of your version of the final boss fight sounds SO much better, I was getting hyped thinking about it. I read somewhere that people scraped hidden assets for the game and basically concluded that the Surtr storyline was chopped in half. Kratos, and mainly Atreus, were supposed to trick Surtr into killing himself somehow, which then ends up killing Sinmara, and starting Ragnarok the way it was said it would start. By the time the finale starts and Kratos finally has his realization he must "open his heart to their suffering" and that he has stolen/discouraged Atreus' ability to do that by going along with this Ragnarok/Surtr/war plan, he realizes his son's ability to empathize and do right by others is something he should cherish. Atreus has learned to use people to his advantage at this point (Odin, Surtr, and Sinmara), so this shift in Kratos' beliefs of not allowing others to suffer for his own gain echoes in realizing he must also allow his son to do the same and not transform into young-Kratos, willing to sacrifice everything for what he wants. This entire story section that was cut is why Surtr dying and returning for Ragnarok, and why that shift in the finale of Kratos not wanting unnecessary deaths, feels a bit empty, although it is still impactful as it is. It could have been so much more with a bit more time to breathe.

Midgard is empty because before the events of the first game, there was an apocalyptic event that killed everyone. just fyi

@TBP

7 ай бұрын

This applies to the first game as well

"I love all these games, except Ascension" The correct opinion. I fuckin loved Ragnarok. It has its issues but it's a damn good time throughout.

Could you say with story games like alot of sony's catalogue its easier for someone to speak with authority despite not playing it due to the fact alot of time is put into the non playable segments like dialogue, cutscenes and the art design of the gameplay (seeing kratos slam an axe to cause an explosion feels good just by watching) are designed so particularly and with care for an observer to enjoy as much as a player. Like for instance, Spiderman 2 you can't really comment on without playing it for yourself as the gameplay, side quests, community, innovations in traversal (the wing suit and that portal mission) and the power the symbiote gives you contributes to the feelings of being spiderman and Peter or miles on their respective journeys But with a very story centric game with hours upon hours of cinematic triple AAA cutscenes like God of war ragnarok or the last of us 2 which seek to emulate film media and television through their live actionesque graphics and dialgoue and camera direction are made for widespread discussion and dissection which is made easier as some of the strongest parts of both games are in situations where the player isnt directly involved. Longwinded question aside what i mean is do you think that with games trying so hard to emulate other mediums like film and then to be watched and dissected online that the importance of independent opinion and investment in a game through gameplay isn't as valued as it used to be (in the west at least) as games like that seem to win more awards and liked by critics which seems to be the only thing that matters nowadays. Do 100% agree with you authority point, as playing the last of us 1 finally instead of just watching it gave me a completely new experience and love for the game as well as helping me find new things that i found on my own and loved (like Ellies letter from her mum which made me cry)

God of War ragnarok has become my 2 favourite games of all time. Even though it does have issues, i would personally call it a masterpiece. I call it that not because it flawless (no game really is imo), but because all of the positives outweigh the Negatives wayy out the park for me. The negatives never really hindered my experience, but i acknowledge them. And i agree with everything u said about "experience something before making an opinion", perfectly said

I'll be honest my problem with 2018 and Ragnarok is they aren't good games, to me. The story is what does all the heavy lifting. To the point I'd recommend people just watch the story and not "play" the game. They wanted to make a movie but shoved it though a game shaped hole. And even now it's like the story has a missing piece. And on the game awards thing. It's become about fellating the big new game from big publisher. The last of us 2 year is what finally broke me.

Sorry about your cat gambit man That’s really tough, and Im sure your cats resting in peace 🕊️ 🙏

I would’ve liked to see Thor FINNISH turning a new leaf and fight against Odin alongside Kratos and Atreus and in the process sacrificing his life while his daughter watches her dad finally stand up to Odin. I miss Thor

Mfs with an xbox be like " ragnarok was just a movie!! I could only watch it bro!" 🤤

I have played and beaten GoW1, 3, Ascension, 2018, and Ragnarok. I have played 2 but never finished it. I never had a chance to play CoO or GoS. I love the story these games tell, I enjoyed Kratos' journey, and Ragnarok being the culmination for Kratos as to what it means to be a god is amazing. I choked up and cried a little when he seen that mural with him in it as a statue being worshipped. Hell, when the valhalla dlc came out, I didn't watch any videos or anything, I went in having only seen the reveal trailer that was at the game awards, and yet again, I choked up at the end of the dlc story, where Kratos realizes that being a god doesn't mean he has to rule over everyone and everything, him coming to the conclusion of being a god of hope instead of war was heartwrenching for me. It made me love his character even more and I genuinely cannot wait for where this new journey takes him.

