God of War III

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Not pictured:Sanity.
The measure of a man is what he does with power.
—Plato, greek philosopher

God of War III is an Action Adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. A sequel to 2007's God of War II, God of War III is the fifth installment in the God of War series, the seventh entry chronologically, and the last of the games to deal with the Greek era. First released for the PlayStation 3 on March 16, 2010, God of War III was also included in the God of War Saga released for PlayStation 3 on August 28, 2012. In celebration of the God of War franchise's tenth anniversary, God of War III Remastered was released for the PlayStation 4 on July 14, 2015.

Picking up where the Cliff Hanger of God of War II left off, Kratos - who has held the title of God of War ever since slaying Ares in the very first game - has rescued the Titans from their defeat in the Great War and declared the second Titanomachy against the Olympian Gods. The Titans climb their way up Mount Olympus itself to confront Zeus and his supporters, with Kratos standing on the back of Gaia and declaring that he has brought the destruction of Olympus. The divine inhabitants of Olympus bring the fight to the Titans, with the sea god Poseidon confronting Kratos directly as the opening battle of the game.

Upon defeating and killing Poseidon, Kratos confronts the King of the Gods, who blasts him and Gaia off Mount Olympus without even a fight. Gaia dismisses Kratos as just a pawn and refuses to help him as he falls, leaving him to fall into the Underworld and lose a good chunk of his powers in the process. While carving his way out of Hades, Kratos meets an unexpected familiar face: the now-dead Athena, who exists as a ghost-like entity. She surprises Kratos by offering him her assistance in killing Zeus - but in order to do so, Kratos must retrieve the box of Pandora from Mount Olympus, with the Olympian Gods standing between him and his vengeance in order to preserve Zeus's rule.

The game features a revamped magic system, a wider variety of enemies, and improved Fixed Camera angles; gameplay is similar to previous installments, with combo-focused combat and a selection of various weapons acquired through the game, and various Quick Time Events. Kratos can be equipped with up to four magical attacks and a power-enhancing ability.

God of War III was critically acclaimed upon release - it is the second best-selling game in the series and the ninth best-selling PlayStation 3 game of all time, selling nearly 5.2 million copies worldwide by June 2012. The game received praise for its graphics, gameplay, and scope, although the plot received mixed reviews. God of War III received several awards, including "Most Anticipated Game of 2010" and "Best PS3 Game" at the 2009 and 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, respectively, and the "Artistic Achievement" award at the 2011 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Video Game Awards.

Initially believed to be the last game in the series, 2018 surprised fans with the release of a sequel titled God of War on April 20, serving as a distant sequel with an Older and Wiser Kratos that shifts the focus to Norse Mythology.

Tropes used in God of War III include:
  • Ancient Greece: The setting of the game, naturally. Much of which meets its demise by the end of the game.
  • Anti-Hero: Kratos is a Type V here, motivated by nothing more than vengeance. Not even the natural disaster he unleashes by killing Poseidon gives him any cause for regret... but regret comes to him eventually.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Revealed to be the fate of Athena at the end of the previous game. Thanks to her saving the life of Zeus, she has become an angel-like creature that lives along the River Styx. She's also fully transparent.
  • The Atoner: Played straight. Kratos discovers he had the power of hope inside of him the whole time after he first opened Pandora's box to fight Ares. Now owing Athena nothing, he kills himself with the Blade of Olympus, letting its power seep into the now-ruined world and leaving Athena disappointed.
  • Attack of the Monster Appendage: Poseidon, the second boss, is a Type 2.
  • Awesomeness Meter: Rage of Sparta.
  • Back from the Dead: Kratos in series tradition, which also doubles as the equally-traditional...
  • Bag of Spilling: A well-established tradition at the beginning of the game.
  • Berserk Button: Do not make jabs at Kratos's family.
    • Hermes taunts Kratos about how they died by his hands, and becomes an amputee for his troubles.
    • In Hera's garden, Kratos actually tries to go around her and leave, even though she tried to have him killed several times, until she calls Pandora a whore... and you have an over-the-shoulder view facing Kratos as she says it. Unsurprisingly, this culminates in her demise.
