Browsing through Youtube, one might stumble upon a playthrough of the original God of War, released in 2005 on the Playstation 2. Despite being an old game, the comment section is still packed with a few individuals commenting on the inner workings of the game and how these tactics could’ve – or worse, should’ve – been implemented by the player. Diving into forums one might find the God of War sections to be dead, but one post is all it takes to bring dozens of recurring names back into the fold. Familiar faces roam the pantheon’s halls again, eager to taunt but also teach newcomers. Even though only a few of these veterans remain, they have given this game as much life as the man who created it: David Jaffe. So what is it that makes God of War and its community so prevalent and resistant to the sands of time, and how did it begin? The whole game’s development started with a thought: “Make the player feel brutal, letting their inner beast free and just going nuts” – David Jaffe. During development he’d noted that he looked at contemporary titles like Onimusha and Devil May Cry, both also on the Playstation 2. Instead of making a title that would have to compete, God of War was to complement the already existing library of action games. Jaffe stated that the game “is not innovative or unique, and that’s intentional“, an interesting quote that further highlights how the game wasn’t targeted at the hardcore crowd, but aimed at the audience that Devil May Cry, Onimusha and Ninja Gaiden had missed.
Its combat exists out of light and heavy attacks, supplemented by grabs, magic and cinematic finishers; this appears simple on paper. While the genre usually targeted a more arcade-like crowd, this was an opportunity to provide an action title that also spoke to the more casual player. In order to achieve this, having the combat be accessible yet rewarding to play would was paramount. As such, protagonist Kratos wields the Blades of Chaos which, unlike its counterparts used by Ryu and Dante, are focused on ranged combat. Aside from being powerhouses at a distance, attacks also have bounces built in making juggling enemies happen almost automatically for the more casual player. These combat-options are expanded on with numerous more complex inputs, launchers, infinites and loops, providing depth for those that wish it. This allows skilled players to trivialize strong enemies by keeping them airborne or stunlocked for the whole duration of the fight, while less skilled players can just whack foes to death, never losing the sense of empowerment no matter the skill level. The aforementioned simplistic appearance of the combat was exactly what they were going for.
Should the enemy get close, pressing circle will cause Kratos to grab the poor sod while he decides how to end his life. Foes can be ripped apart for a quick kill, punched to death for extra orbs, used as a projectile, and more.
It is here that an underlying system of decision-making appears. While every enemy can be grabbed, some have to be weakened first. Once weakened, a flashy icon will appear above them. Pressing the corresponding button will make you perform a cool cinematic kill. Depending on how you kill your enemy, you’ll be rewarded with a variety of orbs. Using a cinematic kill on a Minotaur will give you a lot of green healing orbs, while a Medusa yields blue magical restoration orbs. End their lives normally and you’ll get red upgrade orbs. During a fight a casual player will enjoy seeing enemies dying left and right, while a more professional player is constantly considering how to kill the next foe. Crucial decision moments like “the minotaur is already weakened, so I can play a bit more reckless, his death will heal me” and “I’ll use this enemy as a projectile, I really need to clear this area” as opposed to “I’ll grab this enemy and punch him for extra orbs, I need that upgrade” constantly appear. This strategic thinking is expanded upon even further by using the environment to your advantage: spikes, cliffs, traps and more can be used for a quick kill. Strategy and efficiency start becoming key terms in God of War’s combat.
“In terms of grabs, God of War has no equal in action games. There are tons of options throughout the series, with grabs having some genuinely distinct properties – they tend to have invincibility frames, deal the same damage across all difficulties and ignore super armor properties – supported by a great collision system and environmental hazards. There’s ground to ground, air to air, and air to ground cases, alternate grabs, instant kills, moderately damaging attacks for sufficiently reducing an enemy’s HP, reversals, option selects, grab specials and more. Like any good contextual ability, most grabs are optional, quickly executed, virtually every enemy has one, and being a powerful option but not rendering other approaches pointless.“
– SBK91 –
How the game handles blocking also sets it apart. The focus of most Japanese action games is to kill enemies up close while nimbly evading their attacks while blocks tend to break after one or two hits. In God of War dodging, done with the right stick, is more an addition – the emphasis lies on blocking. Nearly every move in the game can be blocked and his block is never broken. And since blocking on time parries an attack, you’ll often do so by accident thanks to its very royal timing. By dodging an opening might sometimes reveal itself that is not there when holding block, but brings significant risk as well compared to the very safe block options; a stark contrast.