I just hate it when games do the "attacks are the shoulder buttons" thing, and WON'T let you change it! I grew up on light and heavy attack being the face buttons, and hours into these I still catch myself hitting square trying to do light attacks. Just have fully mappable controls!

There’s a lot of issues I have with Ragnarok but I think the biggest one for me is it’s “replay ability” problem, I think @theIJPmexican said it the best. I genuinely enjoy the combat and exploration in this game and me getting the platinum is proof of that, but the plethora of walking sections that are in this game makes me dread replaying it again even on ng+

I was kind of hoping that at some point, if Kratos really, truly forgives himself, that the ashes of his first family would simply dust-off of his skin. Then someone pops up and says something ridiculous like, "We made that the only way to get the ashes removed because we thought you'd never make it this far." I don't know that it makes sense, but it would be nice. Maybe at first he doesn't want the ashes removed, maybe he does. It doesn't have to be all in one moment, it could be a decision he makes over the course of a game. He can say to himself something like "I'm no longer haunted, also no longer a ghost."

It is alright not every Game is a masterpiece although personally I loved it and I am happy with it and it delivered for me Great video 👍

I especially like your take on Odin's final boss. It is a rule of 3 cliché but it's pitched in the best way possible IMO. Then again, for the triggers before 3rd phase that you explained was kind of fulfilled in the DLC Valhalla. Still, as always, you've delivered another great video game analysis that I really enjoy. Keep up the good work, mate

16:13 they probably opted for the love interest route because Angrboda and Loki are married in Norse Mythology and despite these games taking MANY creative liberties with the source material they try to stay at least semi consistent

This released on my birthday, so I have more of a bais for it than perhaps most. I have problems with it, but it's still become one of my favorite games.

Additions the Game Awards absolutely need: 1. 6 Performance Categories (Actor and Actress in a Sole/Primary Playable Character Role (Leon, Spider-Man, Chai, Saga Anderson), Actor and Actress in a Secondary Playable Character Role (Mary Jane, Astarion, Ryu, Peppermint) and Actor and Actress in an NPC Role (Luis Serra Navarro, Yuri Watanabe, General Ketheric Thorn), not just 1. 2. Boss Fight. 3. Adventure Game. A change The Game Awards needs to fully justify that third additional category: Best Narrative Changing to Best Non-Adventure Game Narrative. As for the Sonic Frontiers thing? 1. Genshin Impact shouldn't have even been eligible to begin with! It's not a 2022 game! 2. Bots wasn't even the worst accusation thrown at Genshin. And that worst accusation? Was 100% accurate! And even if Genshin didn't say it, they did it two times previously, so, like Pavlov's dog, the player base knew what they "had to do". GROSS. 3. Under how I'd want that Players Voice category run? ONLY Sonic Frontiers should have been eligible. NO Double Dipping from Actual Game Of The Year Nominees!

@NoCluYT

7 ай бұрын

A boss fight award will definitely raise the bar for boss fights. They haven't been as innovative and it's expected, but maybe it could spark something in the industry to go above and beyond the standard

@Volvagia1927

7 ай бұрын

@@NoCluYT Yeah. Imagining winners if the category always existed? 2014: Bayonetta 2 2015: Bloodborne 2016: Doom 2017: Persona 5 2018: God of War 2019: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 2020: Doom Eternal 2021: Resident Evil VIIIage 2022: Elden Ring 2023: Either Resident Evil 4 Remake or Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Also: Curious what you think of my other two addition ideas?