    • When Zeus brings up Kratos's family, the God of War actually lets Pandora go into the flames - something he was trying to desperately prevent - and beats Zeus to death.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Kratos defies Athena's ambitions and breaks the cycle of tyranny by throwing himself off a cliff to his apparent death, releasing hope back into the world and denying Athena its power.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: This game heavily ramps up the carnage, to the point where the studio couldn't release some screenshots on gaming news websites without being censored. They even had an independent engine in place to animate enemies being ripped to pieces and having their organs fall out. Some highlights:
    • Kratos disemboweling a centaur boss, complete with spilling organs.
    • Kratos ripping the eyes out of Cyclopes as before, with a much more graphic animation that includes blood flooding out of the socket and sinews hanging from the eye
    • Kratos ripping off Helios's head and then using it as a flashlight.
    • The end result of the fight against Hercules - Kratos defeats the wily and cunning champion, then kills him by punching him in the face. Over and over, and over... and over... until his face stops resembling a face so much as a raw slurry of beef.
    • Think the gutting of centaurs is bad? Just wait till he tears open Cronos.
  • Book Ends: The first game began with Kratos jumping off the highest mountain in Greece saying "the Gods of Olympus have abandoned me". Near the end of this game, he jumps off a cliff again saying the exact same phrase, while in a vision caused from being killed (temporarily) by Zeus. The Stinger at the end proper also qualifies due to Kratos's apparent suicide - a blood trail is shown leading from where Kratos's body used to be to the edge of a cliff off Mt. Olympus, setting up for the 2018 entry.
  • Brother-Sister Incest: Depends on who you ask. The sex minigame in God of War III is with Aphrodite - if you're of the "Aphrodite is Zeus' daughter" school of thought, then it counts. If you're of the "Aphrodite was born from the foam of Ouranos's severed testicle as it hit the seas" school, then it's averted: Aphrodite would technically be his half great-aunt, rather than his sister.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Go ahead, Hermes, make fun of the family of a guy known to kill out of spite.
  • Cain and Abel: Kratos and Hercules are both Zeus's bastard sons.
  • Captain Ersatz: The parallels between Kratos and Hercules are indirectly acknowledged when the latter finally shows up and claims that Kratos is stealing his thunder. Considering that Kratos had already killed the Hydra at that point, he may well be right. In the novelization of the game, it's revealed that the Hydra fought by Kratos was the one killed by Hercules in the past and brought back to life by Athena, who by doing so tricked Poseidon into giving Kratos his powers.
  • Chain Lightning: The Nemesis Whip, a chain-whip that produces lightning and doubles as a Visual Pun on this.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: Pandora's Box.
  • Clothing Damage: The God armor he wore in God of War II is absolutely in tatters by now.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Kratos takes a brief trip inside Gaia while trying to save her from one of the enlarged Poseidon's claws, passing by her heart as one of Poseidon's attacks opens up a passageway. Three guesses as to where the final fight of the game takes place, and the first two don't count.
  • Colossus Climb: Done at the beginning of the game, as Kratos navigates the Titans during their assault on Olympus. The boss fight against Cronos is one long, extended climb and descent.
  • Combat Commentator: A drunken Hera provides a commentary to Kratos's fight with Hercules, starting with an almost-motherly "Now you boys play nice!"
  • Compilation Rerelease: The God of War Collection on PS3 included Updated Rereleases of the two PS2 games, along with a code for unlocking an exclusive God Of War III demo prior to its actual release.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: All over the place - the game starts with a Curb Stomp War, as the Gods manage to down a half-dozen of the Titans climbing Mount Olympus within the first ten minutes of gameplay, and the rest more or less are beaten off-screen. Odds are without Kratos on the Titans' side, the war would have been wrapped up in a half hour with the Gods being victorious.
  • Cutscene Boss:
    • Kratos is forced to kill Perses, the volcanic Titan that he aided against Helios previously, in this type of "fight" while traveling through an Icarus vent.