The camera on the other hand was very similar to titles like Devil May Cry and Onimusha. Jaffe was very adamant about making a game that he personally liked, and he liked those. “If you don’t like those games” he said, “you won’t like this one”. The always zoomed out camera gives a complete overview of the battlefield with a cinematic vibe. To not turn this into a disadvantage, off-screen enemies will not attack and, if they were already attacking, will stop doing so if they go offscreen; a kind gesture to casual players but also a mighty weapon for more experienced Gods of War to abuse. Levels vary from linear to maze-like. The statues, caves, temples and more look sharp even today, in part due to the camera never getting too close to show the game in its true low-resolution light. While starting on a boat without much room to diverge, later areas allow for more exploration and searching for secrets to boost Kratos in numerous ways. One boost that can’t be missed however, bridging the gap between God of War and its contemporaries, is the Blade of Artemis.
“The Blade of Artemis is an oversized hunter’s knife. I’m all about big, heavy blows causing massive reactions from enemies, shaking the screen, sending them flying. While casual play with Artemis is terrible outside lower settings, a Glitch FAQ will note places to sequence break easily with the weapon and even Infinite Jump with it for speed runs. The Blades of Chaos have specials, but none that can be canceled even with spells. Artemis has two that can be canceled, but they’re just spinning multi-hits (mostly to be cute). Given that I know how foes work, Artemis is the higher damage choice when not able to go for grabs; their damage is bad against a select few foes. The interrupt ability it has is almost on the level of spells. Cancels are the means to make up for the delayed block issue. This covers a lot of its defensive problems and can even help make up for its range by letting you stay up close. The outright negation of attacks with a window that large is nothing to thumb your nose at. You’ll get a very different experience fighting foes when you’re slashing them to pieces with it.“
– BigVee –
Received half-way through the game, this weapon is more what one would expect from a game in this genre. Up close and deadly, while also having serving several other tricks, it’s emphasis on launching enemies and cancels gives it a lot more crowd-control options compared to the Blades of Chaos, while losing the single-target grabbing capabilities. In the way the combat as a whole works, players can become brutally efficient. Kratos is pretty immobile compared to most other action game characters and his game simpler. Trying to kill things with straight damage via normal attacks while rolling away is a bad idea; the same goes for trying to be ‘stylish’ or ‘combo’. As a result, players will slowly attach a pattern to each enemy of how to deal with them as optimal as possible and to get the most (and correct type of) orbs necessary to continue. To compensate for this, and also for the fact that Kratos gains access to so many new abilities and magical spells at the end of the game, fights get bigger and longer as the game goes on, adding more combinations of foes into the mix. Nearly each combination is served up at least once, offering great variety in combat with the content available. This brutal efficiency is also seen in Kratos’ design. His red mark is instantly recognizable, making for a strong brand. Paired with his mysterious title ‘The Ghost of Sparta’, a chain sporting weapon and barely any detailing on his person, the design stands out. In the making-of videos, one of the many unlockables in the game, Jaffe states: “the things I said to [Charlie, the artist], I said brutal, nasty, violent, antisocial, pissed-off; come to work angry tomorrow and see what you can come up with. That was my direction to Charlie”. His constant frown, bald head and cold white skin paired with his deep red symbol give off an air of controlled rage; a man that one shouldn’t anger.
