God of War (series): Difference between revisions

'''''God of War''''' is a popular video game series for the [[Play StationPlayStation]] line by Sony based in ancient Greece, but an ancient Greece where all those bizarre things you read about in [[Classical Mythology]] textbooks exist. One Spartan soldier, Kratos, has a personal relationship with the Gods that can best be described as complicated. A brutal, tormented man, Kratos begins the series as the sword of Olympus, fighting the enemies of the gods while trying to escape the horrors of his past.

It featured a simple, intuitive combat interface that made fighting remarkably easy. Kratos's default [[Dual-Wielding|weapons]] are the Blades of Chaos, which are swords on the ends of very long chains and are functional as both melee weapons and

[[Whip Sword|Whip Swords]]s, or perhaps [[Sword Chucks]]. While each game gives you other weapons, many players found themselves content with these [[Awesome Yet Practical]] weapons, which allows Kratos to string together breath-taking and almost balletic combinations. (Some have complained about how this reduces the game to a [[Button Mashing|button masher]]; others love it.) Two face buttons allow the player to switch between Weak and Strong attacks; the third enables jumping, and the fourth throws and [[Finishing Move|Finishing Moves]] involving [[Action Commands]]. Many enemies and all boss battles have these finishers, turning the latter into highly cinematic [[Puzzle Boss|Puzzle Bosses]]. Finally, besides dodging and rolling, Kratos gets access to magic spells. These typically include: a ranged attack; an area-of-effect attack; a ray that causes enemies to freeze somehow; and a swarm-of-souls attack that damages everything in sight.

There have been sixeight games in the series, with a seventhninth announced.

* '''''God of War''''' was released for [[Play StationPlayStation 2]] in 2005. Kratos [[In Medias Res|begins]] by declaring that "The gods of Olympus have abandoned me" and flinging himself over [[Despair Event Horizon|the tallest cliff in Greece]]; the rest of the game details [[How We Got Here]]. In this extended flashback, Kratos is charged by Athena with the task of killing Ares, the God of War, who has declared war on Athens; to do this, he will have to [[Dungeon Crawling|dungeon-crawl]] through the Temple of Pandora and find Pandora's Box, which contains in it the power to kill a god. In return, Athena offers him absolution for his [[Dark and Troubled Past]], in which he served Ares as a [[Blood Knight]] and was [[Batman Gambit|manipulated]] into slaying his beloved wife and daughter. After a long, arduous journey, including [[Once an Episode|being killed but escaping from Hades]], Kratos succeeds at his labor. [[Exact Words|Athena, unfortunately, was only speaking literally]] -- she forgives Kratos' sins, but she cannot take away his [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die|personal guilt]] or end his [[Bad Dreams|recurring nightmares]]. Kratos, despairing, [[Driven to Suicide|re-enacts the game's opening scene]]. Athena does have a consolation prize, though: with Ares dead, there is an empty throne on Mt. Olympus...

* '''''God Ofof War II''''' was released for [[Play StationPlayStation]] 2 in 2007. Kratos, now [[Klingon Promotion|the new]] [[Legacy Character|god of war]], leads his Spartans in a bloody conquest of Greece, heedless of the mutterings of other gods who think he's out of control. Zeus takes matters into his own hands by stripping Kratos of his godhood and slaying him. Kratos escapes Hades with the help of the titan Gaia, who tells him to travel to the Island of Creation, where [[The Hecate Sisters]] work the Loom of Fate and can change his destiny. After a game's worth of adventures, Kratos uses the Loom to travel back to the moment of his death and manages to escape with his life... but Athena [[Taking the Bullet|gets involved]] in the resulting brawl, leading to her death. She reveals that Zeus will never stop trying to kill him, because of a recurring Greek prophecy that the current king-god will be overthrown by his son. Zeus did it to his father Cronos; [[Luke, I Am Your Father|Kratos might do it to Zeus]]. Kratos, now royally pissed off, changes his goal from "survive" to "kill my father," and uses the Loom to help the Titans stage a full-on invasion of Olympus. [[Cliff Hanger]].