    • Helios is one as well. While Helios aids the minions of Olympus against Kratos and the Titans by throwing fireballs into the area, Kratos uses a ballista to damage Helios' Sun Chariot, causing him to fly straight into the hand of Perses, who then crushed Helios and threw into the city. Kratos later finds him here, using a Cyclops to smash through a battalion of Olympus Sentinels that converge on the wounded god, and demands the location of The Flame of Olympus before violently stomping his head, ignoring Helios's pleas to stop. After finally getting the information he wanted out of Helios, Kratos then soldiers through a final attempt to stop the God of War and grabs Helios's head, breaking his neck before tearing his head off - keeping it to use as a light source after.
    • Hephaestus serves as one after sending Kratos to retrieve the Omphalos Stone from Cronos, then trying to kill him using his ring after completing the Nemesis Whip, only for Kratos to kill him. His godly possession inadvertently lampshades this, as it unlocks a cheat that automatically completes quick-time events for you (which was present in previous games).
    • The defining example is Hera. After her champion Heracles tried and failed to kill him, Kratos finds a drunken and plague-weakened Hera in her garden; as he reaches the end of the garden, Hera blocks his way, with Kratos trying to get around her, not in the mood for a fight... right up until she calls Pandora 'that little whore', causing him to lose control and snap her neck - all without any input from the player. Kratos then uses her corpse as a weight for several pressure plate puzzles that he must solve to finally leave.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Hades averts the usual stereotypes (minus perhaps greed, if the manuals are reliable) and has genuine reasons to hate Kratos, as well as there being implications that all of his less likable traits are the fault of Pandora's Box. Some of the Titans arguably qualify as well, since Zeus was the one with the brilliant idea of punishing them forever for "the sins of just one", justified though it may be.
  • Dark Messiah: Kratos is this by the time the game ends.
  • Death by Irony: In the ancient Greece of Real Life, worshipers of Hades would knock their heads on the ground so the god of the underworld would hear them. What does Kratos do to Hades immediately before stealing his soul?
  • Death by Sex: Inverted with Aphrodite, the hostess of the game's Hot Coffee Minigame. She is the only Greek God spared from his wrath, it's unknown if she died in the collapse of Olympus anyway. To be fair, Kratos consistently maintained that if the Gods would stay out of his way on the path to kill Zeus, he would leave them alone - and most of the gods did not oblige.
  • Death of the Old Gods: The overall theme of the game and the end result of Kratos's rampage.
  • Decapitation Presentation: Kratos with the head of Helios.
  • Depth Perplexion: An entire puzzle is made out of this in Hera's Garden. When you activate a switch, a green filter appears on the screen, causing the camera to zoom away as stairways that are only adjacent by perspective become connected for real. This allows you to reach the top of the garden without having to perform a single jump.
  • The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: During the beginning of God of War II, when you are still allied with the gods, the save screen says "Zeus has given you the opportunity to save your progress"; later in the game, that named is changed to Gaia. In this game, when Kratos is essentially waging his own war on his own terms, there is no such message.
  • Disappointed in You: Athena says this to Kratos when he runs himself through with the Blade of Olympus, giving the power of hope to the remaining humans instead of her.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The hilariously suggestive sex minigame - given where the half-circle-up is, it does rather suggest Kratos takes an unholy amount of time getting out of the practically nothing he's usually almost wearing.
  • Driven to Suicide: Kratos does this at the end of the game. Originally a case of Never Found the Body, God of War (2018) reveals it was a more metaphorical act, with Kratos trying to start a new life.
  • Dual-Wielding: Kratos's standard Blades of Chaos and the Claws of Hades.
  • Dying Alone: Kratos. Or did he? God of War (2018) decisively answers that with a no.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: When Helios' plea for his life ends in vain, he out of nowhere screams "FEEL THE POWER OF THE SUN!!!" and shines so bright that nothing can be seen. Doesn't stop him from losing his head, but points for the college try.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Arguably the case here.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Poseidon's elemental form is made from the waters below Mount Olympus and resembles him only from the waist up - below his waist are the heads of several Hippocampi, arranged in a manner reminiscent of Scylla.
  • Elemental Powers
  • The End of the World as We Know It: What Kratos' actions lead to for the ancient Greek world anyway.
  • Escort Mission:
    • At one point, Kratos must drag "Poseidon's Princess" along with him in order to use her to jam a gear mechanism so that he can make it through a door, leaving her to be very painfully crushed.
