Topic: God of War OT

@JohnnyShoulder no judgement here bro (though I’m sure some of my comments could be ‘read’ in that way)... just keep enjoying the medium (not that Gamepass fodder btw 😉) in any way you feel fit and I look forward to reading more of your thoughts.

@Kidfried Sort of! I've done the same with other games and wondered why I've stuck with it for so long, but usually I have enjoyed it up until then and it only just become a boring slog or something like that.

I finally finished God of War Ascension the other day and that's the end of the Greek era for me! I actually quite liked Ascension, it had good pacing and it was rarely dull. It looks great but like some other PS3 games, it would have looked better if it had a lick of paint for a PS4 remaster! I quite enjoyed the orkos stone gimmick where you create a copy of yourself.

I decided to revisit the game as a workmate is playing it. onto my final two trophies after beating the story 3 years ago, I took out Hildr and Rota back to back on Sunday. all that's left for me to do is beat Sigrun and open the 3 realm tears in the workshop in Niflheim. Getting Anchor of fog to spawn is pretty tricky I haven't came across one yet, will continue to get my ass handed to me by Sigrun until the stars align and then I'll just grind the maze until i get the platinum!

@MightyDemon82
From what I remember if you change your set up to massive luck stat you greatly increase chances of those anchors turning up.

@Sorteddan Thanks I'll give that a go once I'm done the Valkyrie Queen.
Getting close now. Hopefully I'll beat her next time I'm on!

@Arugula yeah everyone is different and if you don’t enjoy them I definitely don’t blame you. I have 2, Ascension and 3 left to play and will fit them in as and when I fancy something short and sweet with ‘combo’ heavy gameplay. Think I’m gonna get 2 done next week.

@Arugula it’s all good mate, we all get such little spare time that we should definitely be prioritising the games we enjoy over games we feel that we ‘should’ be playing. Hope your next game clicks.

@Arugula Hey, it happens. Me and The Witcher 3, for example.
So you are forgiven. Now go forth and sin no more.

I'm glad I decided to stick with this game. It really does improve when you unlock more skills for Kratos and can explore a little bit. Just stumbled on some sort of optional island while I was looking for a statue of Thor, and it was great. Tons of challenging enemies (on hard mode, anyway), a boss fight, puzzles, gear, and a big dragon whose atomic flame attacks I had to keep dodging. It was way better than anywhere the main plot has taken me. And, not being required, there was a minimum of interruption: just me, my kid, and a large, semi-non-linear environment to explore.

@Ralizah glad you’ve found that ‘hook’ that appeals to you… it really is a masterpiece but you have to scratch beneath the surface a little. I played it on hard too (also with manual aim for axe throwing and Atreus’ arrows) and I found the combat simple to initially engage with but surprisingly layered when you need to dig deep.

@colonelkilgore The enemy balancing is interesting, because some of the optional environments mix fairly easy to kill mobs with these over-powered foes who can kill me in one hit. Not even bosses do that outside of telegraphed super moves.

Speaking of bosses, that dark elf boss was pretty cool. Like something out of a Souls game with how reliant the fight was on aggressive attacks and constant dodging.

I'm mildly concerned about how hard it's going to be to clean up some of these collectibles later in the game, though. The map doesn't seem very accommodating when it comes to tracking down specific items.

@Ralizah I know exactly what island you mean and yeah, that’s when it clicked with me too. The optional areas around the lake were the highlight for me.

@Ralizah yeah, there are some really hard hitting mob enemies… and yeah those dark elves (and the boss) were probably the first real challenge I faced during my playthrough. Even though the levelling system is basically just gear-reliant, you do feel very empowered by the end of the game… that and the enemy attack patterns embedding will mean that you’ll have a lot less trouble with all of these as you progress.

The collectible mop up wasn’t ‘that’ bad from what I recall… though I recall being one chest short for a while. I eventually located it hidden behind some overgrowth though… still, I was perplexed for a minute.

@colonelkilgore Does this game allow you to free roam after completing the story? If so, I'll probably just quit after completing the main campaign along with whatever optional content I stumble across and then mop up the collectibles and whatnot at a later point.

@nessisonett Apparently there are more of these dragons, so I'm guessing there are at least a few other large, optional areas to explore in this game, which should be fun.

Also liking the hilariously blunt stories Kratos tells boi during their boat rides.

@Ralizah The dry humor throughout is fantastic.

The game allows you to go around and mop up, free roam for the platinum after the main story conclusion. There are areas (at least one that I recall) that you cannot return to but most of the map is yours for exploring even after the story. In fact, you open up 2 main new and optional areas, which are quite challenging. I forget the criteria to unlock them but it’s pretty late game if not post game.

And You’ve likely heard but I won’t mention much other than to say what most people feel are the best enemy encounters are a set of really difficult enemies you can optionally take on in the late game and post game, with a final concluding boss that is simply epic. But all of that is optional side content, although I highly recommend.

Gamer legend says if you can beat the optional areas and bosses without turning the difficulty down then the gods bless your real life beard to thicken like Kratos’s. 😜

I remember being able to do everything in God of War on Normal difficulty except for defeating the Valkyrie Queen. Tried for so many hours but in the end I decided to just lower the difficulty and defeat it so that I could get the last trophy I needed for the Platinum.

Keep in mind that it doesn't matter which difficulty level you play on if you want to get the Platinum trophy.

@Ralizah yeah it does, there is some pretty decent endgame content there once the main story is done and dusted,

@Ralizah Collectibles can be slightly awkward because some areas are quite linear so I found I near enough had to replay whole areas to get the one or two I missed. I don’t recall it being particularly onerous though.

That fight against the dragon was pretty cool. Really basic mechanically, but it worked well as spectacle, which is something the game has been a bit short on until this point. It's not a proper God of War game if at least one of the bosses isn't 100x bigger than you are.

@Thrillho Will definitely have to return to certain areas to open some of those chests with the rune symbols on them, because a few of them are a royal pain in the butt and I just decided to leave them. I'm not excited about having to track down all 50 whatever of those Odin birds. Those are gonna be a major grind.