God of War II is the sequel to God of War, released for the PlayStation 2 in 2007. Kratos, now the new 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 Sisters of Fate work the Loom of Fate and can change his destiny.
The game ends with Kratos rounding up the Titans and leading a siege against Olympus itself, cutting to black just at the moment their battle is about to start. Three years later, God of War III would release, picking up exactly where God of War II left off.
God of War II contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Ugliness: In mythology, Clotho was stated to be the most beautiful of the Sisters of Fate. Here, she's a fat and ugly slug-like monster.
- Adaptational Wimp:
- Typhon in Greek Mythology is a colossal, multi-headed Eldritch Abomination imprisoned under a volcano. Here it's just another oversized giant seemingly made of stone like the other Titans and resides in an icy mountain. The only way he can oppose Kratos is by blowing air at him until he gets blinded in both eyes.
- The hero Jason was butchered and eaten by the Mole Cerberus.
- All for Nothing: Basically everything you did to become the God of War in the first game is cancelled out within the first 20 minutes of this one. By the end of the opening sequence, Kratos is no longer among the gods.
- Already Undone for You: There's a rare example of a puzzle being partially solved when Kratos meets up to it. Kratos finds the Hail of Boreas in the hands of a Spartan who got killed when trying to navigate a spiked floor puzzle. So some Spartan found the Hail of Boreas, possibly killing whatever was likely guarding it, and took it with him all the way down to a lower level of the island.
- And I Must Scream: Gaia informs Kratos that, should he fail his mission, his soul will spend eternity in the Underworld being tortured by Hades. Zeus confirms this during the final battle: As he prepares to execute the former God of War, he says that Kratos' torment is about to begin. You can also meet Prometheus, tied to Typhon's finger and still mauled by an eagle. You end his torment by breaking the chains and having him fall in the bonfire below.
- Badass Normal: The Last Spartan who somehow survived the wave of energy Zeus unleashed with the Blade of Olympus that practically killed every other Spartan and Rhodes soldier within a thousand meters then somehow manages to get back to Sparta and survive its destruction at the hands of Zeus, then somehow travels to the Isle of Creation and somehow makes more progress through the island faster than Kratos.
- Back from the Dead:
- As he did before, Kratos fights his way out of the Underworld after being killed by Zeus.
- Alrik, the Barbarian King who caused Kratos to make his fateful Deal with the Devil with Ares in the first place, fights his way out of Hades to have another shot at the Ghost of Sparta.
- Bag of Spilling: Kratos is stripped of all of his godly powers by the Blade of Olympus early on in the game.
- Been There, Shaped History: Kratos destroyed The Colossus of Rhodes, because it came to life and tried to kill him.
- Big Good: Gaia the Titaness is the one who directly helps Kratos in his quest by saving him from death.
- Blood from the Mouth: After being squashed by the Colossus of Rhodes' hand, Kratos pukes up a damn river's worth of blood.
- Blood Magic: At the Temple of the Fates, Kratos is required to capture a translator to read the incantation needed to open his path. Said incantation ends with the reader offering his blood as a sacrifice. Cue Oh, Crap! just before Kratos bashes the guy's head in against the altar, his blood draining into a pattern etched onto the floor.
- Boss Battle: At up to 14 bosses, God of War II has the largest number of bosses in the whole God Of War franchise.
- Brought Down to Badass: As the soldiers of Rhodes discover the hard way, just because Kratos has been shrunk down to normal size doesn't mean he's any less capable of killing them.
- Cliffhanger: What the game ends on; Kratos has just gone back in time and brought the Titans back to the present, and together with them, he makes his attack on Mount Olympus.
- Clothing Damage: Kratos' God armor falls apart after he's crushed by the Colossus of Rhodes.
- Colour-Coded Timestop: Kratos can obtain the Amulet of Fates, which allows him to use the nearby Fates' statues to slow down time and give everything a hazy green hue, usually to solve puzzles and go through certain timed doors. During the boss fight against the Fates themselves, you can use Lakhesis herself as a "statue" to trigger the Amulet.
- Crashing Through the Harem: Kratos' escape from the Colossus of Rhodes's rampage takes him crashing through the ceiling of a bathhouse where two women wait in a state of undress, leading to an Optional Sexual Encounter.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Within one game no less. Using the Golden Fleece counter attack involves timing it right and then attacking immediately after it. When you go up against Gorgons, countering their stone gaze requires you press a random button instead of a fixed one, so if you don't ignore what the game has been making you do instinctively for every other enemy, the counter will fail and turn you to stone, making you vulnerable to a one-hit kill regardless of your health.