    • Surprisingly subverted with Pandora. While you help her get to Pandora's Box, she only needs dire protection from enemies maybe twice. She is quite competent at avoiding enemy attacks, which is great due to the major enemy rushes that happen.
  • Essence Drop: As with previous entries - red orbs for experience, blue for magic and green for health.
  • Evil Gloating: This ends up being Hercules's undoing. He actually manages to knock Kratos out, but then stops to boast to Hera. Kratos comes to and takes this opportunity to steal the Nemean Cestus from him, subsequently beating his face to a bloody pulp.
  • Exploding Barrels: There are exploding oil pots that can be ignited by the Bow of Apollo.
  • Extreme Melee Revenge: The end of the final boss fight with Zeus - and the game lets you carry it on for as long as you want. It's glorious (and there's an Achievement in it too).
  • Eye Scream:
    • Kratos's standard Finishing Move against Cyclops enemies returns.
    • He also ends up doing it to Poseidon at the end of a Shaky POV Cam Quick Time Event - which fittingly uses the thumb sticks.
    • At a few points during the battle with Cronos, Kratos is required to blind him with a burst of sunlight from Helios' head.
  • Fake Skill: The "New Game+" glitch.
  • Fanservice Extra:
  • Fantastic Light Source: Kratos uses Helios's head as a lantern.
  • Fighting Down Memory Lane: During his final battle against Zeus, Kratos goes through all of the evil he's committed over the course of the series, showing that Kratos really did feel guilt for what he did deep down.
  • Fingore: Kratos rips one of Kronos's fingernails off during the fight with him. The sheer crudeness of it makes even the toughest gamers cringe and shiver, but compared to what Kratos does to Kronos later on in the fight, that is pretty tame.
  • Five-Bad Band: The gods definitely qualify.
    • Big Bad: Zeus, oh so very much.
    • The Dragon: Poseidon kills a Titan in one shot, holds back the rest, and would have killed Gaia if Kratos hadn't stopped him. Helios acts as a Co-Dragon of sorts, and would have killed Perses had Kratos not intervened - despite his apparent cowardice, he also seems quite determined to not let Kratos kill Zeus.
    • The Brute: Hades relies more on hitting Kratos with his chain blade things than anything else, and his second form relies on nasty physical attacks.
    • Evil Genius: Hermes, who delivers a nasty Hannibal Lecture to Kratos, and is smart enough not to directly confront him... at first, anyway.
    • Dark Chick: Hera, who never actually fights.
    • Sixth Ranger: Hercules, who's not actually a god but fights Kratos at Hera's insistence, both out of a desire for godhood himself and because he's terribly jealous of Kratos' success.
  • Fixed Camera
  • Flunky Boss:
    • Hercules is fought alongside skeletal soldiers in the first stage of his battle.
    • Scorpion, the guardian of the labyrinth, is fought alongside smaller ice scorpions.
    • Kratos fights several skeletal monsters confined within Cronos's body during his boss battle.
  • Foe-Tossing Charge: Kratos can do this when he grabs certain enemies, using their body as a battering ram as he dashes through other. After running for a while, he'll simply toss the body, or slam their head into a wall if he hits one.
  • Follow the Plotted Line: Justified Trope. Kratos is in search of Pandora's Box and knows it is somewhere on Olympus - given how important the temple where it was stored was to Zeus and the other gods (it's where they were watching the Titans attack the mountain from), it was really only a matter of time.
  • Fragile Speedster: Hermes.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Several topless women and female monsters, such as the usual Gorgons and Harpies.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Icarus' Wings alternate between Cutscene Incompetence and Cutscene Power to the Max. At the beginning of the game, Kratos doesn't think about using them before falling into the Styx (though he likely would've been shot down regardless). In several cutscenes afterwards, he uses them to actually fly, while you can only glide in gameplay. You do get a couple of actual flying segments though - once using a powerful updraft, and again by skydiving down the same tunnel.
  • Get Back Here Boss: The majority of your encounter with Hermes is simply chasing him down; since he's the speedy messenger of the gods, he delights in dashing about making fun of you. Once you manage to knock the wind out of him, he barely puts up a fight to speak of—chasing him down was the real contest.