It’s with all these elements that God of War could be considered a perfect game, being accessible to all audiences. It has pleasing visuals and easy to understand combat, while offering a deeper set of mechanics and higher difficulties for fans of the genre to explore. This, paired with the cinematic presentation, led to both critical and financial success. God of War sold around 4.6 million copies worldwide, a hallmark compared to Ninja Gaiden’s 1.5 million copies worldwide (combining both the original, DLC and Black version) and Devil May Cry’s 2.17 million copies worldwide. Trying to please both groups paid off and also resulted in a bigger community of players entering this genre they hadn’t considered before and now slowly fell in love with.
What the game does suffer from though is some form of motivation for the player to dive into its combat. Especially on the default setting, the game doesn’t put up much of a fight and thus doesn’t motivate players to use the multiple functions behind attacks such as stuns, juggles, petrification and cancels, giving off a feeling that the game might just be a simple ‘masher’. It isn’t until a player goes on to the higher difficulty settings that the game shows its teeth a bit and showcases the underlying depth such as using the environment, slamming enemies into each other for bonus damage, camera abuse, grab loops and so much more. As a result, this community consisted out of two sets of players; those who enjoyed the story while looking cool, and ones that dove into the harder segments and eventually started self-imposed challenge runs.
“ Play smarter, not harder. Many of elements of the game ignore differences in difficulties, upgrades, or enemy health, which adds to the flavor of the game, helps make up for the simplicity and makes God of War well suited for challenge runs that restrict, for instance, upgrades. “
– SBK91 –
This slowly resulted in ‘runs’ being constructed, custom made difficulties and challenges, that would push fans of the series further after all the general offerings of the game had been finished. While beating the game on “Normal” was the original benchmark, this soon became beating it on “Very Hard”. But once that was conquered, try “Very Hard” without upgrading Kratos. These challenges have since expanded to include a wide variety, with the most infamous being called PAIN, which has Kratos play as he starts – so no upgrades or usage of magic and the Blade of Artemis – and disallows the usage of chests for healing. The most fabled part of this run is what is dubbed as “The Clones”, a segment near the end where Kratos has to defend his family from harm against a total of 101 Clones of himself. This segment, originally designed around an end-game player, is downright brutal on its own let alone with player-imposed handicaps. As a result the community, afraid that players wouldn’t attempt the run, noted that beating the Clones wasn’t necessary to ‘complete the run’, instead having it be titled as bonus credit, a badge of honor amongst the community members. To date only a handful of players have managed to achieve this feat.
“ I attempted to do a No Upgrade Run+(NUR+) of God of War at the end of last year (2016) and failed on The Clones. Anything incomplete in my mind is a failure and shouldn’t be shown publicly. I notice that some people don’t mind just getting to The Clones and calling it a victory, but to me that’s not a victory: it’s an utter failure. That’s why I’m so proud of my God of War 2 NUR+: because I did everything that the game asked of me, and I prevailed. The first God of War asks you to beat The Clones in between two phases of Ares. If you can’t do it, then go home. It’s heart-wrenching, but that’s what I firmly believe. There’s more honor, I think, in someone getting to The Clones, trying their hardest to beat them, failing, and deleting their guide than someone presenting an incomplete run. I don’t want to discount others’ efforts, but personally, I can’t live with myself if something is incomplete. I have succeeded in some God of Wars and failed in others. You can only be so good. Accepting your limitations will keep your ego in check. That isn’t to say that there isn’t a tempest in one’s heart at not being able to do the impossible. “
– Bick Benedict –
“ It was quite clear from my attempts that, even if I had the method perfect and knew the exact spots to use a plume at the right time to keep all clones stunlocked at all times, there was just so much that could go wrong. You could mess up the button presses, or a clone randomly no-sells a plume and isn’t juggled when you need him to, or you whiff on a grab, or a clone could simply decide to not spawn in the place you expect him to. And if one of these things get out of place even once, it can submarine the entire run since there will be too many clones for you to handle…and you need to be near-perfect for like the 10 minutes it takes to do it. At best, I could keep it going for a few minutes before things unraveled and Kratos’ family dies almost immediately if you fail. “
– Hotel-Security –
These runs have kept the community alive to this day. One new player asking a question would be exposed to a plethora of abilities and techniques, and might get curious to see if he could do it too. Players who beat PAIN love seeing others attempt it and give advice or reminisce on their own adventures while watching another trying their hands at it. It is this part of communities that keep games alive. Go on a God of War forum, say you are willing to learn and names will flock to you, ready to dive back into the depth of the game with you. And that alone is a beautiful thing, while also making God of War one of the best stepping stones into the genre as a whole.