- Descending Ceiling: One trap includes an elevator where minions constantly respawn as a spiked ceiling edges towards you. You need to kill the respawning enemies as soon as possible while pushing the crank that pushes the elevator down to hopefully reach the next floor before the ceiling crushes you.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu??: The Sisters of Fate are described as the most powerful beings in existence, capable of controlling the destiny of both Gods and mortals. Despite this, Kratos challenges them when they refuse to grant him control over the Thread of Fate. After a brutal battle, the Spartan ultimately kills the Sisters, managing to change his own destiny by literally destroying the goddesses of Fate.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Athena dies in Kratos' arms after Taking the Bullet for Zeus at the end of the game. It's the only time in-game that Kratos expresses a shred of remorse for his actions.
- Difficult, but Awesome:
- Using the Golden Fleece counter on Gorgon stone gazes. It requires perfect timing and for the player to hold off on an immediate counter-attack like with every other parry-able attack in the game, but if you succeed then every surrounding enemy will be paralyzed and vulnerable to a quick kill.
- In terms of raw damage, Barbarian Hammer is one of the strongest alt. weapons in the entire franchise. The difficulty of using it comes from the fact that most of its attacks are slow, combos have a long recovery period, and it prevents Kratos from using dodge-rolling – perhaps the main reason why this weapon is off-putting to many. However, the weapon isn't so bad to use in practice, because the only attack of it that matters is the double triangle combo – it deals enough damage to 2-tap light enemies without upgrades (and 4-to-6-tap everyone else), and its recovery can be cancelled by drawing Typhon's Bane, or made easier to bear simply by blocking. Learning to time your attacks, and avoiding enemies without a roll comes a long way, and makes Barbarian Hammer one of the quickest ways to clear most battles.
- Disney Villain Death: Icarus in II. Specifically, he falls into the pits of Tartarus deep beneath the Earth, with his screaming just growing more distant and seemingly never stopping.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The reason Gaia chooses to help Kratos in his fight against Zeus. Zeus, as per the religion of ancient Greece, chose to punish every member of the Titans when taking his revenge on his father Kronos.
- Downer Beginning: The beginning stage, where Kratos launches a brutal invasion of Rhodes and is subsequently punished and killed by Zeus. He also loses all the extra power he has gained from the previous game. He later manages to climb his way out of Tartarus, though.
- Dramatic Red Samurai Background: Before killing the Phoenix, Kratos battles a silhouetted swordsman against the backdrop of a massive window looking out into the blood-red clouds behind them. This effect hides the swordsman's identity and foreshadows the brutality with which Kratos will dispatch him.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Part of the reason for Kratos waging war across Greece with the Spartans is that none of the other gods would accept him as the new God of War.
- Easter Egg: By following a series of extremely convoluted steps involving standing on and hitting R1 at specific points in the area after the Perseus fight, you can trigger a secret that gives you a few thousand Red Orbs and writes "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds" in the sky. You could also find the URL for a website promoting the upcoming PSP sequel if you managed to reach a 999,999 hit combo, something that's only possible in the bonus arena where you can fight any enemy in the game and give them and yourself infinite health.
- Elder Abuse: God of War II allows the player to partake in Elder Abuse via a quick time event in which you have to brutally beat and kill a helpless protesting elderly scholar in order to get him to read a book you can't.
- Elemental Powers: Through the course of the game, Kratos obtains magic powers associated with the four elements:
- Typhon's Bane, a bow made of wind and this game's equivalent of Zeus' Fury from the last game. Can shoot wind blasts or summon hurricanes.
- Rage of the Titans results in Kratos being Wreathed in Flames for the duration of the technique, greatly enhacing his attack.
- Kratos starts the game with the Rage of Poseidon, but after losing it gets Cronos' Rage as a substitute, manifesting as glowing electrical orbs which explodes after a while.
- Atlas Quake allows Kratos to perform a Ground Pound to make enemies lose their balance and damage them with shockwaves and fragments of earth.
- Enemy Mine:
- Theseus' choice of allies to summon in his fighter are minotaurs, the very beast he's famous for killing. Thankfully, Kratos has killed way more than just one minotaur and they're perfectly happy to work alongside their demigod adversary.
- When Atlas first realize that it was Kratos who broke part of the chains holding him still, he proceeds to try and crush the Spartan with his gigantic fingers. When Kratos mentions his desire to fight Zeus, Atlas is first in disbelief, but after seeing him take down some enemies he agrees to lend his power to the Spartan and help him.