  • Gorn: A series standard, taken Up to Eleven in this game.
  • Gotterdammerung: The developers have said that God of War III will explain why Greek myths aren't around anymore. Indeed, Kratos proves to be a one-man apocalypse that brings down the entire Greek pantheon.
  • Ground Pound: One of the moves available with the Blades of Chaos. Hercules is also capable of this.
  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: The Olympus Sentries are men who use swords and clubs, while the Olympus Archers are women who wield bows.
  • Hannibal Lecture: In the path of the Caverns, Hermes completely deconstructs Kratos, who can only listen. Before his death, Hermes gives a big one to Kratos, and later on it's revealed that it actually registered on Kratos - something Zeus made use of.
  • Harder Than Hard: Chaos difficulty.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: Kratos uses the power of Hope to kill Zeus.
  • Heel Face Turn: Kratos goes through a gradual one over the course of the game. While he's still not a great person, he becomes noticeably more concerned for his fellow man by the end. Thanks, Pandora.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Pandora. Also a Tear Jerker, given how hard Kratos tries to stop it. The fact that her sacrifice turned out to be completely meaningless only worsens the blow. Kratos eventually performs one and (seemingly) kills himself, which ruins Athena's plans and gives hope to the world.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Hades has his soul devoured by his own weapons, and Hercules' head is caved in with the Nemean Cestus.
  • Homage: The Labyrinth in the third game reminds one of Cube.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: No matter how much damage the player does to Zeus in his second boss fight, the King of the Gods remains alive, and the boss fight instead ends with a cutscene as Gaia returns. The objective is instead to survive until then.
  • Hot Coffee Minigame/Optional Sexual Encounter: As is tradition in the Greece-focused games, with Aphrodite this time. It almost didn't happen believe it or not.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal
  • Hypocritical Humor: The moment Hera's face is revealed, she says Kratos looks terrible. Hera herself is noticeably uglier than in the first game.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Often done in Finishing Moves.
  • Incoming Ham:

"You challenge ME, mortal? A GOD of OLYMPUS?!"

  • Helios sounds like a Sunny Delight commercial:

Feel the power of the Sun!!!

  • Insurmountable Waist High Fence
  • Ironic Echo:
    • Gaia telling Kratos he was just a means to an end after both get knocked down Olympus and Kratos falls off her. After Kratos makes his way out of Hades and back up the mountain, he meets up with her and throws the words back in her face before personally knocking her down the mountain again.
    • During the mind trip caused by Zeus, Kratos repeats his opening line from the first game. Then, after finally killing Zeus, Kratos says a few lines from earlier in the game and in previous games to Athena, including this one from the beginning of God of War II: "I owe you nothing."
  • It's All About Me: Kratos as always. The world very nearly collapses before he seems to realize this, after which he opts to (apparently) kill himself - the 2018 game shows that he survived, and intends to do right by his son.
  • Jerkass Gods: The Greek gods are total asshats as usual (though a lot of it is owed to Pandora's Box), with the exception of perhaps Hephaestus. Even Athena falls into this at the end.
    • Hades is also an example, though a lesser one where Kratos is concerned. Sure, his hatred for Kratos is justified - the man killed several of Hades's family, after all! - but he still 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 tried to destroy the world, herself included, just to be free of her miserable existence.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: Kratos loses the final fight against Zeus. While dying, he explores his own mind and gains the power of hope and redemption, coming back to life with the resolve to finally defeat Zeus once and for all.
  • Just Eat Him: This is how Kronos attempted to prevent his own offspring from rising up against him: devouring them as infants - they survived because they're gods. He later tries this on Kratos as well, chuckling "This will probably hurt me more than you!" He doesn't know how right he is.
  • Karmic Death: Hermes, who boasts constantly about being faster than Kratos, gets rewarded for his taunts by involuntarily becoming a double-leg amputee.
  • Kick the Dog: Zeus does this when Pandora seems to have sacrificed herself in vain - he mocks Kratos about how, no matter much he tries, he always fails, and then laughs hard about it. Kratos is not amused.
  • Kill'Em All: By the end, the only named characters who appeared in-person in the series who were not confirmed dead are Artemis, Atlas and Aphrodite. Even with that, the ending is still surprisingly hopeful.