鑒 reflection style 鑒
In this short section I reflect on the article from my own viewpoints as a gamer and lover of the genre instead of a critic.
God of War, to me, was a game I ridiculed a lot growing up. Having chosen the side of the Gamecube in that war of consoles, I had decided it and games like it were ‘braindead’ and required no thought to play. This feeling was strengthened when I entered the action genre via Bayonetta, Vanquish and later Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. I considered God of War for casual players – ironic since it gave me great difficulty to play. It wasn’t until year later that I picked up the original two games and thoroughly enjoyed them, that I wished to dive in more. One No Upgrade Run later I was itching to start a PAIN run, wishing to challenge myself even further and further. And I cannot wait to do the same for other games in the series and meet the community again in the same way.
斬 postscript notes 斬
- Special thanks to Bick Benedict, SBK91, Mister Starkiller (aka BigVee), Hotel_Security, TazOne1 and the community as a whole for contributing to this article. You keep this game alive well beyond its origins, cheers.
- Sadly I could not reach Shinobier, one of the first to beat The Clones in a PAIN run.
- To this day I haven’t beaten The Clones myself in a PAIN run, but have completed the rest. Sadly, the amount of time and dedication required just isn’t available to me anymore.
- One of the biggest quotes Jaffe is known for with God of War is not present here, namey him stating “I don’t think our combat is as good as Devil May Cry”.
- It took me by surprise just how much the title sold. Together, God of War 1&2 sold more than the whole DMC franchise.
- I omitted the mention of most of the unlockables and secrets, some of which were very well hidden and even included a defunct phone-number that was gotten after hitting a statue for nearly 10 minutes.
源 sources 源
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Touching article you Dutch bastard!
R.I.P GoW gameplay…never forget…it had gameplay.
Never forget, it had – had – gameplay. Here's to God of War, cheers!
Who is this sbk91 you are talking about? I can’t seem to find him, also, what gow forms are you speaking about specifically, gamefaqs? Or perhaps something else
Hey Alex! SBK is a user on gamefaqs. You can find him there. Most of the time they hover around any of the GoW boards there and on Stinger. Here’s some links:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/667703-god-of-war-ascension/76881299?page=7#362
https://stinger.actieforum.com/f2-god-of-war-i-ii-iii (BigVee = GodModeGod)
Good luck! 🙂
Excellent article. It’s great to see that there is far more depth to GoW than so many genre veterans give it credit for. It’s probably because it doesn’t have that many moves, or super difficult tricks like Jump Cancels.
Sadly, I can’t try to do a No Upgrade run of the old games because I no longer have a PS3. But I remember them being incredibly difficult even on vanilla VH (the Clones and the Translator being prime examples), and at that time I had already finished NGS 1 and 2 on MN. That’s surprising for such a “casual” game.
I probably will never try a PAIN run though. That stuff would probably be too much for me, but who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind.
Thanks Zapan! I will be honest, the article is a bit aged so I do feel it could do with some polish – glad it connected with you though! God of War is more “play smarter, not harder” in that sense, less emphasis on difficult inputs and more on timing, using a specific move at a specific time etc. And definitely, classic GoW is a lot harder than most people remember. Just on basic VH it’s a significant challenge.
If you ever attempt it, my advice will be to do it at a snails pace. Start with a regular VH run, maybe twice, then attempt a NUR, do it again for better results and maybe then a PAIN.