- Enemy Summoner:
- Beast Lords are short satyr-like beings armed with axes who can use their horns to summon Cyclops for them to ride, as well as other enemies.
- High Priests of the Fates can use their scrolls and call forth minotaurs or sentries to fight Kratos. Downplayed in that it's not their only form of attack.
- Energy Bow: Typhon's Bane takes the form of a bow made of wind and able to shoot bolts of frozen air at the enemies, the only solid part being the handle, shaped like a screaming face.
- Escort Mission: In classic Kratos fashion, you have to protect a temple priest from waves of enemies. You have to protect him because he needs to read an incantation - which ends with Kratos brutally murdering him to complete a blood sacrifice.
- Evil Laugh: Skeletons in the second game do somehow manage to laugh occasionally. They also still retain enough intelligence to make it mocking and annoying to Kratos.
- Evil Versus Evil: Kratos is an amoral sociopath. So is Zeus.
- Eye Scream: How Kratos obtains Typhon's Bane from the titular Titan.
- Fat Bastard: Clotho is a complacent fate-spinster responsible for all the hardships Zeus has brought on Kratos. She also makes Jabba the Hutt looks like Michael Phelps.
- Foreshadowing:
- When you release the Phoenix, the bird knocks two statues down into the abyss, where a splashing sound is heard. Later, the Kraken emerges from the deep to fight you. Furthermore, the game's wiki points out that the beast has a pulsating wound on the head, which may have been caused by the statues falling on its head.
- When Atlas flashes back to the Great War, the Titans are shown to be bathed in some green energy as the shockwave from the Blade of Olympus overcomes them. At first it seems like the Titans being destroyed by the Blade, but fast-forward to the ending and it's revealed it's actually Kratos using the Sisters' powers to take the Titans with him to the future moments before they can be killed.
- Free-Fall Fight: The boss battle against Icarus is one, ending with Icarus' Disney Villain Death.
- Full-Boar Action: A couple of areas include massive wild boars as enemies, though not very strong: Kratos can grab them by the hindlegs and disembowel them, while Cyclops can bite their heads off and throw them at you like projectiles.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Kratos is crushed by the outstretched arm of the Colossus after he defeated it using the Blade of Olympus. Kratos had just turned himself into a mortal again by feeding all of his godly power into the Blade. Then Zeus appears to reclaim the Blade and slay Kratos since the entire struggle in Rhodes was a scheme to preemptively remove any threat Kratos might pose to Olympus. Kratos tries to fight back — but since he was nearly crushed to death by a huge statue seconds ago, he's in pretty bad shape. He's limping, unable to jump or run, and he can barely swing his blades.
- Giant Foot of Stomping: At one point, the Colossus of Rhodes tries to simply stomp on Kratos; Kratos simply catches its foot and flings it away.
- Giant Mook: Fates Juggernauts are imposing giant enemies with humongous weapons which are also a lot thougher than the Sentries.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Kraken just appears to fight Kratos with no build up and no reason as to why it is there ever given.
- The Goomba: Fates Sentries (some sort of nondescript dark humanoids with hooved legs) in various attires are the main enemies you'll encounter.
- Happy Ending Override: More like "Bittersweet ending," but the first game has the narrator say that men would wage war under the watchful eye of Kratos, the new God of War, for the rest of time. Come the sequel, and it turns out "the rest of time" really meant "a month or so" before Kratos is stripped of his Godhood and betrayed by Zeus.
- Having a Blast: The Spear of Destiny can shoot blasts of energy from the crystal end and leave explosive fragments stuck into enemies or in the ground.
- Hopeless Boss Fight:
- As he has just lost his godhood and been crushed by a giant stone hand, Kratos proves no match for Zeus during their initial confrontation. The player can only limp while the boss repeatedly stabs Kratos with the Blade of Olympus.
- The Kraken attacks Kratos just after he has learned that Zeus has massacred Sparta. When the player regains control, pressing the attack button only causes Kratos to scream Zeus' name in rage and despair. The boss battle only properly begins once the player lets the Kraken grab them, triggering a cutscene where Gaia gives Kratos a power-up and inspires him to fight back.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Kratos starts off the game doing the very thing that Ares did in the first game: destroying Greek cities to gain recognition.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Many fatalities have Kratos executing his enemy with the enemy's own weapon, as seen with the Beastmasters, Alrik or the Dark Rider.
- Humongous-Headed Hammer: Alrik the Barbarian King shows up wielding his gigantic hammer, the head alone as large as Kratos' body. After you kill Alrik with his own hammer, you can keep it as a secondary weapon.