  • Lady Drunk: Hera, which is hard to blame her for given the state of the world.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: Those playing this game without beating God of War II will have Kratos's status as a bastard son of Zeus spoiled within the first few minutes.
  • Law of Conservation of Detail: You can guess what areas you will return to when you get the Nemean Cestus and you discover those bright crystals you saw in several places are meant to be smashed with them.
  • Lead the Target: Since Hermes is so fast, this is a good way to hit him.
  • Light Is Not Good: Helios, Zeus and Hermes. Also Athena, specially after her "death", in which she became something akin to an angel.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Zeus, no pun intended, is insanely fast and strong. Hercules, when his heavy armor and weapons are removed, changes from a Mighty Glacier to this, and even uses the Flash Step. Not to mention Kratos himself.
  • Like a Badass Out of Hell: Kratos as always, and he even lampshades this.
  • Limit Break: Kratos's Rage of Sparta.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Zeus, Gaia and Athena.
  • Medusa
  • Melee a Trois: The final boss battle in the third game is a three-way showdown between Kratos, Zeus and Gaia. Subverted in that Gaia doesn't get to do much directly, as the fight takes place in her body.
  • Mighty Glacier: Hercules.
  • Morality Pet: Pandora, mainly because she reminds Kratos of Calliope. In fact, she actually succeeds in forcing Kratos to see the consequences of his actions, making him feel genuine guilt.
  • Motive Rant: Hades gives a pretty impressive one before fighting Kratos. He hates the Spartan for killing his niece Athena, his wife Persephone and his brother Poseidon over the course of the series. After all that, it's perfectly clear that he'll enjoy tormenting Kratos' soul a lot if he wins.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Aphrodite, of course, it's literally her divine domain.
  • Mundane Utility: In a hilariously audacious example, Kratos uses Helios' severed and still screaming head as a flashlight.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Done with quietly exquisite beauty in some of Kratos' last words of the game. "She died for my revenge."
  • A Mythology Is True: The Greek mythos gets one last hurrah.
  • Necromancer: The Claws of Hades allows the wielder to summon the spirits of dead humans and monsters to strike their opponents.
  • Never Found the Body: The Stinger shows a blood trail that leads off a cliff. Indeed, God of War (2018) shows that Kratos is still alive.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Kratos opened Pandora's Box back in the first game, darkness was unleashed that consumed Zeus and turned him evil, and it is only in this game that we discover this. Also, each time Kratos kills a god, he unleashes a calamity upon the world: the seas flood, the souls of the dead are released from the underworld, the sun is blotted out, a plague is unleashed, and all plant life dies.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The 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. The penultimate scene of the Final Boss definitely counts.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: In a rare moment of spooky suspense, you have to turn a very slow crank while four Stone Talos statues surround you - you've likely been fighting them with quite some difficulty one-on-one until now, and you just know they're gonna ambush you. They don't attack until you have to backtrack through that same area about an hour later, and even then, only three of them do.
  • Offing the Offspring: Zeus certainly tries his damnedest to.
  • Off with His Head: But of course, Kratos does this to several enemies and a god.
  • Ominous Greek Chanting
  • Once an Episode/Rule of Three: This being the third game, various tropes and motifs end up qualifying.
  • One-Woman Wail: Pandora's song.
  • Overly Long Gag: At the climax of the final confrontation against Zeus in God of War III, you're required to mash the Circle button while Kratos punches out Zeus' head after pinning it against a rock. Since you're in first-person mode, Zeus's blood slowly obscures your vision while Kratos keeps hammering away at Zeus' skull and you have to keep mashing the circle button, in theory until the whole screen is bloodstained. In practice, this can go on for as long as you want, letting you unload all of your stress until you decide to stop.
  • Parental Favoritism: Hercules accuses Kratos of being Zeus's favorite son. This is... debatable.
  • Papa Wolf: Hephaestus, in regard to Pandora. He's the only one of the gods who attacks Kratos out of selflessness, as he think Kratos just would sacrifice her for no other reason than revenge; when he dies, he begs Kratos to spare her. Kratos later lampshades it to Pandora when he tells her that Hephaestus did as a loving father would do.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Everyone, especially Kratos.
