Zero Punctuation: God of War 2018

Goliath100

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Thank you Yahtzee, I needed a name for the Oscar bait of gaming: The hairy dad game. Seriously, how do we have a handful of those,but no proper Guerrilla Warfare game?
 

Darth_Payn

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Wait, I thought God of War: Ascension counts as the 4th one. On home consoles, anyway.
Goliath100 said:
Thank you Yahtzee, I needed a name for the Oscar bait of gaming: The hair dad game. Seriously, how do we have a handful of those,but no proper Guerrilla Warfare game?
And he called Last of Us overrated. Shots fired! By Odin's beard, can you imagine the gaming equivalent of a chick flick?
 

C117

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The thing I remember most of this game (just from watching my younger brother play it, don't have a PS4 myself) was how in most bossfights Atreus (the BOY!) was better at taking hits than Kratos. Seriously, he could get smashed over the head with a pillar, punted 50 ft. into a wall, get stepped on like an ant, and still get up without so much as a scratch on him. Meanwhile, Kratos, the God of War, could take maybe 3 hits from the same boss before kicking the bucket.

Made me wonder why we weren't playing as Atreus instead, he was obviously more competent...
 

Worgen

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I still say got of war should have stopped being about Kratos and gone to being about some champion from another pantheon trying to kill his murderous ass. I would recommend Egypt and have the main character being about a champion of Sekhmet since shes awesome and doesn't get enough inclusion in anything.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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Worgen said:
I still say got of war should have stopped being about Kratos and gone to being about some champion from another pantheon trying to kill his murderous ass. I would recommend Egypt and have the main character being about a champion of Sekhmet since shes awesome and doesn't get enough inclusion in anything.
That was definitely a lost opportunity. I maintain that God of War II shouldn't have been about Kratos, but instead his brother or another character who lost someone to Kratos, making a statement about the destructive cycle of revenge. Instead II and III became unintentional parody (though admittedly those problematic elements were in the series from the beginning and it's weird how Cory Barlog is the one who's taken Kratos in this new direction. Guess he grew up) and as such there was no deeper substance or us wanting to root for Kratos on some level or even be interested in him. Plus there is no shortage of good, tragic Norse characters to use as a Kratos analog like Arngrim, Sigurd, and Volsung. And it's not like GoW is unique with Norse mythology either what with Valkyrie Profile and Odin Sphere already having done their own interpretations of it (including deconstructing Odin).

A for GoW2018, Barlog recently did an interview talking about how his own growth spurred him to want to take Kratos in a new direction. Fine and good, though I would argue that switching Kratos to "yummy, hairy dad" is just another sort of wish fulfillment fantasy for men, specifically older audiences who might now have responsibilities as parents (making me wonder if said developers also all saw Lone Wolf and Cub at the same time somehow and also that they're late to the party even in that what with the Yakuza series already doing the awesome dad figure for over ten years).

Also, if they're REALLY going to do this whole Norse setting, they really should commit and
just kill Kratos already. Hell, the game's ending sets up that he and Atreus have severely fucked the world by kickstarting Ragnarok earlier than expected. And while we're at it, they had best bite the bullet and kill Atreus too. He's Loki, so he's going to die, probably horribly. They really should make it clear the gods' time is over because all their decadence and selfishness has done is fuck over the world.
 

Venatio

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"The only major norse god we got to beat up was Baldur, who it seems never recovered from being in Too Human and became addicted to Meth."

Oh how long I waited for this bit of commentary. Thank you Yahtzee, you have made my day :D
 

Worgen

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Aiddon said:
Worgen said:
I still say got of war should have stopped being about Kratos and gone to being about some champion from another pantheon trying to kill his murderous ass. I would recommend Egypt and have the main character being about a champion of Sekhmet since shes awesome and doesn't get enough inclusion in anything.
That was definitely a lost opportunity. I maintain that God of War II shouldn't have been about Kratos, but instead his brother or another character who lost someone to Kratos, making a statement about the destructive cycle of revenge. Instead II and III became unintentional parody (though admittedly those problematic elements were in the series from the beginning and it's weird how Cory Barlog is the one who's taken Kratos in this new direction. Guess he grew up) and as such there was no deeper substance or us wanting to root for Kratos on some level or even be interested in him. Plus there is no shortage of good, tragic Norse characters to use as a Kratos analog like Arngrim, Sigurd, and Volsung. And it's not like GoW is unique with Norse mythology either what with Valkyrie Profile and Odin Sphere already having done their own interpretations of it (including deconstructing Odin).