The thing with angrboda is that in mythology shes one of lokis wives so if they made her more of a older sister figure it wouldent really make sense

Awesome content as always

Man why was you cooking like that 😤 at 7:20

Legitimately my least favourite GoW game ever but its still good. As good as it was TECHNICALLY i just didnt get a good feeling from it,left a bitter taste for some reason

Great video, thought I’d share some of my thoughts, First, I will never get why people will provide their opinion on a topic they know nothing about. I would never say something like “modern GoW is better than the Greek games,” because I haven’t played the Greek games yet, and yet their are people who haven’t played any of the games who will go on about how modern GoW is ruining the series. Why does it matter that modern GoW is ruining the series if you aren’t going to play any GoW games. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Since I have played through Ragnarök several times, here are my complaints about the game. 1. Some characters like Freyr and Angrboda didn’t get nearly enough screen time to make me care about them. For example, when Freya and Freyr reconcile it doesn’t have very much impact because it’s only the second scene that Freyr is in. 2. As time goes on, I’ve started to really dislike the modern GoW camera. It works fine enough in boss fight and when there are only one or two enemies, but whenever there is a whole horde of enemies I found that pretty much the only ways to deal with them consistently was to back up until you could see all of the enemies, or to spin around while using the Blades of Chaos. Pretty much half of my deaths were from a random enemy hitting me in the back. 3. Ragnarök is pretty disappointing. It’s hyped up throughout the entire game as an all out war that is going to have devastating consequences, however when it actually happens, you easily overpower a bunch of einherjar then you fight Thor then Odin. The whole thing takes like 20 minutes and the only two big players left on the Aesir side are Thor and Odin. 4. The Atreus sections were awful. The only redeeming quality they have are the story, which is why on a subsequent play through they are even worse, because now you already know what’s going to happen in them. Lastly I think it’s important to acknowledge that everyone has different tastes. There are many more problems with GoW Ragnarök that just aren’t problems to other people because they either don’t mind them or enjoy them, even the #1 modern GoW hater, Under The Mayo, has admitted that he doesn’t hate GoW 2018 or Ragnarök, he doesn’t even think they are bad games, it’s just that there is a lot of stuff he personally doesn’t like in modern GoW simply because modern GoW is a story first and a game second.

i have only played the game once and that may effect my opinion but i think the ironwood served a large enough purpose to the story and character of atreus that it justifies the slow pacing. and i really liked the payoff with angrbodas grandmother. but from a gameplay standpoint, i definitely see it haunt me in future playthroughs.

I still haven't finished it yet because I found Atreus too profoundly annoying. I plan on playing through the game in its entirety at some point, but the writing really dragged it down for me. Aside from playing the original for a few minutes back in the 2000's this was my entry point to the series and I really want to like it but just thinking about Atreus makes me frustrated. I might go back and play the original trilogy instead first.

Please tcp do a video on Spider-Man 2 would really love ur take on the game, great video as always

I hated God of War Ragnarok because of the writing. It barely resambles what god of war used to be. People say „the series matured and grew up“ but that’s not the case with Ragnarok. It absolutely was with 2018 where it matured and grew up, but Ragnarok‘s only resemblance to OG God of War are Kratos‘ design and the Blades of Chaos, but even then, the Blades don’t have any of the significance it had in 2018

Any chance you share your workout playlist ?

How is IT not masterpiece?!

15:11 Hey bud, did you accidentally use the same voiceline twice? I noticed the exact same, "I was rooting for Angraboda from the start but wouldnt it be better if Ironwood was removed" quote used twice.

@TBP

7 ай бұрын

One of the clips are currently being removed, but KZread takes the hell of a long time too do this from the studio app

I can’t really disagree with any of what you said. I loved both games they both have their flaws and that’s perfectly okay. I do wished the third act had more time to it, but it is what it is. Hopefully sony and santa monica learns and grows from this to produce an even better game whether it be gow or another ip. A much bigger and more drawn out with odin fight was what I expected hands down. They led me to believe the whole game I’m about to get the best boss fight I’ve ever had when I got to him. When I didn’t I was genuinely disappointed at that point.

Replaying it recently my only major complaint was ironwood, and the ragnarok battle itself, everything else was perfect to me.

You cooked wayyy to hard on your version of a 3rd game. OMG I wish all that happened!!!! BTW 10/10 review ty for making it. ALSO what you said at the end needs to be put at the end of every review of a game ever!! TY!!

One year later, Trashnarock is still a masterpiece of s**t.