- It Has Only Just Begun: The game's final cutscene has Kratos leading the Titans up Mount Olympus to wage war against the Gods. The final shot is a still frame with the sentence "The End Begins".
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Kratos was always a Sociopathic Hero at best, but as of this game, his desire for revenge has caused him to devolve into a straight-up Villain Protagonist.
- King Mook: The Dark Rider and his mount are this for the Servants and the Griffins respectively. There are also two unique Cerberus enemies, a white horned Cerberus that attacks you while you're exploring the Steeds and the Mole Cerberus in the Bog of the Forgotten.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Athena reveals in her dying moments that Zeus is Kratos' father.
- MacGuffin Guardian: The Mole Cerberus guards the Golden Fleece (well, now), while Theseus guards the Steeds of Time and it's implied that the Kraken guards the passage to the inner sanctum of the Sisters.
- Marathon Boss: Alrik the Barbarian King has several phases during his boss fight: first, he stands on his horse, attacking Kratos from afar with bow and arrows. Then, he summons the souls of the dead to fight for him. When Kratos slays all the revenants he absorbs the souls to turn into a colossus. Then, Kratos depowers him and proceeds to fight him one on one, steal his hammer and crush him.
- Mundane Utility: At the end of the Steeds of Time, Kratos uses his Blades of Chaos as whips to make the steeds move so that they can pull the island closer to the temple and allow him to reach it safely.
- Non-Standard Game Over: If you fail to stop Atrophos from destroying the Blade of the Gods, you get treated to a cutscene that shows the past Ares killing the past Kratos, which in turn kills the present Kratos.
- Nightmare Hands: After being betrayed by Zeus and impaled by the Blade of Olympus, Kratos's body is being dragged to the Underworld by several sets of monstrous and decayed arms ("Arms of Hades"). In this section, the player has to attack the hands and escape back to the surface.
- Platform Hell: Crossing the Lowlands involves swinging and jumping across a series of crumbling pillars and platforms over a chasm in order to reach the bluffs on the other side.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Kratos and Zeus are both horrible men, but Zeus' actions are presented as worse in the narrative due to the victims being people Kratos cares about, like the destruction of Sparta, even though Kratos hadn't been acting any differently.
- Proactive Boss: The game begins with the Colossus of Rhodes coming to life and attacking Kratos. The Colossus chases him throughout the level, becoming an obstacle or a hazard at points when Kratos is navigating the level or fighting other enemies. The level ends with Kratos and the Colossus finally squaring off, where Kratos defeats it.
- Public Domain Artifact: Kratos' second secondary weapon obtained from the Black Rider's corpse is the Spear of Destiny, though it look less like a roman spear and more like a double-ended harpoon with a cluster of explosive purple crystals on one end.
- Red Shirt Army: The Argonauts, who are also on a quest to reach the Sisters of Fate for some reason, are there mainly for the numerous monsters to pick them off to help Kratos' quest seem more dangerous.
- Remember the New Guy?: When Kratos encounters Atlas, the two have obviously met before. Their first meeting occurred in the prequel Chains of Olympus, which was released the year after this game.
- Retcon: The ending of the previous game indicated that Kratos remained the God of War for all time. In this game, it's still ancient Greece and he loses his divinity in the opening level.
- Retractable Weapon: The Spear of Destiny can stretch to deliver attacks and hit distant enemies.
- Screw Destiny: Kratos is fated to die, but he refuses to follow the path the Sisters of Fate have set for him. The novelization gives an explanation as to how this is possible: The sisters disagreed amongst themselves what Kratos' fate should be, with one sympathizing with him. Their disunity thus gave him more freedom to do whatever. note
- Shout-Out:
- To Jason and the Argonauts — The Colossus of Rhodes that comes to life and attacks Kratos is clearly a stand-in for Talos; Kratos finds what remains of the Argonauts on the Island of Creation and retrieves the Golden Fleece from the Mole Cerberus that ate Jason and among the common enemies there's skeleton warriors.
- To Clash of the Titans (1981) — Harry Hamlin as Perseus cameos, and one of the later bosses is a Kraken.
- Spikes of Doom: Two different One hit Kill traps feature massive spikes: in one case, they're located on advancing walls from both ends of a corridor and will skewer Kratos if he doesn't kill all mooks in time. Later, they're on a ceiling which will slowly descend down on Kratos as he has to pull a lever to lower the floor to the bottom where the door is, all while fighting back enemies.