* '''''God of War: Betrayal''''' was released for mobile phones in 2007. Taking place during Kratos's crusade as the new god of war, Kratos finds himself in hot water when he's framed for the murder of one of Hera's pet monstrosities. It also details Kratos's blood lust getting the better of him, leading him to [[Shoot the Messenger]]--in this case, Hermes' son Ceryx, who had come to warn him that the gods thought Kratos's blood lust was getting the better of him. Whoops. (This may be the only game that does not feature a visit to Hades, but so few people have played it that this is difficult to verify.)

* '''''God of War: Chains of Olympus''''' was released for the [[Play StationPlayStation Portable]] in 2008. Taking place before the first game, it details the first time Kratos was used as a sort of celestial hit man. Morpheus, the god of sleep, is running rampant, because Helios, god of the sun, has gone missing. Athena has Kratos look into the matter, and he discovers that Persephone has masterminded the situation. Feeling betrayed by her [[Arranged Marriage]] to Hades, she has kidnapped Helios and given his power to the titan Atlas, who plans to destroy Olympus with it. Kratos must abandon his daughter Calliope and bring an end to Persephone's scheming... permanently.

* '''''[[God Ofof War III]]''''' was released for [[PlayStationPlay Station 3]] in 2010. Picking up exactly where ''II'' left off, it details Kratos and the Titans' assault on Olympus. After killing Poseidon, Kratos is betrayed by Gaia and [[Running Gag|tossed into the underworld]], but escapes and begins to climb Mount Olympus, killing all who stand in his path--Hades, Perses [sic], Helios, Hercules, Cronos, Hephaestus, Hera--and learning that Pandora's Box still exists, now deep in the Labyrinth and guarded by an eternal fire which can only be snuffed out if Pandora herself immolates herself on it. This proves troubling, because as Kratos [[Escort Mission|escorts Pandora]] through the dungeon, he begins to think of her as a daughter. Kratos wants to kill Zeus, but he also wants his family back. Which one will he choose?... (Who are we kidding, it's a video game. But there's sufficient [[Character Development]] to make us believe that Kratos actually has qualm about killing Pandora, so, kudos there.) This is officially the end of the trilogy, but not the franchise.

* '''''God Ofof War: Ghost of Sparta''''' was released for PSP in 2010. It starts with a flashback to Kratos' childhood, in which he trains with his brother Deimos. Deimos is believed to be [[The Chosen One]] who will topple Olympus, and so he is kidnapped by the gods, particularly Ares. In "the present day" (some time between ''I'' and ''Betrayal'') of gameplay proper, Kratos decides to find out what became of his brother...

ThePrior to the remake/sequel in 2018, the games don't change much from the original (which, considering the first game sold [[Eleventy-Zillion]] copies and won approximately the same number of awards, is unsurprising); the combat interface is almost completely unchanged, and while Kratos loses his magical powers at the beginning of the second game, the Magic granted to him throughout the game closely resembles the powers he earned in the first.

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: In-game example. It would explain how Kratos can score threesomes so easily...

* [[Love Makes You Dumb|Anger Makes You Dumb]]: A possible explanation for Kratos's [[Plot Induced Stupidity]] throughout the series. Kratos is so intent on avenging his family's death (and later Zeus' betrayal) that he fails to see when Zeus (and {{spoiler|Gaia}}, {{spoiler|[[Rule of Three|andthen Hephaestus]]}}, {{spoiler|[[Serial Escalation|and finally Athena]]}}) are playing him like a harp. But Olympus help them when [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|Kratos finds out about it...]]

* [[Anti-Hero]]: In the first and third game Kratos is a [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type V]], while in the second game he is a [[Villain Protagonist]].

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: Kratos' mission in life is to put this trope to the test. He even gets himself killed a half -dozen times( - [[Death Is Cheap|not that they stick, but...]])

** Ares in the first game.

** Played straight in the 3rd game where {{spoiler|he had the power of hope inside of him the whole time after opening Pandora's box to fight Ares. Even though he owes the now-dead Athena nothing, he kills himself with the Blade of Olympus, letting its power seep into the now ruined world and Athena is simply disappointed in Kratos.}}.

** Actually, Poseidon may be the biggest boss out of everyone. The base of his body was at the base of Mount Olympus where the ocean is. The rest of his body was busy fighting Gaia and Kratos, at least halfway up the mountain.

* [[Attack of the Monster Appendage]]: Scylla in ''Ghost of Sparta'' and later Poseidon himself in ''III''. Both are type 2.