A for GoW2018, Barlog recently did an interview talking about how his own growth spurred him to want to take Kratos in a new direction. Fine and good, though I would argue that switching Kratos to "yummy, hairy dad" is just another sort of wish fulfillment fantasy for men, specifically older audiences who might now have responsibilities as parents (making me wonder if said developers also all saw Lone Wolf and Cub at the same time somehow and also that they're late to the party even in that what with the Yakuza series already doing the awesome dad figure for over ten years).

Also, if they're REALLY going to do this whole Norse setting, they really should commit and
just kill Kratos already. Hell, the game's ending sets up that he and Atreus have severely fucked the world by kickstarting Ragnarok earlier than expected. And while we're at it, they had best bite the bullet and kill Atreus too. He's Loki, so he's going to die, probably horribly. They really should make it clear the gods' time is over because all their decadence and selfishness has done is fuck over the world.
I had a big post all ready to go then decided fuck it. This sums up all the games till now. Plus I doubt Atreus will last long enough to be come Loki, as soon as he becomes a teenager and mouths of to Kratedad he will be killed by Kratedad then Kratedad will go on a rampage against.... lets say the Buddhist gods, blaming them for it.
 

Casual Shinji

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Goliath100 said:
Thank you Yahtzee, I needed a name for the Oscar bait of gaming: The hair dad game. Seriously, how do we have a handful of those,but no proper Guerrilla Warfare game?
You know this game has a spirit squirrel in it that shit-talks you as it gathers consumeables for you, right? Because it does. One of the lines is literally 'There you go, fucko.' This is the most lighthearted and goofy game in the series.

But then 'oscar bait' is the new easy sneer in gaming currently. Weird how this mentallity wasn't around when games like Silent Hill 2 and Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were getting praised.
 

Lazule

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First person I see critize this game & say it's boring, everyone praises it which makes me think they were paid by the developers. Well done Yahtzee! <3
 

Goliath100

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Casual Shinji said:
But then 'oscar bait' is the new easy sneer in gaming currently. Weird how this mentallity wasn't around when games like Silent Hill 2 and Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were getting praised.
It's almost like those games doesn't use a standard formula to invoke feels or something.
 

Casual Shinji

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Goliath100 said:
Casual Shinji said:
But then 'oscar bait' is the new easy sneer in gaming currently. Weird how this mentallity wasn't around when games like Silent Hill 2 and Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were getting praised.
It's almost like those games doesn't use a standard formula to invoke feels or something.
Are you serious? One is about a boy and a girl holding hands in an evil castle. The other is a boy doing something questionable to bring a loved one back to life. And the last one is about an emotionally distraught man looking for his dead wife. The formula is pretty straightforward in what it tries to evoke.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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Worgen said:
I had a big post all ready to go then decided fuck it. This sums up all the games till now. Plus I doubt Atreus will last long enough to be come Loki, as soon as he becomes a teenager and mouths of to Kratedad he will be killed by Kratedad then Kratedad will go on a rampage against.... lets say the Buddhist gods, blaming them for it.
I get the feeling Kratos wouldn't fare as well there because this is the first thing he would see:



So to recap, Kratos is late to Norse mythology, late to the dad game, and late to the GOD dad game.
 

Canadamus Prime

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Sooooooo... let me get this straight. Kratos got himself locked into the service of Ares who then tricked him into murdering his family, then Kratos turned around and killed Ares in revenge and became the new God of War. However he was really bad at it so had to be taken down a peg, but ended up murdering all the Greek Gods. Now he's run away to Norse Mythology land and started a new family? Oh this is going to go real well.
 