I know this will look like a blasphemy , but at times I found them harder than NGS1 and Black on Master Ninja. I couldn’t get past the translator in Gow 2, and the Cerberus breeder in Gow 3.
They’re not as hard as NG2 on MN, though. That game is just insane.
Btw, is there some source where all techniques (cancels, buffering, and so on) for Gow are listed and explained?
And thanks for the advice.
Don’t worry, NGS1 is a lot harder than Black. There’s a few reasons for this, the supercharged AI being one of them. Other reasons being bigger fights (more enemies) and that you have less weapons on Master Ninja. It sort of fixes this by giving you way more Essence eventually though.
Regarding GoW notes, the stinger-forum has them in some posts. But there’s no real bible on it (sadly).
Not sure, but I remember the Berserkers being far worse in Sigma, and the first 2 chapters on MN were harder than in Black.
Yeah, I saw some posts in the GoW forum talking about techniques such as roll canceling, Artemis i-frames and home run, and bow canceling. I can imagine there is a lot more to learn, but this will do. Interesting stuff.
I feel I have to correct myself on one thing: I said GoW doesn’t have may moves.
But after seeing videos, even when not counting all the grabs, GoW 1 Kratos has a comparable number of moves to DMC4 Nero’s “normal” moveset, and when including the grabs in both games, the results are still similar. That’s something that surprised me, considering its sequels are more complex, and when you account for the grabs, you have a very deep system indeed if you think number of moves is what dictates depth/quality. I don’t agree, mind you, but I mentioned this because so many people seem to believe OG GoW had few moves.
Also, is it just me or the enemies are more formidable and aggressive than in at least some DMC games?
Anyway, I ordered a PS3, can’t wait to replay the game, and then go for challenge runs after beating it on VH.
Just to also react to the last post, which I forgot. Berserkers were changed in Sigma, both for better and worse. They are now far less mechanically complex, as you can parry all of their moves in Sigma, but on the flipside you cannot single them out through camera usage like in Black (they can now spam projectiles off-screen too). So it’s a win and a loss in that regard. A lot of advanced tech is also missing in Sigma, i.e. certain weapons and loops no longer working on specific bosses. For example against Marbus you can use Incendiary Shurikens in Black to chip away his health while he’s in the air, in Sigma they bounce off.
> moveset
In general it’s more about the usage for me, in which GoW strangely wins. DMC has a very big moveset, but a lot of options cover the same ground. GoW’s moveset has a similar issue, a lot of strings do a lot of extremely similar things, but with maybe 5-6 moves Kratos can already do more than for example Dante in terms of enemy statechanges, collision interactions and such. This is a very, very touchy subject though and often immediately starts flamewars based on a few words, so I try to avoid it haha.
> agression
GoW difficulty in general is VERY underappreciated. Many players forget just how brutal these games get even as low as basic Hard Mode. DMC1 and 3 are harder imo on DMD, but GoW’s trilogy is definitely up there and really holds its own.
>Berserkers
Yeah, I was referring precisely to their offscreen Volcano attack. That change in ther AI makes them really vicious bastards. Very frustrating to fight.
And then there’s Rachel, I struggled a lot on her levels. She sucks.
> moveset
Yes, I do admit a lot of the moves are just variations in GoW as well. But it’s nonetheless surprising that even the very first game has a comparable amount of moves compared to a “Stylish action” character. GoW 2 and 3 shit on DMC4 Nero in that regard. I just pointed that out because many fans of the genre seem to have have this “number of options = quality” mindset, which is a bit narrow IMO.
> difficulty
I was specifically talking avout enemy aggression. I haven’t seen enemies attack that often, or parry, counter, and evade attacks in DMC4 or DmC as often as they do in GoW. That might apply to DMC3 too, but I’m not completely sure.
DMC3 on DMD is definitely harder (I’d say it’s worse than NGB too, actually), yes, but a large reason for that is the fact that you need to finish long levels in one sitting, especially to get SS rank, and if you die or screw up, you have to replay the entire mission. If it had save points like GoW/NG, or checkpoint restarts like Bayonetta, things would be very different.
