Awesome / God of War

"Kratos had done the impossible. A mortal, defeating a god. Ares was no more."

And the Ghost of Sparta was just getting started...

• It's quite fair to say, the entirety of the games is an ever escalating series of Crowning Moments of Awesome.
• Essentially anytime there's a circle above an enemy's (especially bosses') head, it's time for Kratos to do something awesome.
• The default blades combo itself. It's a series of complicated chain blade swings that is surprisingly smooth-flowing and artistic. It's only maxed up to eleven when Kratos leaps into the air with the slow-motion awesomeness, then proceeds to slam his fully-charged blades into the ground, creating large explosion and shaking the ground.
• A bit understated, but one of the first awesome things Kratos ever does is during the first segment of the first game. During a conversation with one of the ship crewmen and under volleys of arrows, he just looks up and casually dodges one shot right at his head. He doesn't even raise an eyebrow. It's at that moment the game lets you know that you're playing as a real badass.
• Moment of Awesome: Zeus "I banish you to the pits of Tartarus!", before using his own crafted blade to create a storm cleansing the field of Titans.
  • Zeus also gets "PETULANT CHILD! I will tolerate your insolence NO MORE!" before blasting Gaia and Kratos off his mountain.
    • To be fair anything Zeus says with Corey Burton's voice is bound to sound epic.
    • Just before the above quote from Zeus, Kratos delivers a great Badass Boast. The next to last line was actually reused in his intro for Mortal Kombat (2011):
  Kratos: The hands of death could not defeat me. The Sisters of Fate could not hold me. And YOU will not see the end of this day! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!!!
  • His brother Poseidon also has some pretty awesome lines. It must be a family trait.
  Poseidon: "You challenge me MORTAL?! A GOD OF OLYMPUS?!"
  • Really, it's hard not to sound epic when you're a freaking God. The exception being Hermes, and possibly Aphrodite who was pure sexy.
  • The fight with Deimos in Ghost of Sparta, followed by them settling their difference and teaming up to kill Thanatos.
• In God of War, after you kill the Hydra by impaling its head onto the ship's mast. And for players new to the world of Kratos, God of War II has him rip the Colossus of Rhodes apart from the inside. One can only imagine how the third one will top this.
  • Actually, you don't have to imagine anymore, because Kratos fights against MOTHERFUCKIN POSEIDON HIMSELF! And wins!
  • At the climax of the final confrontation against Zeus in God of War III, you're required to mash the Circle button while Kratos bashes Zeus' head against a rock. Since you're in first-person mode, Zeus' 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 covered in red. In PRACTICE, however, you can keep going for as long as you want, until you are done laughing like a maniac as you hear the sound of the fists crashing on Zeus's face.
• When Ares hurls a spike out into the distance for apparently no reason. We then cut back to Kratos who is then SPEARED through said spike right through the chest. Ares chucked a spike halfway across the planet and hit the Kratos DEAD CENTER of his chest. Holy shit.
  • Well, he IS the GOD OF WAR!
  • It was hardly halfway across the planet - it was across half a city and a bit of desert. But it was a moving target.
• "ARES! There is nothing you can put in my way to stop me! I will save my family!" Even if you hate Kratos, you can't help but think YES when he shouts that at Ares after he summons a bunch of Doppelgangers of Kratos himself who are closing in on avatars of his family. Especially since this line comes right after Calliope cries "Daddy!" Not only does that get the Papa Wolf out of Kratos, but the player as well (Mama Bear if the player is female) which makes it double as a Heartwarming Moment.
• The following exchange between Kratos and Ares, moments before Ares is killed.
  Ares: I was trying to make you a great warrior!
  Kratos: You succeeded. [stabs Ares]
  • And indeed, the third game demonstrates just to what degree Ares succeeded in making Kratos the great warrior.
• A little irregular, but a worthy mention is the game's control scheme. A game is only as fun as it is easy to control, and God of War is phenomenal in this regard.
• From God of War II, we have The Last Spartan, the baddest man in Sparta. Yes, even badder than Kratos. Because he not only survived the death wave that killed every other soldier regardless of allegiance in Rhodes, he returned to Sparta where he survived a SECOND Zeus attack. After that, he got up, dusted himself off, and hurried off to the see the Fates, making it further FASTER than the demigod aided by the Titans. Had he not run into Kratos (whom he put up a Hell of a fight against), it's very likely he would have made it to see the Fates.
  • His arriving faster than Kratos makes sense when you factor in the time Kratos took in Typhon's Mountain, and fending off the Dark Rider before and after the mountain on his way to the Island of Creation. But we still don't know how he got to the island in the first place, without meeting any of the challenges Kratos did, which means he either took an alternative route OR was smart enough to go through the same route WITHOUT having to find all keys and kill all monsters, not to mention crossing the chasm WITHOUT needing Icarus' Wings, which makes him an Action Survivor, Guile Hero and/or Stealth Expert, as well as being badass enough to put up a good fight against Kratos, WITHOUT having powers or divine bloodline! There should be a Hero of Another Story comic for this guy, he would make Leonidas proud!!
  • He gets several moments of awesome in the flashback of Sparta's destruction. First he survives Zeus lighting bolt which destroyed the Watchtower he was on and took out his comrades, and fell nearly a hundred feet and stayed conscious. And then he is hit by the shockwave of the destruction of a monument, flies at high speed before hitting a stone pillar, and then some rubble collapses on him. When he comes to, he lifts the rubble off of himself and sets off for the island. And unlike Kratos he has still not recovered or healed his injuries and still gives Kratos a good fight, despite Kratos possessing divine/magical weapons while himself having only an ordinary shield and sword to fight with, and fights on despite losing them both. He then gets impaled on Kratos blade and falls several feet and despite Kratos using him to cushion his fall and still lives long enough to tell Kratos what happened. Kratos has an excuse of being a demigod. This guy is just an ordinary human. Just DAMN!!