  • Please Don't Leave Me: "Poseidon's Princess", whom Kratos drags around for a short section before using her body to jam a gear mechanism so that he can make it through a set of doors - she begs for her life to no avail, and you hear incredibly painful screams as you leave.
  • Power Fist: The Nemean Cestus.
  • Powerup Mount: The harpies Kratos uses as his "rides" before killing them.
  • Production Throwback: The stylistic Precap and flashback scenes of God of War III were designed by Imaginary Forces. The team confirms that they are an allusion to the ending credits of The Mummy III: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which were also designed by IF.
  • Punched Across the Room: Hercules does this to Kratos every time he lands a blow.
  • Rage Against the Heavens: And Kratos intends to kill them with that rage.
  • Rated "M" for Manly
  • Real Time Weapon Change
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Every god 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.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Kratos sacrifices his life to restore hope to the world, doing a genuinely selfless deed for the second time in his life. While it's revealed he's Not Quite Dead in the 2018 game, it's more than symbolic enough to fit.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Used in a sequence just before the final battle with Zeus. Red blood for the sins Kratos has committed, and blue flames of hope to erase it.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Kratos is trapped in the Underworld, with a very pissed off Hades taunting him the whole way. He blocks his path with a statue of himself, and tries to guilt trip Kratos into giving up by showing him the casket of his dead wife (whom Kratos murdered in Chains of Olympus). So, what does he do? He turns the casket of Hades' dead wife into a fucking battering ram and smashes through the statue, allowing him to proceed to the next area.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Kratos is willing to wreck the world for revenge on Zeus. Which he does. Even his final suicide is an act of revenge against Athena, though it also doubles as a form of Redemption Equals Death that denies Athena the power of Hope and instead releases it upon the destroyed world.
  • Rewarding Vandalism
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: Pandora is an artificial being created by Hephaestus and stated to be "neither living or dead", but she looks and behaves like a real human being. She does not need to eat, as inferred by her isolation in the Labyrinth, and does possess some superhuman reflexes. This comes in handy for her Escort Mission segments.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Culminates in this game.
  • Sadistic Choice: Towards the end. Kratos has to decide whether to sacrifice Pandora, who has become like a daughter to him, or to save her but let Zeus go free. Avenge his family or save his family: pick one. (Zeus goads him into the former.)
  • Sadly Mythtaken:
    • Pandora's Box partially averts this, though seemingly not at first. The box indeed contained the evils of the world and hope. The only thing that truly changes is that the evils in the box were intended for mankind in the original Hesiodic myth, not the gods.
    • Hera is the Goddess of Marriage. So why does all plant life die when when Hera dies? Demeter is the Goddess of the Harvest. She would have a reason to attack Kratos, given he killed her daughter.
    • The death of Hermes causes a plague - but he had nothing to do with disease, and the god of disease was Apollo. Then again, the caduceus of Hermes is often misused as a health care symbol... Perhaps that finally came full circle?
  • Say My Name / Skyward Scream: All over the place.
  • Scenery Porn: Literally brought to life.
  • Scenery Gorn: "In the end, there will be only chaos" indeed. The sea floods the land, the souls of the dead are released, the sky is darkened by a violent unending storm, a deadly plague is released, and all plant life dies upon the deaths of Poseidon, Hades, Helios, Hermes and Hera respectively.
  • Second-Person Attack: One part of the Poseidon battle has you seeing Kratos's brutality through Poseidon's eyes as you inflict it. Right up until you put them out yourself.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: Pandora died so that Kratos could open an empty box.
  • Serrated Blade of Pain: Kratos's swords.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: Subverted. While Kratos has sex with Aphrodite, the camera pans away... to two of Aphrodite's slave girls feeling each other up while watching the whole thing. If you succeed, there is another discretion shot as the two maidens "go to the next step", and the camera pans back to Aphrodite.
  • Shaky POV Cam: Brutally subverted with Poseidon, from whose perspective you watch as you control Kratos to finish him off, leading up to a well-done eye-gouging.
  • Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness: Level 2.
  • Soul Power: The Claws of Hades lets Hades and Kratos summon the souls of various enemy monsters.