* [[Badass]]: Over the course of four games, Kratos has killed {{spoiler|Ares, Athena (albeit unintentionally), Medusa, Charon, the Hydra, the Kraken, Perseus, Theseus, Icarus, all three Sisters of Fate, Euryale ([[Grimmification|The World's Most Family-Oriented Gorgon]]), Persephone, Poseidon, Hades, Helios, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hera, Gaia, Cronos, Daedalus, Herakles, Callisto, Scylla, Erinys, Thanatos, Ceryx, Argos, and of course, Zeus.}}. He also destroyed the Colossus of Rhodes and sunk the city of Atlantis. He seems to be working his way through a textbook on Ancient Greece. This, of course, does not count the scads of random villains he has cut down, maimed {{spoiler|(Typhon)}}, or imprisoned {{spoiler|(Atlas)}}. Nor does it count the handful of basically innocent people he's come across and killed... including one very unlucky ship's captain, who he kills off in a semi-comical manner not once, but three separate times.

{{quote| '''Hera''': (''[[The Maze|in Hera's Garden]]'') Your brute strength may have bested Hercules, but your simple mind could never find the way out of here. I look forward to watching you die here, ''as an old man''.}}

* [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]: Kratos has escaped from the Afterlife not once, not twice, not three times but ''[[Serial Escalation|four]]'' times. There's also the Barbarian King, whom Kratos killed before the first game began and who returned as a boss in the second.

** This is probably partly true. In ''God of War 2II'', Kratos is saved by {{spoiler|Gaia before he actually dies}} - but in 3III, Kratos might have survived his fall from Olympus because offor that exact reason., But he escapedescaping Hell becauseafter he {{spoiler|killed Hades.}}.

* [[Bad Dreams]]

* {{spoiler|[[Bastard Bastard]]: {{spoiler|Kratos is revealed to be one of Zeus' many illegitimate children in the second game.}}.

* [[Beard of Barbarism]]: The Barbarian King is also the KING''king'' of this trope.

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: Oh, Ares. {{spoiler|If you so much wanted to make Kratos stronger, didn't you thoughtthink you should redirect his anger toward someone else than you? [[Tempting Fate|Talk about asking for it]]!}}

* [[Berserk Button]]: In Hera's final scene, Kratos actually tries to go around her, even though she tried to have him killed several times, until she calls Pandora a whore... And you have a over-the-shoulder view facing Kratos when she says it. From this vantage point, you just know that she's going to get it.

** Probably Kratos' angriest moment in the series (which is really saying something), is when {{spoiler|Thanatos kills Deimos.}} He really loses his shit.

* [[Big Bad Ensemble]]: Kratos and Zeus are directly responsible for much of the conflict in this series.

** Ares, who's the freaking GOD''God OFof WARWar'' himself...{{spoiler|well until Kratos took over}}.

* [[Book Ends]]: {{spoiler|The first begins with Kratos jumping off the highest mountain in Greece saying "the Gods of Olympus have abandoned me.", He jumps off a cliff again saying the exact same line near the end of the last game, while in a vision caused by being killed (temporarily) by Zeus. Also, [[The Stinger]] at the end of the third game shows a blood trail leading from where [[Never Found the Body|Kratos body used to be]] to the edge of a cliff off Mt. Olympus}}.

* [[Bottle Fairy]]: Hera spends most of her time drinking herself into a stupor while the rest of the Gods and Titans fight. Dionysus himself would probably tell her to lay off the wine and sleep it off. Although, seeing the devastation and gore caused by said battle, you can't blame her for wanting to drink ''hard''.

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Sheer murderousness aside, Kratos has a few striking similarities with the Hercules of legend, including accidentally killing his own family in a fit of madness, as well as his habit of tearing apart monsters and using their body parts as armor or weapons (see Hercules skinning the nigh-invulnerable Nemean lion after he killed it and wearing the skin, and dipping his arrows in the poisonous blood of the Hydra). It becomes all the more amusing when Hercules finally shows up in ''God of War III'' and claims that Kratos is stealing his thunder. Considering that Kratos has already killed the Hydra, [[Did Not Do theFridge ResearchBrilliance|he may well be right]].