- Stupidity Is the Only Option: In order to beat the Colossus, Kratos must drain the rest of his godly powers into the Blade of Olympus that was freely granted by Zeus, whom as far as Kratos knows, is pissed off about his destructive rampage across Greece. While he does question it for a moment when asking why Zeus is aiding him now, Zeus brushes it off by saying that he is doing for the good of Olympus. Kratos practically does as he is told and the end result? He is left mortal and vulnerable after slaying the Colossus, allowing Zeus to finish him off effortlessly.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Kratos himself plays this trick on Zeus at the very end of the final battle, to make him lower his guard.
- Swamps Are Evil: The Bog of the Forgotten is a poisonous swamp filled with undead and monsters, hosting a series of caverns leading to the Golden Fleece and the Temple of the Gorgons where Euryale resides. In all, it's a foreboding and dangerous mire.
- A Taste of Power: During the first level, your weapons, health and magic are maxed out until you are forced to sacrifice it all to pour the energy into the Blade of Olympus.
- Tae Kwon Door: Kratos kills Theseus by slamming a heavy gate into his face, repeatedly, while keeping him pinned on his own spear.
- Threads of Fate: The main plot involves Kratos going to the Island of the Sisters of Fate to rewrite his past. He eventually faces Atropos, Lakhesis, and Clotho. Clotho is a giant worm-like entity that lives inside the Great Loom while surrounded by silk-like threads, Atropos has blade- or knife-like fingers, and Lakhesis has a staff with a hook-like edge. Although they are never seen on screen weaving or cutting life threads, it is implied by their appearances that they still fulfill the role of their real-life Greek mythology counterparts.
- Titanomachy, Round Two: Rare protagonist version. Kratos, the son of Zeus, gathers the Titans to lead an assault on Olympus and Zeus. In this version, Cronos is one of the few Titans who doesn't get involved.
- Took a Shortcut: One of the characters you meet in Rhodes at the beginning of the game somehow manages to work his way past the traps and enemies of the Palace of the Fates in order to encounter Kratos later.
- Torso with a View: Kratos is impaled through the midriff by a huge sword wielded by Zeus and is dragged down to Hades. When Gaea restores him to life for her own task, we get a lovely view through the ragged hole clean through his torso as it heals up.
- Two-Person Pool Party: Kratos can have an Optional Sexual Encounter with two girls in a bathhouse. Technically, it's more a Three-Person Pool Party.
- Virile Stallion: As the son of Poseidon, Theseus has a horse motif and this version of the character portrays Theseus as an old man whose glory days are far behind him. He proudly serves the Sisters of Fate for the glory of Zeus by looking after the steeds of time and he fights Kratos after deeming him weak for losing the fight against Zeus.
- The Weird Sisters: The Fates appear as a six-foot tall warrior valkyrie with one breast visible; a giant, grotesquely fat woman with many arms and breasts; and a stick-thin woman that seems to be partially made of darkness. The three are a dark representation of the Greek Moirai.
- Wham Line:
- A truly startling one at the end of the opening level, as Kratos is being pulled into Hades and the narrator changes her tone from neutral to active:"Kratos was destined to bring about change so severe that it would shake the very pillars of Mount Olympus. His death was something that I couldn't allow."The narrator reveals herself to be Gaia.
- As Kratos explores the Palace of the Fates, he comes across a dark room where he is attacked by a mysterious figure. The protagonist wins the battle by fatally wounding his aggressor with the Blades of Athena and smashing him out of the room, but is soon horrified upon realizing that his opponent was the the sole survivor of Sparta's failed invasion of Rhodes. Questioning what the man was doing there, so far away from their hometown, Kratos finds out that "Sparta is no more", as Zeus had laid waste to the city while he was gone.
- After the battle against the final boss, Athena explains the real reason behind Zeus' actions: Realizing that the succession of deities followed a sequence of patricides, Zeus grew to fear Kratos, "his own son".
- A truly startling one at the end of the opening level, as Kratos is being pulled into Hades and the narrator changes her tone from neutral to active:
- While Rome Burns: The two nameless, topless ladies in the Rhodes Bathhouse act notoriously nonchalant about the fact there is a raging battle on their city with a giant statue destroying everything on its wake. They also have no issue having a threesome with Kratos (i.e. the guy leading the invasion on their city) right there.
- Womb Level:
- The final section of the Colossus of Rhodes' boss has Kratos being forced to enter it, so he can drain its energy beacons and destroy it from the inside out.
- A great deal of the Atlas' level takes place inside his body.
- You Owe Me: Athena reminds Kratos that the journey from the last game she tasked him with led him into becoming the new God of War. His response?Kratos: I owe you nothing.