• As awesome as Kratos is, his most badass moments are probably in the last couple of hours in the second game. He kills the Fates - you know, the ones which were supposed to be UNKILLABLE, the creatures that even the GODS feared - even after they decided he wouldn't, providing one of the most literal subversions of You Can't Fight Fate anywhere, and he beats up Zeus while still technically a mortal.
• The Final boss fights in God I and II.
  • First game, Kratos uses Pandora's box to grow into a giant to fight Ares. So with all the cool attacks thrown between them, there is the extra awesomeness from the fact that the two of them are giants. You even get to lock swords with the God of War in the second phase of the fight, leading to a vicious attack if you win!
  • In the 2nd game, you've got epic music, a desolate scenery, and thunderstorm in the background. Add points for the moments of badassery when Zeus or Kratos takes the Blade of Olympus. Zeus will pick Kratos up, with one hand, and uses the other to toss him to the other end of arena, while Kratos will manage to wrestle the blade from Zeus and then impale him with it.
• At the end of God of War 2 Zeus is shooting his lightning at you (Kratos) while you block with the Blade of Olympus. Then Kratos says "I lay down my arms, Zeus!!." and stabs the Blade into the ground in (supposed) defeat. Zeus takes the Blade and prepares to slice your head into two, (at this point the rest of the game is a quick-time event) but you block it, smash Zeus's head into a rock a couple of times, stab both of his hands with your Athena's Blades to pin him down, and stab him with the Blade of Olympus. In fact, if Athena didn't interfere, you would have killed Zeus then and there.
• Poseidon jumping down from Olympus and colliding with a Titan, KNOCKING IT OFF THE MOUNTAIN, punching a hole through him at the same time. He then proceeds to curb stomp nearly every single invading Titan by himself, including Gaia whom he very nearly kills.
  • The entire sequence with Posideon is made of awesome. To wit: You fight against the God of the Seas as a colossus made of his domain while riding on Gaia. Kratos takes him out of the colossus by riding Gaia's hand as she punches him. After that, you beat the ever-loving shit out of him while watching from his point of view.
• The battle with Hades in III, which ends with Kratos throwing Hades's "Your Soul Is Mine!" taunt right back in his face by taking HIS soul using the claws he just took from him.
• The entire battle with Cronos, the mother of all Colossus Climbs, which has you fighting loads of monsters on his surface, doing nasty things to the guy's fingers, getting eaten at one point and then slashing your way out in pure badass fashion before then driving a crystal right through his jaw, climbing right on his face, and then finishing him off with the Blade of Olympus right through his forehead.
• The battle with Hercules in III, where Herc reveals that stealing his heavy armor and Nemean Cestus just makes him faster, able to now pull off a Flash Step. Then, he rips the entire arena out of the ground, only for Kratos to pin him under it, and pound his head until it caves in.
• Start up God Of War 2. Push the button for Poseidon's Wrath. Feel the awesome.
  Kratos: I AM THE GOD OF WAR!
• Similar to the Hydra example above, in the second game, killing the Kraken by impaling it on a BRIDGE.
• The final boss battles of Ghost of Sparta. Kratos and Deimos fighting side by side is just awesome.
  • You almost feel bad for what's about to happen to Thanatos after he kills Deimos.
• In God of War 3, most people don't recognize it, but, when you grab a normal and hitting Triangle splits him in half, right? Well, do that exact same thing except hold on to triangle the entire time, and we get a camera zoomed in at Kratos as he brutally rips an enemy in two with blood flying all over him and blood flying everywhere.
• The final scene from God of War II. Watching a very pissed Kratos ascend the mountain with the Titans. Combined with one of the most kickass music tracks ever. Nothing topped it until the third installment.
• The opening battle with Magaera and Aegaeon in Ascension.
• The epic battle between Megaera and Tisiphone against Kratos.
• The final battle of Ascension. Alecto transforms into a Titan-sized sea-beast and battles against Kratos in a maelstrom on oil with Tisiphone assisting throughout.
• Kratos arrives in Athens. A Minotaur hurls an axe at someone and kills them; a second person runs past Kratos in fear and another Minotaur hurls an axe at him; Kratos merely steps aside to let the Axe fly past and impale someone...
• In Ghost of Sparta, there's an unlockable costume, which allows you to play as - oddly enough, the Grave Digger. But once you start playing combat arenas with the costume, the Digger transforms, and you realize that you aren't playing as the Grave Digger. You're playing as Zeus.
• The part in Ascension where you use the Amulet of Uroborus to rebuilt the giant Statue of Apollo, turning a nameless ruin into a gigantic wonder which is amazing to behold. Poor Archimedes would be so proud. Also, it's probably one of the few awesome things Kratos did without killing or maiming something.
• The boss fight against Alecto's monster form in Ascension: while Kratos had already faced many Sea Monster bosses, the battles were fought safely from land: here, not only Kratos evades this nightmarish leviathan while underwater, where he should be helpless, but he also manage to force Alecto to emerge by latching onto her head and hammering her cranium with the Blades of Chaos until she cannot take anymore, screaming in pain all the way. That's right, Kratos defeated a giant Sea Monster who had the home field advantage.

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