* [[Chain Lightning]]: The Nemesis Whip is, a visualchain-whipe punthat onproduces this;lightning it'sand yetdoubles anotheras chain-weapona for[[Visual Kratos,Pun]] andon it produces chain lightningthis.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The giant sword that Kratos uses as a bridge immediately after saving the Oracle. In the final battle, {{spoiler|he uses it after Ares strips him of all his abilities, and stabs the God of War through the chest.}}. In the second game, the Fates use their time-travel powers to try and prevent this gun from being fired.

** In ''GoWGod of War III'', at one point you take a brief trip inside Gaia while trying to save her from one of bigform-Poseidon's crab-horse-claw-things. You pass by her very heart, the passageway to which was opened up by Poseidon's attacks. {{spoiler|Three guesses as to where the final fight of the game takes place, and the first two don't count.}}.

* [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]: {{spoiler|1=Pandora's Box in the''God GoWof 3War III''}}.

* [[Colossus Climb]]: Most notably, the minotaur fight in ''God Of War'', as well as a platforming element that was important in the Hydra battle. In the sequelsequels, the player climbs on and inside a literal Colossus: the Colossus of Rhodes, and faces Titans so massive their bodies often ''are'' the stage.

** It will also includeincluded a code for unlocking [[Preview Piggybacking|an exclusive God Of War III demo]] (as did, of all things, the ''[[District 9]]'' Blu-Ray).

* [[Cosmic Plaything]]: Kratos, duh. In his own words: "I am what the Gods have made me!" Hell, at first it's implied it's he's a literal case by the Sisters of Fate, but even after he kills them he's still one.

* [[Cross Counter]]: Kratos and Hercules have one of these when {{spoiler|Kratos steals the right Nemean Cestus. If Kratos wins the duel, he will steal the left Nemean Cestus.}}. Zeus and Kratos has one of these in the end.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: What the games claim to be in regards to their [[Classical Mythology]] source material. Like in [[Bloodier and Gorier]] above, [[Values Dissonance]] strikes again, since the Religion of Ancient Greece was quite dark and edgy to begin with. If anything, the games are [[Darker and Edgier]] than the [[Harryhausen Movie|Harryhausen Movies]]s they are allegedly inspired from, if only because those were [[Lighter and Softer]] than the original stories.

** The Odyssey was dark, but it ''didn't involve the '''known world''' getting completely devastated!!!''

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: Hades, avertingaverts the [[Everybody Hates Hades|stupidusual stereotype]],s and who has genuine reasons to hate Kratos, {{spoiler|as well as thethere implicationbeing implications that all of his less likable traits are the fault of Pandora's Box fault}}, except maybe greed, if the manuals are to be considered reliable (and thus adding [[Fridge Logic]] to his plans for Kratos). Arguably some of the titans as well, since Zeus was the one with the [[Disproportionate Retribution|brilliant idea]] of punishing them forever for "the sins of just one".

* [[Depth Perplexion]]: An ''entire puzzle'' is made out of this in III, in Hera's Garden in the third game. Basically, when you activate a switch, a green filter appears on the screen, the camera zooms away and stairways that are only adjacent by perspective become connected for real. You willcan thus get atto the top of the garden through completely disconnected platforms, without having to perform a single jump.

* [[Determinator]]: Kratos. Nothing will ever stand in his way for revenge. Whatever it's the barbarians, other Greek soldiers, nasty monsters, geographic difficulties, the fires of Hades, the gods or Death and Fate itself. All those who's stupid enough to do it anyway WILL be ''very'' sorry. Also The Barbarian King, who fought Hades just as hard as Kratos, and the Last Spartan soldier, who came just as far as Kratos in the temple of the Sisters of Fate, even though he was just a mere mortal.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: During the beginning of God of War II, when {{spoiler|you are still allied with the gods}}, the save screen says " {{spoiler|Zeus}} has given you the opportunity to save your progress.". Later in the game, that named is changed to {{spoiler|Gaia}}. In the third game, {{spoiler|when Kratos is essentially waging his own war on his own terms}}, there is no message.

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: |Did youYou justJust horriblyPunch slaughterOut aThe GreekEntire godClassical / demigod / minor mythological creatureMythos?]]

* [[Disappointed in You]]: At the end of the third game, {{spoiler|Athena}} says this to Kratos when he {{spoiler|runs himself through with the Blade of Olympus, giving the power of hope to the humans instead of her.}}

* [[Disney Villain Death]]: Icarus in ''II''. Specifically {{spoiler|falling into the pits of Tartarus.}}.