Can’t remember DMC1, it’s been 20 years since I completed it on DMD.
Happy new year, btw.
Don’t know if you already saw this video, but I’ll post it here anyway. Very useful to prove that people who still believe such myths about S,S,T in GoW don’t know what they’re talking about: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3UIO0R5nfVc
Regarding what you said about ranking systems, after watching this video you could argue that the reward for playing well in GoW lies in using your tools smartly to end fights faster (taking less damage as a bonus too), which also makes them both far more varied AND fun.
Btw, if they do return to the old format, I’d like developers to expand environmental interactions even more (like, say, give players more traps to use against enemies).
Happy new year! Yeah I know wright, he’s on our forum. Great player. Didn’t know the video though. Guy’s working on a monsterous slate of data currently.
I do feel ranking in GoW could use work though, as well as the internal rewards. Playing smart is often punished in terms of resources. Ring-outs don’t yield orbs for example, I think later entries fix this though.
True, or rather some ring outs do (e.g Satyrs in Hades), but most don’t. Still, it’s undeniably more efficient and fun to play smart, and I feel that’s the reward.
Btw, finished the game on Hard, and damn, it was already challenging on that difficulty, now I started it on Very Hard, though so far I died just a few times (I’m in Athens). Btw, I was right on one thing: the enemies are very aggressive, have multiple attacks, they dodge or block and then immediately follow with an attack (e.g gorgons), sometimes they grab you, and they even push back and stun you (e.g minotaurs). They also can get you while you’re in the air if you’re not careful.
I also like how you can see many different combinations of enemy types in the game. Lots of vatiety in that regard. Don’t remember how much this happens in other action games, but it’s a pity that enemy combinations don’t change based on difficulty (something that does happen in DMC, NG, and Bayonetta).
Also, just a thought experiment (alas), and I’m going to subscribe to your forum later on anyway, but how would you see mechanics like dodge offset and/or directional grabs in GoW if they return to the old format (or make the new one good enough to compare)?
Honestly I feel the mechanic doesn’t fit here, since dodging should be punished more severly here as blocking is key instead. If it was, by some magical element, forced upon the series, I’d probably prefer it’s done like in MGR:R where you don’t need to hold the button.
I see. Personally, I’d like to see stuff such as:
1. Directional grabs (e.g back+forward+circle);
2. Different grabs for every weapons (just like they did with dodges in GoW3);
3. Enemies using other enemies as projectiles, like some mobs did in God Hand IIRC, or like the Cyclops with wild boars in GoW2, but more often, with more variety, and with collision damage from enemies scaling with difficulty;
4. Enemies having grabs and attacks ringing you out (like in COTG 10 in GoW1, though in that case it was because of the small arena);
That said, I must confess I’m a noob, I finished GoW 2 on Hard, and I died literally 100 times (though a few of these deaths were due to stupid mistakes), and likely about as many in the first GoW. And I say this as someone who knew about certain advanced tactics discovered by hardcore gamers, and who, in recent years, beat NGB and NG2 on Master Ninja, so I can’t imagine how difficult VH must be in these games.
I’m already looking forward to how insanely frustrating the Clones (and other battles as well) will be on that difficulty, I remember them being arguably worse than anything in NGB on Master Ninja, though it’s been many years, and that, I feel, speaks volumes. Let’s see how it goes this time.
Here’s an in-depth combat guide of the GoW trilogy, and it’s HUGE. Should come in handy:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A5sH32xY1NI&t=332s
Btw, I beat GoW 1 on VH, and it was indeed quite hard. The only things that prevented me from dying a lot more was knowing of advanced/obscure tech like homerun, and abusing stuff like air grabs, OH redirection (though it’s not easy to use), and petrification. I’m pretty sure I would have died all the time had I just spammed SST and a few other basic moves all the time.
And I probably already said it elsewhere, but the clones are arguably worse than NGB on MN. Can’t imagine beating them without upgrades.