@TBP

7 ай бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/opatpbZrndDSp8o.htmlsi=tJgIPsf3rHwgLdaH

@JV-km9xk

7 ай бұрын

Tell that to Reddit lmao. They keep taking down posts that gives even the slightest criticism. There was a post about this video and they almost immediately took it down.

@maxiql9565

7 ай бұрын

​@@JV-km9xkstop searching good opinions on reddit, is full of tards

Bro I i teared up when you mentioned your kitty 😢

9:41 My favorite cover on Blood Upon The Snow was by Jason Ashcraft \m/

I don’t think it would’ve worked as a trilogy simply because of the gameplay. Like you said, Ragnarok was HUGE, and enough people thought there wasn’t enough change between the 2 games. I think there was, but where would they go from here? I don’t think they could’ve justified a 3rd game. I think it would overstay its welcome in both gameplay and story much more than ragnarok did

About your conclusion, odin having the mask makes no sense, because he would just use it immidiately to find the answers. The whole point is he is obscenely desperate that he will do anything to find out, he would never use it as a last resort as he has no reservations on using it. I do think that some sort of finale fighting odin where kratos is near death, and then atreus assumes the mask in rage to kill odin, and then kratos reaffirming his belief in justice not vengeance preventing a feral atreus from killing odin. At this point atreus is calmed down and prevented himself succuming to vengeance. At this point odin assumes the mask through trickery and along with surtr freya and atreus they work together to stop super odin at this point he is sealed and sindri kills him. And before this having a longer fight with thor with more engagement with jormungandr, would be epic

In the previous game Freya mentioned that all the people in midguard either died or left of their oown accord.

@victory8928

Ай бұрын

I think it is implied that those that left went to Asgard mainly since the Aesir were the gods of humanity

I thought it was really lame how they backed out of an Atreus vs Kratos storyline. It would have been really dramatic, heartbreaking, and Kratos sacrificing himself to save his son in some manner would have been the perfect end to his arc. I felt what they went with instead was half-assed, and the wishy-washy prophecy they put in just complicated the story in an unnecessary way. Also, this is not the "only natural evolution of a character" for Kratos. That's just simply not true. They could have taken his character into a lot of different directions. This is just the one they decided to go with.

I was getting ready to be a PlayStation fanboy 😅 cause I thought u we’re hating on it but u made some valid points great video

Slightly tangential, but to follow-up on your viking metal comment - which I clearly agree with - I've heard plenty of other blends of folk instrumentation with metal that are just as incredible. I'd highly recommend Akhenaten's Golden Serpent God and Emerald Tablets of Thoth for Egyptian-death metal, Eluveitie's Ategnatos for Celtic-death, Whispered's Shogunate Macabre for Japanese-death, and whatever the hell Equilibrium was smoking on Sagas, Rekreatur, and Erdentempel.

That was one thing that i noticed playing. I know Kratos is trying to do better for his son. But he is the God of War. There needs to be a point that Kratos loses it and goes back to his destructive, malicious self.... Letting Arteus see exactly why his father told him that he doesnt want to be that person anymore. But i still love the new games none the less. Ive been playing these games since the beginning and i love the story of progression with Kratos.

Only major problem I had with this game was the relationship between Thor and Odin. I get why Odin would treat Thor like that but didn’t like how emotionally damaged Thor was about it to the point of drunkenness and being depressed. And then Odin killing Thor so easily was just even more disappointing. At least offer up some type of rebellion where Thor stands up for himself.

It's greatest strength is it's pacing and crunchy combat and characters. It has to improve the balance of budget between story and gameplay. Spiritually and monetarily, I could use less dialogue and more gameplay loops in exploration and a fisticuffs skill tree like 2018. And while I love the side missions, some of the MAIN QUEST feels like a SIDE QUEST, and these moments could've been swapped with pure puzzle and combat loops. With that being said, I think this has the same influence Elden Ring will have on the gaming industry on what "open world fantasy quests" can be. Take me on a linear loop de loop rollercoaster (GOWR) or don't hold my hand and throw me in the wilderness (Elden Ring). GOWR needs a longer intro and conclusion where Kratos and Atreus are "out in the woods to fend for themselves". Literally and metaphorically. The final part didn't feel like the characters were grinded to the bone, the beginning felt more so but not enough. The middle journey is where I think the pieces of mastery lie.