  • Stripperiffic: Good goddesses, Aphrodite. Her 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 maidens' standard outfit.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: The Titans go largely from providing Kratos powers in God of War II to simply being big and imposing in this game.
  • Taken for Granite: Kratos's Finishing Move against the more powerful Gorgons lets him tear off their heads and use them to flash-freeze surrounding enemies.
  • Thirteen Is Unlucky: Hercules considers defeating Kratos a thirteenth Labour. It gets him killed.
  • The Three Faces of Eve: Pandora is the child, young and naive though far less than Kratos assumes; Athena is the wise and calmer of the three (at first); and Aphrodite is the independent and sexually experienced woman who dismisses her husband as useless.
  • This Is Sparta: "ZEUS! YOUR SON HAS RETURNED! I BRING THE DESTRUCTION! OF OLYMPUS!!!"
  • Too Dumb to Live: Kratos still goes after Cronos despite the fact Hephaestus drops several hints like an uncharacteristic change of heart towards killing Zeus and a proposal for a weapon Kratos doesn't need that is with the titan. The cherry on the cake is the Evil Laugh as Kratos just leaves the smith god's vision. Even after that, Kratos still buys Hephaestus' excuse that he knew Kratos could kill Cronos and gives him the stone. Only a small burst of improvisation prevents the spartan from being electrocuted.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Pandora.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Three pairs - Hades and Persephone, Hephaestus and Aphrodite, and Kronos and Rhea.
  • Unexpected Gameplay Change: The short Rhythm Game-style section in the middle segment.
  • The Unfettered: Kratos, as ever. One way or another, humanity and the gods be damned, Zeus must die.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Second verse, same as the first. To Kratos's credit, by the end he has finally had enough and sees through Athena's attempt to regain her power and become Greece's only goddess.
  • Uriah Gambit: Hephaestus sends Kratos to meet Cronos, a Titan who has several reasons to hate the demigod - he fully expects Kratos to be consumed and killed in the process of retrieving the Omphalos Stone from the Titan's stomach.
  • Vapor Wear: A glitch can reveal Hercules's bare behind, shown here in this video.
  • Variable-Length Chain: Dueling Variable Length Chains when Kratos fights Hades, who uses his eponymous Claws.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: As usual, the game revels in this.
  • Villain Ball: Caught by the entire Greek pantheon with the opening of Pandora's Box and dropped post-mortem. With apocalyptic results.
  • Villain-Beating Artifact: Pandora's box, which contains the only thing that can kill a god, and Kratos's main objective in order to defeat Zeus. It's all a lie, since Pandora Box is now empty, and the Hope that was meant to be within the box was already within Kratos.
  • Visual Pun: You literally give Gaia a fatal heart attack.
  • Warmup Boss: Poseidon.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gaia.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Hercules' motivation to defeat Kratos.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • We never really see what becomes of most of the other Titans assaulting Mount Olympus, and can only assume that they apparently failed in their assault on the gods. Two of them are knocked off the mountain mid-climb, but their survival or demise is left ambiguous.
    • At the end of the game Aphrodite seems to be the only remaining goddess not confirmed dead.
  • What Have I Become?: Kratos says it verbatim in the Temple of Pandora.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Other than her creator Hephaestus, the other gods shunned Pandora, as she is really a statue that had been given life. They tend to address her as "it" instead of "she" - ironic, considering she's arguably the most important character in the series next to Kratos, and is certainly one of the most decent people we see.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Averted with prejudice.
  • Womb Level: Gaia, then Kronos, and then Gaia again.
  • You Bastard: Kratos can find letters in Hades written about him. One is from his mother lamenting how everything around her son dies and that she failed as a mother, and another is from the boat captain of the previous games damning Kratos to Hades.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: You really can't.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Kratos usually kills those who had helped him once they're no longer useful or if their death becomes useful. Karma kicks him in the ass when the Titans thought that he had outlived his usefulness too, and attempt to kill him as they try to overthrow the Olympians. It fails, of course. It's also subverted when Kratos actually refuses to let Pandora sacrifice herself.
  • Your Soul Is Mine: Hades tries this on Kratos, even uttering the Trope Name in the pre-battle cutscene. Guess what Kratos does to him in the battle's finale.
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