* [[Dude, Where's My Respect?]]: Most notably between the first two games. Part of the whole ''reason'' Kratos waged wars alongside the Spartans was because the gods didn't even accept him as the new God of War.

* [[Dynamic Loading]]: received a great deal of applause for this, hiding the loading behind long corridors and hiding ''those'' behind [[Scenery Porn]], resulting in a game that is almost seamless. (A cheap & meaningless form of [[Sequence Breaking]] is to traverse those long corridors at faster-than-running speed—via [[Unnecessary Combat Roll|Unnecessary Combat Rolls]]s, for instance—to cause an actual [[Loading Screen]] to pop up.)

** [[An Ice Person]]: {{spoiler|Horn of Boreas in Ghost of Sparta.}}.

* {{spoiler|[[The End of the World as We Know It]]}}: {{spoiler|[[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|What Kratos' actions lead to in III]] (although it is unclear whether it happens to the entire world or just Greece).}}

** Kratos does this ''again'' in God of War III, dragging "Poseidon's Princess", along with him in order to use her still living body to jam a gear mechanism so that he can make it through a door. She is very painfully crushed.

* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: Due to [[No Name Given]] (a lot of them at that), this is natural. Even Pathos Verdes III, who's one of the very few NPCs with an actual name, he's more often called Pandora's Architect. Even with [[The Reveal]] of the Barbarian King's name and Kratos' Wife, there still addressed as such. Granted, this is probably because most people aren't even aware that they've been revealed, due to the names being revealed in the God of War miniseries of comics. Also, their names are {{spoiler|Alrik and Lysandra}} [[Spoiler Hound|in case you're wondering]].

* [[Evil Albino]]: Kratos, though technically he isn't an albino, - he's permanently "covered in ashes" as a result of his curse.

* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: Potentially the main redeeming factor for {{spoiler|Kratos}} is whether you feel {{spoiler|he was a worse person for being the ''almost'' unrepentant blatantly [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal-by-default Maniac]] he is by series' end}} or that {{spoiler|the gods are worse beings than him}}.

* [[Evil Gloating]]: Hercules' undoing. {{spoiler|He actually manages to knock Kratos out, but he stops to boast to Hera. Kratos revivescomes to and takes this opportunity to steal the Nemean Cestus from him.}}.

** While the first and the third games were of the [[Black and Gray Morality]] category, it's played straight in the second game. It's Kratos, who's pretty much the main villain then, against Zeus, who's a paranoid dictator.

* [[Fan Disservice]]: Euryale & Clotho in the second. * shudders*

** As of Ghost of Sparta, it now isn't the only one. He also mercy kills {{spoiler|his mother and King Midas}}.

*** This explanation causes a bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]] when you see how small the amount of experience you get from {{spoiler|Callisto is. Of course Kratos wouldn't want to bathe his weapons in the blood of his own mother.}}.

* [[Guest Fighter]]: Kratos appears as one in ''[[Soul Calibur]]: Broken Destiny'', the [[PlayStationPlay Station 3]] version of ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'', and ''[[Play StationPlayStation All -Stars Battle Royale]]''.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: In ''God Of War III'', Hermes completely deconstructs Kratos in the path of the Caverns and he can only listen. {{spoiler|Before his death, Hermes gives a big one to Kratos, and later on, it's revealed that it actually registered on Kratos, something Zeus hadmade use of during his mindmental attack on the K-manKratos}}.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|At the end of the fight with Zeus when you are about to stab him with his own Blade of Olympus, Athena, the only god who showed any form of compassion to Kratos takes the blow instead and is killed.}}. This scene is also a bit of a [[Tear Jerker]] since it is Oneone of the few times Kratos shows genuine remorse for killing someone.

** In II, {{spoiler|he impales Theseus with his own spear (must've gotten bored doing it to just satyrs) and plays a a very easy game of whack-a-mole with the undead Barbarian King's own hammer. The mole? The king's head.}}.

* [[Homage]]: The Labyrinth in the third game reminds one of ''[[Cube]]''.

* [[Hot Coffee Minigame]]: describedDescribed above. Amusingly, ''Kratos'' gets paid if you do it successfully. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?...