SuperScrub

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Aiddon said:
Worgen said:
I had a big post all ready to go then decided fuck it. This sums up all the games till now. Plus I doubt Atreus will last long enough to be come Loki, as soon as he becomes a teenager and mouths of to Kratedad he will be killed by Kratedad then Kratedad will go on a rampage against.... lets say the Buddhist gods, blaming them for it.
I get the feeling Kratos wouldn't fare as well there because this is the first thing he would see:



So to recap, Kratos is late to Norse mythology, late to the dad game, and late to the GOD dad game.
Too be fair Asura's Wrath is about as fun to play as watching paint dry.
 

Worgen

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Aiddon said:
Worgen said:
I had a big post all ready to go then decided fuck it. This sums up all the games till now. Plus I doubt Atreus will last long enough to be come Loki, as soon as he becomes a teenager and mouths of to Kratedad he will be killed by Kratedad then Kratedad will go on a rampage against.... lets say the Buddhist gods, blaming them for it.
I get the feeling Kratos wouldn't fare as well there because this is the first thing he would see:



So to recap, Kratos is late to Norse mythology, late to the dad game, and late to the GOD dad game.
As long as someone kills his ass.
 

Dalisclock

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Canadamus Prime said:
Sooooooo... let me get this straight. Kratos got himself locked into the service of Ares who then tricked him into murdering his family, then Kratos turned around and killed Ares in revenge and became the new God of War. However he was really bad at it so had to be taken down a peg, but ended up murdering all the Greek Gods. Now he's run away to Norse Mythology land and started a new family? Oh this is going to go real well.
Actually he was a really good God of War to the point the other Greek Gods were telling him to calm the fuck down. Granted, the other gods denied him his attempt to kill himself and rejoin his family and more or less forced him to take up the title, so it's hard to feel bad for them here.

Gee, Zeus, you put just saw a complete sociopath kill the God of War. Instead of banishing this dude to the farthest reaches of the universe or just LETTING. HIM. OFF. HIMSELF. LIKE. HE. WANTED. OR. EVEN. TAKING. AWAY. HIS. NIGHTMARES. LIKE. HE. ASKED. FOR. you geniuses decide to make him a fucking god and then act totally shocked when he's not your fucking pet.

It's kind of the series biggest flaw. Kratos is a complete homicidal nutcase so you can't feel bad for him, but the Gods are dicks who enjoy fucking people over all the time so you can't really feel bad for those guys either. The only people who are sympathnic are the poor slubs who keep getting killed because they just happen to be in the way and it turns out pretty much all of them are doomed anyway because of Kratos deciding to wreck the universe by killing off all the gods.
 

Canadamus Prime

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Dalisclock said:
Canadamus Prime said:
Sooooooo... let me get this straight. Kratos got himself locked into the service of Ares who then tricked him into murdering his family, then Kratos turned around and killed Ares in revenge and became the new God of War. However he was really bad at it so had to be taken down a peg, but ended up murdering all the Greek Gods. Now he's run away to Norse Mythology land and started a new family? Oh this is going to go real well.
Actually he was a really good God of War to the point the other Greek Gods were telling him to calm the fuck down. Granted, the other gods denied him his attempt to kill himself and rejoin his family and more or less forced him to take up the title, so it's hard to feel bad for them here.

Gee, Zeus, you put just saw a complete sociopath kill the God of War. Instead of banishing this dude to the farthest reaches of the universe or just LETTING. HIM. OFF. HIMSELF. LIKE. HE. WANTED. OR. EVEN. TAKING. AWAY. HIS. NIGHTMARES. LIKE. HE. ASKED. FOR. you geniuses decide to make him a fucking god and then act totally shocked when he's not your fucking pet.

It's kind of the series biggest flaw. Kratos is a complete homicidal nutcase so you can't feel bad for him, but the Gods are dicks who enjoy fucking people over all the time so you can't really feel bad for those guys either. The only people who are sympathnic are the poor slubs who keep getting killed because they just happen to be in the way and it turns out pretty much all of them are doomed anyway because of Kratos deciding to wreck the universe by killing off all the gods.
Either way he killed his family, killed the entire Greek Pantheon, then ran away to start a new family.