{{quote| ''"You challenge ME, mortal? A GOD of OLYMPUS?!"''}}

{{quote| ''"WHO breaks my CHAINS OF TORMENT?!"''}}

{{quote| ''FEEL THE POWER OF THE SUN!!!''}}

{{quote| '''Athena''': Your sins are forgiven. [[Jedi Truth|But we never promised]] [[Exact Words|to remove your nightmares]]. No man, no god, could ''ever'' forget the terrible things you have done.}}

** Exceptions include Athena {{spoiler|at least, until the end of III}}, Hephaestus, and Artemis. Hades probably counts as well, seeing as he only attacks you after reminding you that you've killed his niece, his brother and his wife.

** Hades? He's hardlyis a nicelesser guyexample, at least where Kratos is concerned. Sure, his hatred for Kratos is justified but- youthe forgetman thatkilled several of Hades's family, after all! - but he still {{spoiler|kidnaps his niece and forces her to become his wife and when her mother demands her return, Hades tricks her into eating fruit from the underworld ensuring that she has to stay in the underworld at least 1/3 of the year.}}. Persephone even hated him and the rest of the gods so much, she {{spoiler|tried to destroy the world, herself included, just to be free of her miserable existence.}} Although Hades isn't as much of a [[Jerkass God]] as some of the other gods, he still counts somewhat.

* [[Journey to the Center of the Mind]] : Done in God of War 3. {{spoiler|Kratos ''loses'' the final fight against Zeus, and while he's dying he explores his own mind and allegedly gains the power of hope and redemption, and blahblahblah and comescoming back to life...and thenwith hea goesvengeance backand tothe hisresolve oldto "Solvefinally alldefeat problemsZeus byonce doingand intensefor violence at them" schtick.all}}.

* [[Just Eat Him]]: This is how Kronos attempted to prevent his own offspring from rising up against him: devouring them as infants! (They- they survived because they're gods). {{spoiler|He later [[Too Dumb to Live|tries this on Kratos as well]], chuckling "This will probably hurt me more than you!"}} [[Irony|He doesn't know how right he is]]}}.

* [[Kick the Dog]]:

** Zeus gets one in the third game, when {{spoiler|Pandora seems to have sacrificed herself in vain and- Kratos becomes all sad}}. Zeus thenhe mocks Kratos about how, no matter much he tries, he always fails, and then laughs hard about it. Kratos is [[Berserk Button|not amused.]]}}.

* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: The trophy names in the [[PlayStationPlay Station 3]] re-release make no attempt to hide the plot details of the first two games.

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Zeus, [[Shock and Awe|no pun intended]], is insanely fast and strong. {{spoiler|Hercules, when his heavy armor and weapons are removed, changes from a [[Mighty Glacier]] to this. He even uses the [[Flash Step]].}} Not to mention Kratos himself.

* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: {{spoiler|Zeus is Kratos' father. Hercules and Ares are Kratos' brothers.}}

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Ares, Zeus, {{spoiler|Gaia, and Athena.}}.

** It also roughly translates to "power with an impact".

* [[Medusa]]{{context}}

* [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds]]: Everytime you {{spoiler|1=kill a god in GoW3}}, something terrible happens to Greece. For example: {{spoiler|killing Posideon floods the country.}}.

** Not only the greekGreek one though. In ''Chain of Olympus'', the Persian King face you with the power of an Efreet, a creature from Arab Floklore... so it's plausible that there are other gods out there..

* [[Never Found the Body]]: {{spoiler|[[The Stinger]] in God Of War III shows a blood trail that leads off a cliff.}}

* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: {{spoiler|Persephone had just gotten Kratos to cast aside his blades and renounce his powers as the Ghost of Sparta so that he can be with his daughter in the Elysian Fields. All she needs to do in order to win is ''leave him alone'' for a few hours so that her plan can be completed while he's playing with Calliope. Instead, she makes a point of telling him that she's the villain of the game (Somethingsomething he didn't have the slightest inkling of until she explained her plan), and that thanks to his actions the world will soon be destroyed, and that the Elysian Plains and all the spirits living there will be destroyed with it. This motivates Kratos to reclaim his powers and save the world.}}.

* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]: Hera tried to convince Zeus to kill Kratos when he was a infant, but Zeus took pity on him and didn't kill him, and without Kratos {{spoiler|the evils of Pandora's box would have stayed locked away. Also the Greek Pantheon apart from maybe Ares would be alive.}}.

* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] : Kratos is more the god of this trope than he is the God of War. Special mention goes to the {{spoiler|end of the Poseidon fight, where Kratos brutally beats, mutilates, and then finally murders the sea god, with the latter being ''completely helpless'' the ''entire time''. Just in case you weren't sure Kratos was a [[Complete Monster]] yet.}}.

** The {{spoiler|penultimate scene of the whole seriesoriginal ''is'' one of these.}}.

* [[No Name Given]]: With the exception of Kratos, Calliope, and Pathos Verdes III (Pandora's Architect) no character that wasn't originally from [[Greek Mythology]] has a name. {{spoiler|Subverted, somewhat, in the God of War comics where the Barbarian King (Alrik) and Kratos' Wife's (Lysandra) names have been given.}}. The Novel as well, where, for example it is stated that the two girls on Kratos' ship are daughters of Aphrodite.

{{quote| '''Zeus:''' ''Kratos''! I created you..! ''And I shall be'' '''YOUR END!!!'''}}

* [[Omnicidal Maniac]]: Persephone. Oh God, Persephone. ''Chains of Olympus'' actually portrays her as fairly sympathetic.

** Actually averted, : {{spoiler|it's the Domain of Death, aka the palace of Thanatos the God of Death.}}.

* [[Please Don't Leave Me]]: In Chains of Olympus, {{spoiler|Calliope uses this on Kratos, when he's forced to leave her forever in order to become the Ghost of Sparta again so he can defeat Persephone.}}. The game even twists the knife by making {{spoiler|his pushing her away}} into a button-mashing minigame!

* [[Press X to Not Die]]: ''God of War'' may not have invented the Quick Time Event, but it's certainly popularized it, to the point where it could be considered thea [[Trope Codifier]].

* [[Prophecy Twist]]: {{spoiler|In Ghost of Sparta, it's explained that an oracle prophesied that a "marked warrior" would overthrow the Olympians. Zeus, deciding he'd rather have none of that, sends Ares and Athena to abduct Deimos who apparently fit the description with his birthmark. Only problem is, the prophecy didn't specify exactly what KIND of mark it would be. Three guesses as to who had the true mark.}}

* [[Punched Across the Room]]: Hercules does this to Kratos everytimeevery time he lands a blow.

* [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]: While designing the look of Kratos, and various other characters in the game, the art team was frustrated because they kept getting told that it "didn't look Greek enough.". They were using actual Greek sources, and doing extensive research into Greek mythology in an effort to get everything correct. But eventually they came to realize that "Greek" should mean "Greek according to the general public,", since that was the audience they were targeting.

** This might also explain why so many think the series is [[Darker and Edgier]] than the myths, despite it actually being the other way around: so many people grow up with white-washed versions of the myths, and the games are certainly much darker and more brutal than the [[Harryhausen Movie|Harryhausen movies]] that inspired thems.

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Every god in the third game has one to some degree, along with some [[Evil Gloating]]. The kicker? Their accusations of Kratos being a monster who seeks only destruction and vengeance are far from unfounded. Special mention to Zeus who mocks Kratos for failing everyone he's ever cared about.

* [[Retcon]]: It is mentioned at least twice in the first game that Kronos (who carries the Temple of Pandora) is the only living Titan, but since the plot of the second game revolves around Gaia and the Titans in general, this minor plot point was quietly ignored - although we don't actually see Gaia in person until the end, and the other Titans were inprisoned (with Atlas being stuck in the Underworld).

** AlthoughOne wecould don'targue actuallythat seesince Gaiathey were imprisoned in personTartarus, untilone of the endlands andof the dead, the other Titans were inprisoned(Atlasessentially beingdead stuck inby the Underworld)standards of Greek mythology.

* [[Sadly Mythtaken]]: Just about everything. A special award goes to** Pandora's Box, whichpartially hasaverts inthis, commonthough withseemingly thenot originalat legend: 1first. It's a{{spoiler|Rhe box (Actuallyindeed Pandora'scontained Boxthe wasevils aof ''pithos'',the aworld typeand ofhope. jar,The butonly there was a mistranslationthing that stuck);truly 2.changes They'reis boththat fromthe Greeceevils (Althoughin the Godbox ofwere Warintended Greecefor containsmankind ain desert);the andoriginal 3.Hesiodic Somethingmyth, happens if you open it (not the same something, just generally ''something'')gods}}.

** He met Aphrodite, but um... she was conquered in a completely different way.

* [[Self-Made Orphan]]: {{spoiler|Kratos}}. ''Ghost of Sparta'' takes it a step further and {{spoiler|has Kratos kill his mother, who had been transformed into a monster, as well}}.

* [[Sequence Breaking]]: Entire communities on [[Game FAQsGameFAQs]] and [[YouTube]] are devoted to finding new breaks, primarily for the three console games. For example, it's possible to beat the entire first game without collecting ''any'' magic or the Blade of Artemis. It's also possible, even without [[New Game+|Bonus Play]], to use an out-of-bounds swimming glitch to essentially warp from acquiring the Amulet of the Fates straight to Icarus (the downside being that you have to play the rest of the game [[Oh Crap|without the Barbarian Hammer, Head of Euryale, Golden Fleece or Spear of Destiny.]]

** The third game, however, seems to miss the point ofsubverts a discretion shot.this: While Kratos has sex with Aphrodite (technically his great-aunt by strange shenanigans regarding Ouranus's genitals, or his half-sister depending on the version) the camera pans... to two of Aphrodite's slave girls feeling each other up while watching the whole thing. The two handmaidens murmur about how it's for mature audiences and parents shouldn't let their children watch it while fondling each others' naked breasts... Succeed, and there is ''another'' discretion shot, as the two maidens "go to the next step" and the camera pans back to Aphrodite.

* [[Shoo the Dog]]: actuallyActually made into a '''QTE''' in ''Chains of Olympus'', as Kratos {{spoiler|pushes Calliope away from him so he can acually bring himself to leave her side again, in order to regain his powers and defeat Persephone}}.

** Outdone by Aphrodite in ''III'', whose outfit consists of a strip of cloth across her chest (- which is so thin that it doesn't cover her breasts) - and another covering her hips. It also seems to be her maidenmaidens's standard outfit.

{{quote| '''Narrator''': But he would soon learn the true cost of such power. A cost too high even for Kratos to pay.}}

* [[Stop Helping Me!]]: The tutorials pop-ups in the first game are very... thorough in their controls assistance. Made worse by their tendency to appear a significant period of time after the player already figured out whatever they're mentioning and the inability to skip past them for several seconds.

* [[Strong as They Need to Be]]: GoW 2 provides a villain example . {{spoiler|The Blade of Olympus kills Athena in one stab, yet you spend the last twenty minutes before that stabbing Zeus with it in both gameplay and cutscenes, yet he just walks off like it was nothing. It seems to work fine in the third game after a final epic battle, although the finishing blow ends up being more... [[Refuge in Audacity|personal]]}}.

* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: This series' approach to time travel is completely baffling. {{spoiler|1=Kratos travels back in time to the Titanomachy, but somehow Gaia already knows about her future plan to ally with Kratos. What's more, he takes the titans out of the past, which would presumably change major aspects of the future. Atlas is a particularly problematic example, since he has a major role in Chains of Olympus and also plays a key part in GoW2, the adventure in which Kratos acquires his time travel powers, which potentially creates a Grandfather paradox.}}. Overall, there appears to be no causality whatsoever between time periods.

* [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]: {{spoiler|Pandora}}.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: The game is not just full of delightfully malicious attacks, it even ''forces'' players to be [[Jerkass|Jerk Asses]]es.

* [[Villain Ball]]: {{spoiler|Caught by the entire Greek pantheon with the opening of Pandora's Box and dropped post-mortem. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|With apocalyptic results]].}}

** Also, boss fights (Thethe final Hydra fight in particular) frequently end up with [[Press X to Not Die|Action Command]] [[Finishing Move|finishing moves]] with dramatic camera movements and deaths that could have been far less brutal. [[Rule of Cool]], and all that.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?]]: Lampshaded in the third game. There's a sex minigame that's played with Aphrodite as your partner. The camera then pans over to her two female concubines who provide reactions and commentary while you put in the action commands. One of the bits of commentary is as follows: [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"Wow, this really is for mature audiences only!" "Parents shouldn't let their kids watch this!"]]

** Subverted in God of War III. {{spoiler|Kratos actually refuses to let Pandora sacrifice herself.}}.

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